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“While it is true that a descending chromatic four-chord progression is a common convention that abounds in the music industry, the similarities here transcend this core structure”
With those words, a Judge is taking Led Zeppelin to court! That’s right, rock’s most famous song, “Stairway To Heaven”, has a date in a courtroom due to a long-standing lawsuit over charges that the band stole the song!
As the Judge states above, there are enough similarities in the two songs to send this case to a jury!
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Lawyers for Led Zeppelin tried to throw the case out, but the Judge ruled otherwise. Here’s how it all began:
“Stairway To Heave” sounds a lot like the song “Taurus” — by a band called Spirit who – allegedly performed it while touring with a young Led Zeppelin in the late 1960s.
As the Judge noted:
“For example, the descending bass line in both Taurus and Stairway to Heaven appears at the beginning of both songs, arguably the most recognizable and important segments. … Additionally, the descending bass line is played at the same pitch, repeated twice, and separated by a short bridge in both songs.”
Listen for yourself here:
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As The Washington Post reports:
“Michael Skidmore v. Led Zeppelin et al. was brought by Michael Skidmore, a trustee for Randy Wolfe of Spirit, who died in 1997. Wolfe, a.k.a. Randy California, wrote “Taurus” in 1967, the suit said; the two sides can’t agree on whether Page and Plant, before they wrote “Stairway,” heard Spirit play “Taurus” while playing at music festivals in the late 1960s.”
It is, without a doubt, one of the greatest songs in rock history….
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Led Zeppelin is considered the great hard rock band of all time, and the album that “Stairway To Heaven” is on, “IV” ( Or “Zoso”, you call!) is widely considered a masterpiece…
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So the case will go to trial, with the potential that Robert Plant and Jimmy Page may be found guilty of plagiarizing the song…
Here is a compilation posted on YouTube of several instances when a Led Zeppelin song has had noticeable similarities to other, earlier songs…
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You can read the entire story about the lawsuit, with more details here – thanks to the Washington Post:
Led Zepplein’s albums have undergone massive remastering project, with deluxe box sets overseen by Jimmy Page:
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Read all about those efforts here, including lots of great videos of the band:
The band was also known for their raucous off-stage behavior, captured in the greatest book ever written about the sordid world of a rock band:
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Read all about the “Hammer Of The Gods” here:
Let me know what you think of this lawsuit!
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