I gather this is hardly news – there’s content all over YouTube that dates back 10 years and more – but new to me after a friend showed me a link to this Rolling Stone article.
While frankly, I’m somewhat okay with Zep ripping off all these artists because otherwise the songs wouldn’t have existed, I’m in awe of how much Zeppelin ripped off and how blatantly they did it – and that this has never been big news. They have sorta gone from what I considered musical geniuses (yeah, YMMV, big time), to being the Sammy Sosa(s) of Rock n’ Roll. They should have been sued back to the Stone Age years ago.
Maybe the devil made them do it.
Here’s a link to half of a Howard Stern interview with a lawyer who was pursuing the case.
Well, it has been “big news” for a long time to knowledgeable rock fans not blinded by Led Zeppelin idolatry.
Yes, there have always been “borrowings” in all genres of music, from classical to popular. But there is NO example that can be brought forth from anywhere where one artist’s borrowings (or more accurately, out-and-out thefts) have been both as blatant and as numerous as the case of Led Zeppelin.
As one who appreciates some of the band’s work but is not as slavishly enamored of them as many seem to be, I have always found it to be one of the most disgusting stories in the history of rock.
The issue isn’t that Led Zep took other songs – every other rock group has done cover versions of songs. It’s that they did it without properly crediting (and paying) the original artist.
The Beatles, for instance, made “Twist and Shout” one one of their signature songs, and Lennon’s vocals are amazing. But they have always credited the Isley Brothers as song writers. Led Zep very often did not, and even now refuses to acknowledge they did. Even “Dazed and Confused” – which is taken wholesale from Jake Holmes – doesn’t give him a credit.
meh, if that link is anything to go by they don’t have much of a case. They may be a bit of an influence going on but it is nowhere near the same song. Had I heard it blind I’m not sure I would know which song was supposed to have ripped it off.
I think it is perfectly fine to be influenced by others and to take small sequences of notes that appeal to you.
Wow…get back to us when you’ve cleaned out your ears and know the first thing about music.
The same title, the descending bass line with precisely the same notes, the same disoriented and psychedelic “feel” of the song, even the stop part with the same pattern of rhythmic tapping (done by the guitars and drums in Zep’s version)…all are identical. Screeching the vocal an octave higher and adding more distortion to the guitars doesn’t change any of that.
It is EXACTLY “the same song” with some lyrics changed (and by the way, Page didn’t even bother to do that when he first performed the song with The Yardbirds — Plant rewrote them somewhat for the Led Zep version).
If you played Holmes’ version and Zep’s back to back to 25 people, I’d be amazed if you’d find another who agreed with you.
Yeah. A while ago, I watched these twovideos which compare the original and Zep’s, erm, not-original. While the maker of the videos may have had a little too much time on his hands, the point is definitely made. Before I heard them, I was expecting general things - same chord sequence, same general tone, etc. But on quite a few of them, they’re literally cover versions. It really is mind-blowing how they managed to get away with it.
The fact that, in my opinion, in most cases their version of the song is worse doesn’t exactly help matters.
There was debate in that thread because it’s nowhere close to being clear that Stairway to Heaven was a ripoff of Taurus. I don’t think there’s much debate in this thread because it points out a number of cases of blatant highway robbery on the part of Page & Plant.
Ah, this is “Dazed and Confused”? Yeah, that passes for what I would call a clear rip-off. The Taurus - “Stairway” connection I’d call significantly different enough, although I would say they were certainly influenced by it. Regardless, they’ve had plenty of unattributed “reworkings” of songs that they should be called out for it.
My apologies. I assumed you were speaking of the link in the post immediately preceding yours, which leads to Jake Holmes’ “Dazed and Confused.”
I didn’t follow the Rolling Stone link as I assumed it was text rather than music, and I already know the story well.
If you were indeed discussing the similarity between the opening bars of “Taurus” and “Stairway to Heaven,” I would agree that this is much more tenuous.
There is a likeness, and it’s also true that Spirit opened for Led Zeppelin, thus giving the latter in theory an opportunity for ripping them off. But this one is several notches down the list of egregious Led Zeppelin thefts. There are plenty of more obvious ones ahead of it!
I’m gonna veer a little off-topic here, but recently I’ve been listening to The Staples Singers and am wondering how similar other folks find the refrain of that song with a part of Madonna’s “Express Yourself”:
I find those parts quite similar myself. I don’t know whether they were intentional or subconscious borrowings (it happens when you write songs), but it’s interesting as some people claim they hear no similarity while to me they’re quite obviously almost the same.
Lots of British rock bands in the sixties started out by covering and/or stealing American blues. Led Zeppelin’s problem was they kept doing it even after they got big.
