”Never heard them, Never met them”, says John Paul Jones in ‘Stairway To Heaven’ case…
On Friday (June 17th) John Paul Jones – Led Zeppelin’s Bassist took to the stand to testify in the high-profile ‘Stairway To Heaven’ case. Jones says that not only had he never heard of Spirit’s music, he never met them and certainly did not own any of their albums.
Though, Francis Malofiy (the opposing attorney) continued to probe around the topic of Led Zeppelin opening for Spirit in late 1968. When questioned about ‘Fresh Garbage’ – the song off the same Spirit album as ‘Taurus’, that Led Zeppelin covered during a medley performance in late 1960s, Jones said that he didn’t know who the song was by, and it was simply just a song he heard and thought was catchy. Jones also said that he couldn’t remember who introduced the riff from Spirit’s ‘Fresh Garbage’ in the medley that they performed in the late 1960’s. Jones testified…
“I forgot who introduced it—I can’t remember. It was a two-bar bass riff that popped out from somewhere. It was a catchy little riff, had an interesting time thing and it caught my ear. I didn’t know where it was from.”
But, Malofiy was happy to remind Jones with the introduction of an audio recording of a 1972 BBC interview where Jones says, ”We were all in the country at Headley Grange when [Page and Plant] came back from the Welsh mountains with a guitar intro, verse and maybe more [of ‘Stairway to Heaven’].” During the cross-examination Malofiy asks Jones, ”Did Mr. Page ever share that he had five albums of Spirit, including one double album?” , to which Jones responds ”No”.
Throughout the case, Malofiy has done pretty good job at counteracting the Led Zeppelin band members claims regarding ‘Stairway To Heaven’ with concrete audio recordings. Malofiy had Page stumbling on the stand last week, and has now thoroughly cross-examined Jones. Though, music experts were present in the courtroom on Friday which dampened Malofiy’s counteraction success.
Musicologist Lawrence Ferrara clarified that despite their being similarities between both ‘Stairway To Heaven’ and ‘Taurus’, these were common similarities that can be found in music dating back 300 years. Ferrara says…
”That progression, that movement, has been around for 300 years, dating back to the 17th century. In the 20th century, before ‘Taurus’, a large number of popular musicians, artists and composers also used it.”
Ferrara also said the riff was a ‘building block’ and ‘was not something anyone could possibly own’. But, his expertise were even more striking when he played the sheet music for ‘Taurus’ on the piano, followed by the into of ‘Stairway To Heaven’ to highlight what he says sounds ”dramatically different”. But, his contribution to the day in court was even more compelling when he played ‘To Catch A Shad’ – a public domain folk song, where there were no noticeable difference. In fact the court found it impossible to tell them apart.
Both sides seem to be neck-and-neck at the moment. However, despite Malofiy putting up a good fight, if Led Zeppelin’s attorney and music experts can prove that the sheet music of the riff is commonly used and dates as far back as 300 years, there may actually be no valid case here.
The case continues…
(Image by Led Zeppelin’s Cadillac, Creative Commons, Attribution 2.0 Generic, cc by 2.0)
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