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Led Zeppelin sued... again.

Michchamp

Michchamp

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 4, 2011
Messages
34,245
This time for allegedly ripping off the intro to Stairway To Heaven.
"a lawyer representing deceased Spirit guitarist Randy California is claiming the hard-rock legends stole the intro for their 1971 single "Stairway to Heaven" from Spirit's 1968 song "Taurus."
...
ed Zeppelin and Spirit, who had a hit with "I Got a Line on You," played four gigs together in 1968 and 1969 (shows at which Businessweek claims Spirit played "Taurus"). Led Zeppelin also reportedly played a medley of songs that included Spirit's "Fresh-Garbage" ? a song that appeared on the same LP side as "Taurus" ? on their first U.S. tour."​
the lawyer for the plaintiff explains why it took so long: "Spirit and California's family have waited until now to challenge the song's authorship because they did not have the means to pay attorneys. At the end of California's life, he would play sitar at an Indian restaurant in exchange for food."

I'll spare you my "Led Zeppelin sucks" rant. They were clearly the worst of the worst when it came to ripping off American blues/folk artists without giving songwriting credit or co-credit. I always wondered why Robert Plant was so dodgy and curt during interviews and that's probably why... a guilt complex.
 
sorry for the double post. weird. I guess though it makes sense, since Led Zeppelin will almost certainly be sued again in the future, by another poor destitute songwriter when he finally cobbles together enough scratch to hire an attorney.

EDIT:

Champ; I figured that you wanted the dupe thread deleted, regardless of whether or not Led Zeppelin ever ends up getting sued again, so I did that.

Tinsel*
 
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Never got Led Zeppelin. Never will. Pretty much in the breach of my music-formation days and I associated them with drug-smoking burnouts. With cause. That they ripped off (I listened to the link) STH is disappointing, because they clearly did. But I don't know if it will stand up to the copyright statutes.
 
I would say one part of the Taurus thingee influenced Stairway to Heaven; but shit like that happens in the arts all the time.

I don't know that it sounded like a full rip-off.
 
byco42 said:
Never got Led Zeppelin. Never will. Pretty much in the breach of my music-formation days and I associated them with drug-smoking burnouts. With cause. That they ripped off (I listened to the link) STH is disappointing, because they clearly did. But I don't know if it will stand up to the copyright statutes.
Click to expand...

Another article I read had a quote from an IP attorney that made it sound like he had reviewed the two and the plaintiffs have a pretty good case here.

From ages 15-18 or so, I went through a big Led Zeppelin phase and saw Page/Plant at the Palace of Auburn Hills (all I remember is that it was loud, the sound was horrible, and there were A LOT of drunk 30-40 something dirtbags playing air guitar). I guess LZ has a certain appeal to that teenage mindset that doesn't know better... once my musical horizons expanded beyond heavy metal, Led Zeppelin didn't seem quite so innovative, or original, and I liked them less and less.

Another thing that I never liked was how bitchy Robert Plant was in interviews. His lyrics were either ripped off from bluesmen, or in the case of the more mystical Celtic stuff, the Hobbit, but he avoids both subjects and tries to act like some serious artist instead of just owning it. He's obviously not comfortable with his own career.
 
Just as I listen Stairway to Heaven, it occurs to me that Gethsemane from Jesus Christ Superstar, by Weber and Rice, was substantially influenced by the former.

I doubt that's a coincidence; I'm sure they aware of what they were doing.
 
I was a teenager during LZ's heydays, but did not see them perform live in concert. They sold out venues quickly, and I was not able to afford to see every band, singer, or group who I might have wanted to. I also attended the Page/Plant tour @ the Palace in the late 90s, and yeah I was one of those 40-somethings playing air-guitar, although most of my aging contemporaries there were fat and/or balding, I had & still have all of my (long) hair (no gray) @ age 57 1/2.

There was little if any mention in the media regarding LZ ripping off songs in the 70s, and I didn't really know that much about it until after broadband internet became common after the turn of the century. But the band's music was no small part of my youth growing up in the city of Detroit, and I still like many of their songs, whether or not they were plagiarized.
 
turok said:
I was a teenager during LZ's heydays, but did not see them perform live in concert. They sold out venues quickly, and I was not able to afford to see every band, singer, or group who I might have wanted to. I also attended the Page/Plant tour @ the Palace in the late 90s, and yeah I was one of those 40-somethings playing air-guitar, although most of my aging contemporaries there were fat and/or balding, I had & still have all of my (long) hair (no gray) @ age 57 1/2.

...
Click to expand...

