Led Zeppelin Prevail!

The verdict is in:  Led Zeppelin did NOT rip off Spirit!  The jury in Michael Skidmore v. Led Zeppelin, et al, Case # CV15-3462, US District Court, Central District of (Randy) California, ruled that “Taurus” (a brief instrumental) is not significantly similar to “Stairway To Heaven”, a longer song most of us know well.  Bravo.  Subjectively, that was my opinion.  As a lawyer AND a Led Zeppelin fan, I paid attention to this case, even to the point of downloading the court’s decision denying the band’s preliminary motion to dismiss. 

Spirit.  I actually do like this band, and I have their first four albums, Spirit, The Family That Plays Together, Clear, and The Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus.  “Taurus” is from the first, self-titled album, as is “Fresh Garbage”.   I don’t really consider both bands the same, though they are both very eclectic in their songs.  Spirit is decent quality rock music of that era, and worth listening to in their own right.  Equals to Zeppelin?  Not in popularity, certainly, but I say not in quality either.  But since Zeppelin is already such an excellent band, that’s like saying someone is “not as rich as Bill Gates”. 

The main “character” is guitarist Randy Wolfe, better known as Randy California.  He’s an excellent guitarist in his own right, even if he looks like Ben Stiller portraying a 70s rock guitarist. He died in 1997.  During his lifetime he made conflicting noises about whether he considered “Stairway To Heaven” a ripoff of “Taurus”; in any case he made no legal efforts in his lifetime.

Statute of Limitations.  Nominally the standard passed ages ago since Led Zeppelin IV was released back in 1971.  But when the band remastered the albums and re-released them, that reset the statute, notwithstanding the decades that passed AND California’s earlier failure to bring suit.  Of course, Zeppelin had competent counsel and tried to kill the case on these procedural grounds long ago – and failed. 

Voir Dire.  I would have loved to attend the trial in person, though it was not an option – I don’t live anywhere near L.A. At the least I would have enjoyed seeing the voir dire – picking the jury.  Naturally anyone showing up for jury duty wearing a Led Zeppelin t-shirt or a Spirit t-shirt (do they exist?) would have been stricken for cause.  I suppose a LZ fan could have sandbagged and pretended not to know – the same with stealth Spirit fans.  I’d have been disqualified as an attorney, but I suppose I could have persuaded both attorneys, Malofiy (Plaintiff/Spirit) and Anderson (Defendant/Led Zeppelin), that I could be objective and make a decision.  “I have both Spirit and Led Zeppelin IV.  Let them persuade me.”

Attitude.  From what I could tell, Page and Plant acted fairly flippant and arrogant during the trial.  I was concerned this would turn off the jury.  And let’s face it:  Zeppelin did in fact rip off many other artists during their early days.  I also found their convenient memory lapses to be implausible.  Since they toured with Spirit and were familiar with their material, even covering “Fresh Garbage”, from the same album as “Taurus”, their denials of familiarity with that song sounded highly insincere.  A band with a known track record for blatantly expropriating other bands’ material, who toured WITH Spirit?  Sorry, that doesn’t compute.  And unlike Led Zeppelin, no one has sued Black Sabbath or Deep Purple; those bands were far more original than Led Zeppelin. 

Taurus vs. Stairway to Heaven.  This is why reading the court documents were important.  My subjective impression was, “sure, the intro is very similar, but ‘Stairway’ has lyrics, a much larger middle section, a solo, and an outro.   Much as I hate Robert Plant, his lyrics are great (if somewhat pretentious) and his vocals are stunning.  Overall the song is EPIC.” This alone should be sufficient to put the case away.  Not so fast.  The Court cited the standard, which in part says that “even if a copied portion be relatively small in proportion to the entire work, if qualitatively important, the finder of fact may properly find substantial similarity.”  Thus even the small intro to a larger song could be “substantially similar” and meet the standard; thus a jury could go either way.  This case had to be tried on the facts.  Moreover, it was the music itself at issue, not the recordings, so the jury was not played the actual recordings of the songs.  Be that as it may, in my humble opinion, and apparently the jury agreed, the acoustic descending chord progression of “Taurus” was not qualitatively important enough to merit a finding of substantial similarity. 

Aftermath.   I suppose Skidmore & Malofiy can appeal.  Even if they had won, the verdict would have been for 50% of Wolfe’s share of the royalties of Led Zeppelin IV remaster sales, into the future – not the royalties from 1971-2011.  Even the loss probably generates enough interest in Spirit’s back catalog, particularly the first album.  Enough to pay Malofiy’s expenses, though?  I doubt it.     

