Origin of ‘Stairway to Heaven’ questioned at copyright trial

“Forty-five years ago, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant wrote some of the greatest songs in rock and roll history. half a century later, they’re being sued for it”, Anderson said, adding that there is still enough evidence “to show that history can not be rewritten”. In his opening statement Tuesday, Francis Malofiy, an attorney for the Wolfe trust, said the case “can be summarized in six words: Give credit where credit is due”.

“Wolfe drowned in 1997, saving his son in Hawaii”, reported USA Today. Do these things taste the same?

In what could be the trial of 2016, the case to determine whether or not Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway To Heaven”, one of the most iconic rock songs ever composed, was ripped from Spirit’s song “Taurus”. Anderson played for the jury the famous recording of the first two minutes and 14 seconds of “Stairway”. The 72-year-old Page, sitting in court with Plant, 67, nodded his head along with the music.

Andes testified that his band played “Taurus” at a show in 1968 where Led Zeppelin was the opening act.

Malofiy is citing a 2014 copyright law change as the reason why the case has been brought to court more than 45 years after “Taurus” was released, along with repeated indications that Led Zeppelin were fans of the band and their music.

“It’s a well-used musical device”. He also argues that evidence shows the descending chromatic line has been a “commonplace” feature of songs since the 1600s, noting that Spirit failed to credit “Michelle” by The Beatles on “Taurus”.

US District Judge Gary Klausner ruled in April that “Stairway to Heaven” bore “substantial” similarities with “Taurus” after Michael Skidmore, a trustee for California, filed a lawsuit alleging that Page had been inspired to write his hit after touring with Spirit in the late Sixties. Neither witness could definitively say if “Taurus” was performed during the handful of events or if Led Zeppelin bandmembers saw the performance.

The band has settled several similar copyright disputes over songs such as “Whole Lotta Love” and “Dazed and Confused”, but the judge has barred Malofiy from introducing evidence from those cases. “Attribution is the most important thing”, Malofiy recently told City News Service. “They opened up for us on their first American tour”.

However the band’s lawyer Robert Anderson insisted that the two men “created Stairway to Heaven independently without resort to Taurus or without copying anything in Taurus”.