Before getting into the specifics of the case, let's take a look of the core problem.
This is Spirit's 'Taurus' which was written in 1968, and while listening to the first minute or so may be enough for you to judge whether it sounds similar or not, I recommend to listen to all of it:
...and well, if somehow you have been living in a cave in Afghanistan since 1962, or in an asteroid, and haven't listened to Stairway to heaven in your life, well, this is, Stairway to heaven.
Next, let's address this "giving proper credit" issue.
As I wrote in my post last year, theoritical music is both easy and incredible hard at the same time. There is only a finite amount of notes and the odds of two pieces sharing a few notes in their structure, is quite fair, meaning, it can happen every now and then.
The issue Spirit's lawyer is bringing here is not that Stairway to heaven sounds similar to Taurus. It's the fact that Taurus may have served as inspiration to write Stairway, and there was no acknowledgement of this by Zepellin. Let's take the following example:
Seven years ago, Madonna asked ABBA for permission to use the main theme of one of their songs. The song was 'Gimme, gimme, gimme'
... and the song Madonna wrote and eventually launched as a single, became Hung up
They both sound alike right? Well, of course they do! The main theme for both songs is the same!
Thing is, Madonna gave credits to ABBA as writers, as you can see here. So nothing's wrong in that case, because ABBA receives royalties and cultural acknowledgement that they were co-writers of Hung up.
Now, the case with Spirit and Zepellin is that well, a point can be made by Plant, Page and Jones, who declared earlier this past week that "their memories on the 60s and 70s were vague" (which kind of makes sense considering the amount of heroin and alcohol they did back then), and therefore, a case can be made by the fact that Stairway and Taurus sound the same simply because it is coincidence.
In the late 90s, American rock band Nerf Heder were also accused of stealing the main riff of a German pop song called 'Codo' written by German band D.O.F. Nerf Heder not only pleaded ignorance, but claimed that the fact that their song sounded like Codo, was simply, merely and entirely coincidental, and also, they had no idea the German band D.O.F. even existed! You probably haven't heard of Nerf Heder, but just click on the video and you'll get the picture. Check it out:
...and this is D.O.F.'s Codo, written sometime in the early 80s
Perhaps the most famous case of plagiarism in music is the one that involved The Rolling Stones suing The Verve, for "taking just four bars" of an early unknown hit-song written by the Stones called 'Last time'.
... which The Verve stole in the mid 90s and turn it into, well... if you do not know what song I'm talking about, you may have to reconsider your life. In that case, The Verve pleaded ignorance and got punished badly by it. Court sentenced and granted 50% sharing writing credits to the Stones and 100% royalties to the Stones. Keith Richards summed it all up better than anyone: "If the Verve can write a better song, they can keep the money." 15 years later, they haven't been able to write anything better than Bittersweet symphony.
So where does all of this take us regarding the Zepellin-Spirit issue?
In my opinion, there is no question that Stairway's intro sounds VERY similar to Taurus. It doesn't sound 100% exactly the same, but I would say there is about an 80% similarity between them. Being completely technical, both songs begin with an A minor bassline picking, that progresses descending a semitone for each beat all the way to D. Thing is, the baseline in both, acts as the main theme for the song.
Now, does this mean Zepellin actually stole Spirit's Taurus to write Stairway?
Well here's the thing: Zepellin members can plead ignorance and swear it is just a plain coincidence, like Nerf Heder did with D.O.F. An undeniable truth that every respectable musician (including myself) knows, is that an A minor descending bassline as a main theme for a song, is a very common musical structure in rock and even in pop. But that's not the only aspect where Stairway and Taurus are similar.
The phrasing -meaning, the way the guitar strings are played throught the descending progression- is 95% similar. Make no mistake on that.
The beating -meaning, the tempo in which the phrasing is played- is... 100% similar. Make no mistake on that.
And then, there's the KO punch.
Nerf Heder can claim ignorance on D.O.F. and can kind of get away with it. I mean, what are the chances of a teen pop punk band from Santa Barbara, California, knowing about a German pop band from the the 80s? I'm not going to say really low, but they're definitely not very high either. It's a 50-50 shot in my opinion.
But, can Zepellin claim they had no idea of the existence of Spirit? I mean, after all, why would a British rock band care about an American rock band, especially at the peak of British Invasion phenomena!?
Well, thing is... Led Zepellin not only KNEW about the existence of Spirit, they actually TOURED with them in their early unknown years, in which Spirit were more famous than Zepellin !!! And yes, Spirit played Taurus several times during these tours with Zepellin. So there goes your chance of pleading ignorance. Also, let's not forget Zepellin has already been found guilty of plagiarizing 'Dazed and confused' from Jake Holmes...
...and turn it into Dazed and Confused
In my opinion, Zepellin is guilty of at least, subconsciously plagiarizing Spirit.
But, considering Zepellin has already a previous case on plagiarizing, and the fact that they toured with Spirit in their early years, they are guilty of plagiarizing Taurus and turning it into Stairway to heaven.
Cheers!
H
(Here's my previous blog on the same matter)
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