Led Zeppelin did not steal 'Stairway' riff, jurors say

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

The guitar riff Led Zeppelin used in the 1971 classic "Stairway to Heaven" differed substantially from one the English band was accused of stealing from the U.S. group Spirit, a jury found on Thursday in a copyright infringement trial in Los Angeles.

The decision was a victory for Led Zeppelin, one of the top selling rock acts of all time, after an week-long trial in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles that had called into question the originality of their signature song.

The jury, in their second day of deliberations, found Led Zeppelin's singer Robert Plant and guitarist Jimmy Page had access to Spirit's 1967 song "Taurus" but that the riff they were accused of taking was not intrinsically similar to the opening chords of "Stairway."

Page and Plant, who have attended court since the beginning of the closely-watched trial on June 14, showed little reaction immediately after the verdict was announced in court.

[font size=1]-snip-[/font]


Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-music-ledzeppelin-idUSKCN0Z914Z

---

World | Thu Jun 23, 2016 1:50pm EDT
LOS ANGELES | BY PIYA SINHA-ROY

[Journeyman]

1. "So all my best is making old words new, spending again what is already spent." ~Bill Shakespeare...

[merrily]

32. Perfect!

I'm impressed.

[TexasBushwhacker]

2. Yay!

Considering that the songwriter of Taurus, Randy Wolfe, never saw fit to sue for copywrite infringement, I didn't think his family should be able to sue anyway.

[SheilaT]

3. Good. I'm not familiar with the Led Zeppelin song,

and I don't know much about music or composing it, but there are only so many notes, and a large, but ultimately limited way to combine them.

A while back someone wrote and excellent story set twenty or so years in the future, in which these sorts of lawsuits have brought all new music to a complete stop.

It could happen in the world of fiction, also. While plagiarism is generally quite recognizable, there are only so many ideas out there, and so many words and a large, but ultimately limited way to combine them. I write, and I have often been concerned that I would inadvertently plagiarism something I've totally forgotten that I've read. So far it doesn't seem to have happened, but it could.

[leftynyc]

9. Wow

I must be getting really old. Stairway to Heaven was routinely picked the #1 rock and roll song when those types of lists are made. You should check it out. In fact, Mary J. Blige does an excellent version of it but Plant & Page and the rest are the best at it.

[awoke_in_2003]

21. It is one of my least favorite Zepp songs

due to over exposure. It shocked me to hear someone doesn't know it. It has to be one of the most unavoidable rock songs ever

[leftynyc]

23. Heard it recently for the first

time in years. I was amazed how I still knew all the lyrics. Nobody did rock ballads like Zepp.

[awoke_in_2003]

25. Oh, i still sing along when it's on

My favorite Zepp song is the Lemon Song (warning, people will say this was stolen, too). The guitar in that song is pretty frenetic. So many great songs that never get heard on the air.

[JI7]

30. it's one of the most overplayed songs. Maybe if you hear it you will recognize it

[maxsolomon]

34. and what is this "happy birthday" song everyone's on about?

do you live in a cave? are you 7?

[DawgHouse]

42. lol

[JI7]

4. i thought they had a case before the trial but after reading what

Went on during the trial i kind of expected the outcome.

Maybe that's why they went to trial instead of settling it.

[brooklynite]

5. Why is a case over a song from the 70s being adjudicated now?

Did SPIRIT just happen to find their album at a used record store?

[PJMcK]

6. That's funny! (n/t)

[Blue_Adept]

7. A remastered edition was released in 2014

Which made it a "new" work.

There've been several of these kinds of attempts made with various remasters hitting in the past couple of decades, hence why some continue to sit in vaults out of fear of lawsuits that would soak up any potential profits. Instead we just get standard streaming/digital versions released instead of cleaned up works.

[Odin2005]

22. That problem also affects some video games, incidentally.

Nintendo has not re-released their classic 90s roll-playing game Earthbound because a large amounts of it's music rather blatantly sample themes from various popular music songs and they are worried about potential lawsuits.

[Blue_Adept]

26. Yep. Japan is notorious for that.

Been involved with the anime side for an age and music licenses are a nightmare in general.

[cstanleytech]

35. Maybe because the people who filed the lawsuit are a behaving like a bag of dicks?

[Scootaloo]

50. The rights have passed to a trust

It's not members of "Spirit" suing, it's trustees who are hoping for some cash payout for a property that isn't exactly making money.

[TexasBushwhacker]

53. If the songwriter, Randy Wolfe, did not see fit to sue

when he was alive, his family has no right to sue now IMHO.

[Haveadream]

8. Led Zeppelin has a history of ripping other musicians off

http://www.musictimes.com/articles/6250/20140520/7-songs-other-than-stairway-to-heaven-that-led-zeppelin-stole.htm

Phenomenal band but not cool.