Jimmy Page

Having written blogs on Deep Purple (1984-present), Black Sabbath without Ozzy and Ozzy after Black Sabbath, a stab at Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page, focusing on his career outside Zeppelin, might be long overdue.  Maybe not.  Anyhow.

Early Years

He was born on January 9, 1944, in London.  He taught himself and played in various bands, winding up in Neil Christian’s band the Crusaders from 1961-63.  After briefly quitting the music business for health reasons, he returned in the form of a session guitarist.  To name his session work would be dull, but his contributions include “I Can’t Explain” by The Who, “Heart of Stone” by the Rolling Stones, and extensive work with Roy Harper and Joe Cocker.   I don’t have the patience to collect Page’s session work per se, and a similar collection of pre-Deep Purple recordings by Ritchie Blackmore costs $200 used on Amazon.

Yardbirds

In 1965, he joined the Yardbirds, replacing Paul Samwell-Smith who had recently quit, briefly sharing guitar duties with Jeff Beck, who had replaced Eric Clapton.  The pair can be seen on stage together – off in the background in a scene – in the movie “Blow Up”, unremarkable except for this element.  Soon after, Beck himself quit, leaving Page as the only guitarist.  This lineup released Little Games, the last of the Yardbirds albums.  “White Summer” is the song on this album most reminiscent of Led Zeppelin, but his playing on the album is recognizable.  The band seemed to be moving to a more mainstream 60’s hard rock/psychedelic sound like Cream, away from the commercial pop of the mid-60s which caused Clapton to quit. 

            The stress of touring and the lack of success led the remaining members of the band to quit in 1968, leaving Page with the name and no band.   He then assembled session bassist John Baldwin, better known as John Paul Jones, and two unknowns, singer Robert Plant and drummer John Bonham, to form The New Yardbirds.  As most of you know, this band is better known as Led Zeppelin.

Post Zeppelin

After Physical Graffiti (1975), Zeppelin put out three albums:  Presence (1976), In Through the Out Door (1979), and Coda (1982), with Coda being a later release of outtakes.  However, this was a release by the band, not one of these unauthorized record company throw-outs without the band’s consent.  Although many Zeppelin fans may disagree with me, particularly about Presence, I consider them to be well below standard; I refer to them as the Last 3.  However, Page & Plant stand by Presence, and some of those tracks resurface on the pair’s more recent live collaborations.

 

In October 1980, John Bonham choked on his own vomit (no evidence of anyone else’s) and died.   This broke up Led Zeppelin, forcing the three surviving members to kill time before subsequent reunions.  Along the way, Bonham’s son Jason (born 1966, before Led Zeppelin came about) developed his chops in Airrace – who opened for AC/DC in 1984 – and playing on Jimmy Page’s solo album Outrider. 

After Zeppelin, Page did some movie soundtrack work:  Death Wish II, Scream For Help (w/John Paul Jones), and Lucifer Rising.   I find this stuff (e.g. BOC’s Bad Channels) to be mood music or elevator music, hardly worth listening to in its own right.  I’ve passed on collecting it.

Honeydrippers, Vol. 1. (1984).  Remarkably – though perhaps not too surprising – his earliest post Zep musical work was a collaboration with none other than Robert Plant.   This was a 50s-style band which didn’t last long.  I never bothered to snatch this up.  For that matter, I haven’t bothered to collect any of Plant’s solo work, although of the three surviving band members, Plant’s career has been by far the most successful. 

 The Firm.  The Firm (1985), and Mean Business (1986).  This was a “supergroup” with Free/Bad Company singer Paul Rodgers, bassist Tony Franklin, and drummer Chris Slade (who later joined AC/DC).  The music is typical 80’s AOR fluff, but aside from that not particularly bad or mediocre.  The group actually toured their albums, but collectively agreed that they would only do two albums and a tour.  Rodgers later joined up with the surviving Queen members to resurrect that band, an experiment which didn’t last long.  Freddie Mercury was a tough act to follow, and I don’t believe anyone, even Adam Lambert, can really fill his shoes, though I can’t really fault Lambert, May, and Taylor for giving it a shot. 

Outrider (1988).  Technically this is Page’s only real “solo” album.  Jason Bonham plays drums; Robert Plant sings on “The Only One”.  One song, “Hummingbird”, is a Leon Russell cover.  This sounds very close to the Led Zeppelin we know and love.  As good? No, but no worse than the Last Three.

