Dirty "Derivation": The Many Tones of Musical Influence vs. Plagiarism

 

The Muse of Music, by Adolf Ehrhardt

Let’s take a break from speeches and the thunderclouds of inspiration. Care to join me on the magic carpet ride of music?

The Oxford dictionary speculates that the English language has at least 250,000 distinct words to tinker with and arrange as we please. The language of music is more or less restricted, depending on how you look at it. Take guitar chords, for example. According to Shawn Persinger, author of Digging Deeper: How Many Chords Are There? for Premier Guitar Magazine, writes that there are 2,341 “total playable guitar chords,” and musicians have only plucked the surface of possibilities: “Of all the music in the world, 99 percent is derived from essentially the same harmonic theory and half dozen scales.”

Cases of musical plagiarism are nothing new. Jeff Miers writes in his Buffalo News article 10 times you said, ‘Where have I heard that song before?’ Feelings of resentment, inequality and discredit began in the 1950s when blues and “primal rock-n-roll” recordings, many produced by African Americans and overlooked in their own country, arrived overseas and helped to spawn the “British Invasion.” The Beatles became 1 of the 2 bands most involved in plagiarism lawsuits, the other being Led Zeppelin. Miers postulates it is probably also no coincidence that these are the 2 bestselling musical artists of all time, in that order.

A lawsuit was filed against Led Zeppelin by members of the band Spirit in 2014 over the opening chords of the iconic song “Stairway to Heaven.” Spirit and Led Zeppelin toured together in 1968, the year Spirit released the song “Taurus” which they claim was plaigiarised by Led, who wrote their hit 2 years later. While profits were of course in question, Spirit’s lawyer claimed in a 2014 People Magazine article that they were fighting for inclusion of “a writing credit” for Randy California of Spirit for “Stairway to Heaven” and to block the reissue of the album it is featured on, Led Zeppelin IV.

Testifying in court during the last week of June, Led Zeppelin singer Robert Plant, now 67, recalled the evening that he and Jimmy Page collaborated in the creation of “Stairway to Heaven.”

“That particular evening, I sat with Jimmy by the fire, and I had this first couplet that fit with what he was playing,” Plant said according to this AFP article. “I was really trying to bring the remote, pastoral Britain…the old, almost unspoken Celtic influences into the piece.”

The ruling was in Led Zeppelin’s favor, although an appeal is now pending. Plant acknowledged what many artists believe; inspiration, influence, and even the maligned term “derivation” are all part of the creative process, not plagiaristic.

“In the nest of rock and rhythm and blues, there has always been cross-pollination,” Plant said according to this article by Jess Denham in the Independent.

Brilliant artists keep the essence of an inspiration and influence until it’s just a whispered hint, nod, or echoing memory, and these slightest resemblances bring special joy when they are audibly recognized. Many listeners never pick up on the innuendos, but when you do, you feel somehow part of the process. Very often, the related influence has a totally different tone, mood and message than the current song. Take, for example, the late great Kurt Cobain poking fun at the roots of his hit “Smells Like Teen Spirit” in this 1992 Rolling Stone feature. Two songs could not be more different…or so we thought.
 

 

Just this past Friday, I was listening to my latest favorite song, Kurt Vile’s “Pretty Pimpin.’” I’m not musically inclined, but I am pretty particular about my musical tastes. I’ve listened to this song at least 20 times, and Friday an odd fact knocked me in the head out of nowhere. This guitar riff sounds kinda like “Sweet Home Alabama” (by Lynyrd Skynyrd), I thought. I’ve never been a fan of that song.

Here’s what Vile said about that song’s influence on “Pretty Pimpin’” in a StyleWeekly interview with Brent Baldwin:

 “… The single from this new album, “Pretty Pimpin,” kind of has a reverse “Sweet Home Alabama” thing, but more dark. I knew it sounded like [Southern rock] but I saw on YouTube people are saying I’m ripping off the Outlaws. I didn’t steal it from anything. There’s only so many notes, they’ve all been used millions of times [laughs]. …”

 

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For an opinionated discussion on how academic plagiarism relates to the Led Zeppelin case, see this article by Clark Baker in the Chronicle of Higher Education