Led Zeppelin to face copyright lawsuit over opening riff

It began simply, just a few notes recorded on to a cassette by Jimmy Page and Robert Plant as they sat in a small cottage in the Welsh mountains in 1970. But the humble history of the opening riff of Led Zeppelin’s most famous song Stairway to Heaven may about to be rewritten.

A case which claims that the opening chords to Led Zeppelin’s biggest hit were in fact stolen from a 1967 song Taurus, by the band Spirit, will be heard by a jury in May, a US judge has ruled. The lawsuit for copyright infringement was brought by Michael Skidmore, a trustee for Randy Wolfe, also known as Randy California, who was Spirit’s guitarist and the composer of Taurus, who died in 1997.

The lawsuit alleges that Page and Plant would have heard Taurus when Spirit and Led Zeppelin were on tour together in the late 1960s, and that it was then directly copied on Stairway to Heaven without ever crediting Wolfe.

The case was first filed in 2014, in an attempt to block the re-release of Stairway to Heaven. But the US judge Gary Klausner ruled that a jury could find “substantial” similarity between the first two minutes of Stairway to Heaven and Taurus, which he called “arguably the most recognisable and important segments” of the songs.

“While it is true that a descending chromatic four-chord progression is a common convention that abounds in the music industry, the similarities here transcend this core structure,” Klausner wrote. “What remains is a subjective assessment of the ‘concept and feel’ of two works … a task no more suitable for a judge than for a jury.”

Speaking last year, the former Spirit bassist Mark Andes said he thought that his former bandmate deserved overdue credit for the “fairly blatant” copying of his music by Page and Plant.

“It [Taurus] would typically come after a big forceful number and always got a good response. They would have seen it in that context,” said Andes. “It is fairly blatant, and note for note. It would just be nice if the Led Zeppelin guys gave Randy a little nod. That would be lovely.”

In the suit filed, the surviving members of Led Zeppelin deny that they ever shared a stage with or even had discussions with Spirit’s members when both bands toured the festival circuit in the 1960s. However, Spirit’s surviving band members remember things differently, recalling backstage conversations between the two bands and performing after each other at festivals.

Wolfe had reportedly considered a copyright lawsuit as far back as the 1980s, but his family said he could never afford it. In a 1991 interview, Wolfe said that Led Zeppelin “used to come up and sit in the front row of all [Spirit’s] shows and became friends … and if they wanted to use [Taurus], that’s fine,” adding: “I’ll let [Led Zeppelin] have the beginning of Taurus for their song without a lawsuit.”

Despite the judge’s ruling that a trustee could only get 50% of any damages awarded, the continued royalties generated by Stairway to Heaven means that a large amount is at stake. In 2008, Conde Nast Portfolio magazine estimated that the song had earned at least $525m dollars in royalties and record sales and appears on America’s third biggest-selling album of all time, Led Zeppelin IV.

John Ireland, music lawyer for Mercury-prize winner Young Fathers, said that because of the “obvious similarity” between the two pieces of music, it was “not surprising” the judge allowed the case to go before a jury.

Ireland said: “The first thing that those representing Randy Wolfe will have to prove is that what he wrote is actually a copyright item in itself. Interestingly what Led Zeppelin seem to be trying to say in this case is that there is no copyright in the original song and that the chord progression is so common in the world of music that no-one could be said to own the copyright. So it looks like their line of attack may be ‘you can’t sue us because you don’t own the rights to the original song itself’.”

But Ireland said it was the question of access that was most likely to sway a jury. “Led Zeppelin toured with Spirit before they wrote a song that sounds substantially similar to Taurus. So even if it wasn’t intentionally copied, it makes it plausible that this chord progression could have filtered into Jimmy Page and Robert Plant’s minds. That might be enough to make them liable to Randy Wolfe.”

Andy Millmore, a copyright lawyer for Harbottle & Lewis, said the case could have wider implications across the music industry because of the length of time that has passed since the song was written. “What’s different about this case from other recent copyright cases, and therefore potentially worrying for record labels and big heritage artists, is that this a case from nearly 50 years ago.

“If the claimant succeeds, it could lead to people coming out of the woodwork from years ago – composers and smaller artists, who for decades might have harboured some sort of mini grudge because something they wrote was ripped off – and this case might give them the courage to take it to the courts.” This is not the first time that a copyright case has been brought against Led Zeppelin. Successful legal challenges have seen writing credits added to Whole Lotta Love, Babe I’m Gonna Leave You, The Lemon Song and Dazed And Confused.

However, Page has acknowledged one influence on Stairway to Heaven. Speaking about the process of writing the famous opening riff, he once described it as a “poor man’s Bouree by Bach”.

Plagiarism feuds

• Johnny Cash v Gordon Jenkins: Cash was forced to pay composer Gordon Jenkins $75,000 for using lyrics and melody from Jenkins’ 1953 track Crescent City Blues as the basis for his own 1955 song, Folsom Prison Blues
• Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams v Marvin Gaye: a jury awarded Marvin Gaye’s family $7.4m in 2015 after he ruled that Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams had copied their father’s music to create their hit Blurred Lines
• George Harrison v Ronnie Mack: George Harrison was found guilty of “subconscious plagiarism” of Ronnie Mack’s He’s So Fine for his song My Sweet Lord. He was ordered to pay $1.5m of the song earnings in damages.
• Sam Smith v Tom Petty: Sam Smith now has to pay 12.5% royalties from his hit song Stay With Me to Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne following an out-of-court settlement over song similarities
• Vanilla Ice v Queen and David Bowie: the rapper found himself in trouble after he sampled Under Pressure without permission, only changing the baseline. He settled out of court.