In what could be the trial of 2016, the case to determine whether or not Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway To Heaven”, one of the most iconic rock songs ever composed, was ripped from Spirit’s song “Taurus”.
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While musical experts not involved in the case have said the two are similar, they have also said the sequence is common and has appeared in other pieces from decades and even centuries ago.
Anderson claims Wolfe’s trust does not own “Taurus”, which he alleges has been introduced into the lawsuit by “unclean hands” after royalties were secretly denied to Wolfe’s son (whom California tragically drowned saving from a riptide in 1997).
The lawsuit, originally filed in 2014, is just coming to trial now, but the story of how Led Zeppelin supposedly copied Taurus has been a subject of debate among music fans for years.
In the latest case, Plant, 67, and Page, 72, appeared in court on Tuesday sporting long gray hair and are expected to testify eventually in the closely watched trial. Randy California’s estate manager Michael Skidmore states that the band could easily have heard “Taurus” before writing “Stairway To Heaven”, which was released on Led Zeppelin’s album “IV”. Malofiy proceeded to play the video anyway, followed by Page and Plant playing the opening 2.14 minutes of “Stairway to Heaven” in contention.
“Jimmy Page and Robert Plant are incredible musicians, incredible performers”, he said in his opening statement.
Malofiy said Led Zeppelin opened for Spirit in their first United States show in December 1968 in Denver.
Jurors in Los Angeles federal court on Tuesday heard from the sister of deceased guitarist Randy Wolfe and his former band mate in the group Spirit about how likely it was that members of Led Zeppelin would have heard live performances of “Taurus”, the instrumental Wolfe wrote for his girlfriend.
The song has generated hundreds of millions of dollars over the years.
Attorneys for Led Zeppelin have argued the chord progressions cited in the civil lawsuit were so clichéd that they did not deserve copyright protection. She told the jury “it was something that upset him for many, many years”. Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams lost millions after being charged with copying Marvin Gaye on their 2013 hit “Blurred Lines”, while teen hearthrob Ed Sheeran is being sued for mimicking music penned by songwriters Martin Harrington and Thomas Leonard.
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Wolfe’s former bandmate Mark Andes told a federal court in Los Angeles that Spirit featured on the same bill as Led Zeppelin when the British group played their first United States gig in Denver, Colorado, in December 1968.
