Led Zeppelin are to face a lawsuit over allegations that they ‘stole’ the chord progression from their hit “Stairway to Heaven” from a song by 1960s band Spirit.

The acoustic guitar phrase from “Stairway to Heaven” certainly has similarities to the 1968 Spirit song “Taurus”, but whether those similarities means that Jimmy Page stole the melody, or was simply influenced by other similar music will be the basis for the court case.

Spirit bassist Mark Andes is to take legal action to prevent Led Zeppelin re-releasing the song as part of a re-mastered record next month, unless his late former bandmate Randy California gets a co-writing credit and appropriate payment.

Andes told Bloomberg Newsweek:

“It would just be nice if the Led Zeppelin guys gave Randy a little nod. That would be lovely.”

Representatives form Led Zeppelin have not yet commented on the accusations, but this would not be the first time that the band had been accused of ‘stealing’ other musicians’ work, with music journalist Will Shade describing them as “thieving magpies”. However, the band have always admitted that many of their hits were based on previous blues songs, and many argue that the way they took old songs and remoulded them to fit their own sound is how culture evolves.