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Led Zeppelin cleared- Stairway to Heaven is original!

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Victory! Shake that tambourine!

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This is one of those cases where if all they had was this one problematic song, I would give Zeppelin a pass. That said, there are literally dozens of examples of other allegedly stolen songs, with some sharing not only riffs, but lyrics too. So if you looked at everything as a whole, they stole this song and many others, as far as I'm concerned.
 
motsm said:
This is one of those cases where if all they had was this one problematic song, I would give Zeppelin a pass. That said, there are literally dozens of examples of other allegedly stolen songs, with some sharing not only riffs, but lyrics too. So if you looked at everything as a whole, they stole this song and many others, as far as I'm concerned.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Led_Zeppelin_songs_written_or_inspired_by_others

Hmm, I'm not seeing more than 24 songs. Inigo Montoya would like a word with you 🙂
 
Led Zep was 100% a COVER BAND throughand through...

they skated away free on this, yet the FACT is,

they outright STOLE nearly everything they got rich off of.

One time when I was business traveling in the USA south (ugh) I heard J. Paige had just een there in same hotel couple days before me, and asking after negro blues musicians (whom he might steal still more from).

The FACT is, they STOLE negro blues songs, rocked them up and sold them back to American consumers.

Memphis Minnie created the leveee song in 1920s. Otis rush created I`Cant Quit You Baby ...virtually ALL the Led Zeplin stuff was originally AMERICAN music Lep STOLE, spun and sold right back down the throats of ignorant American teens (except the ancient folk songs they also stole from other countries).

Teens today have absolutely no idea....clueless...

Why should (according to "I'm With the Band") slimeball JimmieThePervertDeflowrerOfSTUPIDAmericanVirtginGirls Paige get a royalty payment every time the radio plays this? He put his name onto it claiming authorship..He was NOT the author .it was the work of 1920's Americans???? And so are multuitude of other examples.

Almost 1/10000 as perverted as Hillary Clinton actually being considered as a candidate for US President....
 
ImpulsE69 said:
But, if they didn't steal it, then on that note then, I guess Vanilla Ice did not steal from Queen.
Click to expand...

Yeah, too bad Led Zeppelin just looped that riff over and over ad nauseam instead of just using it as an intro for an entirely different sounding piece.


_________________
 
ringtail said:
Led Zep was 100% a COVER BAND throughand through...

they skated away free on this, yet the FACT is,

they outright STOLE nearly everything they got rich off of.

One time when I was business traveling in the USA south (ugh) I heard J. Paige had just een there in same hotel couple days before me, and asking after negro blues musicians (whom he might steal still more from).

The FACT is, they STOLE negro blues songs, rocked them up and sold them back to American consumers.

Memphis Minnie created the leveee song in 1920s. Otis rush created I`Cant Quit You Baby ...virtually ALL the Led Zeplin stuff was originally AMERICAN music Lep STOLE, spun and sold right back down the throats of ignorant American teens (except the ancient folk songs they also stole from other countries).

Teens today have absolutely no idea....clueless...

Why should (according to "I'm With the Band") slimeball JimmieThePervertDeflowrerOfSTUPIDAmericanVirtginGirls Paige get a royalty payment every time the radio plays this? He put his name onto it claiming authorship..He was NOT the author .it was the work of 1920's Americans???? And so are multuitude of other examples.

Almost 1/10000 as perverted as Hillary Clinton actually being considered as a candidate for US President....
Click to expand...
It ain't got the same groove without the font shifts.
 
ringtail said:
Led Zep was 100% a COVER BAND throughand through...

they skated away free on this, yet the FACT is,

they outright STOLE nearly everything they got rich off of.

One time when I was business traveling in the USA south (ugh) I heard J. Paige had just een there in same hotel couple days before me, and asking after negro blues musicians (whom he might steal still more from).

The FACT is, they STOLE negro blues songs, rocked them up and sold them back to American consumers.

Memphis Minnie created the leveee song in 1920s. Otis rush created I`Cant Quit You Baby ...virtually ALL the Led Zeplin stuff was originally AMERICAN music Lep STOLE, spun and sold right back down the throats of ignorant American teens (except the ancient folk songs they also stole from other countries).

Teens today have absolutely no idea....clueless...

Why should (according to "I'm With the Band") slimeball JimmieThePervertDeflowrerOfSTUPIDAmericanVirtginGirls Paige get a royalty payment every time the radio plays this? He put his name onto it claiming authorship..He was NOT the author .it was the work of 1920's Americans???? And so are multuitude of other examples.

Almost 1/10000 as perverted as Hillary Clinton actually being considered as a candidate for US President....
Click to expand...

Sounds legit. How could this tale be faked.
Ps good Clinton jab but P&N is over there
<<-----<<-----
 
ringtail said:
Why should (according to "I'm With the Band") slimeball JimmieThePervertDeflowrerOfSTUPIDAmericanVirtginGirls Paige get a royalty payment every time the radio plays this? He put his name onto it claiming authorship..He was NOT the author .it was the work of 1920's Americans???? And so are multuitude of other examples.
Click to expand...

Led Zeppelin "When the Levee Breaks"
Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Paul Jones, John Bonham & Memphis Minnie

Whether Memphis Minnie was paid is another discussion, but claiming they stole it is BS. Memphis Minnie is properly credited.
 
Zep reworked a lot of songs, produced by is not the same thing as written by.

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Elvis,The Stones, et al did it all the time.
 
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SP33Demon said:
No, actually they didn't and the court agreed they didn't either.
Click to expand...

