I mentioned before that Led Zeppelin did a song that sounded a lot like someone else’s song, only they didn’t give credit. They did that more than once, or so some people say. They’re talking about “Stairway To Heaven,” which sounds a lot like “Taurus” by a group called Spirit, who actually toured with Led Zeppelin before both songs came out.
So, did Led Zeppelin rip off another musician when they did “Stairway to Heaven?” Maybe. But maybe not who you think.
What’s on your mind? I’m not talking about this song, although if you want to talk about that, fine. I just wanted to get that off my chest. You can talk about it, if you insist. Or, something else entirely. After all, it’s Saturday Night Open Thread, and you pick the topic, not me.
Who wants to start?
Original ideas in anything are rare. A musician will always know when he is copying another music segment. It has been done many times even in classical music. Same argument might have discredited Shakespeare.
There is about as much of a difference between Stairway to Heaven and Taurus as there is between King Leir and King Lear. The difference between a good song/play and a work of art.
Like saying that the author of King Leir (first performed on 6 April 1594) could have claimed plagiarism against the Bard’s King Lear (originally drafted in 1605-06). Assuming, of course, that Shakespeare was not also the author of King Leir, as some argue.
Fun fact: The great Ed Cassidy, Spirit’s drummer, was the stepfather of Spirit’s lead singer and guitarist, Randy California.
Wait. So Bach wrote “Stairway To Heaven?”
Well, he called it “Himmelsleiter”, since he didn’t speak English.
He also wrote “How Gentle Is the Rain”, although it’s known to us classical music aficionados as “Minuet in G” from the Anna Magdalena notebooks (Anna Magdalena was his second wife), and “Whiter Shade of Pale”, which, despite the claims of Procol Harum, is quite clearly ripped off from the second movement of the third Orchestral Suite, and is frequently referred to as the “Air on a G-String”.
A clarification: The first sentence of the post above is a joke. As far as I know, Bach never wrote a piece called “Himmelsleiter”.
My German comes from Hogan’s Heroes and Wolfenstein 3D, but I gather that name is ” heaven’s ladder”?
Dorothy Fields, who wrote lyrics to tunes by Jerome Kern, Irving Berlin, and many other composers, was born July 15, 1905, in Allenhurst, New Jersey. Here is Fred Astaire singing “The Way You Look Tonight” from the movie Swing Time – music by Jerome Kern, lyrics by Dorothy Fields:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIW_Ah0wg-w
Iowa Jim I think you are correct about A Whiter Shade of Pale.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=St6jyEFe5WM
Bill Clinton was a whiter shade of pale when he got caught with Monica…just sayin.