Coverdale/Page (1993).  Back when I was in high school, my buddy Sean C consistently disparaged Whitesnake, the band former Deep Purple vocalist David Coverdale formed after DP Mark IV finally disbanded in 1976.  His verdict was that Whitesnake was ripping off Led Zeppelin.  Now having heard all of Whitesnake’s albums - mainly the Bernie Marsden/Micky Moody era of that time – and all of Zeppelin’s output, I’d say there is a very modest sliver of truth to that assertion.  But it doesn’t look like Coverdale was copying Led Zeppelin itself, so much as the blues-rock source material; you could just as easily accuse him of ripping off Free or Bad Company.

            Be that as it may, Jimmy Page and David Coverdale did finally manage to make an album together.  And guess what – it’s not bad.  In fact, It’s pretty good.  I was surprised at how heavy and intense it was.  In fact, I put it above the Last Three and equal to anything he’s done post-Zeppelin. 

Jimmy Page & Robert Plant.  No Quarter (1994) & Walking Into Clarksdale (1998).   After the Honeydrippers and “The Only One”, Page and Plant got together again.  “No Quarter” is a live album with some mediocre extra song-age thrown in.  John Paul Jones was not invited, and even miffed that they used HIS song, “No Quarter”, as the title, and even played it – in his absence!   I don’t blame him.  The performances were OK.  Any Zeppelin fan starved for Page/Plant live material after The Song Remains the Same can certainly enjoy this.

            Walking was actually all new studio material.  I thought it would be shitty, but then again, would that pair really deign to release crap in 1998 with their names on it?  No, I didn’t think so.  Rank it up there above the Last Three and below the prior Zeppelin. 

Jimmy Page & the Black Crowes, Live at the Greek (2000).  Jimmy played a one-off concert with the Black Crowes at the Greek Theater In L.A.  In addition to Zeppelin songs – including “Hey Hey What Can I Do” and “Nobody’s Fault But Mine” - they also played “Oh Well” (Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac), “Shapes of Things” (Yardbirds/Jeff Beck), and a few other blues songs.  The Crowes do a fantastic job of replacing Plant, Bonham and Jones.  Consider this practically a de facto LZ live concert.  (Maybe the Crowes should do a show with Bobby Weir, Phil Lesh, Bill Kreutzman and Mickey Hart....)

Celebration Day (2007).  This is the most recent LZ live show:  Page, Plant, Jones and Jason Bonham at the 02 Arena in London, a one-off show which whetted our appetites, only to have Plant piss on our parade shortly thereafter and nix the idea of any tour.  This was meant as a tribute to Ahmet Ertegun, the founder of Atlantic Records, who died in 2006.  Record label executives are so frequently the bad guys in most band’s stories, that it’s remarkable – the exception that proves the rule – that this man was so well-liked among musicians.  I don’t think there are enough well-esteemed, deceased record label bosses to produce sufficient tribute concerts to constitute a proper tour.   Anyhow.

            It’s a CD/DVD combo.   Let me piss off Zeppelin fans further by saying this:  enough already, give Jason Bonham his due.  Yes, his father was a great drummer, up there with Moon (or maybe we should say, “down there with him now”).  But the “Kid” has been playing on his own for some time, and even contributed original drumming to Black Country Communion.  Jason does the job.

            The setlist was unremarkable, but I’d have pulled the two Presence songs, “For Your Life” and “Nobody’s Fault But Mine” and brought in “Over the Hlls and Far Away” and some other song.

Page vs. Plant.  I don’t know if Jimmy Page has his tombstone or mausoleum picked out yet, but if he did, I wouldn’t be surprised if it simply had his DOB, the date he died to be chiseled in later, and “ZOSO” as his name.  If we only remembered him as the lead guitarist of Led Zeppelin, he would be 100% fine with that.

            Plant, on the other hand, would probably NOT care to have the circular “plant” symbol from LZ IV on his tombstone.  His would probably state his full name with no mention of LZ.  He remains consistently aggressive in asserting his musical identity independent of Led Zeppelin.  No tour, no new LZ material, nothing – back to his solo career, much to Page’s immense frustration.   Although Page obviously hasn’t asked for my advice, I’d give it to him anyway:  screw Plant, assemble an all-star supergroup, and play whatever the hell you want.  Because I can’t see Page as simply touring with Jones, Jason, and another singer – no matter how talented – and calling it “Led Zeppelin.”  But it would serve Plant right if he did.  Let some other singer embarrass Plant and put his own stamp on Zep’s classics.  

