rockintown.com
June 23rd, 2016: “Stairway To Heaven” Dispute Settled
A federal court jury in L.A. finds that Led Zeppelin did not steal a riff from guitarist Randy California’s instrumental “Taurus,” for the introduction of “Stairway To Heaven.” Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page was accused of copying a passage the Spirit guitarist wrote in ’68 for the group’s debut album.
California (aka Randy Wolfe), who was in a Jimi Hendrix fronted band prior to joining Spirit stated, “people always ask me why ‘Stairway To Heaven’ sounds exactly like ‘Taurus’ (the portion in question comes approximately 40-seconds into the song) which was released two years earlier. They opened up for us on their first American tour.” According to California’s attorney that further suggested that Led Zeppelin was likely aware of the song.
Though California died in a drowning accident in ’97, a copyright infringement and injunction lawsuit against the reissue of “Led Zeppelin IV” was initiated in ’14.
Though the matter appeared settled in ’16, there was an effort to vacate the ruling because the judge “gave jurors erroneous information about copyright law.”
However, two years later, the Ninth Circuit ruled against California’s estate and re-instated the ’16 jury verdict. Later that year, the Supreme Court of the United States refused to hear the case, leaving the Ninth Circuit’s decision in place and effectively ending the dispute.
###
The post June 23rd, 2016: “Stairway To Heaven” Dispute Settled appeared first on RockinTown.
New Posts (Home)
ChatBox
Popular Posts 
Game Zone
Top PodCasts
