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Led Zeppelin: Innovators or Plagiarists? Audio of 8 Songs Proving They Might Be the Best Cover Band of All Time

Posted on 27 June 2008 by admin

 229e246d4b791d1e3df363fb5730700c_full.jpg (JPEG Image, 641x640 pixels)


Before I get started, I’d like to say that I’m a huge fan of Led Zeppelin. That being said, someone (anonymous) emailed me about a month ago suggesting the idea for this post. They said they heard Howard Stern discussing the Album Led Zeppelin I, and that all of the songs, with the exception of Good Times Bad Times, were stolen from other artists, and writing credit was not given. Actually, writing credit WAS given, but only after Led Zeppelin’s Greatest Hits album was released. The original artists were never paid royalties for their works, but from what I understand, royalties are now being paid, but dated from the Greatest Hits album.

After many hours of searching for these songs, I now have all of the original artists’ versions of the songs from the album Led Zeppelin I., along with Led Zeppelin’s version. You decide – Innovators or Plagiarists?

#1 Good Times Bad Times

This appears to be their only original track on this album.

#2 Babe I’m Gonna Leave You

Original Artist: Joan Baez

Original Song Title: Babe I’m Gonna Leave You

[audio:http://www.listropolis.com/audio/joan_baez_gonna_leave.mp3]

Led Zeppelin’s Version

[audio:http://www.listropolis.com/audio/zeppelin_gonna_leave.mp3]

#3 You Shook Me

Original Artist: Willie Dixon

Original Song Title: You Shook Me

[audio:http://www.listropolis.com/audio/willie_dixon_you_shook_me.mp3]

Led Zeppelin’s Version

[audio:http://www.listropolis.com/audio/zeppelin_you_shook_me.mp3]

#4 Dazed and Confused

Original Artist: Jake Holmes

Original Song Title: I’m Confused

[audio:http://www.listropolis.com/audio/jake_holmes_im_confused.mp3]

Led Zeppelin’s Version

[audio:http://www.listropolis.com/audio/zeppelin_dazed_confused.mp3]

#5 Your Time is Gonna Come

Original Artist: Traffic

Original Song Title: Dear Mr. Fantasy

[audio:http://www.listropolis.com/audio/traffic_dear_mr_fantasy.mp3]

Led Zeppelin’s Version

[audio:http://www.listropolis.com/audio/zeppelin_your_time_is_gonna_come.mp3]

#6 Black Mountain Side

Original Artist: Bert Jansch

Original Song Title: Black Waterside

[audio:http://www.listropolis.com/audio/bert_jansch_black_waterside.mp3]

Led Zeppelin’s Version

[audio:http://www.listropolis.com/audio/zeppelin_black_mountain_side.mp3]

#7 Communication Breakdown (I don’t hear this one)

Original Artist: Eddie Cochran

Original Song Title: Nervous Breakdown

[audio:http://www.listropolis.com/audio/eddie cochran_nervous_breakdown.mp3]

Led Zeppelin’s Version

[audio:http://www.listropolis.com/audio/zeppelin_communication_breakdown.mp3]

#8 I Can’t Quit You Baby

Original Artist: Willie Dixon

Original Song Title: I Can’t Quit You Baby

[audio:http://www.listropolis.com/audio/willie_dixon_cant_quit.mp3]

Led Zeppelin’s Version

[audio:http://www.listropolis.com/audio/zeppelin_cant_quit.mp3]

#9 Stairway to Heaven (Not on the album, but worth mentioning!)

Original Artist: Spirit

Original Song Title: Taurus

[audio:http://www.listropolis.com/audio/spirit_taurus.mp3]

Led Zeppelin’s Version

[audio:http://www.listropolis.com/audio/zeppelin_stairway.mp3]

Disturbing, right? If you know of any other rips, tell us in the comments.


