How 'Stairway to Heaven' copyright case could alter the music industry

Arguments in the copyright suit suggesting Led Zeppelin copied the song's opening riff from a song by the band Spirit begin Tuesday in Los Angeles.

|
Rusty Kennedy/AP/File
Singer Robert Plant (l.) and guitarist Jimmy Page of the British rock band Led Zeppelin perform at the 1985 Live Aid concert at Philadelphia's J.F.K. Stadium. Starting Tuesday, a Los Angeles court will try to decide whether the members of Led Zeppelin themselves ripped off the riff in 'Stairway to Heaven' from the band Spirit.

Members of the band Led Zeppelin are heading to court Tuesday to try to fight off a copyright suit suggesting they borrowed the iconic opening riff of “Stairway to Heaven” from another band.

Guitarist Jimmy Page and singer Robert Plant have been named as defendants in a suit brought by a trustee for Randy Wolfe, guitarist for the band Spirit, who contends that Led Zeppelin copied the distinctive opening of “Stairway to Heaven” from a Spirit song called “Taurus." Bandmate John Paul Jones was dropped as a defendant in the suit, but he is expected to testify.

The case could be a game changer for the music industry, which has historically relied on the ability of musicians to borrow from and build upon each other's work. The decision could change the way songwriters draw inspiration from their predecessors.

Led Zeppelin has settled similar copyright suits in the past, while musicians and fans have long speculated about similarities between the two songs. But the case is moving forward in the wake of a significant decision last year that the 2013 Robin Thicke hit “Blurred Lines” borrowed elements from Marvin Gaye’s 1977 song “Got to Give It Up.”

A Los Angeles jury initially awarded Mr. Gaye’s family $7.4 million, with a judge later scaling back the amount. That decision is on appeal, but it has sparked a raft of similar copyright suits, potentially raising questions about whether such decisions make it more difficult for songwriters to craft hits of their own.

In the case of “Stairway to Heaven,” the two bands toured together in the late 1960s, though not on the same stage, while Mr. Wolfe wrote “Taurus” in 1966 or 1967. He died in 1997, after saving his son from drowning in Hawaii. He had discussed the song’s disputed origins, but also at one point suggested, “I’ll let [Led Zeppelin] have the beginning of ‘Taurus’ for their song without a lawsuit.”

The suit, filed by trustee Michael Skidmore, has moved forward thanks to a Los Angeles judge’s ruling in April that evidence presented made a credible case that Led Zeppelin may have heard Spirit perform “Taurus” before writing “Stairway to Heaven.”

“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,” wrote Judge R. Gary Klausner of the Central District of California, saying there were “substantial” similarities between the two songs.

Attorneys for Led Zeppelin have argued that both songs use notes and chord progressions that have been present in music for centuries, while attorneys for Wolfe overcame the statute of limitations to sue over the song’s authorship because “Stairway to Heaven” was remastered and re-released in 2014.

Francis Alexander Malofiy, the attorney for the Spirit guitarist's trustee, Mr. Skidmore, told the Associated Press that copyright cases are traditionally hard-fought and difficult to prove. But Judge Klausner’s ruling in April brought his client one step closer to helping Wolfe receive credit for creating one of the most recognizable rock songs in history.

But the blurred line between influence and plagiarism can become sharper because of distinctions between borrowing a standard chord progression or lifting a melody completely from another song, Bonnie Hayes, a songwriter who chairs the Songwriting Department at Berklee College of Music in Boston, told the Christian Science Monitor in 2014.

“The Led Zeppelin melody is much more distinct … it has a tight counter melody which isn’t present in the Spirit one and that counter melody is what I think is defining in the Led Zeppelin piece,” she told the Monitor.

Noting that the chord progression of “Stairway to Heaven” is also a standard arpeggio form found in the 1937 song “My Funny Valentine," Professor Hayes says, “My feeling is that they are not similar enough to make a claim like that.”

This report contains material from the Associated Press.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to How 'Stairway to Heaven' copyright case could alter the music industry
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Music/2016/0614/How-Stairway-to-Heaven-copyright-case-could-alter-the-music-industry
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe