Led Zeppelin win “Stairway to Heaven” plagiarism lawsuit | Consequence of Sound
The longstanding copyright dispute regarding Led Zeppelin’s classic “Stairway to Heaven” has finally been resolved. After a day of deliberations, a jury in Los Angeles found that the band did not plagiarize Spirit’s song “Taurus”.The trial, which began back on June 14th, saw the attorneys representing the estate of Spirit founder Randy “California” Wolfe go head-to-head with Zeppelin, accusing them of lifting the Spirit song “Taurus”, which was written and recorded in 1967. In the time between then and the recording of “Stairway to Heaven” in 1971, Zeppelin toured with Spirit. Guitarist Jimmy Page acknowledged that Spirit may have influenced his writing of the song, but called accusations of plagiarism “ridiculous.”
Jury members had much to consider while determining their verdict, as Rolling Stone reports. The main attorney for California’s estate, Francis Malofiy, emphatically represented his plaintiff, telling the court, “This case is about copying. Give. Credit. Where. Credit. is Due.” He also called upon expert witnesses who supported presiding US District Judge R. Gary Klausner’s April findings, saying both “Taurus” and “Stairway” possess “substantial similarity…that is memorable and unique.”
The horrific shooting in Orlando by another radical islamic believer… Have we had enough? What is our problem? Are we too tolerate or politically correct? Should we profile? Should we ban assualt weapons? Should we just hope and pray for peace? Japan bombed Pearl Harbor in 1941, our Government set up housing camps to keep us from being attacked by Japanese that were living on our shores… Was that right? Was it wrong? Did it stop anymore attacks on our soil by the Japanese? Yes it did. Was it politically correct? Of course not but it was an action that was taken to prevent more American deaths by sympathizers. It gave America time to get a handle on the situation. I am not saying we should do this but what are our options? Arm ourselves to the teeth?Turn in our weapons? Just accept our fate? We have President that is worthless and appears to be a coward.Discuss please.
Welcome to Kick Acts. Tell us a little about yourself and were you can be found online.
We’re an all girl hard rock band from Phoenix, Arizona! You can check out our facebook (Doll Skin), our website (dollskinband.com), or follow us on Instagram and Twitter! (@dollskinband)
Who are your musical heroes and influences? Why?
Meghan: My Chemical Romance, Refused, Avenged Sevenfold, Tool, and Underoath. They’re all so different from each other but so powerful in their own ways, I take a lot of inspiration from all their styles when writing.
Alex: I second Avenged Sevenfold. Orianthi, Rancid, NOFX, Dead Sara and John Scofield for sure too. I like the contrast from jazz (Scofield) has with the other kinds of music I listen and it influences my writing style a lot.
Do you have any advice for someone just getting started in the music business?
Nicole: Practice, practice, practice. Take as many opportunities as you can, no matter how small they seem because you never know who will be there or what it’ll bring. Be confident in yourself and what you’re putting out, if you don’t love it why would anyone else!
Sydney: Be flexible and open minded. Listen to every type of music and expand your taste.
What piece of advice did you ignore that you wish you hadn’t?
Alex: We didn’t really ignore any advice, there are just certain things we didn’t know before that we know now.
Do you have a greatest gig story or worst gig horror story you’d like to share?
Meghan: Whisky A Go Go for sure!!! We played a sold out show with Metal Allegiance the night of the Lemmy memorial on Sunset Strip and it was crazy. So many of our music idols we’re in the same room as us and we met a whole bunch of them. The show was amazing and the response was much better than we expected, just a wild night we’ll never forget!
Nicole: One time we got invited to this “festival” in Tucson. They advertised it to us as a up and coming Warped Tour but when we got there it was in a random park and the “stages” were just grass patches. The whole thing ended up running like 3 hours behind and we didn’t even end up playing because our set got pushed back so far. It was one of those things where the promoter royally screwed up, didn’t pay any of the bands or promote it and no one even showed. Horrible horrible show haha.
Do you have any other hobbies other than playing music? Collect stamps? Collect hats from off the side of the road? Draw pictures of peckers or boobs? Make sock puppets? Sit in the dark and eat Cheetos?
Meghan:Photography! Go like my page on Facebook “Meghan Herring Photography”! Writing poetry and lyrics and stories.
Sydney: I like photography too but I’m not as serious as Meghan haha. I like dying hair.
Alex: Cooking and drinking coffee. Not eating meat.
Nicole: I like to draw a lot but I don’t do it as much as I used to! I really love makeup too and really any form of art.
What do you think about the current music scene or lack of? Care to address that?
Meghan: I think the current music scene is extremely diverse, people take influence from absolutely everything now and creating their own genres which is really cool. There is so much new styles of music around now.
“Rock n’ roll ain’t dead.”
Nicole: Our local music scene in Phoenix is really cool and there’s a lot of interesting new music coming out of it. I would describe the Phoenix scene as really artsy and wacky and is incredibly supportive to bands that are exactly that, artsy and wacky. Personally I feel there wasn’t the best support for us until we got out of the scene, but I still love the scene and consider myself pretty involved in it.
Sydney: Everyone’s in it. Everyone’s connected somehow which is really cool. Whether from photography or playing in multiple bands, it’s very connected.
Do you think reality shows like American Idol, X factor and The Voice have helped or hurt the music industry as a whole?
Sydney: Hurt. It’s made mainstream the only thing that can succeed in. It’s not true, it’s made it harder for rock to make it big
Alex: It presents music as being only one way. You have to look one way, sound one way, act one way. Music is so much more than what those reality shows show you.
What is your opinion of unauthorized music downloads?
Nicole: I will illegally download absolutely everything, I’m the worst at it. As a musician I see how it can hurt musicians but honestly I’d rather have people be able to hear our music for free than not at all.
Alex: I buy a lot of CD’s but I’m terrible at illegally downloading. I wouldn’t listen to 90% of what I listen to if I couldn’t get it for free.
Tell us something about each of your band members that we wouldn’t expect to hear.
Alex is the biggest book nerd ever. She’s planning a cosplay for NerdCon 8 months in advance.
When you wake Meghan up she jumps, no matter what. She makes this little noise and all of a sudden you’re like “oh. Meghan’s awake” Sydney had a really hardcore One Direction phase. Before she started listening to the music she does know she was obsessed with One Direction.
Nicole’s secretly loves Kanye West and Nicki Minaj. Don’t ask her about it.
Hypothetical situation. You’re on Gilligan’s island and you get to hook up with only one of the survivors… Which one and why?
Nicole and Alex: We have no preference….
Meghan: The island itself
Sydney: I have no idea……
Do you know what a vinyl album is and have your ever purchased one? If so, what was it?
Meghan: Of course we know what vinyl is! I have a huge collection of vinyls I’ve gotten through the years. Too many to name to be honest!
You’re marooned on an island with Justin Bieber. Do you choke him out the first night in his sleep or what?
Harvest his organs. And cut off his nasty dreads.
What is your opinion of Miley Cyrus?
She’s just doing her thing! She’s just really carefree and living her life. She seems happy, there’s nothing wrong with her! None of us really listen to her music but as a person she seems pretty cool and confident. And her dogs.
Which would you rather hear in concert? Lip synching or real vocals?
Is this even a question!!! Of course real vocals, if someones paying to see you perform it should be 100% authentic.
Who, or what, is the next big thing?
Tarantulas.
One artist you can’t get enough of and can’t live without is…
Barry Manilow.
Confession time. Share a secret about yourself.
We are lizard people. Lizards in disguise. Hillary Clinton anyone?
Favorite movie of all time and why.
Nicole: High School Musical 1, 2, and 3
Sydney: The Never Ending Story
Meghan: The Conjuring
Alex: Alice In Wonderland (non-cartoon)
Our last question is called “Shout It Out Loud”. It’s were you get to talk about whatever you want to talk about. So go ahead and “SHOUT IT OUT LOUD”!
Ray Stevens have given us all many laughs over the years but his “satire” has a lot of truth in it. Here is his latest video release and once again ole Ray is “preaching it” just how it is…
We used to watch this guy beat the brakes off people in backyard fights on Youtube. According to some reports, his family believes the supplements he was taking may have killed him.
Celebrity Gossip | Entertainment News | Celebrity News | TMZ.com
Kimbo Slice has died … TMZ Sports has confirmed. He was 42.
We broke the story, Slice was hospitalized early Monday near his home in Coral Springs, FL. He passed away a short time later.
The CEO of Bellator MMA confirmed the news … saying, “We are all shocked and saddened by the devastating untimely loss of Kimbo Slice, a beloved member of the Bellator family.’
“One of the most popular MMA fighters ever, Kimbo was a charismatic, larger-than-life personality that transcended the sport.”
“Outside of the cage he was a friendly, gentle giant and a devoted family man. HIs loss leaves us all with extremely heavy hearts, and our thoughts and prayers are with the entire Ferguson family and all of Kimbo’s friends, fans and teammates.”
Details surrounding Kimbo’s death are unclear. We’re working on it.
Kimbo — real name Kevin Ferguson — last fought at Bellator 149 back in February and defeated Dada 5000 — but the victory was overturned when Slice tested positive for a banned steroid.
Back in 2003, Slice became an Internet sensation for his backyard fighting videos — destroying several opponents in unsanctioned street fights. He later signed a deal to fight in the UFC.
Prince cause of death: opioid overdose, tests reportedly show
Music megastar Prince died from an overdose of painkillers, according to news reports published on Thursday.
The Associated Press and Minneapolis Star Tribune, both citing unidentified officials close to the investigation, say tests confirm Prince’s cause of death to be an opioid overdose.
