Led Zeppelin’s lawyer, Peter Anderson, argued that the plaintiff didn’t prove that the British rockers copied “Taurus” when writing “Stairway to Heaven“, while claiming that the descending chromatic lines shared by both songs are featured in numerous older tunes that are in the public domain.
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First, it was legendary axeman Jimmy Page at the mic. Then his longtime Led Zeppelin bassist and keyboardist John Paul Jones.
He told the eight members of the jury to look past Plant and Page’s undeniably “amazing” qualities as musicians and songwriters and give a nod to the man he says has a right to claim a co-credit on “Stairway to Heaven” – Randy Wolfe, aka Randy California.
Page testified last week that he had sifted through his collection and found several Spirit records, including the band’s 1968 debut.
“I don’t remember a thing”.
Plant says that based on testimony from the past week he has no recollection of nearly anyone he’s hung out with.
A courtroom sketch of Robert Plant, left, and Jimmy Page at the trial.
David Worihaye, chief financial officer at Led Zeppelin’s record label Rhino Entertainment, said the song had earned the company more than three million dollars in revenue and almost 870,000 dollars in net profit since May 2011.
Randy Wolfe (front) with the band Spirit. However, Spirit’s former bass player said something to the contrary – He remembers drinking and playing snooker after a show in the 70s with Led Zeppelin and says that the band would have definitely heard “Taurus” – the song that they are being accused of copying. Malofiy focused much of his argument on whether or not Page and Plant had heard “Taurus” before Page created “Stairway to Heaven” – the key to establishing “access” under copyright law. They included extensive testimony about a Spirit performance in Birmingham, England, that Plant may have attended. “I haven’t learned that yet”, he said.
“There’s a lady who’s sure all that glitters is gold and she’s buying a stairway to heaven”, Plant replied, alternately talking and singing the lyrics. “I can’t actually recall Spirit or anyone playing there with the passing of time”, Plant said.
“I was trying to bring in the beauty and remoteness of pastural Britain”, he said.
Anderson also caused courtroom attendees to gasp when he repeated his belief that Wolfe’s son Quinn Wolfe, not his estate trust, may be Wolfe’s true heir; Klausner admonished him as this point had already been rendered legally inadmissible during Anderson’s earlier examination of lead plaintiff Michael Skidmore. He had long claimed that the resemblance between “Taurus” and “Stairway to Heaven” was more than just a coincidence. He noted that Spirit’s oeuvre was not unfamiliar to his more famous colleagues. “We have documentary proof, and what they have is printouts from the Internet”.
Mr Malofiy said Page told the court he had not watched Spirit live, but this contradicted previous interviews he had given, including a 1970 article in which he said he “enjoyed seeing them”.
Led Zeppelin are in a bit of trouble at the moment.
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The band has reached at least six settlements over songwriting credits for some of their best-known works, including “Whole Lotta Love”, “The Lemon Song”, and “Dazed and Confused”, according to the lawsuit.