Okay, so to be fair, not all the 30/40 something drunk guys there playing air guitar were dirtbags. :tup:

I guess music is music, and if you like a song it really doesn't matter how it was created... but for me it loses its lustre when I know the backstory. obviously LZ wasn't the only band to do it, but they seemed to be the least apologetic and most combative about it. In light of how destitute some of the people who they ripped off were, it's like would it kill Robert Plant and Jimmy Page to sign over a % of the royalties for Stairway to the guy? He could've eaten... at least, and they were still making money.

In contrast it seemed like other British bands were more decent about songwriting credits and giving credit where credit was due:

tumblr_m5tok3G7OS1r4119so1_500.jpg
 
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Used to listen to these guys back in the day, then years ago/later I read about how they ripped off the old Bluesmen and their music. iirc Chuck Berry? sued them early on, and LZ settled with him.

Mick, Clapton, and other legendary Rock icons all gave credit to the old Blues men Like Muddy, Wolf, etc. and had them perform with their Rock groups while they were living.

and.....FZ did a better rendition of Stairway to Heaven, as well as Tied to the Whippin' Post.
 
British bands and their music prettty much ruled the FM AOR radio airwaves during my HS years, including the Stones, Jethro Tull, The Who, The Moody Blues, Yes, Uriah Heep, David Bowie, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Traffic, Ten Years After, Bad Company, Humble Pie, Led Zeppelin..ect. The Beatles broke up in '70, so their music wasn't so much a part of the Detroit radio playlists anymore (although it was on mono AM pop, rock and Motown radio in the 60s).

But my favorite British band was and still is Pink Floyd. I bought their DSOTM LP shortly after it was released in 'the summer of '73, and became fascinated with the printed lyrics and especially the artwork on the album, which was done by the late Storm Thorgerson and his company, Hypgnosis. So much so that soon after I got a good-paying FT job out of HS, I bought a new black '77 1/2 Chevy Camaro z/28 with a white interior. and spent some bucks customizing and detailing it inside and out, using the album graphics as a template.

While I was doing the pinstriping, a neighbor lady came up to me in my driveway and told me that I had the patience of "Job" I didn't know who the hell Job was, so she explained him to me, being a biblical figure. After I became more adept at detailing, another lady who was walking by my house, told me that she could see my car from her house, two blocks away..lol. I knew that she was exaggerating, but during the time that I owned the car, there were many people who approached me in parking lots, to ask me how I got the car so mirror polished. I just would say that I wanted it to shine like a crazy diamond.
 
LZ has more than its share of mentions in the wiki article on musical plagiarism.

settled:
  • On Led Zeppelin's album Led Zeppelin II (1969), parts of the song "Bring It On Home" were copied from Sonny Boy Williamson's 1963 recording of "Bring It On Home," written by Willie Dixon. On the same album, "The Lemon Song" included an adaptation of Howlin' Wolf's "Killing Floor." In 1972, Arc Music, the publishing arm of Chess Records, brought a lawsuit against Led Zeppelin for copyright infringement over "Bring It On Home" and "The Lemon Song"; the case was settled out of court for an undisclosed sum.
  • Led Zeppelin's song "Whole Lotta Love" contained lyrics that were derivative of Willie Dixon's 1962 song "You Need Love." In 1985, Dixon filed a copyright infringement suit, resulting in an out-of-court settlement. Later pressings of Led Zeppelin II credit Dixon as co-writer.[18]
  • Led Zeppelin also paid a settlement to the publisher of Ritchie Valens' song "Ooh! My Head" over "Boogie with Stu" (from their album Physical Graffiti) which borrowed heavily from Valens' song.[19]
  • Led Zeppelin's song "Dazed and Confused" was derived from a 1967 Jake Holmes song of the same name, which had been performed by Jimmy Page when he was with The Yardbirds.[32][33] In June 2010, Holmes filed a lawsuit against the guitarist for copyright infringement in a United States District Court, claiming Page knowingly copied his work.[34] The case was dismissed with prejudice in January 2012 following a stipulation filed by both parties.[35] The 2012 Led Zeppelin release Celebration Day credits the song to "Jimmy Page, inspired by Jake Holmes".

unsettled:
  • The song "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You" by Led Zeppelin was thought to be a traditional song and was credited as "Trad. arr. Page" but it was actually written by folk singer Anne Bredon. Since 1990, the Led Zeppelin version has credited with Bredon, who received a substantial back-payment in royalties.

pending:
the Taurus/Stairway matter.
 
I liked these "pre-bands" ... Savoy Brown, The Small Faces, Yardbirds.
 
Say what you will, John Bonham was masterful. He ripped off Gene Krupa I s'pose
 
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