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Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant and Jimmy Page to Face L.A. Jury

Apr 13, 2016  •  Post A Comment

Two of the mainstays of the superstar rock band Led Zeppelin are being dragged into court as the copyright battle over the 1971 classic “Stairway to Heaven” heats up.

Entertainment Weekly reports that a U.S. court ruled singer Robert Plant and guitarist Jimmy Page must appear before a jury in L.A. on May 10. The trial is part of an infringement suit filed in 2014 alleging that the Zeppelin classic ripped off part of the Spirit song “Taurus.” (You can hear “Taurus” below.)

“In the court documents, obtained by EW, Spirit claims the band and Led Zeppelin played together on the same bill three times between 1968 and 1970, before ‘Stairway to Heaven’ was written, and that Led Zeppelin used the opening chords on ‘Taurus’ after hearing it performed,” the story reports. The suit was filed by Michael Skidmore, a trustee for the late Spirit guitarist Randy Wolfe.

“Plant and Page have long told the story that they wrote the track in a cottage in Wales,” the report notes.

4 Comments

  1. It’s funny, but I don’t remember this song. But there is ABSOLUTELY no doubt in my mind that this was Stairway to Heaven before there was a Stairway To Heaven.

  2. Nobody can copyright A minor! Rock on peckerheads!

  3. It took 45 years for them to notice a resemblance? The court should throw this out and not waste taxpayer dollars on this nonsense.

  4. I don’t hear enough that is similar to warrant copy write infringement. I am a former rock / studio musician.

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