Minnesota investigators have reportedly finished autopsy and toxicology inquiries, but have not publicly released the findings.
The news follows weeks of speculation that the 57-year-old singer was addicted to pain medications when he was found dead April 21 at his Paisley Park estate.
Prince’s use of painkillers and how he obtained them has been the focus of a criminal investigation. A judge sealed all records in the case, but no charges are known to have been filed.
Do you remember the “Tape of the Month” club? Way back in the 70’s my little brother and I got a couple of guitars for Christmas and we needed some music to try and figure out how to play. My little brother being bolder than me got our Grandmother to buy us “KISS Alive I”. It was our first introduction to real rock music. We were turning our heads from the music that was her music to music that was for our generation. Who would know that as an adult I would love all that old music she played on her record player every Sundaywhile house cleaning. But now back to the “Tape of the Month” club.
We used to get these ads where you could order a bunch of 8 track tapes all at once or they would send you a tape a month automatically. Once again enter my little brother. The one that didn’t have any “stops”. You know that little cricket in your head that says ‘Don’t do that”. Well, his cricket never said that… He started ordering these tapes. They would show up every month. He might have been 12 years old at the time. We never paid for any of them but the tapes kept coming in. Maybe our grandmother paid the bill but I guess I’ll never know if she did. But month after month a new tape! Some of the ones that I remember were Steve Miller’s “Fly like an Eagle”. There was also a Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young tape (The name escapes me), a Movie sound track tape with the theme from “New York New York” on it and then a tape from a band called “Angel”. The album title was called “White Hot”.
White Hot. What an incredible album. From start to finish. The band was the exact opposite of KISS. Which they have been compared to and pitted against for years. Both bands were awesome. KISS had the larger than life persona and was the first band I saw in concert. They were mystic. Cool as hell, but scary. Like watching a horror movie in real life. Angel on the other hand were “heavenly’. All dressed in White. Their name spelled “Angel” right side up and upside down. I studied the cover of the 8 track tape as much as I did the KISS gate folds. Remember folks, back then the internet didn’t exist. Magazines only came out once a month or quarterly. There were no video channels. You only knew what you knew about bands from their album covers or the occasional article you could catch about them in a magazine that you had to go to a store and read. You put the tape or album on, hit play and let it play over and over while you studied the album art!
Just like KISS, Angel had their own recognizable players in the band. From Frank DiMino, Gregg Giuffria, Barry Brandt, Felix Robinson and last but definitely least, the sex symbol of the band and Guitar player Punky Meadows. As a young guitar player at the time I was mesmerized by Punky’s playing. He has great taste, tone and feel. Never plays over the top. Plays for the song. The band had strong songs and all the cool stuff that bands back then needed but Mtv was a couple of years away still. And despite releasing great music, Angel disappeared before the dawn on the 80’s rock scene. Too bad, the world would have loved them. I know I have.
It’s been 35 years since Angel was around. The fan base is still around and growing. People are finally catching up to what we fans knew along. Angel was a Helluva band.
And now Punky Meadows has released an album. A helluva album too. It’s called “Fallen Angel”. It also has two Bonus tracks with Frank DiMino on vocals too! I have had it for 3 days now and it hasn’t stopped “spinning” in my CD player. Just like in the old days! It’s that good! It’s so far away from all the mundane cookie monster vocals and overplayed Drop D stuff we have today. It’s a breath of fresh air. Great songs. Great hooks and great guitar playing by the legend himself! This album is the album the world has needed for the past 35 years. It’s as if Punky caught 1978 in a bottle and mixed it in with 2016! A perfect match! Punky and the band has managed to capture the music we grew up on and kept it relevant for today too! It’s cruising music. Its backyard yard party music. It’s a California sunset on the beach music! It’s Rock and Roll!
The album has something for everyone. From the opening “Angelic” spoken words from Heaven telling Punky to “take his harp and make sweet music” and then rolling right into “The Price you Pay”. What a great song. It has that Bad Company, Bob Welch, 38 special feel to it. “Straight Shooter” is the first single released with a video. Another great song! (More music videos Punky please!)
Any other great songs on the album? Yes! All of them. I could go on and on! There are sexy gritty guitar riffs and catchy vocal hooks throughout it. The whole band is amazing! Lots of rock and roll attitude on this disk! That’s what makes music “Music”. It really has been in my CD player since I received my copy! It’s all thrills and no fills on this one!
To pick your copy go here!
You may still have a chance to pick up an autograph copy here!
“To me, Brian is the most powerful voice in rock and roll, Breuer told Rolling Stone. “He is also the funniest and most generous man I have ever known. I am still in awe of how he recorded the song and forever thankful.”
AC/DC was forced to postpone ten shows of their U.S. tour earlier this year after Johnson had “been advised by doctors to stop touring immediately or risk total hearing loss.”