For decades now, music fans familiar with the rock band Spirit have thought the introduction to Led Zeppelin’s 1970 composition “Stairway To Heaven” sounds a lot like the intro to Spirit’s 1968 song “Taurus.”

Now a jury may decide if the similarity is more than coincidental.

Bloomberg Businessweek reports that Mark Andes, founding bassist of Spirit, is filing a suit claiming that the intro to Led Zep’s “Stairway to Heaven” plagiarises “Taurus.”

As it turns out, in late 1968 and on into 1969, Led Zeppelin opened for Spirit. Led Zep even covered a Spirit song off the same album that contains “Taurus” called “Fresh-Garbage.”

Led Zeppelin have been sued over songwriting credits previously, and subsequently added writing credits to “Whole Lotta Love,” “Babe, I’m Gonna Leave You,” “The Lemon Song” and “Dazed and Confused.”

You can read the whole story, and it’s a good one, here.

Spirit, “Taurus”:

Led Zeppelin, “Stairway To Heaven”:

[In August of this year I’ll be publishing my rock ‘n’ roll/ coming-of-age novel, “True Love Scars,” which features a narrator who is obsessed with Bob Dylan. To read the first chapter, head here.]

– A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-