Was "Stairway To Heaven" A Rip Off?

In what could become one of the more entertaining court battles in music history, Led Zeppelin is being sued for stealing parts of "Stairway To Heaven" from a song by the 60s band Spirit called "Taurus" more than 45 years after the song was written. The estate of Spirit guitarist and "Taurus" songwriter Randy California filed the lawsuit, which is going to trial on May 10th.

All this stems from the fact that Zep opened for Spirit several times during their first tour of the United States during which Spirit performed "Taurus" as part of their set. OK, we get that, but why wait 40+ years to sue?

If you listen to the Spirit song below, you'll hear some vague similarities to the intro of "Stairway," but it's of a rather generic guitar pattern and nothing like the song's melody. That said, after last year's "Blurred Lines" plagiarism lawsuit won by the estate of Marvin Gaye, suits like this are now leaning more in favor of the plaintiff than ever before.

It's been estimated that "Stairway" has made the Zeps $540 million over the years, and the California estate is obviously hoping for at least a reasonable piece of that, but songwriters Jimmy Page and Robert Plant (who are the only Zeps named in the suit) obviously have deep pockets and are willing to fight as necessary.

So songwriters beware, there's nothing new under the sun given the 12 note scale that western musicians use, so you're probably copying a previous song without even knowing it. And today, that's enough to get you sued.

Go to 0:45 on the video below to hear what's considered to be the similarities between songs.
(photo: Jim Summaria via Wikipedia)

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Judge Dismisses Suit Against GC and NAMM

Just to show how slow the wheels of justice actually move, a class action suit against NAMM, Guitar Center, Fender, Korg, Martin, Peavey and a dozen more MI vendors started in 2009 has finally been dismissed for lack of evidence.

The suit involved 38 separate plaintiffs from 15 states, and alleged that NAMM, GC and the various manufacturers conspired to raise the minimum advertised price (MAP) policies, thereby bilking musicians out of hundreds of millions of dollars in the process. What the suit basically said is that GC and the various manufacturers unlawfully restrained trade and artificially reduced competition, thereby violating the Sherman Antitrust Act.

After numerous court exchanges, the judge couldn't find any evidence to support the allegation, and threw the case out. The MI industry finally breathed a sigh of relief since the damages could have been north of $200 million, which would have really hurt in this economy.

Okay, so here's the reality as I see it. Guitar Center is definitely guilty of wanting to monopolize the MI retail business, and they've successfully done that, but not by conspiracy. They've achieved their monopoly by bullying the manufacturers. If anyone thinks that the manufacturers want to go along with GC's pricing policies, they're sorely mistaken. GC forces a manufacture to sell to them almost at a price they determine, not the manufacturer, so the only one making out in the deal is GC, not the rest of the industry.

And NAMM? The last thing they want to see is less competition, since the more market share GC gets, the less relevant they become. Bottom line, this was a misguided suit from the beginning.

That said, GC is the big winner, as always. You know you owns them? Bain Capital. Ring a bell, by any chance?

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