• Welcome! The TrekBBS is the number one place to chat about Star Trek with like-minded fans.
    If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Led Zepplin Sued over Stairway to Heaven

These things really need to end before the inevitable slippery slope. The Heartbreakers are my second or third favorite group and Sam Smith makes my ears bleed. But I thought that whole thing was just as ridiculous.

The problem with artistic ownership with music is that, unlike any other art-form, the potential artistic combinations--for all practical purposes--are finite. This is especially true with popular music. So, unless one can literally take the sheet music of one song and overlay it for an exact match with the other (allowing for a few slight variations) these things should be immediately dismissed.

Because here's the problem I see: With each one of these the precedent gap gets wedged open a little farther. Eventually some eager beaver is going to sue one GDEC song over another--or maybe several.
 
Kor said:
Yes, but what about when the original artist is dead, and it looks like some third party is just trying to gain a profit decades after the fact?

I do recall that Led Zeppelin got in trouble a couple times for some of their early material ripping off blues artists. I'm not sure if the lawsuit in this thread is as clear-cut.

There are some cases where musicians or bands do homages/rip-offs/whatever of earlier works, and the original artists don't seem to mind. For instance, a couple of Beach Boys songs clearly re-work or incorporate Chuck Berry material.

And then there's the tradition of sampling in hip hop. But I digress...

Kor
Click to expand...

I could see your point if the third-party in question had no ties to the original artist. In this case the third-party is a trustee of the estate. One could say that by trying to gain money owed to the estate is part of his job.
 
CorporalClegg said:
These things really need to end before the inevitable slippery slope. The Heartbreakers are my second or third favorite group and Sam Smith makes my ears bleed. But I thought that whole thing was just as ridiculous.
Click to expand...

Eh, didn't have much problem with that one at all. First time I heard that song, brain started instinctively using the Tom Petty lyrics over it. Literally no change, it's "won't back down" slightly slower. Didn't even bother to pretend that they tweaked it like Vanilla Ice did with the last beat of his riff...
 
Whether or not they did steal from someone else, I don't see how this has made it to court at all. It has to be way past any statute of limitation that would be applicable. I know the statutes for copyright infringement has the silly "starting with when you discover it" clause built in, but there's no way anyone who held the rights to the alleged material can claim they were completely oblivious to something like Stairway to Heaven all the way til now. And if they can, what the hell is the point of there being a statute of limitation for it at all?
 
There are many many many songs that are similar to others. Compare Honey Hush by Foghat with Train Kept a Rolling by Aerosmith, or "(We Ain't Got) Nothin' Yet" by the Blues Magoos to Black night by Deep Purple AND Ricky Nelsons "Summertime".

"For instance, a couple of Beach Boys songs clearly re-work or incorporate Chuck Berry material."

The difference being the Beach Boys acknowledged and credited Berry from the very beginning.
 
Yeah, but what that has to do with lawsuits over songs that are, what, over 30 years old? Whether or not they did it and/or how they went about it is kind of irrelevant this late after the fact. If the people suing them really believed it, and it was as obvious as they say it is, they should have struck way back then. That's the whole point of statutes of limitations.

And if someone is trying to abuse the associated laws (with its "three years from the time you learn about it" clause) by claiming to be ignorant of something that popular for that long, they outright deserve to be proverbially smacked upside the head at the very least.

It doesn't matter one iota whether or not Led Zeppelin is guilty.
 
The reason they can sue now is because a remastered version came out in 2014. Apparently that starts the clock again.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Kor
i just heard the similarity between Jefferson Airplane's Embryonic Journey & the intro for Tesla's Little Suzy the other day.

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.
To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.
 
Well, since we're posting things, the one I had mentioned earlier had been bugging me and couldn't pinpoint which song it sounded like, but a few weeks ago I heard the Carpenters song on TV and then it hit me.

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.
 
Somebody say Beach Boys?

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

One you really go down this rabbit hole you'll realize nothing is totally original. It's just a combination of influences.
 
Here's another one that people may or may not be aware of. Some songs that are generational touch-stones, that seem so contemporary at the time they came out, were actually based on songs from earlier, supposedly "unhip" musical eras.

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Many covers became much more well-known than the originals, like this one:

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Quiet Riot actually did it TWICE.

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IuDhcP-yHIc
 
Those QR covers are so close to the original studio versions it's scary.

Of course covers are a whole other thing from plagiarism. I figure the band gets the rights to cover the songs from the writer and/or the rights administrator (ASCAP/BMI/etc.). Only a few artists are too anal to let anyone do their songs.

Hell, some Bob Dylan songs were massively more popular as covers than his own versions. Mr. Tambourine Man & My Back Pages were both huge for The Byrds and All Along The Watchtower by Hendrix (even the Dave Mason version was a little more popular than Dylan's version).
 
mos6507 said:
Somebody say Beach Boys?

One you really go down this rabbit hole you'll realize nothing is totally original. It's just a combination of influences.
Click to expand...


Actually, Don't Worry Baby was a tribute to the Ronettes. Brian Wilson was a huge fan of them and was hugely inspired by them.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Sign up / Register


Back
Top