led spirit

Oh dear.. there's trouble brewing for Jimbo and Led Zep. It seems "Stairway To Heaven" is being called a rip off of Spirit's 1968 track "Taurus". .

"Business Week reports - Spirit founding bassist Mark Andes and the trust that handles (Randy) California’s royalties are working with Philadelphia lawyer Francis Alexander Malofiy, who says he is going to file a copyright infringement lawsuit and seek an injunction to block the rerelease of “Led Zeppelin IV” (as part of that band’s expanded reissue series, which starts next month)."
**Hennemusic

Randy California, Spirit founding member and writer of the precious chords under dispute had been complaining for years before his death in 97 that his song had been nicked after the young Zeppelin crew had toured with his band back in the 60's.
Although you have to wonder why a lawsuit wasn't being chucked around when the song had such success in the 70's. Seems like old wounds never heal.

**The clarity seems to be a present-day clarity, not at the time of infringement,” adds Andes. “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.”

What the mother suing first line of that means is anyone's guess, well not ours actually, but it's nice to know that Andes and his lawyer have Randy's best interest at heart and all this has nothing what so ever to do with the outstanding fortune a successful lawsuit would bring. Because we all know how benevolent lawyers are, right?
So as one of rocks religious anthems climbs the stairway to the courtroom it's also given the perfect answer for any young guitarist finding themselves banned from the guitar shop for playing those haloed chords.. "Stairway to Heaven? no mate... I'm playing Taurus".

Mind you uploader ' Totally Sounds Like' nailed all this 5 years ago when he compiled the two chord progressions for us all to clock the similarity.. ? You'll probably be the best judge.

lucifer rising sessions

This month Jimmy Page released the completed 'Lucifer Rising' soundtrack, first recorded in 1972 for the Kenneth Anger film (of the same name). The original piece had been hidden away for years until people started calling it rather hopefully the missing Zeppelin album.
Although Anger had originally asked Page to write the soundtrack he made it quite clear at the time of release he didn't want to use it because he claimed Page "took three years to deliver the music, and the final product was only 23 minutes of droning".
Naturally the whole thing blew up with Page insisting he'd fulfilled his obligation, and you assume Page feeling pretty damned insulted at the same time.
So now some 40 years later he decides to complete a full length release including the original 23 minutes.
It's currently only available through his web site.
But not exactly available, unless you login to the site in the usual way (another tiresome user/password set up) you don't get to see a thing. In fact not only don't you get to buy the vinyl only release but you don't get to see anything else of the site either. Just the splash screen and a utility page where you can learn that Jimmy 'produced' the site.
Ah ha.. so it's a concept from the "Zoso" one.
Not sure what Jimmy is developing here.. maybe some exclusive cult of Pageness or a mystical carrot of desire now you know it's impossible to obtain the precious vinyl unless you sign up to the club, but no doubt Jimmy will be as unamused as he was with Kenneth Anger when he discovers that doing a search for the album reveals that second only to his own site is the BitTorrent download of the album.
Anyway to make your own decision as to whether it's all worthwhile here's 10 minutes of the original soundtrack. Be aware though, it is not the missing Zeppelin album.