The battle is OVER and Led Zeppelin WINS “Stairway to Heaven” Lawsuit after a jury rules in the band’s favor!!!
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CelebNMusic247.com has been staying on top of this lawsuit. We just got word that Led Zeppelin has beaten a lawsuit claiming that the iconic guitar riff in “Stairway to Heaven” was copied from Spirit’s 1968 instrumental “Taurus.”
After hearing testimony and arguments that the iconic song was a copyright infringement of Spirit’s “Taurus.” jurors sided with his legendary band. It’s been so many years since they wrote that song and even if they did steal a riff from Spirit, no one really remembers.
HR reports:
Jimmy Page and Robert Plant testified as well as Michael Skidmore, the Trustee of Spirit songwriter Randy Wolfe’s estate, who demanded in his lawsuit a rewriting of rock ‘n’ roll history. The jury also heard from a Spirit bandmember, musicologists and other witnesses and experts opining on such subjects as whether Led Zeppelin had heard “Taurus” before composing their popular song and whether the two songs were substantially similar.
In his lifetime, Wolfe never sued and was ambivalent about doing so upon questions from those who pointed out similarities. After the songwriter died in 1997, Skidmore asserted an ownership interest in copyrighted sheet music and was able to push the case to trial despite decades of inaction and non-cooperation from Hollenbeck Music, the publishing company that had signed Wolfe (performing as Randy California) in the 1960s as a teenager who was discovered by Jimi Hendrix.
Both Page and Plant, who denied having access to “Taurus” despite performing concerts with Spirit decades ago, were on hand to hear the reading of the verdict. In his testimony, Page rejected many questions from plaintiff attorney Francis Malofiy that the songs were too similar to be coincidental. Page did, however, alter the official story of how “Stairway” was created in 1970, puncturing the mythology that he holed himself up in a remote cottage in Wales called Bron-Yr-Aur, and wrote the tune by fireside.
Who do you believe? Zeppelin or Spirit?
Photo: Chris Walter/WireImage/Getty Images
