The two members of Led Zeppelin recently appeared in court in an ongoing lawsuit over whether or not they stole the riff from “Stairway to Heaven” from a song by the group Spirit.
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Michael Einhorn told jurors on Friday in a LA federal court that songwriters Jimmy Page and Robert Plant have received 58.5m dollars (£40.68m) since 2011 for dozens of works, including Stairway, their most recognisable song.
Led Zeppelin lawyers have contended the 2008 contract falls outside the statute of limitations and shouldn’t be considered.
He said he had no Spirit records and hadn’t been aware at the time that Spirit played at a 1968 concert in Denver where Led Zeppelin was the opening band and made its first USA appearance.
Musical experts for the Wolfe estate said there were many similarities between the obscure instrumental Taurus and Stairway, but a defence expert testified last week that the main similarity was a common descending chord sequence used as a musical building block for 300 years.
This is a show that Led Zeppelin wants to cut short.
“Page seemed relieved whenever music became the trial’s focus: He nodded to the groove to both Stairway to Heaven and Taurus alike when acoustic renditions of each song were played for the jury”.
Asked if he had ever seen Spirit perform live, Jones claimed that, in the late 1960s and early 1970s, he had never “gone to any rock concerts, other than playing with Led Zeppelin”, according to the magazine.
Zeppelin’s songs have brought in nearly $60 million over the last five years, according to the testimony of economist Michael Einhorn.
Curiously, Jones also cast doubt on a almost 50-year-old story about the origins of “Stairway to Heaven“, in which Page and Plant returned with the beginnings of the song after making a trip to the Bron-Yr-Aur cottage in the Welsh mountains. But in Friday afternoon’s session, Led Zeppelin bass player John Paul Jones took the stand.
While experts for the plaintiffs previously said there are many similarities between “Taurus” and the intro to the 1971 “Stairway”, Lawrence Ferrara said the likeness was limited.
“That I would not call a relevant similarity“, Ferrara said.
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He told the court he wrote the introduction of Stairway To Heaven on his own before his bandmate Robert Plant added lyrics at Headley Grange in Hampshire. “I just heard it”.
