https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/music/led-zeppelin-ordered-go-back-trial-stairway-heaven-copyright-lawsuit-n914831
Personally, I don't give a flip how this turns out. But it features my favorite band of the 1960s and later, Spirit.
For those not up on the news, the estate of the late Randy (Wolfe) California brought the suit, claiming that Zep's intro to "Stairway to Heaven" was taken from the guitar work in Spirit's "Taurus," off the group's first album. Knowing both works, I think there is some similarity, but perhaps not enough to justify the plagiarism claim. However, if George Harrison could be sued for ripping off "She's So Fine" for his "My Sweet Lord," anything is possible.
The news yesterday reported this news, and referred to Spirit as an "obscure" band from the Sixties. Sadly, despite there being more than 14 albums released (some posthumously), few people know of them.
Randy California's story is quite the thing. Born Randy Wolfe, at fifteen, he ran across another guitar player in Manny's Guitar Shop in New York, who invited him to join his band Jimmy James and the Blue Flames. Jimmy James was none other than Jimi Hendrix, who gave him his stage name. There was another Randy in the band who hailed from Texas. So Jimi just referred to them from where they came from: Randy Texas and Randy California.
Jimi invited Randy to accompany him to England, where he formed the Experience - and the rest is history. But Randy's mother, who was married to Ed Cassidy, a jazz drummer who would become Spirit's drummer, forbade him from going, due to his youth. Incidentally, Jimi's reason for going to England was "to find Jeff Beck!"
There's a pretty good entry in Wikipedia about Spirit. My only purpose in writing this post is in hope that other people will discover and enjoy the music of Randy California and Spirit. Like I said, I don't care how the suit turns out.