Astute fans of rhythm games know that a load screen of Guitar Hero 2 said "No 'Stairway!'" for the sole reason that "Freebird" was an included track. But in reality, both Guitar Hero and Rock Band would kill to have playable Zeppelin tracks. It's now looking like the band itself will be the ones deny "Stairway" and all other tracks on rhythm games.
That's right, one of the greatest rock bands ever, with a guitarist who pracitcally defined the term guitar hero in the 1970s, is refusing to hand over the master tracks to their albums in order to produce tracks for Guitar Hero or Rock Band. As Earnest Cavalli noted on Wired's Listening Post blog, this may be a good thing, as rhythm game rerecordings are notorious for bastardizing the original tracks of rock legends. Still though, there is something of an irony in Zeppelin, a band notorious for stealing much of their music, is not letting session bands tarnish the legacy of their material.
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