Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven” Being Called Out On Claims Of Plagiarism

It is one of the most iconic songs in history – it has been covered by everyone from the London Symphony Orchestra to Frank Zappa to Australian comedian Rolf Harris to Dolly Parton to my senior year Science teacher – but could it be that legendary rock gods Led Zeppelin plagiarized “Stairway to Heaven”? Well, Spirit certainly thinks so.

Spirit, an obscure progressive rock band that has been around for almost five decades, is suing Led Zeppelin for stealing their song “Taurus” and using the melody as the intro for their definitive “Stairway to Heaven”. Spirit’s lawyer aims to ensure that Randy California, the lead singer and writer of “Taurus”, receives a writing credit on “Stairway to Heaven”. California, who died in 1997, mentioned before his death that he always thought of “Stairway to Heaven” as being a shameless rip-off of his song, stating: “The guys made millions of bucks on it and never said ‘Thank you,’ never said, ‘Can we pay you some money for it?’”

The question is – why now? Spirit has been disbanded since 1997 when California died, but seemed to have been angry all along about “Stairway to Heaven”. The band and associates’ excuses? They didn’t have financial means to afford court representation. But I think this has more to do with Led Zeppelin’s iconic albums Led Zeppelin, Led Zeppelin II and Led Zeppelin III set for reissue in early June.

Speaking with a fellow music lover, we have to agree that “Taurus” is eerily similar to “Stairway to Heaven”, with some aspects being nearly identical. Who can really say Led Zeppelin point-blank stole the song? In any case, it doesn’t really matter because those gentlemen are probably too busy swimming around in their riches to care – riches that some believe are ill-gotten. That doesn’t mean Led Zeppelin aren’t rock gods anymore, right?

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