In entertainment news from the US overnight, a judge in the copyright case between rock band Led Zeppelin and Spirit, ruled that Lead Singer Robert Plant and Guitarist Jimmy Page did not copy the opening riff of hit rock song Stairway to Heaven from Taurus written by Spirit.
It was actually the jury who reached the decision on Thursday, the second day of deliberation.
The trial was a week long in the US District Court in Los Angeles that had called a dispute to the originality of Led Zeppelin’s classic 1971 signature song.
The jury declared that the Spirit song `Taurus’ was not `intrinsically similar to the opening chords of Stairway to Heaven’.
‘We are grateful for the jury’s conscientious service and pleased that it has ruled in our favour, putting to rest questions about the origins of ‘Stairway to Heaven’ and confirming what we have known for 45 years,’ Page and Plant said in a joint statement.
The case had originally been raised by Michael Skidmore who is trustee for the estate of the late Spirit guitarist and songwriter Randy Wolfe. Skidmore had filed the lawsuit in 2014 stating that Led Zeppelin had taken the chord progression from Taurus written by Spirit, implying it had fallen into obscurity as a result.
Earlier in the week however, music subject matter expert Lawrence Ferrara, had testified that the ‘descending chromatic minor line progression’ in question at the trial had been used continuously over the last 300 years, and in many modern pop, blues and R&B songs.
The case had centered mainly around the sheet music and a notes/chord comparison between the two songs rather an audible playing of the songs in court.
‘We’re taking it one step at a time; but there’s obviously issues that can be appealed,’ said Skidmore’s lawyer Francis Malofiy.
When performed live, Jimmy Page used his Gibson twin neck guitar which became signature to the song, to play the introductory chords on the 6 string, the verses and chorus on the 12 string and then return to the 6 string for the solo.
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