6/15/2016: Jimmy Page accused of plagarism. You Decide!

6/15 2016, Led Zeppelin's guitarist Jimmy Page denied stealing the riff to 'Stairway To Heaven' when he took the stand at a copyright trial in the US. The band was accused of lifting the opening guitar line from 'Taurus', a 1968 track by the band Spirit. Page testified that he had never heard the song until people started posting comparisons online a few years ago. Page admitted to owning several Spirit albums, but only remembered buying two of them, neither of which contained Taurus. Under questioning, he conceded that he did own a copy of the band's self-titled debut, on which the track appears, but could not recall how it came to be part of his collection.

Time for you to decide for yourself: Give Taurus by Spirit a listen 

My take is that there's insufficient evidence here to prove plagiarism. There's just not enough 'Taurus' to compare to the fully realized 'Stairway To Heaven. This may be a case of both guitarists playing the same kind of guitar. What do you think?   andypreston@iheartmedia.com


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