If you have a modest knowledge of the world of rock ’n’ roll, but are no particular aficionado, the odds are still high that you have heard of Led Zeppelin and their famous 1971 song “Stairway to Heaven.” The chances are far lower that you have heard of the band Spirit and their 1968 instrumental “Taurus.” However, per the allegations of the latest lawsuit against Led Zeppelin, you may be more familiar with “Taurus” than you realize.
Michael Skidmore, as a representative of the trust of Randy Craig Wolfe,[1] the late Spirit guitarist who was known by the stage name Randy California, filed a lawsuit in 2014 alleging that the opening notes of “Stairway to Heaven,” an iconic set of chords, were copied from “Taurus,”[2] a process known in the music world by the term “sampling.”[3] Although the three-year statute of limitations on the suit prevents recovery of any lost income from the song’s first forty years, the three years-worth of reimbursement that could be recovered is no small sum, as “Stairway to Heaven” is one of the more profitable songs in rock history.[4] The implications for posterity, however, are even weightier than that: As Bloomberg’s Vernon Silver put it after the lawsuit first arose, a finding for Skidmore and Spirit would “rewrite the history of rock ’n’ roll.”[5]
After a failed motion to dismiss, Led Zeppelin managed to delay the case with a transfer from the Eastern District of Pennsylvania to the Central District of California.[6] Now Francis Malofiy, the attorney for the plaintiff, is seeking to push back the trial date in light of all of the financial information he has received in discovery.[7] Led Zeppelin, meanwhile, filed a motion for summary judgment on February 24, with guitarist Jimmy Page declaring that the section of “Stairway to Heaven” in question is a composition of basic chords “learned by any student of the guitar.”[8]
Led Zeppelin has a history of settling infringement suits,[9] but the rock legends clearly are not resorting to that step just yet. If the motion for summary judgment succeeds, it would preserve the historical narrative on a song that many consider to be among the greatest rock songs ever.