Another song-that-sounds-like-a-song lawsuit

[Mudcat]

Willie Dixon, who wrote You Need Love for Muddy Waters, has a writing credit on Whole Lotta Love.

Which he didn't have when the song was first released but then it went big people noticed and say, "Heyyyyy."

Is the point.

 

[reno cool]

I thought it was common knowledge that the whole 1st Zeppelin album was blues covers.

 

[Mudcat]

I dunno. I was never a Zeppelin fan.

Buddy at work was telling me there are questions about the originality of Stairway to Heaven too. I'm too tired to look into it right now but I will.



I appreciated this comment from Robert Plant regarding Whole Lotta Love after being "busted." Pretty honest.




Page's riff was Page's riff. It was there before anything else. I just thought, 'well, what am I going to sing?' That was it, a nick. Now happily paid for. At the time, there was a lot of conversation about what to do. It was decided that it was so far away in time and influence that ... well, you only get caught when you're successful. That's the game.
Robert Plant, Musician, (1990)[16]

 

[reno cool]

ha, kinda interesting. I guess we should keep in mind that a lot of how we see things now isn't how it was back then. People did a lot of covers. I'm listening to the blues station and I can't count how many lousy covers of I'd Rather Go Blind there are. However Id Rather BE Blind is the only good tune

 

[Mudcat]

I have noticed in Whole Lotta Love, at one point he sings


Gonna give you every inch of my love


My theory is that has something to do with his penis.

 

[eggs]

To

H.
E.
DOUBLE HOCKEY STICKS


WITH THAT
AND

YOU!!!!

 

[Mudcat]

LOS ANGELES (AP) Composer Hans Zimmer, crooner R. Kelly and members of such bands as the Go-Go's, the Black Crowes, Linkin Park and Three 6 Mafia are supporting Pharrell Williams, Robin Thicke and T.I. in their appeal in the ongoing legal dispute over the hit song "Blurred Lines."

More than 200 musicians filed a brief with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday to express concern about the ruling last year in a case brought by the children of Marvin Gaye, who sued for copyright infringement claiming "Blurred Lines" copied Gaye's hit "Got to Give it Up."

The musicians said the ruling could have "adverse impact on their own creativity, on the creativity of future artists, and on the music industry in general."

Gaye's descendants won a $7.4 million verdict, which a judge reduced to $5.3 million.


I find the reasoning a bit of an eyeroll with the whole stifling creativity bit. I just say the songs don't sound enough alike.

 

[eggs]

Muddy put a song in here., a good one. Smoke me.

 

[Mudcat]

There is a lawsuit going on claiming that Stairway to Heaven is ripped off from a 1968 track called Taurus by the band Spirit.

I listened to it - Taurus. It's very obvious the bit they are referring to. There is a little guitar bit that starts the same as the bit in Stairway - but then it goes off in a different direction.

If Zeppelin did steal it, they improved it - finished it in a better direction. And then they made a whole 8 minute song with a bunch of different stuff that has nothing to do with Taurus.

I dunno. I just feel like there is so infinitely much music - everything is going to resemble something.

 

[Blitty]

Muddy, why don’t you like Tom Petty?

 

[Mudcat]

I changed my mind. There is merit to the case for Taurus. It's a pretty close match for those few bars - and they are an important and significant piece of Stairway.

On the other hand it's a pretty simple walkdown that I could see myself writing by accident if I was sitting around with my guitar for long enough - even if I never heard Taurus.

I award it/them a 4.6% writing credit for Stairway to Heaven.

 

[Matty]

It is a pretty distinctive passage and there's almost no doubt Jimmy Page lifted it from those guys. But yeah, I mean, it only contributes so much to the overall epicness of Stairway. There's a reason no one remembers the Taurus song. 🤷‍♂️

 

[reno cool]

It's strange that an established band would need to rip off anything. Not that hard to write your own, or at least alter it enough that no one would recognize

 

[xpansive]

It's strange that an established band would need to rip off anything. Not that hard to write your own, or at least alter it enough that no one would recognize

I don't know brother. I mean, human language and human sound is limited within certain parameters of bandwidth, thus automatically throttling the oral sound we can experience. On that note i can see why sometimes music is plagiarized, either with intent or without...

 

[reno cool]

I could understand accidentally. One might play something that they heard before and subconsciously replaying without realizing, but on purpose, Totally unnecessary

 

[Tron]

Guys, zero fucking chance Jimmy Page ripped off that riff on purpose. He probably heard it once or twice, several weeks/months passed and then he was playing his guitar in the living room and he started working on Stairway.

There is SO much in Stairway that clearly has nothing to do with Taurus (the entire vocal melody and beyond epic guitar solo for example) that to give Taurus any more than like 3% writing credit would be criminal.

 

[Mudcat]

Katy Perry gets taken down a peg. A whole peg.

A jury on Monday found that Katy Perry's 2013 hit "Dark Horse" improperly copied a 2009 Christian rap song, Joyful Noise, in a unanimous decision

 

[Mudcat]

Complete bullshit. I sat and listened to the two - which was not easy because that Christian rap song is as godawful as it gets - but as far as this lawsuit, I can't find what that jury was thinking. It should have been laughed out of court in 2 minutes.