JIMMY PAGE: “Stairway To Heaven Copyright Infringement is Ridiculous”
Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page has dismissed as “ridiculous” a copyright infringement claim against the band by a lawyer for the defunct 1960s group Spirit. The attorney recently said Spirit plans to file a lawsuit against Led Zeppelin arguing that the opening notes of its iconic song Stairway To Heaven are too similar to a few notes from Spirit‘s 1968 song Taurus. “The idea behind this is to make sure that [deceased Spirit guitarist] Randy California is given a writing credit on Stairway To Heaven. It’s been a long time coming,” Spirit attorney Francis Malofiy told Bloomberg Businessweek.
After being asked about the potential lawsuit by the French publication Liberation, Page called it “ridiculous” and added that he had no further comment on the matter.
Stairway To Heaven appears on the album Led Zeppelin IV, which is due to be reissued in early June as an expanded edition.
In 1997, California told Listener magazine that he thought the song “was a ripoff” of his composition. California died later that year.
Stairway To Heaven is said to be one of the most covered rock songs and its worth is estimated to be more than $560 million.
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Glenn
May 30, 2014 at 9:31 pm
The copyright infringement isn’t legally valid based on the fact that, concerning music, only lyrics and melodies can be copyrighted; not chord progressions. I love Spirit and Randy California was someone (among many others including Jimmy Page) that influenced my own guitar playing. However, there is no legal basis behind this charge.