“It’s been a long time coming.”

When it comes to accusations of swiping from other people’s songs, Led Zeppelin have previous: ‘Whole Lotta Love, ‘Dazed and Confused’ and ‘The Lemon Song’ have all been subject to plagiarism claims, all of which were settled out of court. Maybe the biggest shadow over their career, however, has been Spirit’s ‘Taurus’ – a track released in 1968, and long pegged as the extremely heavy inspiration for the iconic opening to ‘Stairway To Heaven’.

The evidence in favour of Spirit is fairly compelling: Led Zeppelin shared bills with Spirit on numerous occasions; it’s been alleged that the Zep were interpolating Spirit’s ‘Fresh Garbage’ into their live sets in 1969; and, most tellingly, the two tracks sound eerily similar. Indeed, The Guardian point towards a 1997 interview with Spirit guitarist Randy California in Listener magazine, where he describes ‘Stairway To Heaven’ as “a rip-off”: “[They] made millions of bucks on it and never said thank you; never said, ‘Can we pay you some money for it?'”

As the paper report, Spirit’s people are finally preparing a copyright infringement case against the band. Attorney Francis Alexander Malofiy, who represents California’s estate, is preparing an injunction to block the forthcoming reissue of the band’s 1971 classic IV, from which ‘Stairway To Heaven’ is taken, unless proper credit and recompense is offered.

Under US law, Spirit could be entitled to royalties from recent sales of the track should their legal efforts prove successful – and given that ‘Stairway To Heaven’ has been valued at $560m, those earnings are likely to be fairly hefty. Malofiy has also said that the proposed lawsuit “has been a long time coming”.

Both tracks are below; make your mind up for yourself: