Tag: spirit

Earlier this year, news surfaced that someone claimed Led Zeppelin had stolen parts of their famous song “Stairway to Heaven” from another tune.

Randy California, guitarist and songwriter for the band Spirit, had said in the past that “Stairway” was a ripoff of a song by his own band, an instrumental tune called “Taurus”.

Randy California died in a drowning accident in 1997. But his heirs are now bringing suit against Led Zeppelin over the matter.

The whole affair is complicated by the fact that Spirit gigged with Led Zeppelin back in 1969, playing “Taurus” in their sets. “Taurus” is only about two and a half minutes long, has no lyrics or solo.

“Stairway” was released on the Led Zeppelin IV album in late 1971. It was never released as a single, but was played from the LP by disc jockeys. It is about eight minutes long, has lyrics, and features a legendary guitar solo.

Now that battle is making its way to court. A judge in Pennsylvania will hear the case. But why Pennsylvania?

“The only thing that I can really think of is that the lawyer for the plaintiff is based in Pennsylvania,” Eriq Gardner of The Hollywood Reporter said.

“If the plaintiffs wanted to have a tactical advantage, they probably would’ve sued in Nashville — the songwriter capital of the world,” Gardner says. “And if they wanted this to be convenient for the parties, they would’ve sued in California where a lot of the plaintiffs and witnesses are, as well as a lot of the music defendants.”

Since the case is being fought somewhere outside the usual venues for copyright infringement cases, where judges have some familiarity with what to look for to determine whether a song is a ripoff or not, the judge in this case could have little knowledge of what to listen for.

“That adds the wildcard factor to this,” Gardner says. “No one knows what a judge in Pennsylvania is going to say. I mean, [in] Pennsylvania, there’s very few cases that have examined copyright infringement in songcraft.”

There are some slight similarities between parts of the two songs. But it sounds like a matter of a borrowed arpeggiated phrase that was worked into an entirely different piece, not a wholesale lifting of a song, which Zeppelin has been found guilty of before.

If the suit ends up before a judge in Pennsylvania who does not realize that phrases like this end up in lots of songs, with no one getting accused of stealing, things could get hairy for Led Zeppelin. The defense needs to start collecting tunes with similar phrasing, especially ones that pre-date “Taurus”.

We reported recently how Led Zeppelin is being sued by the estate of guitarist Randy California, formerly of the band Spirit. The plaintiffs allege that Led Zeppelin appropriated pieces of Spirit’s song “Taurus” to use in the Led Zeppelin classic “Stairway to Heaven”.

This is not the first time Led Zeppelin have been accused of ripping off other people’s music. Their “borrowing” usually is bits and pieces, or lyrics. Most of the time the songs are not recognizable as ripoffs until you examine them more closely.

Zeppelin settled out of court with bluesman Willie Dixon over their songs “Whole Lotta Love” and “Bring It On Home”. They also had to settle over “The Lemon Song”, which borrowed from Howlin’ Wolf’s song “The Killing Floor”. And they paid settlement to Ritchie Valens’ publisher over content in their song “Boogie With Stu”.

The common thread in all these suits and settlements has to do with musical phrases that many might consider timeless and ownerless. They may be phrases common in the parlance of musicians. For example, if Chuck Berry started suing everyone who ever used his “Johnny B. Goode” boogie riff, one fourth of rock and roll would be under subpoena.

It often seems that songwriters only go after those people who have made a lot of money with something that they hope they can convince a jury of untrained ears was stolen from them. The battle is costly, so many record companies, looking at the bottom line, encourage their artists to settle out of court and get on with making more money elsewhere.

Another famous plagiarism case, one that was went on for a while, was when George Harrison was accused of stealing the melody for his song “My Sweet Lord” from the girl-group The Chiffons’ song “He’s So Fine”. In the end, Harrison lost. That is what a jury of untrained ears, uneducated in music history will get you.

Rod Stewart was successfully sued by Brazilian songwriter Jorge Ben Jor, over “Da Ya Think I’m Sexy?” Ben Jor said Stewart stole from his song “Taj Mahal”. While the whole song is certainly not similar, there are pieces of it that certainly sound quite alike.

One suit that ended up going nowhere was when the band Killing Joke sued Nirvana, saying the opening guitar riff to “Come As You Are” was lifted from their song “Eighties”. That Suit came to a grinding halt when Kurt Cobain killed himself.

Plagiarism is a tough charge to beat. Songs are copyrighted the moment they are recorded in any form, but it’s not like there are patent drawings to distinctly distinguish one from another. In today’s patent lawsuit crazy world, perhaps there is a parallel to be made.

Image via Wikimedia Commons

Led Zeppelin is back in an old familiar position. The band is in the middle of promoting a remastered catalog, but along comes a shocking accusation that brings back some nasty old memories.

Back in 1969, Led Zeppelin played a few gigs with the band Spirit, best known for their song “I Got a Line On You”. Spirit had recorded, and frequently played live, a song called “Taurus”. This was an instrumental, only about two and a half minutes long.

Two years later, Led Zeppelin releases their fourth album. Technically untitled, the album is commonly called Led Zeppelin IV. It is this album that contains “Stairway to Heaven”. Interestingly, the song was never released as a single, but is still the signature tune of the band.

Over the years, people have remarked about some similarities between the Spirit song “Taurus” and the Zeppelin song “Stairway to Heaven”. The point of concern for some is a short piece within “Taurus” where a series of three chords is arpeggiated (plucked). It does sound similar to a short segment of “Stairway”, but the similarities end there.

“Taurus” is a short instrumental piece, no vocals, no guitar solo. “Stairway” is eight minutes long, has instantly recognizable lyrics, and a world-famous guitar solo.

Nonetheless, the writer of “Taurus”, Spirit’s guitarist Randy California, has said in past interviews that he felt Led Zeppelin ripped him off. Still, no action was taken, and the matter became fodder for rock fans to argue about.

Randy California is no longer with us. He died tragically in a drowning accident, saving his son from a riptide current. But his former band members are now taking up the fight, over 40 years after the release of “Stairway”. The band has retained an attorney who is suing Led Zeppelin for plagiarism, saying they stole pieces of “Taurus” for “Stairway”.

This is not the first time Led Zeppelin has had this fight. They were once sued by blues legend Willie Dixon over their loose use of lyrics to his song “You Need Love”, re-titled “Whole Lotta Love”. Dixon won an out-of-court settlement, and his name now appears as a writer on the Zeppelin song.

Give “Taurus” a listen. What do you think?

Randy California, guitarist for Spirit and composer of “Taurus” once said that “Stairway” is a “ripoff” of “Taurus”. His bandmates are the ones making the accusations now. Randy California himself drowned in 1997.

Charges of plagiarism against Led Zeppelin are not a new phenomenon. They used to have a bad habit of taking old blues songs, maybe changing a few lyrics, and claiming them entirely as their own.

Blues legend Willie Dixon sued Led Zeppelin for stealing his tune “You Need Love”, which Muddy Waters had recorded, and calling it “Whole Lotta Love”, released on Led Zeppelin II.

The song was credited as written by “Page/Plant”. Dixon won an out of court settlement, and now the song credit includes his name.

Oddly enough, that song was also done by Small Faces and called “You Need Loving”. It was only credited to Small Faces members Steve Marriott and Ronnie Lane. That version, especially Marriott’s vocal style, is often spoken of as the version Zeppelin ripped off. Small Faces never sued Zeppelin, and Willie Dixon never sued Small Faces.

Image via Wikimedia Commons