About a year ago I posted comments about a Michael Chapman gig I attended at which he claimed that Led Zeppelin ripped off his guitar part from 'Kodak Ghosts' and used it to open their own 'Stairway To Heaven'. It's a nice story and while Chapman may harbour some resentment about the amount of cash Zeppelin made from that song (over £300m to date), he appeared pretty relaxed about the whole thing.
On the other hand US lawyers acting on behalf of the late Spirit guitarist Randy California, are seeking a writing credit claiming that the opening guitar part of 'Stairway To Heaven' was actually taken from the song 'Taurus' which was written by California in 1968. They are consequently seeking compensation for copyright infringement.
All rather sad really and I suspect that besides Led Zeppelin, the only ones who will wind up rich will be the lawyers themselves.
Personally I can see similarities in all three songs, yet all three are also very different. I like them all so have posted links to each of them below.
You can then make up your own minds.
STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN
TAURUS
KODAK GHOSTS
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