Check out Small Face's version of "You Need Loving" (1966) compared to LZ's "Whole Lotta Love" (1969), originally written by Willie Dixon and performed by Muddy Waters (1963)

[sendero]

11. This is true..

... but it is also true of scads of rock/pop musicians. In fact, the line where plagurism begins is pretty fuzzy. Lots of riffs, chord progressions, melody snippets are appropriated all the time. And don't get me started on sampling where some artists think a couple seconds of their songs are worth millions. Kablooee.

For example, I will never believe George Harrison ripped off that girl-band song, but a jury thought otherwise. Putting anything in front of a jury is an exercise in random outcomes.

[bvar22]

41. And Elvis and so many other R&B bands....

...ripped off the music of the Black Blues Men of the 20s and 30s.
The Stones have done it word for word and cord for cord.
"Love in Vain" was lifted straight from Robert Johnson.

[Haveadream]

45. +1

[sendero]

54. Absolutely....

.... hell the entire British Invasion was basically inspired by Brits loving the American GI music they were hearing. Though most bands moved on from pure blues they almost all started out there. Pink Floyd is named after bluesmen even though their music didn't really sound very blues at least to my ears.

[yuiyoshida]

12. okay

[reorg]

20. now listen to this

Much better than the stale, artsy bombast from LZ, IMO.

[RelativelyJones]

29. Indie stuff

Just retrofunk, too cool for school, Indie stuff. None of the power of the original IMO

[LiberalLovinLug]

37. I like listening to different versions of my favorite songs

and this version is worth listening to but in no way surpasses the original. The vocals of course have not near the power of Robert Plant in his heyday. And its a little odd and amusing to hear a woman sing that song. The lyrics are clearly meant to be sung by a man, a randy randy man.

[yuiyoshida]

56. wow!

wild weird stuff!

[awoke_in_2003]

24. And how many elements

of that song did Willie Dixon "steal"?

[Haveadream]

46. None. Willie Dixon prevailed in a lawsuit against Led Zeppelin for the song.

Willie Dixon was a monumental force in American rock and roll.

William James "Willie" Dixon (July 1, 1915 – January 29, 1992) was an American blues musician, vocalist, songwriter, arranger and record producer. A Grammy Award winner who was proficient on both the upright bass and the guitar and as a vocalist, he is perhaps best known as one of the most prolific songwriters of his time. Next to Muddy Waters, Dixon is recognized as the most influential person in shaping the post–World War II sound of the Chicago blues.

Dixon also was an important link between the blues and rock and roll, working with Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley in the late 1950s. His songs were covered by some of the biggest artists of more recent times, such as Cream, Jeff Beck, the Doors, Led Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones, Steppenwolf, Bob Dylan, and Jimi Hendrix. The debut albums by the first six of those artists all feature at least one of his songs, a measure of his influence on rock music.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willie_Dixon



Here is Muddy Waters singing Dixon's original:

[klook]

27. Nice selection of pics with that song - thanks!

Steve Marriott, what a badass. I love the Small Faces... "Tin Soldier," "Itchycoo Park," "Lazy Sunday," and this song - great stuff!

Kind of embarrassing how much Robert Plant stole from this track, right down to the inflection. Oh well, great artists steal, I guess.

[Haveadream]

43. Lol. Yup. Badass

Lifted the it wholesale, right? Robert Plant's shaking, craving vocals are always iconic but you have to appreciate how Small Faces just badass owned that tune with some cool and sassy!

[BobTheSubgenius]

48. Humble Pie - Rocking The Fillmore

[mainer]

39. Agreed. Zeppelin didn't even CHANGE THE SONG TITLES

They just ripped off the original artists and didn't give credit. Kept the same song titles!

Once you get successful, you can get away with anything. Happens all the time in Hollywood too.

[yallerdawg]

10. "Stairway to Heaven" is often voted greatest rock song of all time!

There is nothing else like it!

[Lars39]

13. Didn't know if anyone else saw this post: Skip to 32 second mark on the video...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1018875688

[mainer]

14. Led Zeppelin has plagiarized before:

They just keep getting away with it.

"Bring it on Home."

This was influenced by a song of the same name recorded by Blues great Sonny Boy Williamson and written by Willie Dixon. The Dixon composition was so similar that Led Zeppelin reached a settlement with Dixon over the royalties for the song, and credited Dixon as the writer when this appeared on Led Zeppelin's How The West Was Won live DVD.

"Dazed and Confused":

An American folk-singer is suing Led Zeppelin, claiming he wrote their classic song Dazed and Confused. Jake Holmes, whose authorship of the tune has been widely cited for decades, is pursuing Jimmy Page and Led Zeppelin's labels for at least $1m in damages.

In documents filed on Monday, Holmes cited a 1967 copyright registration for Dazed and Confused, renewed in 1995. That song, which you can listen to here, was released in 1967 on the San Francisco-born musician's debut album.

