Led Zeppelin's likelihood of not having plagiarized Stairway to Heaven ranked by Yorkshire academic as a quintillion to one
Dr Rupert Till, Senior Lecturer in Music Technology specialising in popular music composition, performance, stardom and celebrity culture at the University of Huddersfield has claimed the British hard rock legend’s most-revered songs is so similar to the little-known Spirit’s track that “there’s no chance this could be a coincidence”.
Dr Till said: “The odds of the first 17 notes being the same are 2,218,611,106,740,437,000:1 or 2.2 Quintillion to one... add that the tempo is almost the same, the key is the same, they both start with solo picked acoustic guitar, there is no chance this could be coincidence.”
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Hide AdThe news comes after it a US judge ruled that the two songs had so much in common that both Jimmy Page and Robert Plant could be liable for copyright infringement with a trial scheduled for May 10.
One of Led Zeppelin’s first US tours included Spirit as the support act.
Dr Till said: “Led Zeppelin are again in court being accused of using material written by other people in their music without proper credit.
“This follows successful past actions making Led Zeppelin credit the original authors on songs like Whole Lotta Love, Bring it on Home, When the Levee Breaks and others.”
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Hide AdIncorporating elements of the blues and jazz records was extremely common during the 1950s, 60s and 70s with many so-called classic rock artists having been accused of ‘ripping off’ black artists throughout history.
Led Zeppelin remain one of the world’s biggest-selling artists and are considered one of the most influential hard rock groups of all time.