“Stairway to Heaven” was released in 1971, but Michael Skidmore, a trustee for Spirit’s late guitarist, Randy Wolfe, says Wolfe should be given credit for the song.
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The band’s current label, Warner Music, presented a statement after the favorable outcome: “We are pleased that the jury found in favor of Led Zeppelin, re-affirming the true origins of Stairway to Heaven”. “We appreciate our fans support, and look forward to putting this legal matter behind us”. 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.
The defence also explained that the chord progression in Stairway to Heaven has been commonly used in compositions for the last 300 years.
Stairway To Heaven has earned Led Zeppelin hundreds of millions of pounds and is one of the most successful rock songs of all time. 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.
Wolfe died in 1997 and complained of the similarity in interviews but never brought a suit.
Instead, jurors could only compare simple renditions of the sheet music for the two songs. Before reaching the verdict on Thursday, the jury asked to listen to audio recordings of the introductions to both songs twice.
The jury in federal court in Los Angeles rejected claims by songwriting duo Robert Plant and Jimmy Page that they had no access to “Taurus”, by the 1960s psychedelic five-piece Spirit. 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 auto wreck only hours later and had no memory of the prior evening.
The verdict was a departure from another high-profile infringement case a year ago in which the family of R&B-soul singer Marvin Gaye was awarded $7.4 million by a jury that decided pop stars Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams’ monster hit “Blurred Lines” had infringed on Gaye’s “Got to Give It Up”.
Francis Malofiy, the attorney representing Wolfe’s estate, said he was “sad and disappointed” by the verdict, and suggested the legal fight might not be over.
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Jurors were not played the “Taurus” recording, which contains a section that sounds very similar to the instantly recognizable start of “Stairway”.
