Led Zeppelin: I knew they borrowed from traditional blues but...

[Gritter]

They also credited themselves with some blatant rip-offs!

http://www.hark.com/clips/qmqjfdsztg-howard-stern-exposes-led-zeppelin-as-a-farce

[Bluesberry]

Yeah, Howard Stern is on a mission to expose the fraud.  We had another thread on here about this too.  Shocking when you get into it.  Especially Plant and his lyrics.  The whole Bert Jansch Blackwaterside/Black Mountain side is one that really gets me......its deep this one

Jimmy Page was well versed in a variety of guitar styles. Beyond blues and rock, Page was fascinated with folk styles, and one of his biggest influences was the British folk guitarist Bert Jansch. Page loved to combine Celtic and Indian influences, so he took the main theme of Bert Jansch's "Blackwaterside", performed as an instrumental adding a tabla and retitling it "Black Mountain Side". Where Jansch's recording of "Blackwaterside" is credited as "Traditional, arranged Jansch", Jimmy Page gave songwriting credits for "Black Mountain Side" to himself. In 1977 interview in Guitar Player, Page admitted, "I wasn't totally original on that. It had been done in the folk clubs a lot; Annie Briggs was the first one that I heard do that riff. I was playing it as well, and then there was Bert Jansch's version. He's the one who crystallized all the acoustic playing, as far as I'm concerned." [1]Bert Jansch is aware of the influence he exerted over Jimmy Page. In a 2007 interview in Classic Rock, Jansch observes, "the thing I've noticed about Jimmy [Page] whenever we meet is that he can't look me in the eye." When asked to explain, Jansch continues, "Well, he ripped me off , didn't he? Or let's just say he learned from me. I wouldn't want to sound impolite." [2]The article goes on to point out many other successful musicians who owe a debt to Jansch, and gives examples of others who have closely followed a song originally by Bert Jansch. The most notable of these is "Ambulance Blues" by Neil Young, which draws from Jansch's "Needle of Death." [3]But where "Ambulance Blues" includes original work of Young's alongside the Jansch influence, "Black Mountain Side" is directly taken from "Blackwaterside.

[Bluesberry]

and then there is this.............damn those rat bastard Eagles..........

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xny0Uj4--tk

[Oldrottenhead]

just yotubed we used to know my god what a rip off

[launched]

and then there is this.............damn those rat bastard Eagles..........

just yotubed we used to know my god what a rip off

One of my favorite covers on this site!

https://songcrafters.org/community/index.php?topic=1961.0

[phantasm777]

geesh howard, many knew this for a long time especially after the lawsuits. i only read the posted info which included mention about dazed and confused. what they forgot to mention was jimmy stole the violin bow thing from eddie philips of the band - the creation. here's a short mention from wikipedia.

October 1966's "Painter Man", became their biggest hit, reaching #36 UK[1] and the top 10 in Germany. The track featured Phillips playing his electric guitar with a violin bow. He was reputedly the first guitarist to use this technique, although Jimmy Page later did it to greater acclaim.

being a fan of the creation and the fact eddie used the bow at least in 66, yet another rip off. IF jimmy would have given credit where credit was due, i might have more respect for him. to just take complete credit for those songs says he wasnt as great a song writer as everyone thought.
what about other songs he "wrote" that people haven't figured out yet where he ripped it off? as a musician, i feel his fame and glory for what he made zeppelin become, as big as they did, is a rip off. im sure many will disagree. guess its truely all about the money and glory for jimmy or why else would he have done it and lie and deny it?

its one thing to write a song and find out it is similiar to another song and not realize it, but its another to blatantly just ripp it off, even if just a few riffs.

[AndyR]

I dunno, this comes up on various forums every now and then. They've since held their hands up about it and, in many cases settled things (I bet not all ). In some cases the credits have now changed on CD sleeves - I assume this means things have been renegotiated legally.

Yeah, it's not cool in my book, but I'm not convinced they realised they were doing anything wrong at the time. Doesn't make it right. And I find it hard to believe that someone in the organisation didn't notice that, say, "In My Time Of Dying" on Physical Graffiti wasn't an original song (listen to Bob Dylan's first album!) - and that credit still hasn't changed to Trad! Certainly Robert Plant knew he was singing lyrics he didn't write on all these songs - he'd have learnt them from somewhere, he even admits it now - even if the rest of the band didn't know (JPJ and Bonham weren't into the blues and knew bugger all about it until joining the band). But Robert Plant doesn't strike me as the brightest button in the box. He just sang what he felt like over the band and then dreamt/waffled about vikings and hobbits and mystical sh1t. He even admits nowadays that he was singing old blues lyrics over the band, and that at the time he'd thought that was what everyone did...

They were just a rock and roll band that found themselves on a huge hedonistic roller-coaster. Early on they decided the world was out to get them (critically and financially) and that would have affected every "business" decision they made. Getting the credits right would not have been their highest priority . You'd kind of think their management/legal-department should've been looking at that side of things... but I don't think they operated like that. It sounds like the whole thing ran on sacks of money being carried around and threatening record executives into giving them better deals than they (Jimmy Page especially) had been f*cked over with before, just like many others had been in the mid-late 60s. It was a very inward-looking, siege-mentality, organisation.

Like I said, still doesn't make it right, but I kind of accept it as it is. Led Zeppelin was this massive rock and roll animal for a while, with a huge amount of ego and hubris. If they'd been behaving a little more humble and civilised, I'm not sure they would have been so successful and they probably wouldn't have been making music with quite the same cocky swagger.

I'm personally rather glad that their records exist in the form they do. For me, selfishly, I think it was worth it....

But I'd definitely feel somewhat different if I was one of the people that felt ripped off!! (I suspect that many of them still have a grudging respect for what Led Zeppelin achieved with the stuff though).


On the Jethro Tull vs The Eagles song, it is very very similar. But I didn't notice it until I read Anderson and Barre muttering about it in their 25th anniversary Tour Program!! (I think that's where I've got this conversation). It is quite a generic chord sequence, though - I know several songs that feel very similar to play chordwise. Can't remember most of them at the moment, except for two EC songs - Let it Grow's verses and parts of the Layla verses. Not as similar as Hotel California is, but the harmonic vibe is very similar. When I learnt the Jethro Tull song years ago, I actually thought "hey this is like Let it Grow" - which I'd already been playing in acoustic gigs. That in turn had reminded me of something in "Oliver!" when I'd first learnt it...

All the best tunes was writ years ago

[Oldrottenhead]

theres an add on tv right now for a uk holiday company  using part of a coldplay song  could be fix you tho not sure of song title , but on first hearing i thought wow a tv add using a pixies song, it is identical to where is my mind.