The creative genius of Led Zeppelin

[swag]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCMDR0yrxMw&NR=1

[Richardo]

1. The MOJO "Roots of Zeppelin" contained a lot of those source songs

My favorite: Muddy Waters' version of "You Need Love" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pQSpI_WHns

[swag]

2. I like that. Thanks!

I like a lot of LZ, but it's funny to me that a band who has blatantly robbed others so much would be so litigious, suing Schoolly D for use of the chromatic scale, for example.

[Elidor]

3. I knew about most of those, but wasn't aware of Taurus

Just as I was thinking that Page could claim credit for Stairway, there it is. What a knicker extraordinaire.

[cemaphonic]

23. Hadn't heard that one before

Neat instrumental, but I'm inclined to give them a pass on that one. That sort of chord progression with a descending bass line isn't exactly unique, and the figuration and arrangement is different. And it's just a few bars of either song. It definitely seems to have been a strong influence, but not the egregious thievery as most of these other examples.

[Pierre.Suave]

4. Now I feel bad for buying their box set.

I wonder if I can sue them for misrepresenting the music as their own and me buying it as such not knowing it was someone elses music.

[swag]

15. The boxed set has "Hey Hey, What Can I Do,"

so you need the boxed set. No moral problem

I wonder who wrote "Hey Hey, What Can I Do."

[asthmaticeog]

28. I found that song used on a promo single in a dollar bin.

Saved me the price of the boxed set less $1. :thumbsup:

[LynneSin]

5. Where have you been the last 20 years

and you realize that LZ was NOT the only bad to do creative ownership of music.

I thought I was going to see something new and interesting but same ole stuff

[swag]

9. "New and interesting?" Come on, we're talking about Led Zeppelin!

Anyway, I've been spending about 15 of the last 20 years waiting for hypocrite Jimmy Page to relent and allow Bad Lieutenant to be restored to its original form, along with all versions of Schoolly D's "Smoke Some Kill," with The Signifying Rapper intact.

[LynneSin]

11. Best thing that could happen to "Bad Lieutenant" is it can fade into the sunset

That was a horrible cop and Keitel was going thru a kick where he wanted to do moves where he could show off his dick. It was art in "The Piano" but it was just "yikes not THAT again" in BL.

Page was smart to do that

[Sheets of Easter]

29. I say this as a Zep fan: Page is a fraud.

It's one thing to cover and/or rearrange an existing song, it's another to take full credit for doing so. Even Robert Plant called him on it once (on the VH1 Legends Led Zeppelin episode).

[Westegg]

30. No true Zep fan would call Page a "fraud."

[LynneSin]

31. I wouldn't call Jimmy Page a Fraud but Jimmy Page is out working for one person

and that's Jimmy Page

He learned this from the late Peter Grant about how to control the music in order to build the legend. You think LZ would be a legendary band if Jimmy Page wasn't the control freak and asshole that he is. He's made sure that new LZ releases come out on a timely basis but not too often because it dilutes the namebrand. And even though LZ was notorious for sampling and/or borrowing other musicians works (something that was not uncommon for many of the bands of that era to do), Jimmy knows that he wants full control over how the LZ music is used today. Sure, it may show up in an occasional Cadillac commericial but it's not over abused the way that, unfortunately, the Beatles catalog has become (Geez, now Target is using a Beatles song? But then again the Beatles don't control their catalog).

I wouldn't call Page a Fraud. But I would call him a bit of a control freak over his product - but 30 years after the death of John Bonham, Led Zeppelin still has one of the strongest name recognitions out there and is probably why some 20million attempts were made for the 10000 tickets available for the Reunion Show. Of course now Jimmy wants to tour with Led Zeppelin again and Plant is being the ass about it (Plant knows his voice won't survive the tour - at least the tour that Jimmy Page wants)

[Westegg]

32. Jimmy needs to relax...

...and I quite agree with all you said, by the way. That kind of control served Page well, back in the day. Now, in our hyper-mediated world? Jimmy's control-freak paranoia isn't going to change anything. It can only lead to a too-soon heart attack. The days of Peter Grant or Richard Cole going into London record shops and intimidating the hippies behind the counter are long dead.

