No doubt Led Zeppelin got the opening riff from Spirit's Taurus. I wonder why its taken so long for the copyright lawsuit to proceed? The members of Spirit must have know since 1971.
What a load of crap. We're only talking about the intro here and it doesn't even sound that similar. This progression can be found in 1000's of songs.
It sure sounds similar. If there were to get around the Statute of Limitations in the U.S. or similar laws in other countries... then I wonder if they will have to go with Ditch's defense.
I thought part of the case involved that Spirit had been an opening act for Zep before Stairway To Heaven was written and that Jimmy Page probably heard the music and incorporated it either knowingly or not. I thought I read that Spirit has been pursuing this for quitter awhile.
I read somewhere that they never shared the same stage. Doesn't mean Jimmy hadn't listened to them play though.
LedZeppelin.com "The night of the concert, I get on stage to make the announcement to open the show. “Ladies and gentleman, please welcome, direct from England for their North America debut, Led Zeppelin!” There was a smattering of polite applause. Then, Robert Plant let it rip and everybody in the audience was stunned. Frankly, I don’t know how Spirit went on after that. You didn’t have to be a genius to know Zeppelin was going to be a smash. Oh, my God. People were going crazy!"