uberjoe

Here's a story with audio comparing the riffs.

A few thoughts:

1) It's definitely the same riff.

2) It's clearly an homage. "Down Under" was written as a sort of Australian anthem and so (briefly) musically references a famous Australian song.

3) Looking at this and a few other stories on the subject, it seems as if "Kookaburra"'s writer never owned the copyright to the song, so it wasn't legally sold or purchased.

redhenry

I guess they feel that M@W are still making royalties off a song that was written after "Kookaburra" and as such still owe $$ to whomever owns the rights - even of the owner only just acquired those rights.

redhenry

Wow - good find. They are undeniably similar (identical?) but was it theft? I find that hard to believe. A homage would make seem more like it.

statcat

lame and ridiculous, suing someone over this song is like suing them for bah bah black sheep or any other nursery rhyme

RagingBull80

Listen to "Hotel California" and tell me that The Eagles didn't borrow a little from Jethro Tull's "We Used to Know."

"Wake Up" by Rage Against the Machine sounds a lot like "Kashmir" by Led Zeppelin to me.

redhenry

And what about "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" and the "Alphabet Song"? Identical tunes in their entirety. Someone's gonna pay for that!!!!

HighSpeedOnIce

I'm surprised no one mentioned Gary Moore losing a plagerism case over 'Still Got The Blues'

Source http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/BLA...sitemID=110167

GARY MOORE – "Still Got The Blues"
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JUD'S GALLERY - "Nordrach" (listen beginning around five-minute, 23-second mark):
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JZ1276

you dont hear any similarities in the chorus?

jeffbase34

Both songs use completely different chordal progressions. The only similiarity is the strumming patterns sound the same with thick layers of distortion.

mickey65

"Lover of the Bayou" by Mudcrutch uses a lot of the same chords/licks as "Stairway to Heaven" by Led Zeppelin.

statcat

which Stairway... uses Spirit's Taurus, led zep are the kings of ripoffs if there ever was one band you could single out

jmu878

not so sure i agree. def borrowed alot (influenced by), but they were their own element and arguably the greatest rock band to ever exist.

Boba Fett

Janet Jackson ripped off Sly and the Family Stone ("Thank You") in "Rhythm Nation"

chris_sc77

Pretty much Every song by Phil COllins rips-off infinitely better songs originally done by Peter Gabriel./

Decker

Deeply insightful and well researched. You've convinced me.

UAIOE

Mashed together:

statcat

The band they spawned from (yardbirds) were superior in every sense in my opinion but there's only a small percentage of people who would think that. The main thing I never liked about Led Zeppelin was Plant's vocals, they kind of irritated me after awhile and while I'm a fan of what they did (especially early on) I don't think they're anywhere near as great as lots make them out to be.

mickey65

Blasphemy!

Hokeyboy

I love Zeppelin, but Dazed & Confused, Stairway, Babe I'm Gonna Leave You, and a host of other songs were *direct* rip-offs of earlier tunes. Not to say they didn't put their own sonic stamp on these songs, but it was out-and-out theft.

statcat

The one I always found the funniest was Dazed and Confused which was a song by Jake Holmes. The Yardbirds had seen him play this and then did their own version live. Page later brought it to Led Zeppelin and then they just took complete song writing credits and Page claimed he never heard of Jake Holmes.

In a 1990 interview with Musician magazine, Jimmy Page quickly soured when questions veered into this territory. The Q and A exchange is quoted below.

Musician: I understand "Dazed & Confused" was originally a song by Jake Holmes. Is that true?

Page: [Sourly] I don't know. I don't know. [Inhaling] I don't know about all that.

Musician: Do you remember the process of writing that song?

Page: Well, I did that with the Yardbirds originally... The Yardbirds were such a good band for a guitarist to play in that I came up with a lot of riffs and ideas out of that, and I employed quite a lot of those in the early Zeppelin stuff.

Musician: But Jake Holmes, a successful jingle writer in New York, claims on his 1967 record that he wrote the original song.

Page: Hmm. Well, I don't know. I don't know about that. I'd rather not get into it because I don't know all the circumstances. What's he got, The riff or whatever? Because Robert wrote some of the lyrics for that on the album. But he was only listening to... we extended it from the one that we were playing with the Yardbirds.

Musician: Did you bring it into the Yardbirds?

Page: No, I think we played it 'round a sort of melody line or something that Keith [Relf] had. So I don't know. I haven't heard Jake Holmes so I don't know what it's all about anyway. Usually my riffs are pretty damn original. [laughs] What can I say?

dick_grayson

I always thought that Radiohead's "Karma Police" borrows a lot from The Beatles "Sexy Sadie"

"This is what you get..." piano thing is what I'm referring to.

statcat

thought of another after thinking about kiss, Love Her all I Can is based on Nazz- Open My Eyes

redhenry

I was thinking pretty much the same thing. Even one example might have been nice.

TheAllPurposeNothing

Always thought that Mariah Carey's "Emotion" was a rather blatant rip-off of the Emotions "Best of My Love."

bacigalup

Led Zeppelin sued for plagiarizing "Stairway To Heaven"

From Newsmax.com:
"Stairway to Heaven" is a ripoff of the Spirit song "Taurus," a new lawsuit filed against Led Zeppelin claims.

Randy California, the late guitarist and writer of the band Spirit, accused Led Zeppelin for years of taking the opening chords of "Stairway to Heaven" from his song "Taurus," Philly.com reported. Spirit's founding bassist Mark Andes, now 66, is now working with Philadelphia attorney Francis Alexander Malofiy to bring the suit.

Malofiy told Businessweek.com that the lawsuit Spirit plans to file will have present-day implications as he is also seeking an injunction to keep Led Zeppelin from using "Stairway to Heaven" on its upcoming rerelease album.

"The idea behind this is to make sure that Randy California is given a writing credit on 'Stairway to Heaven," Malofiy said. "It's been a long time coming."

Andes told Businessweek that it was only recently that he noticed the striking similarities between "Stairway to Heaven" and "Taurus."

"The clarity seems to be a present-day clarity, not at the time of infringement," Andes said. "I can't explain it. It is fairly blatant, and note for note. It would just be nice if the Led Zeppelin guys gave Randy a little nod. That would be lovely."

Andes told Businessweek that Led Zeppelin and Spirit crossed paths often in 1969, doing shows together at the start of their careers.

"We did quite a few shows with those guys," he said of gigs with Led Zeppelin, which was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995. "Not to say they might not have heard it from the record."

Andes pointed to concerts in Detroit and Atlanta, and cities in Texas where Led Zeppelin would have heard Spirit play the song.

Businessweek said California told Listener magazine in 1997 that he believed Led Zeppelin took his song.

"I’d say it was a ripoff," he said at the time. "And the guys made millions of bucks on it and never said 'Thank you,' never said, 'Can we pay you some money for it?' It's kind of a sore point with me. Maybe someday their conscience will make them do something about it."

California died later that year trying to rescue his 12-year-old son who was caught in a rip current in Hawaii.

http://www.newsmax.com/TheWire/stair.../20/id/572381/

Here's the YouTube link of "Taurus":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xd8AVbwB_6E