Just because the courts ruled how they did doesn't make that a fact. Robin Thicke was sued by Marvin Gays family. He ended up losing, and imho his song was less similar sounding. This imho was a bad ruling, but that's the way our shitty court system works.
 
quikah said:
Led Zeppelin "When the Levee Breaks"
Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Paul Jones, John Bonham & Memphis Minnie

Whether Memphis Minnie was paid is another discussion, but claiming they stole it is BS. Memphis Minnie is properly credited.
Click to expand...

I think they were forced to do that, along with Willie Dixon, they left those names off originally, but were ordered to put them on to acknowledge the original artist.
Hell, there's live recordings of The Yardbirds doing Dazed and Confused before LZ was created. It helps that Pagey was in that band 😉
 
ImpulsE69 said:
I know it happens. I've heard it happen with bands I know. However, there are too many other circumstances around those two bands that point to, he probably was high and heard it, and later fiddled with it, not realizing he'd heard it.

Also, it's not like they haven't blatently ripped off other work. This isn't their first rodeo with this...or even their 2nd.

That being said, as I mentioned before, given the circumstances I'm glad it went the way it did. Either way, it's apparent the other band didn't really care one way or the other. It was the greed of the estate that brought this up.

But, if they didn't steal it, then on that note then, I guess Vanilla Ice did not steal from Queen.
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If you notice the "rip off other work" cases before, the music was always original, but the lyrics were lifted. Also the band thought the the items they used were public domain.
 
ringtail said:
Led Zep was 100% a COVER BAND throughand through...

they skated away free on this, yet the FACT is,

they outright STOLE nearly everything they got rich off of.

One time when I was business traveling in the USA south (ugh) I heard J. Paige had just een there in same hotel couple days before me, and asking after negro blues musicians (whom he might steal still more from).

The FACT is, they STOLE negro blues songs, rocked them up and sold them back to American consumers.

Memphis Minnie created the leveee song in 1920s. Otis rush created I`Cant Quit You Baby ...virtually ALL the Led Zeplin stuff was originally AMERICAN music Lep STOLE, spun and sold right back down the throats of ignorant American teens (except the ancient folk songs they also stole from other countries).

Teens today have absolutely no idea....clueless...

Why should (according to "I'm With the Band") slimeball JimmieThePervertDeflowrerOfSTUPIDAmericanVirtginGirls Paige get a royalty payment every time the radio plays this? He put his name onto it claiming authorship..He was NOT the author .it was the work of 1920's Americans???? And so are multuitude of other examples.

Almost 1/10000 as perverted as Hillary Clinton actually being considered as a candidate for US President....
Click to expand...

The FACT is you jumped on some Internet hate bus that thinks they know what they're talking about and subscribed to their newsletter. They're trying to apply today's litigation-filled music industry to the world pre-1970's music.

Back before lawyers, there wasn't a lot of money to be made as a musician. You had to become super-famous, and even then it wasn't something that would make you very rich. Music was freely borrowed, used, and transferred between artists...especially blues artists. One guy would hear something in a Chicago dive, then play it across town, then someone would hear that and take it to NYC and play it there, and so on. Nobody cared about credit, because notes are notes.

In the mid-60's, something started to change. Bands like The Beatles and The Rolling Stones started filling venues like never before, and money started pouring in. Both of these bands borrowed heavily from folk and blues music, but made it louder and more aggressive. By the end of the 60's, this style of music was filling entire arenas and bringing in millions of dollars.

With that kind of money flowing, lawyers start sniffing around. By the end of the 70's, we started seeing the first law suits of "this person stole from that person and owes lots of money." George Harrison got sued for My Sweet Lord because it borrowed from the early 60's hit "He's So Fine". The Stones paid off a bunch of blues artists out of "respect" with their own money after lawyers started sniffing around their first 3 albums for infringements. Even Johnny Cash got sued for his hit "Folsom Prison Blues" because it borrowed from a 1953 song from Gordon Jenkins called "Crescent City Blues".

There are dozens of examples of this, and it really blindsided the artists. You went from no rules to "if it sounds even slightly similar you can be sued". There's big money in it and that's why there's so many lawsuits out today.

So, you can try to rag on Zeppelin all you want, but they did nothing that every other artist of the time did. Their songs always had original music and arrangements, with maybe some similar hooks added in on the first two albums. Their main issue was with lyrics- Robert Plant lifted a lot of blues lyrics that were supposed to be "tributes" because it was thought they were public domain. Zeppelin formula early on was hard-blues after all.

You can say they copied stuff all you want, but their material didn't become timeless because they stole things. It became timeless because they innovated on existing concepts. Money always seems to distort the truth.

Also, those links you provided? They were all also covered by Willie Dixon (who actually wrote the song), Muddy Waters, BB King, Albert King, Lightnin' Hopkins, and nearly every other blues guitarist of the era.
 
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Sheik Yerbouti said:
I think they were forced to do that, along with Willie Dixon, they left those names off originally, but were ordered to put them on to acknowledge the original artist.
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I doubt that, the information I have found indicates it was in the public domain by 1971.
 
Its nothing more than a band that didn't succeed and wanting something for nothing. Not defending Led, although they are one pf my top five groups. If you had a story to get a lawyer for it would have happened in the 60's.
 
BarkingGhostar said:
Its nothing more than a band that didn't succeed and wanting something for nothing. Not defending Led, although they are one pf my top five groups. If you had a story to get a lawyer for it would have happened in the 60's.
Click to expand...
It's not even that, it's the estate of the band that didn't succeed that wants something for nothing.
 
BarkingGhostar said:
Its nothing more than a band that didn't succeed and wanting something for nothing. Not defending Led, although they are one pf my top five groups. If you had a story to get a lawyer for it would have happened in the 60's.
Click to expand...


As mentioned early in the thread, it's not even the band doing this, it's on "behalf of Spirit's founder's estate". They are just flexing their lawyers muscles looking to cash in, cha ching.
 
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