Following a week of testimony and proceedings, the trial over alleged plagiarism of the opening line of Led Zeppelin’s landmark song “Stairway to Heaven” has ended with a victory for songwriters Robert Plant and Jimmy Page.
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Led Zeppelin did not lift the guitar riff used in the opening of its signature hit “Stairway to Heaven” from the lesser-known, U.S. group Spirit, a Los Angeles jury ruled on Thursday, finding there were substantial differences between the two.
This story will be updated.
Experts for both sides dissected both compositions, agreeing mainly that they shared a descending chord progression that dates back three centuries as a building block in lots of songs. “We appreciate our fans’ support, and look forward to putting this legal matter behind us”. Spirit, which gained some popularity in the late 1960s and 1970s for its novel fusion of rock with jazz and other styles of music, put out a song on its debut album in 1968 that some feel was the genesis for Stairway To Heaven.
A call to bring Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones as a witness produced a brief reunion of the band’s living members.
Malofiy said he didn’t need camera footage of Page and Plant transcribing “Taurus” to show they stole the work.
During the trial, guitarist Page said he owned five Spirit albums but he had never watched the band play live, and Taurus was “totally alien” to him.
The two sides also fought over whether Wolfe had signed over the rights to the song to a music company long ago. She captured the mannerisms of Robert Plant and Jimmy Page, who are pictured above and Edwards says were “gentlemanly”, as well as the posturing of flamboyant plaintiff attorney Francis Malofiy.
Wolfe, who drowned in 1997 saving his son at a beach in Hawaii, had talked about suing, but lawyers didn’t want to take an old case, said Glen Kulik another lawyer for the trust. They admitted that both bands had performed several times on the same bill, but they said they didn’t even remember seeing Spirit play Taurus and that they didn’t know the song until a lawsuit was brought against them.
Jurors rejected the defense that Page and Plant would not have been familiar with “Taurus”, finding in legal speak that they had “access” to it.
The “Stairway” case comes a year after a federal jury in LA found singers Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams had plagiarized Motown’s Marvin Gaye in their hit single “Blurred Lines”, with the jury awarding Gaye’s family $7.4 million (6.6 million euros), later reduced to $5.3 million.
“They were played twice, and the jury returned to deliberations”, The Los Angeles Times reports.
Malofiy asked jurors to give Wolfe a songwriting credit and millions of dollars in damages, though he didn’t provide a specific figure.
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“At Warner Music Group, supporting our artists and protecting their creative freedom is paramount”, the company said in a statement.
