Led Zeppelin has won its appeal in the seemingly endless court case around their 1971 classic, “Stairway To Heaven.” Rolling Stone reported, “On Monday (March 9th), the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a 2016 decision that 'Stairway' did not infringe on Spirit‘s 1968 instrumental track, 'Taurus,' and in doing so upended a long-standing copyright precedent.”
The case has been spearheaded by Michael Skidmore, the trustee of the Randy Craig Wolfe Trust, on behalf of the late Spirit guitarist and songwriter, better known as Randy California. Skidmore’s lawyer, Francis Malofiy, was clearly unhappy with the ruling, telling the magazine, “What you have here is a big win for the multi-billion dollar industry against the creatives. I love Led Zeppelin, as a man, and I can separate my appreciation for them as four band members playing amazing music, but they’re the greatest art thieves of all time and they got away with it again today. They won on a technicality. But they absolutely stole that piece of work.” Malofy might appeal the decision to a panel of judges that comprise the entire ninth circuit, or bring the case to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Tim English is an expert on musical plagiarism and the author of Sounds Like Teen Spirit: Stolen Melodies, Ripped-off Riffs, And The Secret History Of Rock And Roll. We asked him what he makes of the case of “Stairway” vs. “Taurus”: “I think that it's a fairly distinct similarity on the one hand; but on the other hand, 'Stairway To Heaven' goes (on) for around eight minutes. This is, at the very top, I'd say a quarter of the song that we're talking about here. So, even if we were going to say that they violated the copyright of the Spirit song 'Taurus,' in creating it, you'd still be talking about only a percentage of the total work of 'Stairway To Heaven.'”
Randy Bachman, best known for his work in the Guess Who and Bachman-Turner Overdrive (BTO), told us that the iconic “Stairway To Heaven” riff is truly centuries old. Bachman, like the rest of the rock world watched as the estate of his old friend Spirit guitarist Randy California took Jimmy Page and Robert Plant to court over the song, and revealed to us that it's been around for centuries: “I have something from the 14th century, a harpist, who's name was (Turlough) O'Carolan, who was blind. He went from yard to yard — he had a dog that led him. He would stand at your front gate, 'cause he couldn't see the house — and play this little harp. He had a song called 'Ascension To Heaven.' Bert Jansch then did that on guitar, and I'm telling you, 'Ascension To Heaven' by O'Carolan, is 'Stairway To Heaven.' As old as the ages.”