LOS ANGELES | A USA jury found Thursday that British rock group Led Zeppelin did not steal the intro to their signature track “Stairway to Heaven” from a long-defunct Los Angeles rock band. Jimmy Page, Led Zeppelin’s guitarist, recalled owning two Spirit albums but forgot that he had three more, including the album with Taurus on it.
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“I didn’t remember it then, and I don’t remember it now”, Mr. Plant said.
“Led Zeppelin is one of the greatest bands in history, and Jimmy Page and Robert Plant are peerless songwriters who created many of rock’s most influential and enduring songs”.
Trust attorney Francis Malofiy said he was sad and disappointed by the jury’s decision. “We proved access but the jury never heard what (Plant and Page) had access to”, he said. That song, “Taurus”, is an instrumental ballad released four years prior to “Stairway to Heaven”.
Robert Plant and Jimmy Page front Led Zeppelin. Led Zeppelin had opened for Spirit in late-1968 where, there was a belief, they could have heard Taurus being performed. Both were called to testify about their familiarity with Spirit in the late 1960s and early 1970s and about the genesis of “Stairway”.
On the other hand, Mr. Plant and Mr. Page testified that they independently composed their original song Stairway to Heaven.
“I think Led Zeppelin was really in a good position to do that, as this is one of the most famous songs of all time”, said intellectual property litigator Josh Schiller, a partner in Boies Schiller & Flexner in NY, after the verdict was announced.
FILE – In this October 9, 2012 file photo, Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page, left and singer Robert Plant appear at a press conference ahead of the theatrical release of “Celebration Day”, a concert film of their 2007 London O2 arena reunion show, at the Museum of Modern Art in NY.
Stairway to Heaven was written by Page and Plant and released in 1971 on Led Zeppelin’s fourth studio album. Though witnesses said they’d spotted Plant – and his distinctive curly mane – at a Spirit show in 1970, Plant noted that he’d been in a serious vehicle wreck only hours later and had no memory of the prior evening. However, the jury did not get to hear the two songs side by side and relied exclusively on the sheet music.
The case is not the first time Led Zeppelin was accused of swiping another artist’s work.
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Last year, Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams were ordered to pay the estate of singer Marvin Gaye $7.4 million after a jury found their song “Blurred Lines” had taken riffs from Gaye’s classic “Got to Give It Up”.
