Mary Poppins song "very similar" to Stairway To Heaven, Jimmy Page tells court in plagiarism trial

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/06 ... e-tells-c/

"Mary Poppins rather than an obscure instrumental by a little known 1960s rock band may have partially inspired Led Zeppelin's iconic song Stairway To Heaven, the British group's guitarist told a court on Thursday.

Jimmy Page said the chord sequence on the track was reminiscent of that used in Chim Chim Cheree, a melody in the 1964 film adaptation of the Mary Poppins story.

Page and Robert Plant, Led Zeppelin's singer, were in Los Angeles district court on the third day of a trial examining allegations that the opening bars of Stairway To Heaven were plagiarised from Taurus, a song recorded by the long-defunct group Spirit in 1967.

Possibly the worst plagerists in rock history are now trying to claim they've ripped off Mary Poppins. Okay.


Is it just me or can anyone else not see the similarity between Chim Chim Cheri and Stairway to Heaven? The next thing they'll be trying to tell us is that Supercalafragalisticexpialados inspired Gallows Pole.

The same scales have been used by everyone in music for centuries.



Watch this one, very informative:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/thenational/did- ... -1.3635362

I think Keith Richards once said that there is only one song and millions of variations of it.

Yea, the guy from taurus (long dead) had no problem with it.

It's his estate now looking for money. The new American dream.

Spirit. Taurus is the song.


Maybe yes, maybe no, but it doesn't change the fact that Led Zeppelin were a bunch of thieving plagiarists and one of them (Page) was a raping, kidnapping child molester who should be shot and pissed upon. I hope they get all his money. And I hope this starts a cascade of plagiarism claims against him, beginning with Muddy Waters' estate.

Whatever ills should befall Page/Zep because of whatever alleged crimes they committed, I don't think this suit should succeed. I would just inhibit creativity, musicians are always influenced by what they hear. The lead player for Triumph explained it all very well on CBC, that the melodies of the two songs are similar but different, that you cant trace this melody back in popular music to the early 1900's, and then back to Bach.

Anyway, if the suit succeeds the estate will only get a portion of the income from the song starting 3 years back and going forward. I would think most of the money from the song has already been made prior to 3 years back.

Kind of an ironic song for this blatant money grab.

But it's not a money grab. They only want $1. They only want proper songwriting credit going forward.

Oh. Well Zep seems to feel strongly about not settling, so I wish them well. If this was a blatant ripoff, I would feel differently, but IMO it's not. Unlike some of the blues songs they apparently didn't give credit for. Taurus may have inspired the opening of STH, but Zep made it into something completely different. But then I didn't think George Harrison should have paid for My Sweet Lord either.