In fact, the path that leads from Holmes to Page is very well known. As documented by Perfect Sound Forever magazine, Holmes opened for Page's then-band, the Yardbirds, at a Greenwich Village gig in August 1967. "That was the infamous moment of my life when Dazed and Confused fell into the loving arms and hands of Jimmy Page," Holmes recalled in an interview with Will Shade. Yardbirds drummer Jim McCarty described going to a record shop the next day to buy a copy of Holmes's album. "We decided to do a version," he said. "We worked it out together with Jimmy contributing the guitar riffs in the middle."

[DinahMoeHum]

15. Good interview with Salon yesterday. . .

http://www.salon.com/2016/06/22/free_led_zeppelin_this_is_about_music_its_not_about_sound/

with law professor Charles Cronin, who teaches at USC’s Gould School of Law and has written extensively on this particular subject.

He’s also founder of the Music Copyright Infringement Resource, now housed at USC:
http://mcir.usc.edu/

[Bernardo de La Paz]

16. Both bands are brilliant & I love both. Check out "12 Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelve_Dreams_of_Dr._Sardonicus

However, with strong catalog sales it also became the band's only album to be certified Gold in the U.S., achieving that status in 1976. ... Nick Tosches in Rolling Stone felt that despite some shortcomings the record was a "blockbuster". Appreciation of the album has grown among both old and new fans.

[colsohlibgal]

17. Close But Not Close Enough

Not much of a Zeppelin fan, I am much more a fan of Spirit, but that was a hard case to prove.

[Odin2005]

18. Nothing wrong with one artist using the themes from another artist.

That has being going on since the dawn of time and art would be impossible without it.

[mainer]

40. OK to copy themes and chord progressions.

But Zeppelin even copied the tunes and THE TITLES of other composers' works -- and had to pay settlements.

[w4rma]

19. ‘Stairway to Heaven’ Lawsuit Has Major Implications for Wayne’s World

The only problem is that the use of the actual song was actually denied by Led Zeppelin, specifically after the theatrical release, which led to this watered-down alteration:

Fast-forward to this week, when it was discovered that the famous ‘Stairway to Heaven’ guitar melody is actually in the public domain, which means that Zeppelin had absolutely no right to prevent it from being in Wayne’s World (or any other movie). That’s because the melody already existed as early as the 1630 (yes, the year 1630), when it was written by Italian composer Giovanni Battista Granata.

Here, check it out around the 0:32 mark.

Which means, one of the most famous scenes can now be restored to its full glory. And the village rejoiced.

http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2016/04/21/original-stairway-to-heaven-scene-from-waynes-world-is-now-legal/

[Scootaloo]

51. Who would have thought that the concept of "arpeggio" wasn't exclusive to one band?

[klook]

28. Oh man, what a frivolous lawsuit!

A descending chromatic riff, played in arpeggios. That's worthy of a lawsuit? Sheesh.

Spirit was a great band. Sorry to see their music involved in such a trivial exercise in futility.

Notice that "Taurus" includes a descending major scale as well... obviously that's off limits, too!

[The Second Stone]

31. When I was a kid we noticed it was the same tune as Gilligan's Island

theme song. Gilligan's Island was first.

[frazzled]

33. I feel vindicated

I said this case would never fly in an earlier thread the other week, and got a fair amount of flak for that prediction.

[LiberalLovinLug]

36. "Good artists copy, great artists steal" - Pablo Picasso

Last edited Thu Jun 23, 2016, 08:23 PM - Edit history (2)

Great artists are inspired by art that has gone on before them, and then transcend those earlier works.

Led Zeppelin did not do covers of previous musicians work, they were inspired by riffs in songs and transformed them into new works of art imo. That is how art should evolve. Yes there is some resemblance in portions of LZ songs, to some of the songs they have been accused of ripping off. But I guess I look at it in the overview of their lifes work. Maybe its more about their 'sound' than anything else, the band as a whole. The magic of the right people coming together at the right time. Because it isn't about if a few notes line up here and there, its about the completed song, and the singer, the instrumentation all in sync. LZ created unique songs and will probably go down as the greatest rock n roll band of all time and deservedly so.

[JudyM]

38. Sounded verrrry similar to me, certainly it inspired the intro, even if it didn't meet the legal

standard for a copyright violation. When you're dealing with an arpeggio that sounds so unique, and the fact that they performed it when Zepp was right there... I thought it was a no-brainier.

[Initech]

44. No Stairway! Denied!

[Night Watchman]

47. Finally, a News Story that Matters!

[brooklynite]

49. In other breaking news, Antonio Vivaldi did not rip off Johann Sebastian Bach in "The Four Seasons"

[Botany]

52. Just because

[cbdo2007]

55. This is good news. Most pop music is based heavily on the music that came before...

which isn't a bad thing. If Zep had come out and said they had written the one song, that would be copyright infringement. Instead, they probably heard the other song and said that sounds sort of cool, but let's use a similar sound and make it into an amazing song.

[rocktivity]

57. But just when they thought it was all over

rocktivity