The full court transcript of Jimmy Page’s testimony during the ‘Stairway To Heaven’ plagiarism case has been released.
Courtesy of Rolling Stone, the transcript documents the Led Zeppelin guitarist’s full questioning during the hearing in Los Angeles in June. Page and the rest of the band had been accused of stealing the musical material of the American band Spirit’s song ‘Taurus’ from 1968.
Page’s testimony, in a case Led Zeppelin would go on to win, contained some moments of humour, including the deadpan response of “Well yeah” to the question “you had a gift in being able to play the guitar, correct?” by the prosecutor.
Additionally, Page is recorded as saying “I don’t have a stopwatch” after being asked how long a riff is generally played for in a concert, and was asked to compare ‘Stairway To Heaven’ to the song ‘Chim Chim Cher-ee’ from Mary Poppins.
Last month (July 19), Led Zeppelin announced they would be releasing a 33-track album entitled ‘The Complete BBC Sessions’ in September.
The session features the only performance of ‘Sunshine Woman’, which Led Zeppelin never otherwise recorded, as well as ‘I Can’t Quit You Baby’ and ‘You Shook Me’.
The first version of ‘BBC Sessions’ was released in 1997, but the new ‘Complete BBC Sessions’ adds a disc of eight previously-unreleased songs as well as the rare ‘White Summer’ previously only available on the ‘Led Zeppelin’ box-set. The other 24 songs have been remastered by Page and engineer John Davis.