I think the judge was being kind when he said that the Led Zeppelin song 'Stairway to Heaven' has similarities to the Spirit song 'Taurus' because anyone with even a half decent pair of working ears can hear the same tune.
Robert Plant and Jimmy Page now face a jury over copyright infringement amidst claims that they stole the opening chords from the band they toured with in 1968 and 1969.
The Zeppelin's tried to have the case dismissed as the defendants are British citizens residing in England and therefore could not be tried by an American court but the judge dismissed the appeal and ordered the trial to continue.
It isn't the first time Led Zeppelin have been accused of nicking other peoples tunes, the band has already been forced to alter the credits and pay portions of their royalties for songs such as 'Babe I'm Gonna Leave You' and 'Whole Lotta Love' so they do have previous in the infringement of copyright area.
Especially galling is the BBC interview where Jimmy Page explains how he created the tune and not once mentioned how he scribbled it down when he heard Taurus played it.
Stairway to Heaven is a great song but how Plant and Page can keep up the pretence that they wrote it one weekend while locked away in a cottage in Wales is giving no credit to anyone who isn't completely deaf.
If you are going to plagiarise someone else's tune at east have the brass nuggets to credit them for it when you get caught rather than continue to make up a story about how you did it.
Green Day should be worried because a good portion of their tunes seem to have come from the mind of someone else and isn't it about time the Eagles came clean over the Hotel California tune which obviously came courtesy of Jethro Tull.
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