Plagiarism Or Not?

[jazzy_dave]

Here is a classic track by the band Spirit from 1968 called Taurus -

Sounds a bit familiar does it? Well here is Led Zeppelin and their famous Stairway To Heaven from a few years later. . What do you think?

It is just so happens that i love both the tracks and Spirit were a good  psychedelic rock band of the sixties with occasional tinges of classical and jazz flavours thrown into the mix.
Reminds me of the George Harrison / Chiffons fiasco of My Sweet Lord / He's So Fine.

Comments

; '

[pigshitpoet.livejournal.com]

i think you that right..

[bleodswean.livejournal.com]

*weeps* Is there any documentation or mention of this in the hefty dissections?

[davesmusictank.livejournal.com]

I really do not know but it was something i spotted whilst listening to said Spiro album followed by Zepp IV today.It was quite revelationary.

[bleodswean.livejournal.com]

I will put it on Plant. Entirely. ;)

[londonkds.livejournal.com]

Spirit are suing Zep right now over the similarity.

(People are commenting that Page and Plant generally had a nasty habit of covering blues songs by known, living, writers and either claiming to have written them themselves or ascribing them to "traditional".)

[beer-good-foamy.livejournal.com]

Yeah. IIRC, Willie Dixon had to drag them to court to get credit for "Whole Lotta Love"; at least they (I think) gave proper credit to Memphis Minnie (for "When The Levee Breaks") and Howlin' Wolf (for "The Lemon Song" AKA "Killin' Floor") though I'm not sure if they lived long enough to see any substantial royalties... Of course, blues musicians always stole lines from each other, that's how folk music works. But it does sting a bit when this much money is involved.

Then again, you have to wonder why Spirit are only suing them now? They can hardly claim they've never heard the song...

[bleodswean.livejournal.com]

Hahahahaha - uh, right now???? What were they doing forty years ago?

I blame the devil, I mean, Page.

[a-phoenixdragon.livejournal.com]

That is very, VERY similar. Wow...

[blessed-oak.livejournal.com]

Ooooh, wow. And I love that Spirit track. New things for me to listen to!

[thespian15.livejournal.com]

I like them both too, but I can see where somebody would hear hints of the same song.
Hugs, Jon

[nocternacis.livejournal.com]

A lot of the guitar is very similar in it, but there is still a significant amount of difference. I would thing that Led Zeppelin's Stair Way To Heaven took some inspiration from the tune by Spirit.

I notice lots of time songs seam to have almost the same melody. Countless songs seem to repeat each other in one form or another.

BTW, if you play them both at the same time they blend beautifully together. :)

[mnfaure.livejournal.com]

I love your icon. :)

[nocternacis.livejournal.com]

Thank you! :)

[kabuldur.livejournal.com]

I heard about this on the radio. Apparently this is a common guitar progression learnt by many guitar students. Who can tell who actually wrote it first. But I love the sound of the guitar, no matter which song.