CNBC: The verdict in
Los Angeles settles a point that music fans have debated for decades but didn't find its way to court until two years ago, when the trustee for the late Randy Craig Wolfe filed a copyright lawsuit.
Led Zeppelin's guitarist Jimmy Page and singer Robert Plant told CNBC they were grateful to the jury for confirming what they said they have known for 45 years.
"We appreciate our fans' support, and look forward to putting this legal matter behind us," Page and Plant said in a statement....
In trying to show the works were substantially similar, the trust had the tricky task of relying on sheet music because that's what is filed with the U.S. Copyright Office.
Jurors were not played the "Taurus" recording, which contains a section that sounds very similar to the instantly recognizable start of "Stairway." Instead, they were played guitar and piano renditions by musicians on both sides of the case. Not surprisingly, the plaintiff's version on guitar sounded more like "Stairway" than the defense version on piano.
Experts for both sides dissected both compositions, agreeing mainly that they shared a descending chord progression that dates back three centuries as a building block in lots of songs.
I was goin to leave this story to ChickL if he wanted to post about it, but I could not resist passing up that story title. (
Link)
7 comments:
I, OTOH, find Led Zeppelin did steal the title from the movie. All in all, a minor thing, not A Matter of Life and Death.
And as a bonus, a nude 23yo Helen Mirren. Sigh.
My ears tell me he stole it.
Stairway To Heaven, Titus Edition
tits
They borrowed it. You can have it back now.
A hundred steps and you're completely over being on a stairway to heaven.
How biblical, tower to heaven, ladder to heaven. We know now even an escalator through the atmosphere will be a long wearisome cold oxygen-free lonely shivering ride. We have flown above and traveled aloft atop the clouds theses early writers dreamed of reaching. We've seen the heavens from above and studied the earth below and now it's heaven's illusions dispelled we really do know both sides fairly well.
I just now played the song. It wore me out in thirty seconds and was stopped.
As a euphemism, I used to say "there's a spirit I get when I look to the west" whenever I had to take a leak. I also used most of the other words utilized in the lyrics. I'd be willing to settle for just a fraction of that song's cumulative earnings--one or two million would be fine.....How many replays does it take to reach saturation level with a song? I still have Stairway on my playlist, but Sympathy for the Devil got canned......I wonder which song one has heard the most in their life. White Christmas with Bing Crosby--you start hearing that song before you can even speak, and they'll be playing it in the nursing home as you fade to black. Stardust follows you around too. The lilt of the opening bars never get tired. That song will never come off the playlist....... Hoagy Carmichael was a Republican lawyer from Indiana. I bet he wouldn't have endorsed Hillary Clinton.
Can you name any major pop singer of the last fifty years who hasn't take a crack at Stardust? Conversely can you name any singer who has ever put out a cover on Stairway to Heaven? Some of the jazz vocalists like Jane Monheit might do ok with it, but when Dylan does his tribute album to Led Zeppelin he'll probably skip Stairway.
Post a Comment