The plagiarism row surrounding Led Zeppelin‘s classic rock staple ‘Stairway To Heaven‘ will be heard by a US jury, a judge has ruled.
The lawsuit has been brought by Michael Skidmore, a trustee for the late Randy Wolfe who was a part of the sixties band Spirit and wrote an instrumental entitled ‘Taurus‘ in 1967 – whose opening chords it is alleged were stolen by Robert Plant and Jimmy Page for ‘Stairway To Heaven’.
“While it is true that a descending chromatic four-chord progression is a common convention that abounds in the music industry, the similarities here transcend this core structure,” U.S. District Judge Gary Klausner has ruled after Page and Plant claimed the chord progressions were so clichéd as to not deserve copyright protection.
“What remains is a subjective assessment of the ‘concept and feel’ of two works, a task no more suitable for a judge than for a jury.”
A trial has been scheduled for May 10th. A full report can be seen on Reuters.