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Stairway to Heaven Court Case

Serial offenders are Led Zeppelin

This itself is plagiarised from a newspaper messageboard.

Babe I'm Gonna Leave You" - A folk song by Anne Bredon, this was originally credited as "traditional, arranged by Jimmy Page," then "words and music by Jimmy Page," and then, following legal action, "Bredon/Page/Plant."
"Black Mountain Side" - uncredited version of a traditional folk tune previously recorded by Bert Jansch.
''Boogie With Stu'' - based on Richie Valen's ''Oh My Head''
"Bring It On Home" - the first section is an uncredited cover of the Willie Dixon tune (as performed by the imposter Sonny Boy Williamson).
"Communication Breakdown" - apparently derived from Eddie Cochran's "Nervous Breakdown."
"Custard Pie" - uncredited cover of Bukka White's "Shake 'Em On Down," with lyrics from Sleepy John Estes's "Drop Down Daddy."
"Dazed And Confused" - uncredited cover of the Jake Holmes song (see The Above Ground Sound Of Jake Holmes).
"Hats Off To (Roy) Harper" - uncredited version of Bukka White's "Shake 'Em On Down."
"How Many More Times" - Part one is an uncredited cover of the Howlin' Wolf song (available on numerous compilations). Part two is an uncredited cover of Albert King's "The Hunter."
"In My Time Of Dying" - uncredited cover of the traditional song (as heard on Bob Dylan's debut).
"The Lemon Song" - uncredited cover of Howlin' Wolf's "Killing Floor" - Wolf's publisher sued Zeppelin in the early 70s and settled out of court.
"Moby Dick" - written and first recorded by Sleepy John Estes under the title "The Girl I Love," and later covered by Bobby Parker.
"Nobody's Fault But Mine" - uncredited cover of the Blind Willie Johnson blues.
"Since I've Been Lovin' You" - lyrics are the same as Moby Grape's "Never," though the music isn't similar.
"Stairway To Heaven" - the main guitar line is apparently from "Taurus" by Spirit.
"White Summer" - uncredited cover of Davey Graham's "She Moved Through The Fair."
"Whole Lotta Love" - lyrics are from the Willie Dixon blues "You Need Love."
''When The Levee Breaks'' - uncredited cover of Memphis Minnie.

But in this case the original writer didn't see fit to pursue it during his lifetime.

Last edited: Apr 12, 2016 07:47:13

What is it with Page, Plant, Jones and Bonham? Did they just feel entitled to lift all those songs without giving credit? I wonder why the lable didn't ask. Not like they couldn't afford to pay some royalty.
And I wonder why Randy California waited more than four decades to bring this Taurus/Stairway plagiarism to court.

Clarry wrote:

Serial offenders are Led Zeppelin

This itself is plagiarised from a newspaper messageboard.

Babe I'm Gonna Leave You" - A folk song by Anne Bredon, this was originally credited as "traditional, arranged by Jimmy Page," then "words and music by Jimmy Page," and then, following legal action, "Bredon/Page/Plant."
"Black Mountain Side" - uncredited version of a traditional folk tune previously recorded by Bert Jansch.
''Boogie With Stu'' - based on Richie Valen's ''Oh My Head''
"Bring It On Home" - the first section is an uncredited cover of the Willie Dixon tune (as performed by the imposter Sonny Boy Williamson).
"Communication Breakdown" - apparently derived from Eddie Cochran's "Nervous Breakdown."
"Custard Pie" - uncredited cover of Bukka White's "Shake 'Em On Down," with lyrics from Sleepy John Estes's "Drop Down Daddy."
"Dazed And Confused" - uncredited cover of the Jake Holmes song (see The Above Ground Sound Of Jake Holmes).
"Hats Off To (Roy) Harper" - uncredited version of Bukka White's "Shake 'Em On Down."
"How Many More Times" - Part one is an uncredited cover of the Howlin' Wolf song (available on numerous compilations). Part two is an uncredited cover of Albert King's "The Hunter."
"In My Time Of Dying" - uncredited cover of the traditional song (as heard on Bob Dylan's debut).
"The Lemon Song" - uncredited cover of Howlin' Wolf's "Killing Floor" - Wolf's publisher sued Zeppelin in the early 70s and settled out of court.
"Moby Dick" - written and first recorded by Sleepy John Estes under the title "The Girl I Love," and later covered by Bobby Parker.
"Nobody's Fault But Mine" - uncredited cover of the Blind Willie Johnson blues.
"Since I've Been Lovin' You" - lyrics are the same as Moby Grape's "Never," though the music isn't similar.
"Stairway To Heaven" - the main guitar line is apparently from "Taurus" by Spirit.
"White Summer" - uncredited cover of Davey Graham's "She Moved Through The Fair."
"Whole Lotta Love" - lyrics are from the Willie Dixon blues "You Need Love."
''When The Levee Breaks'' - uncredited cover of Memphis Minnie.

