Led Zeppelin Being Sued For Stealing Stairway to Heaven

It's long been a topic of debate within music circles (at times...heated debate), that Led Zeppelin, in their day, very liberally borrowed from other artists. Now, they could be going to court to defend themselves.

Almost everyone on planet Earth has heard Stairway to Heaven probably more times than they'd like, but it's no question it's a staple of rock radio everywhere. I think you all know how many times it's ended up #1 on both our Memorial Weekend Top 500 and Labor Day Weekend Top 1,015 countdowns over the years, to the point it maybe became a bit predictable.  But was the iconic intro to the rock n roll classic plagiarized? Mark Andes,  the one time bassist for a California rock group called Spirit, says it was. 

Zeppelin toured with Spirit, during their first tour of the US, in 1968. Around the same time, Spirit released an instrumental called Taurus.  In the 1971, Led Zeppelin would release the song that even over 40 years later would dominate music forever.

Judge for yourself...

According to Businessweek, Stairway, alone, has grossed over a billion dollars. While there are certainly similarities, and this isn't the first time Zep's been sued for plagiarism, it is also a bit coincidental that this suit is being filed right before Zeppelin is set for a huge re-release of their entire musical catalog?

For the haters (apparently, Jimi Hendrix was one)...here's some other examples

Keith Richards is only seems mildly impressed