Gibson SG

Note.  This blog was originally published on June 20, 2008.  In the process of transporting my earlier blogs, I accidentally deleted this one.  I might as well rewrite it anyway.  Moreover, I updated the blog in 2021 for some edits, including my current collection.

Gibson’s most famous guitar is the Les Paul, designed by jazz guitarist Les Paul himself.  However, that model wasn’t selling too well in the late 50s – there was no Jimmy Page or Eric Clapton around to popularize it back then – so Gibson tried something else.   In addition to the Flying V and Explorer, they tried changing the body on the Les Paul itself.  First they gave the body a second cutaway, then they sharpened the edges on those cutaways, and by 1961 a slimmer, lighter, nastier looking guitar was born: the SG.   The SG Standard has been Gibson's best selling guitar, and one of the few guitars in continuous production since it began in 1961.  

A few points about the Les Paul before I go on.  The Les Paul has a single cutaway at the base of the neck.  Like other human primates, I have opposable thumbs.  I like to be able to reach both sides of the neck when I’m soloing at the end of the fretboard.  Apparently the lead guitarists who favor Les Pauls over SGs seem to disagree.  Anyway.   Another issue I have with the Les Paul, relative to the SG, is its weight.  It’s all well and fine for sustain (e.g. Nigel Tufnel) but as Jimmy Page himself noted, when he reminded his fans that the first Led Zeppelin album was recorded with a Fender Telecaster, even a Stratocaster can sound heavy if the Marshalls are overdriven hard enough.  

The SG is one of my five current guitars.   My current SG is a 2013 Standard, for which I tried in my prior SG, 1 1989 '62 Reissue.  In 2013 Gibson didn't make a 61 Reissue, so the Standards are very close to 61 spec, especially the neck joint, the most noticeable difference being the crown on the headstock having a slightly different location.  My 2013 is ebony, better known as black. My prior and first SG I bought in May 1989.  It was ’62 Reissue, later modified with Tony Iommi model chrome pickups.  It was cherry, the only color it came in.

Specs:  In Standard format, it has two PAF humbuckers, nickel hardware, a slim double cutaway body, a rosewood fretboard, and trapezoid inlays.  The guitar is VERY light, so much so that the neck is heavier than the body and tends to drop down.  It has a bright but strong sound and excellent access to all 22 frets.  The Reissue neck joins the body closer in than the Standard, for a better feel.

            Of course, the most notable element of the SG is its shape:  the cutaways are more pronounced than on the Melody Maker or Les Paul Junior (with the top one being slightly bigger) and even give a sort of “devil horn” look, especially appropriate for AC/DC and Black Sabbath. 

Models.  Since its introduction in 1961 to the present, the SG has been the one guitar Gibson makes which has been in continuous production.  To go into all the different models would be impossible, so certain models and trends are worth noting.

SG Standard.  The “standard” model, but not the most basic.   Over the years the SG has been offered, this has been the model most consistently offered. This had two humbuckers, a bound fretboard with pearl inlays (usually trapezoid but sometimes block), a pickguard, 4 knobs (2 volume, 2 tone, each controlling one pickup), a 3-way selector switch, and the crown inlay on the headstock.  The “standard” color of the Standard is called cherry – other colors have varied in availability, but included ebony, natural, and tobacco sunburst - but I’ve noticed that this color varies considerably.  My own guitar is more like a deep, uniform maroon color, whereas some others of the same model are considerably brighter, even approaching red, or looking more like brown possibly due to either age, poor paint quality, or both.  The degree to which the wood grain shows through the cherry finish also varies, with mine not showing at all.

           

SG Custom.  This was the deluxe model.  It shared the diamond inlay, bound headstock of the Les Paul Custom.  Like the SG Standard and Les Paul Custom it had a “standard” color – in this case, off-white compared to the LPC’s black – but was still available in other colors.  It had three humbuckers, sometimes mounted immediately next to each other and sometimes spaced slightly apart.  The Custom has also come in ebony and other colors, and sometimes with two humbuckers instead of three.  They all have the block inlays, diamond inlay on the headstock, and gold hardware.  

SG Special & Junior.  These were the economy models, the Junior having one pickup and the Special having two.  These were sometimes the P90 single coil pickup instead of the humbucker.  They had a bare headstock, and a nonbound fretboard with dot inlays (though some 70s model Specials had block inlays).

