But when someone in the courtroom played the “sad trombone” sound (WAH-waah), the plaintiff’s lawyer immediately cheered up and served papers on him.
Bitchin! Groovy! Boss! Far out, man! I’m 12 again. 
Who is now playing the tiniest violin…
I won’t even try to top that.
TL; DR: just listen to this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOlDewpCfZQ
But seriously, that has to the most spurious music copyright suit of all time. Had they won (and had it been upheld) they could have then sued the Beatles for Michelle, Leon Russell for Masquerade and Richard Freaking Rodgers for My Funny Valentine, to name three of about three million examples.
It would be almost as bad as suing humpback for using the term “the plaintiff’s lawyer”. It’s just a minor chord with a chromatically descending root. You can copyright lyrics and melodies - NOT chord progressions! Almost every bebop composition very intentionally and without trying to hide it took the chord progression to a pop song verbatim and wrote a new melody for the express purpose of avoiding paying royalties. Jazz musicians say "this is over “rhythm changes”, meaning they took the chords from Gershwin’s I’ve Got Rhythm. And there a millions of examples of this being done accidentally (see above-linked youtube).
My fear was that this would lead to future suits regarding “feel.” I didn’t realize that they would have to rely on sheet music for copyright purposes. Weren’t the recordings themselves copyrighted?
A rather surprising ruling, given how much of their music was stolen. Apparently, the judge would not allow any mention of that from the plaintiffs.
One of many references to the band’s theft here: http://liveforlivemusic.com/features/just-how-much-of-led-zeppelins-music-was-stolen/
Trump meanwhile is in Scotland playing on his funked out golf course. I expect by now he is climbing the fairway to eleven.
In a related story, Hitler’s estate has begun proceedings against Sir Donald for copyright infringement.
Great Weekend Edition article on the specific issue under litigation, the actual chord progression used by both artists. Give it a listen!
Even still, the NPR headline is misleading. The forensic musicologist basically asserted that that chord progression has been “a thing” since the 1600s, with many and varied artists effectively “discovering” it without plagiarism or homage.
Now if only we could legally ban it from all Guitar Centers™.
You guys seem to think it was spurious, but it’s something that’s been kicking around for a few decades, and it had to be resolved once and for all. Given Zeppelin’s proclivity for “borrowing” entire songs, and the recent verdict in the “Blurred Lines” case, there was a good chance it could go the plaintiff’s way.
Randy California took a pretty hands-off approach to it during his lifetime; I once read an interview with him where he was asked about it, and his response was along the lines of “What can ya do?”. But it would’ve been borderline irresponsible for the estate not to take a stab at it.
Incidentally, Randy California had more innovativeness in his little finger than the entire braintrust of Led Zeppelin combined.
Duh!
Every single Rock’n’Roll tune with a 1-4-5 cord progression would be violation of several Beethoven pieces.
Probably owned by the label, which is a different can of fish. But the case was probably doomed from the start when the recording of “Taurus” couldn’t be played for the jury.
If only there were an apt metaphor for how this whole lawsuit went down…
The jury should count their lucky stars that they never had to sit through a listening session of that worthless garbage on a track, Taurus.
If Randy California had sued in 1972, when the song was being played 24 hours a fucking day on every FM radio station in America (it’ll still be about 5 more years before I can listen to that song again, since I am so sick of it), he probably would have won. But for him or his estate to wait 45 years is just plain stupid. And Spirit recorded for Columbia Records at the time of “Stairway”'s release, and I am fairly sure that Columbia, which was the most powerful record label (Dylan, Cash, Chicago, etc.) at the time, would have gladly helped with the legal bills.
And although I am absolutely sick of hearing “Stairway to Heaven” ( and what is it about that song? I think “Over the Hills and Far Away” is a masterpiece 10 times better than “Stairway”), it’s still better than that POS Spirit song “Taurus”.
When are Chad & Jeremy going to go after The Nails?