http://time.com/105016/led-zeppelin-is-getting-sued-over-stairway-to-heaven/ They are being sued by a band called Spirit for lifting the Stairway to Heaven riff. Both songs are in the article, and frankly, I don't think they have a leg to stand on. Does it sound similar? Sure. Did it inspire the riff? I don't doubt it. But is there not enough difference that you cannot really say Page stole the riff from the other band? I do not know enough about these kinds of lawsuits, but it seems odd they waited 40+ years before suing. Besides, then Led Zeppelin can turn around and sue Heart for stealing Battle of Evermore with their song Dream of the Archer? Seems ludicrous to me.
Thing about music, there's only so many notes to work with, and only so many ways to put them together that doesn't sound terrible.
Reminds of the Men at Work lawsuit with Land Down Under based around 11 notes in sequence near the beginning of the song.
Vanilla Ice being sued by Queen for the Ice Ice Baby hook being sampled from "Under Pressure." Robin Thicke has been sued by the Marvin Gaye estate for several of his songs.
That was a valid lawsuit. I mean, he didn't sample parts of the baseline, he used the whole damn thing and didn't give credit. Same with MC Hammer sampling (well, completely copying) Rick James' Super Freak and getting his stupid pants sued off of him.
The ascending sequence of notes are the only thing that is similar and it is similar but it's not a straight rip off. Song sounds like it's in the same key but there is a lot of stuff going on other than the guitar part. There is a better chance that Page and Plant sell all the rights to their music to Mikey Cyrus than there is of these guys winning that lawsuit.
It's like you said, only so many chords, notes, keys to go around. I can flip on the radio right now, any genre and hear something that appears to be taken from something else.
Half the songs on pop radio right now will have in the chorus a drop of all the base then a snare drum that ramps up its tempo until the bass explodes back in UNTZ UNTZ UNTZ UNTZ.
The Vanilla Ice suit was legit. You gotta pay for that sample. The Marvin Gaye suit is not legit. It's just an attempted money grab by loser family members.
The Verve had obtained a license to use the sample and agreed on a 50/50 split to Bittersweet Symphony. The attorneys for The Rolling Stones then argued successfully that The Verve had used “too much” of the sample after it was released. The Stones received 100% songwriting credit and royalties.