[last_texas_dem]

6. Interesting

I had heard quite a bit about their ripping off of blues artists, probably due to the lawsuits involved, but I was not aware of a few of these. I had been under the impression that "Black Mountain Side" was totally original. I'm amazed they initially didn't even partially credit the original author of "Babe, I'm Gonna Leave You", since I'm assuming it was a fairly contemporary song. The Association's cover was from 1965 or so. I also was not aware of "Dazed and Confused" originally being a Jake Holmes song. He is a talented songwriter; he was the lyricist on the Four Seasons' underrated venture into psychedelia, The Genuine Imitation Life Gazette. Judging from the video, there apparently has not been any legal action regarding that one. I had heard the similarities between Spirit's "Taurus" and "Stairway...." Regarding that one, I've wondered before if there was a certain level of tolerance among rock groups and ripping each other off. I know the opening melody of Deep Purple's "Child in Time" rips off It's a Beautiful Day's "Bombay Calling" but AFAIK there was never any legal action taken concerning that one. All the same, an informative video. I like a lot of Led Zeppelin's stuff, but am appalled at the boldness it took for them to "borrow" from others to *that* extent.

[swag]

16. I too enjoy much Led Zeppelin.

[Elidor]

7. Here's the Yardbirds doing Dazed and Confused in early 1968

Jake Holmes agrees this is a better version that what Zeppelin eventually churned out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=di0n3r9NwDI

This is the recording Page suppresed twice.

[swag]

25. I wonder how long that will last up there once stingy Jimmy finds out about it.

[Alexander]

8. Jimmy Page was the greatest thief in rock music.

Most of the first two Zeppelin albums were written by someone else. Credited and uncredited covers made it all the way through their second-to-last album "Presence".

[swag]

26. Sounds like Jimmy the Weasel had a nice long run!

[NoGOPZone]

10. Ever see the Simpsons when Homer visits England?

"There's Big Ben; there's Piccadilly Circus; there's Jimmy Page, the greatest thief of American black music who ever walked the Earth!"

[swag]

12. That's great. I don't remember that episode. I'll have to look for it.

[RainDog]

13. interesting thread

I didn't know they didn't attribute the blues singers who wrote the songs they did. Did they take credit for Memphis Minnie's When the Levee Breaks, too? I thought most of the boy blues rockers were doing the blues thing... variations but with a tip of the hat... that was part of the whole foundation, to honor those players that were marginalized. especially gut bucket blues.

[swag]

14. Thanks for the 420 reminder.

[RainDog]

17. ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlcOohBk1hA

...not a rr

[swag]

18. Damn, Ron Artis is good.

Thank you.

Here's some well-known Howlin' Wolf (I believe most incarnations of the Yardbirds had a go at this number, though I don't know if Jimmy Page claimed credit for writing the song):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LNt5J0Cesc

[RainDog]

21. gawd I love Howlin' Wolf

that clip is hot. best online for him, imo.

did you see the doc. about him from a few years ago? someone did a bio and made a documentary from it... The Howlin' Wolf Story (2003) - from the book Moanin' At Midnight - it's a great book!! The doc is available at my local library, if you haven't seen it.

[cemaphonic]

22. That one at least is credited

Memphis Minnie + Page et all. Seems fair, as they changed the arrangement, melody and added some lyrics.

[RainDog]

24. their version is a perfect commentary for Katrina

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_Ny9_CrUVY

The 1927 flood that inspired the original is eerily similar to Katrina. Hoover didnt' think any govt help was needed for the population. whites were rescued while blacks were kept back at gunpoint and made to work on repairs... and some died in the effort. That was only three years before Hoover's fucktarded economic policies and lack of oversight created the stock market crash of 29 and ushered in the great depression. teapot dome was enron, the early years...

this sort of thing is what gets me so outdone with people in this nation. republican economic disasters are a constant of their policies. and yet they are allowed to continue to spout the same bullshit decade after decade. why are people in this country so fucking stupid about what is in their own economic interests? the only thing that explains it is racism, if you ask me.

here's a pbs show about the flood of 1927

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/flood/timeline/timeline2.html

[mitchum]

19. Lift What Thou Wilt Shall Be The Whole Of The Law...

or something like that...

[RainDog]

20. and if you're a musician, writer or artist

and you don't attribute the creators of something, you don't get to play in the kool kidz club.

it is professionally skanky.

[Sheets of Easter]

27. If they just came out an acknowledged that most of their songs

were covers, they'd still be a great rock band. It's the thievery aspect that sucks.

[LynneSin]

33. In a nutshell they have

There was a lawsuit by who I believe were Willie Dixon's family and they got both the royalities and credit.

Most LZ albums you'll see the names on them. And remember, they weren't doing exact copies of the song, there was some minor variations but not enough to take full credit of the songs.