to Heaven,” that have enthralled generations of fans, sound almost exactly the same as California’s ethereal yet classical guitar composition in “Taurus.” 7.

In 1996 Randy had a chance to have his say about the similarities between “Taurus” and “Stairway to Heaven” in his song-by-song liner notes for the 1996 reissue of

Spirit,

when he wrote:

“People always ask me why ‘Stairway to Heaven’ sounds exactly like ‘Taurus,’ which was released two years earlier. I know Led Zeppelin also played ‘Fresh-Garbage’ in their live set. They opened up for us on their first American tour.”

8.

However, in 1996 (printed in 1997), shortly before Randy’s death, when asked directly about why “Taurus” and “Stairway to Heaven” sounded similar, he said:

“Well, if you listen to the two songs, you can make your own judgment.

It’s an exact… I’d say it was a rip-off. 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 some day their conscience will make them do something about it.

I don’t know. There are funny bu siness dealings between record companies, managers, publishers, and artists. But when artists do it to other artists, the re’s no excuse for that. I’m mad!” See Jeff McLaughlin, “Spirit’s Still Willing: A Conversation with Randy California,” Listener Magazine, Winter 1997, p. 51.

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9.

When Jimmy Page was interviewed and asked “When you were borrowing from classic blues songs on the first two albums, did you ever think it would catch up to you?” Page answered this question as follows:

”

You mean getting sued?

Well, as far as my end of it goes, I always tried to bring something fresh to anything that I used. I always made sure to come up with some variation. In fact,

I think in m ost cases you would n ever know what the original source could be.

Maybe not in every case– but i n most cases. So most of the comparisons rest on the lyrics. And Robert was supposed to change the lyrics, and he didn’t always do that– which is what brought on most of the grief. They couldn’t get us on the guitar parts of the music, but they nailed us on the lyrics. We did, however, take some liberties, I must say [laughs]. But never mind; we did try to do the right thing, it blew up in our faces…” See Brad Tolinski with Greg DiBenedetto, “Page Delves into Led Zeppelin’s Rich Past,” Guitar World (May 1993).

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