‘62/61 Reissue.  The “SG-62” was introduced in 1986, and eventually changed to the ’61 reissue.  This is the model I have, the model my buddy Baron had (which is what inspired me to purchase it), and the model my friend Leonard has, who was inspired by me to purchase his own.  These are all in cherry and are set up to ‘61/62 specs with stop bar tailpieces, cherry finish, and bound rosewood fretboards with trapezoid inlays.  The major difference between this model and original ’61-62 models is that the latter were equipped with a unique Gibson vibrato system operated by springs, whereas the reissue simply has the stop bar tailpiece.  The Gary Rossington signature SG – a replica of the guitar he played on “Freebird” – has the vibrato and is meant to be a closer approximation of the SG as originally issued.

Doubleneck.  The EDS-1275, with a 12 string on top and a six string on the bottom, had been out of production when Jimmy Page popularized it in the 70s as a way to perform “Stairway to Heaven” onstage.

Pickguard.  From 1961-66 and from 1973 onward, the SG had a small wing-like pickguard to the right of the pickups (the Junior had its own special pickguard).  From 1967-70 the guitars had a larger pickguard which surrounded the humbuckers (most often seen played by Angus Young in the 70s and Robby Krieger).  Oddly, in 1971-72 the SG had the Les Paul’s triangular pickguard (e.g. Tim Sult of Clutch).  The current “Standard” features the ’67-70 large pickguard.

70s. In the 70s the models proliferated, with lots of weird stuff going on.  Les Paul pickguards, natural finish models (“the SG”), sunburst finishes, the neck was tilted parallel to the body, the bridge design changed, the body was a bit larger without as much beveling, Super Humbuckers were introduced, and the triple pickup spacing on the Customs varied back and forth.  Clearly this was a period when Gibson was experimenting heavily on this model, sometimes switching back to earlier features as it learned the hard way what worked and what didn’t.

Players.  Many different players have been seen, from time to time, playing SGs.  Eric Clapton played a stylishly painted SG in Cream, Frank Zappa had been an SG player, and Gary Rossington of Lynyrd Skynyrd played one on “Freebird”.   Mick Box of Uriah Heep, Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead, George Harrison of the Beatles, Mickey Jones of Man, Pete Townshend of the Who, John Cipollina of Quicksilver Messenger Service, Frank Hannon of Tesla; plus Jimmy Page, Don Felder, Slash, Frank Hannon, and Alex Lifeson have all played the doubleneck version.

The big two are Angus Young of AC/DC and Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath - since both of these bands are tied as my favorite, it was a no-brainer that I had to have this guitar. 

Iommi only started using his SG when his main guitar, a Stratocaster, crapped out (before Sabbath even started making albums) – but once he started, he never looked back.  He started using it on the first Black Sabbath album, and has been exclusively playing SGs on every Black Sabbath album and on every tour ever since.

Angus Young has noted the “devil horn” shape of the SG’s body, and AC/DC, for their part, have no less than 3 songs referring to “hell”: “Hell Ain’t A Bad Place To Be” (From Let There Be Rock), “Highway to Hell” (from Highway to Hell) and “Hell’s Bells” (from Back in Black).  Not only does he use the guitar exclusively, but he is prominently pictured on the band’s album covers with his SG.  On If You Want Blood (You Got It) (the live album), he’s impaled by the guitar.  Angus Young, even more so than Tony Iommi, has been the #1 publicist for the Gibson SG among all musicians (he should get a royalty for every SG sold, even if it isn’t to an AC/DC fan).  No one is more closely associated with the guitar, or has prominently displayed it as often or widely, as him.

In March 1989, I was trying to work out a deal to sell my Japanese made Fender Stratocaster in France and buy a US made vintage reissue Stratocaster.  At the same time, I borrowed a Gibson SG ’62 reissue from my friend Baron in March 1989, and two months later I was the proud owner of my own.  It had a much stronger sound than the Strat, so it was more in line with Sabbath (learning “The Warning” at that time) and AC/DC.  Clearly, the fact that Black Sabbath and AC/DC were my two favorite bands, had a major impact on my decision.  The Jap Strat was traded for a US Strat, which was traded for a Mexican Strat, and I got an Explorer in 1990, but the SG is still here.  To these I added a Gibson Les Paul Studio Pro in black cherry pearl, and a Gibson Firebird V in ebony (with a black pickguard), which has the Steinberger tuners.