Did Led Zeppelin really write 'Stairway to Heaven'?
Led Zeppelin鈥檚 鈥淪tairway to Heaven鈥� is a touchstone for beginning guitarists, so ubiquitous that it has sparked debates about .
But now a California jury must consider a thornier question 鈥撀燼re parts of the song by the less well-known band Taurus?
After US District Judge Gary Klausner ruled on Friday that a jury could find 鈥渟ubstantial鈥� similarities between the opening minutes of 鈥淪tairway to Heaven鈥� and a jury must decide whether Led Zeppelin鈥檚 lead singer Robert Plant and guitarist Jimmy Page would be liable for copyright infringement.
聽鈥淲hile it is true that a descending chromatic four-chord progression is a common convention that abounds in the music industry, the similarities here transcend this core structure,鈥� wrote Judge Klausner of the Central District of California.
On May 10, jurors will begin , a trustee for Randy Wolfe, Spirit鈥檚 guitarist, who wrote 鈥淭aurus.鈥�
Rumors about similarities between the two songs 鈥撀� in 1968 and 1969 鈥撀爃ave reverberated for years. But the lawsuit alleges directly that Mr. Page may have been inspired to write 鈥淪tairway to Heaven鈥� after hearing Spirit perform during those shared bills.
As a slew of revelations have come out of the case 鈥撀燩age in his record collection but he鈥檇 never heard it until 2014 鈥撀爐he defendants have attempted to dismiss the lawsuit.
They argue that Spirit鈥檚 Mr. Wolfe was working as a songwriter-for-hire for his record label and that the song's chord progressions were clich茅d enough that they didn鈥檛 warrant copyright protection.
In the past, Led Zeppelin has with several American blues musicians.聽 But, as with a high-profile suit over the song 鈥淏lurred Lines鈥� where a California jury awarded $7.3 million (later reduced to $5.2 million) to the family of Marvin Gaye, the case may point to an ongoing question 鈥撀爓hat really makes a song 鈥渙riginal?鈥�
In the case of 鈥淏lurred Lines,鈥� songwriters Robin Thicke, Pharrell Williams, and T.I. argued that they had drawn inspiration from Gaye鈥檚 1977 song 鈥淕ot to Give Up鈥� in in their song, but that they had not directly copied it.
Debates over sampling and creative inspiration have also expanded into court cases that don鈥檛 directly involve music. In September, a federal court cited a in favor of the 1990s rap group 2 Live Crew鈥檚 right to 鈥渢ransformative fair use鈥� when it ruled in favor of Google Books against a group of authors.
In 1991, Wolfe, the Spirit guitarist, said, 鈥淚鈥檒l let [Led Zeppelin] have the beginning of 鈥楾aurus鈥� for their song without a lawsuit,鈥� though the judge noted that didn鈥檛 mean Wolfe had abandoned his claim against the band before his death in 1997.
鈥淭his case, from our perspective, has always been about giving credit where credit was due, and now we get to right that wrong,鈥� Francis Malofiy, a lawyer for Skidmore, .
In his ruling, Judge Klausner said that Skidmore could only receive 50 percent of any damages that are awarded because of a contract Wolfe signed with his record label in 1967.
He also dismissed the suit鈥檚 claims against Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones and Warner Music Group, but denied the group鈥檚 efforts to get the suit thrown out altogether.
鈥淲hat remains is a subjective assessment of the 鈥榗oncept and feel鈥� of two works,鈥� he wrote, 鈥渁 task no more suitable for a judge than for a jury.鈥�
