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Zeppelin Thievery Supplemental
UPDATED AGAIN AGAIN!
UPDATED AGAIN!
UPDATED!
mrclean: Thanks for the Dazing and Confusing post on Jimmy Plage-rist. Like loophole I've always thought this subject would make an interesting post. I'm a big ZepHed but definitely not an apologist, especially considering that I'm also Sillie for Willie Dixon.
Here is a down and dirty collection of songs that some might say strike a resemblance to some Zeppelin compositions. Since Willie Dixon sued, he now shows up as author or co-author on all his tracks here. I leave it to a better man than I to dig out his vinyl and tell us which one(s) were not credited until after the lawsuit. I believe Howlin' Wolf, post-lawsuit, is now credited on The Lemon Song. Gallows Pole is listed as a "Traditional" yet Huddie Ledbetter/Alan Lomax are credited on Leadbelly's version.
Follow up:
Willie Dixon
Bring It On Home
I Can't Quit You Baby
You Shook Me
You Need Love
Howlin' Wolf
Killing Floor
Leadbelly
The Gallis Pole
I read in mrclean's link and in other places that Communication Breakdown is derived from Eddie Cochran's Nervous Breakdown. I personally don't hear it but maybe some of you do?
Eddie Cochran
Nervous Breakdown
These are the ones I own, if anyone has any of the others mentioned in the Thieving Magpies article or elsewhere, let me know and we can toss them up here as well. I would especially be interested in hearing the Annie Briggs stuff.
Here are some more from the mailbag.
Thanks Townsman saturnismine:
Small Faces- You Need Loving
Thanks Townsman hrrundivbakshi:
Little Richard- Keep A Knockin'
Bert Jansch- Blackwater Side
Thanks Townsman Me:
Memphis Minnie & Kansas Joe- When The Levee Breaks
Thanks NEW Townsman kjk:
Ritchie Valens- Ooh! My Head
11 comments
If you can find the Small Faces version of "You Need Lovin'" put it up there. Marriott's vocals are clearly the source for Plant's soaring ending of "whole lotta love".
btw, my download box says of Gallis Pole: "file doesn't exist".
I agree with you about "nervous breakdown", although the chorus modulates up to the 4 and then the 5 from the root, the same way the Zeppelin song does.
Reusing the intro from the little richard song aint no big thing (this is why that "thieving magpie" article is so damn funny...there's no need to get bent out of shape about something like that. it happens all the time).
It's not even so bad for Plant to recycle Steve Marriott's interpretation of "You Need Lovin" (even though it's pretty damned blatant, it's not as if Marriott wrote it). Still, Marriott could've been acknowledged as the arranger. "whole lotta love's" credits would have read "Dixon, arr. S. Marriott").
But the Bert Jansch song, the Jake Holmes song, and the Spirit song make Page look pretty bad: they aren't just snippets of earlier tunes, or someone else's arrangement. These are *highly original* tunes (not just riffs) that Page lifted nearly intact and embellished with his own parts.
Weird; Spirit's drummer played with Page later on in The Firm, so there was apparently no bad blood.
Karma?
in fact, the only thing they took were the lyrics. all those great riffs are nowhere to be found on the original, not even in nascent / embryonic form.
and my original vinyl pressing says "page, plant, jones, bonham, memphis minnie". so in this case at least, they seem to have credited themselves and the old blues composer in the proper fashion.
Here's a pretty good resource on the topic of Led Zeppelin's borrowing:
http://www.turnmeondeadman.net/Zep/Originals.php.
(Click on the song links within the main article for more info on each song.)
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