Led Zeppelin Exonerated in Stairway to Heaven Case
It’s no surprise. Americans are celebrity hounds. They are star-struck in the presence of any celebrity — and celebrities win most court cases as a result.
Jimmy Page and Robert Plant (and John Paul Jones, a lesser light) testified at the trial, and by all accounts were charming and deflected the plaintiff’s case in amusing ways. Jimmy Page admitted that he owned the album containing “Taurus,” which clearly inspired the opening of “Stairway” — but claimed that he first heard the song on the Internet two years ago.
Which is funny, because I highlighted Taurus on this blog more than three years ago — on June 8, 2013 — stating:
Taurus, by Spirit.
Led Zeppelin opened for Spirit early in their careers, and heard this song live. You will not have to listen closely to hear the inspiration for Stairway to Heaven.
A year later, when the case was filed, I summed up my feelings in this post — and I see no reason to change my erudite and well-stated opinion today:
I have mixed feelings about this one. On one hand, if you listen to the piece, it’s pretty clear they ripped off part of California’s piece — and the fact that they were touring with Spirit at the time just solidifies the conclusion that you would have come to anyway regarding the similarities. It would have been nice for them to credit California and give him a piece of the royalties. And, as I say, I pointed out the similarities last year, long before the lawsuit — so it’s clearly not a made-up claim. (Do any of the lawyers read this blog?)
That being said, California himself never filed suit. And in “Stairway to Heaven,” while Zeppelin took some of California’s music, the more famous band also transformed the germ of that idea into something quite different, taken as a whole. Patterico reluctantly hereby enters judgment for defendant in the court of public opinion, but awards no costs — and encourages Led Zeppelin to give California his writing credit anyway.
I admit to being a Spirit partisan: I saw them live, from the front row, in Dallas’s West End Marketplace in the late 1980s. Randy California was charismatic, talented, and unforgettable. To the jury that rendered the verdict, though, he was almost surely some no-name shmoe. Maybe I was wowed by my perception of California’s celebrity, while Zeppelin — a band I have always enjoyed and respected — is a band I never saw live. The closest I came was seeing a solo Robert Plant show from middling seats, 15 rows back. Nothing very memorable. When I started writing this post, I forgot I had even seen that concert. But the Spirit show is burned deeply into my brain. To think: California was only in his late 30s when I saw them live. Damn. I’m old.
Anyway, Randy California is long dead and gone, having drowned off the coast of Molokai in 1997 while heroically rescuing his 12-year-old son from a rip current. But he definitely thought the song was ripped off, and as noted above, so do I. Here’s California:
Here’s a transcript of the relevant part of California’s statement:
Questioner: Speaking of Led Zeppelin, another sort of legendary story is the, which is true, I guess, is regarding the song “Taurus” that you also wrote. In the introduction. Um, did Led Zeppelin ever acknowledge their debt to you for that introduction? Was there ever anything said about that, or is it just sort of a story that’s floating around?
California: It’s not a story. It’s absolutely true. If you listen to the two things, you can make your own judgment.
Questioner: Mm-hmm.
California: It’s an exact, I’ll just say it, it’s a rip-off.
Questioner: Yeah.
California: And the guys made millions of bucks on it and they never said, “Thank you” and they never said, “Can we pay you some money for it?” or this or that. So I just think it’s —
Questioner: Yeah.
California: It’s kind of a sore point with me. And they, maybe some day they’ll — their conscience will make them change and they’ll do something about it. I don’t know. It’s not right. You know?
Questioner: Yeah, yeah. I agree. I mean, I think they did that in a few other cases too. [You bet they did! — Ed.] With a couple other —
California: It’s funny business, dealing between record companies, and managers, and publishers, and artists. But when artists do it to other artists, to me, there’s no excuse for that. You can quote me on that. I’m mad.
I am too. Even if I probably have ruled the same way the jury did.
Long live Spirit.
Long live Randy California.
Patterico (86c8ed) — 6/23/2016 @ 11:33 pmI bet the jury never heard that interview.
Patterico (86c8ed) — 6/23/2016 @ 11:35 pmZeppelin of course ripped off a bunch of older bluesmen without attribution too. They had to pay off Willie Dixon and list him as a co-writer for “Whole Lotta Love” since it borrowed heavily from “You Need Love,” a song Dixon wrote for Muddy Waters nearly ten years earlier. They also had to cut in Howlin’ Wolf (Chester Burnett) on “The Lemon Song” because it ripped off “Killing Floor.”
JVW (eabb2a) — 6/24/2016 @ 12:23 amMusic police are just jealous they can’t jam like Jimmy Page.
mg (31009b) — 6/24/2016 @ 2:53 amDoes California have a Dead Man’s Act which barred Jimmy Page from testifying that he bought the riff from California for five hits of acid, a lid of marijuana, and a groupie to be named later?
nk (dbc370) — 6/24/2016 @ 4:09 amfortune favors the bold i guess
it’s like how the chinesers stole that idea about a “supercomputer” from the cowardly failmericans and did it five times faster
happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/24/2016 @ 4:59 amMeh… when you pick chords on an acoustic every similar chord progression sounds the same.
