Stairway to Heaven Lawsuit Demands Jimmy Page's Cassette Tapes

The lawsuit claiming that Stairway to Heaven was filched from an obscure song by the band Spirit has finally been filed—and it threatens to delve into the rarely heard, gestational moments of Led Zeppelin’s crowning achievement.

Following through on a threat first reported by Bloomberg Businessweek, the trust for the late songwriter Randy California has sued the surviving members of Led Zeppelin and their record company for copyright infringement. The 40-page complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania on May 31, is itself a tribute to Stairway‘s iconic status: Its section headings are in a typeface recognizable from Led Zeppelin album covers, and it cites as a cause for action the “Falsification of Rock N’ Roll History.”