I'm no rock historian, but here is a very interesting article on a guy going after Zep claiming a big part of Stairway to Heaven was lifted off a band that they opened for a few years before Stairway was released. https://www.phillymag.com/news/2019/02/11/francis-malofiy-led-zeppelin/ I listened to the song in question ("Spirit" by Taurus) and can definitely hear subtle similarities to the opening chords of Stairway, but man if a I were a juror on that case it would be a hard sell. I think there is a very large grey area between inspiration/evolution and downright plagiarism. If this is plagiarism, then Robert Plant should have sued Josh Kiszka of Greta Van Fleet years ago for pretty much carbon copying his lyrical style....
Lol. I hadn't heard that stairway arguement before, but ice hears people say they are a blues cover band since several of 'their' big songs were originally blues songs.
The article mentions that the original trial settled in Zep's favor (in 2016, I think), but the prosecution won an appeal, and now they are headed back to trial. The jury wasn't even allowed to listen to the song by Taurus as a comparison in the original trial.
If a song, at some point or another, didn't sound like some other song, songs would never get written. There's only so many notes and so many configurations. Besides, if Jimmy was "inspired" by this, so what? He added his artistry and made a killer. Zeppelin's manager is dead. He kept everyone from dipping into Zep's pockets. Now, the sharks think they smell blood, but it's gonna be their own, just as it has been in the past. At any rate, this is no where near as flagrant as "sampling", which PoofDuddy tried with Kashmir (Godzilla soundtrack.) Page jumped on that shit and said, if you're gonna steal from me, we're working on it together...which they did.
Remember when Santana sued Miller beer? Miller's soundtrack and Santana's soundtrack was listened to by the judge. He declared they were not at all similar, they were exactly the same! Miller lost.
That's how I see it. Music evolves.......it doesn't just spring up out of nowhere without any consideration for what came before it.
Hey, I used blue in my painting...this new painting ripped off my idea of using blue...I'm suing! See the similarities?
For the most part. But the first zeppelin album is basically a cover. They had to pay for that one also.
When I first heard these Zep songs as a 10 year old back in 70, I didn't have a clue that they had covered other peoples music. And then I listened to the originals because of Led Zep. If anything the old blues dudes should have paid a royalty to Zep for getting their music into the mainstream (yes boys and girls, there was a time when nobody listened to blues music).
Agreed for the most part. And that's how most of it work, Hendrix and buddy guy. Clapton and the king's. EtcetcE but zeppelin straight up ripped Willie Dixon off..
In the UK of the 60s the vibe was to look to American blues for inspiration and many consider Alexis Korner is the lead British guy that went in this blues direction. England is not exactly huge so there was a lot of cross over of musicians working together in studio and live in bands. If you look around you will see Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, John Mayall, Peter Green, John McVie, Cristine Perfect(McVie), Mick Fleetwood, Ronny Wood, Danny Kirwin, Ronny Lane, Rod Stewart, Steve Marriott, and others that I have forgot played with each other at one time or another. And they didn't have a lot of studios around to record in so I think it was accepted to somewhat plagiarize others? Check out Zeppelin in Denmark in 1969 in this YouTube video
Yes, a very old story. One citation among many: https://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2016/04/19/robert-plant-and-jimmy-page-blatantly-admit-to-stealing-their-music-led-zeppelin/ As you may be aware, Willie Dixon wasn't the only one clearly ripped off. When Page was in the Yardbirds, he, along with bandmates, heard Jake Holmes in a small club. The Yardbirds added Holmes' song"Dazed and Confused" to their set. The Yardbirds broke up, Page formed Led Zeppelin, and took the song with him. Only now, there was no longer any mention of Jake Holmes. "Dazed and Confused" appeared on an album entitled The Above Ground Sound of Jake Holmes. (Easily found on Youtube, of course.) Page stole it note for note, word for word, and claimed authorship. https://www.musicnotes.com/sheetmusic/mtd.asp?ppn=MN0047614 Holmes sued and won. Drawing inspiration from older blues musicians is one thing. Crediting sources would be a gallant gesture. Compensating people for using their work would be nice.
From what I remember, "The Blues Brother" resurrected the petered-out careers of every blues player in the movie except Ray and maybe Aretha, who were still working. Now 30+ years The Blues definitely seems to need another boost.