Listen to these two:
https://youtu.be/DiWomXklfv8
https://youtu.be/mWZVUKPrdXE
Clear influence, right? Wrong. Though McTell’s “Streets of London” came out in 1969 it was originally recorded in 1967 at almost the exact same time Stewart released “Samuel, oh how you’ve changed”
If Zeppelin would have to pay everyone who wrote a song that used the chords Am – C – D – Fm7 in that order they would be paying a lot of people.
Rich Horton (0ca444) — 6/24/2016 @ 5:34 amFresh garbage in a Mechanical World. Have you seen my Uncle Jack?
Colonel Haiku (436b69) — 6/24/2016 @ 6:58 amJVW is spot on with #3, as is Mr. Horton. That list would grow, as it would for most commercially successful bands, if truth were told. Popular music builds on the foundations laid before. Always has, always will.
Colonel Haiku (436b69) — 6/24/2016 @ 7:03 amI was a 16 yr old OC chucklehead when I saw Spirit open for headliner Cream in the Spring of ’68. Great band to see live.
Colonel Haiku (436b69) — 6/24/2016 @ 7:05 amYou all are getting it backward. “Taurus” is a dog’s breakfast. Are those peas and carrots?
It’s like seeing shapes in clouds.
papertiger (c2d6da) — 6/24/2016 @ 9:01 amAlthough I have virtually no interest in music and come to your blog daily for the political content, I really enjoy reading your concert and music related stories and insight. Thank you for sharing them.
rfy (badb47) — 6/24/2016 @ 9:53 amThe similarity is that a certain chord was played in a fingerpicking fashion. It is called arpeggiation. But this similarity only last for a measure and that’s it. Should Randy California have a monopoly on playing an Am chord? #7 is correct.
AZ Bob (7d2a2c) — 6/24/2016 @ 1:31 pmI saw Spirit around ’75 or ’76 in a beautiful theatre venue in St. Louis. A lot of great songs: two big hits, “I Got a Line on You” and “Nature’s Way,” along with some fun oddities, “Animal Zoo,” “Mr. Skin,” and “Nothing To Hide,” among many more. Should be more played on classic rock and better remembered. RIP, Randy California.
Funny, they were on a four-band bill playing just before the headliner, Journey. This was the first time I saw (and met) Journey, which was in its pre-Steve Perry phase, when they were a spacy jazz rock band. Check out their first two albums, especially the psychedelic instrumental song “Kahoutek.”
nosh (9d728b) — 6/24/2016 @ 7:38 pmThe song is 8 minutes long, the part in question is 8 seconds. It’s the part after the first 8 seconds is why it’s the most requested rock song….If you had a 60 WPC amp, Advent speakers, and the neighbors in the next apartment were gone for the weekend, that was an impressive 8 minutes.
dee (262ed3) — 6/24/2016 @ 10:22 pmThere is some similarity between the songs, and it’s likely Led Zep heard it and liked it and wanted to use it, or something like it. On the other hand, that’s not He’s So Fine/My Sweet Lord, or anything close to it. The jury’s decision was correct. Harrison committed copyright infringement, Zeppelin didn’t.
Well, at least not on this song, they didn’t. Other songs, not so much.
Evan3457 (79ccc1) — 6/25/2016 @ 9:58 amIt’s nature’s way to borrow more. It’s nature’s way of growing more. It’s nature’s way of telling you: Nothing’s wrong. < If I were on that jury.
Totality absolutely trumps a phrase or two. George Harrison was done wrong, too.
Ed from SFV (3400a5) — 6/25/2016 @ 2:47 pmJimmy Page — “I got a line from you baby, I got a line from you.”
nosh (9d728b) — 6/25/2016 @ 6:10 pmwhat does that even mean
happyfeet (28a91b) — 6/25/2016 @ 6:20 pmCan you really copyright chords? Whole bunch of things in these songs are different, especially after the opening. Maybe that’s why Randy never got around to filing suit. Lots of ideas revolve around a particular chord progression, especially on guitar in the late 1960s. Stairway To Heaven is a 70s rock anthem, and Randy California couldn’t have reproduced it if he’d had a thousand years to try.
Dirty Old Man (0c3768) — 6/25/2016 @ 6:26 pmMeh, I’m not impressed by Spirit’s case. The jury was right. As others have pointed out, it’s just sort of a downward progression of sort of modal-sounding arpeggios, rather common. And besides, the song is a confused compositional mush, with no dramatic heft or thrust, like Stairway has. Sounds a little like Focus, when they were playing anything besides their one great song.
And also, it’s the sweet little recorder solo over the acoustic that makes the bit for Zep. These things are just not so unusual, Page probably didn’t even know where the funny little voice in his head was coming from. Western diatonic music is a lot more mathematical than other world musics, the chords have a way of interlocking in fashions that seem almost inevitable, so these kinds of borrowings ought to be expected.
And yes, George Harrison got screwed.
hunson abedeer (80144e) — 6/27/2016 @ 1:37 am