But in this case the original writer didn't see fit to pursue it during his lifetime.

Squink Out!

JObeast wrote:

And I wonder why Randy California waited more than four decades to bring this Taurus/Stairway plagiarism to court.

Randy California did not sue. It is his estate. He passed away in 1996, having drowned while trying to save his son from a rip-tide.

To my ears this is probably the least obvious (of many) plagiarisms by Zeppelin. But, I certainly don't feel bad for them. They ripped off so many, and they usually got away with it. Bad karma: they deserve to lose some lawsuits.

Bob

Clarry wrote:

Serial offenders are Led Zeppelin

This itself is plagiarised from a newspaper messageboard.

"In My Time Of Dying" - uncredited cover of the traditional song (as heard on Bob Dylan's debut).

'In my time of dying' is a line from a many a gospel/spiritual. Eg. Josh White had this on one of his 1950's recordings (on the album 'Josh at Midnight' - which is described as a collection of traditional songs. 'St James Infirmary' is on the same album). This was before Bob Dylan.

https://youtu.be/iEMirwb5eew

He who dies with the most tubes... wins

Surf Daddies

Last edited: Apr 16, 2016 15:43:23

Oh, well.

Wes
SoCal ex-pat with a snow shovel

DISCLAIMER: The above is opinion/suggestion only & should not be used for mission planning/navigation, tweaking of instruments, beverage selection, or wardrobe choices.

This upsets me.
I don't know how anyone can morally justify this.
Influence is one thing, we all stand on the shoulders of giants as I see it, that's how culture happens.
Common sense is the other ingredient, that should keep things in balance.
None of us will ever justify a pop producer stealing any original surf riff, without giving due credit. That's insane.

I haven't release anything yet, but this offends me as an art consumer.

I guess what I wanna say, stealing is bad. Woo woo.
Sometimes it's a grey area, but when it obviously not, (c'mon, we know), a decent society should point out the ugliness.

Copyright laws are stupidly complicated, outdated and difficult to resolve, but courts can't tell the public how to feel.

When ignored, it demonstrates the lack of good judgement. We can, and should, judge.
Especially when the thieves are too big to even give a f***, call them out at least.
Music is a very personalized, emotional creative process,
not unlike stand-up comedy -
Here's Joe Rogan, successfully (and annoyingly... what you gonna do) demonstrating righteousness.

Last edited: Jun 23, 2016 18:50:15

There is a certain Surf guitar player who became somewhat famous playing 'Miserlou' and 'Hava Nagila', crediting them as being 'Traditional Folk Songs', or something like that.
No one really knows for sure just who wrote them. General consensus is that they were played because they were (are) in the public domain. Fair enough.
Im not aware of of any efforts made to track down their descendants and compensate them for those songs.

-Less Paul, mor Rverb-

-Cheers, Clark-

-Less Paul, more Reverb-

Two other examples, the first was 10 years before Taurus, and the second was 350 years ago (listen around the 35 second mark).

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"It starts... when it begins" -- Ralf Kilauea

To be perfectly fair, the verdict was just. Although I believe they did steal the riff, probably from Davey Graham - who was one of Page's influences. However, the only things that are copyright protected are melody and lyrics. Riffs, arangements, song titles, chord progressions and grooves are all fair game and not protected. In this case the only thing in question was the opening riff. The melody and lyrics of "Stairway to Heaven" are original and not plagerized to the best of my knowledge. Although they did rip off a lot of stuff like "Dazed and Confused" (that one IS blatant and criminal!), in this case they get an out. The whole history of Jazz, folk, blues, rock and popular music is based on 'borrowing'. I've borrowed quite a bit myself, but I always change it as much as possible. It really comes down to a case of how much you change it and what you do with it.

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