Stairway to Heaven vs.Taurus

[NapRover]

So Spirit sued Led Zeppelin, claiming they stole the riff for Stairway to Heaven, from Spirit's Taurus.
i had never heard of the controversy or even discussion of the issue, and was surprised about it. The writer of Taurus is dead, so he couldn't weigh in, it was his estate. Amazingly, the judge barred the jury from hearing Taurus, but were told to view the sheet music!!

This a little dated-happened last June. Just wondering what most people thought if they heard the two songs--linked below.

I gave Zep a pass, they are somewhat similar but not the same--many songs have the same basic riff.




http://www.nydailynews.com/entertain...icle-1.2685650

[Bethere]

So Spirit sued Led Zeppelin, claiming they stole the riff for Stairway to Heaven, from Spirit's Taurus.
i had never heard of the controversy or even discussion of the issue, and was surprised about it. The writer of Taurus is dead, so he couldn't weigh in, it was his estate. Amazingly, the judge barred the jury from hearing Taurus, but were told to view the sheet music!!

This a little dated-happened last June. Just wondering what most people thought if they heard the two songs--linked below.

I gave Zep a pass, they are somewhat similar but not the same--many songs have the same basic riff.




http://www.nydailynews.com/entertain...icle-1.2685650

1.spirit opened for zep a lot prior to zep 4.
2. Jimmy had a copy of the spirit album.
3. Robert Johnson and willie Dixon would have been fascinating witnesses.
4. The progression is identical except it resolves to a different chord.
5. Same key.
6. Same tempo.
7. Same contrary motion arpeggios.

An amazing outcome.

[Oboe]

The judge was an asshat. Most people wouldn't have a clue as to what the sheet music meant.

[Bethere]

The judge was an asshat. Most people wouldn't have a clue as to what the sheet music meant.

The suit was over the song not the arrangement. The two arrangements were nothing alike. One was vocal, one was instrumental. One was orchestrated, the other not. To win, the spirit estate had to use sheet music, sadly.

This is kind of like the grammies. They give out a different Grammy for song of the year, versus record of the year.

What I wonder is did the jury know that page and plant were repeat offenders?

As a musician, and I suspect nap would concur, if we were limited to only riffs we created from scratch we would be out of business.