Related Reading:

A History of Western Music (Eighth Edition)A History of Western Music (Eighth Edition)
Norton Anthology of Western Music: Volume 2: Classic to Twentieth CenturyNorton Anthology of Western Music: Volume 2: Classic to Twentieth Century
Music an Appreciation

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  • Don't forget how Page stole 'Train Kept A-Rollin'' while with The Yardbirds to create 'Stroll On'.
  • Alynnak
    I'm not familiar with the sings but i love to hear it..maybe i'e heard it before but didn't know the title and the singer.
  • elllllllllll
    i've heard this for a long time. and when i heard the taurus song i was stunned. jimmy page can play guitar but he cannot write original music. pathetic.
  • John
    how did they copy Spirit? i listened to in on youtube and they sound nothing alike.
  • the troof will set you free
    Zep ripped off plenty... period. When the Levee breaks , nobodys fault and others are very old blues tunes, written in the 1920's , Ma & Pa Rainey (levee), Blind Willie Johnson (nobodys fault). Same music/same lyrics, word for word.
  • homesickfrank
    yeah but they took lyrics almost word for word from Willie Dixon, and copied music almost exactly from old records... this isn't "using ideas", matt, this is plagiarism, or stealing....
    we aren't talking "similarities" we're talking note for note and word for word....
    fucking thieves.
  • Jeremy
    you forgot Gallis Pole by ledbelly covered by Led Zeppelin in the song Gallows Pole... almost a direct ripoff.
  • Karen
    When The Levee Breaks is oddly reminiscent of Bob Dylan's The Levee's Going To Break.
  • larry
    great band, but a bunch of thieves. geez, had they given credit where credit was due,
    they would have more respect. worst yet, many fans dont realize this or could care less.
    i always figured if you make zillions from old starving blues musicians, at least cut them some royalties. willie dixon was smart though, he got a large settlement which his
    family still receives. shame on jimmy page.
  • Led Zeppelin was formed in London 1968 and was the highest grossing touring band of the seventies. Their concerts, often three hours in length, were legendary. With over 300 million albums sold worldwide, Led Zeppelin's boundary-shattering music remains timeless and their enormous energy undiminished.
  • That's some great stuff. I think most bands use parts of other bands songs, but the way they did it, they were able to create something new, which makes them the best cover band of all time ;)

    Ashley :)
  • wonderful post
  • Jerry
    The only similarities were some of the song titles, that's why you only gave us little clips... Pentatonic blues scales are a foundation so you kind of don't know what you are talking about.
    Some o the comparisons were so far off it made me laugh. And you reactions were priceless, "DISTURBING RIGHT?" FUCK NO LMAO!

    Led Zeppelin always was the definitive rock band, and they always will be... You can't change that, and this article is why.

    Oh and thanks for reminding me pick up few albums from the store.
  • I'm with everyone else on Led's side. It does appear that they have used a lot of other songs for "inspiration", which isn't a crime. Some credit to the other artists would have probably been appreciated more, especially at the time. They just had the talent to really rock them out and bring them to the masses.
  • Beatnik
    Reeppeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaattt!!





    enough.

    all your fault is not being born 40 years earlier.
  • carl sawicki
    you guys need something better to do then find plagarism within LZ's tunes other then a few similar notes and bars. we all know that artists cover other artists tunes and make money from it.
    get a life morons.
  • The jacket of Led Zeppelin's first album that I saw in '77 [nine years after its release, to be sure, but at least a decade before any album that could be called a Zep "Greatest Hits"] did in fact credit "You Shook Me" and "I Can't Quit You" as Willie Dixon songs, and "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You" as "Traditional" [that is, too old for royalties], because LZ believed, wrongly, that Baez had got it from a public-domain source.
    The "Dazed and Confused," comparison, though, is really remarkable.
    And Willie Dixon's successful legal action over "Whole Lotta Love" [from Led Zeppelin II] is widely known.

  • markpd
    I cannot get it to play am i missing a plug in or something
  • Robert_Plant
    IF you are a TRUE zep Fan......then Bring this blog to to The Lounge where it counts at ....The Traders Den...., you may even find a few live recordings or two.
  • silentjay
    awesomely stated sheplaysguitarandcriesandsings! I'm with you 100%. there are just way too many bozo's nowadays who just don't get it - you' said it well ! rock on bro!
  • sheplaysguitarandcriesandsings
    AND TO THE "BIG LED ZEP FAN"...its Bonzo, not Gonzo. Gonzo is hunter s. thompson. bonzo is john bonham.

    and why should led zep admit anything? they didnt do anything wrong. words are just words...sounds are just sounds. they are paying homage to their roots.
    How about we take an example from REGGAE music.....or other BLUES music..... or FOLK music. its just now in the days of CORPORATE music that people claim that they OWN sounds. you cant own a sound...or sue someone for it...or think that the best band of all time is a sham for going back to the roots and transforming old folk and blues songs into something masterful.
    it takes a great master to cover some of these songs. and since zep made them, has anyone else covered them? no. ill tell you why ,because the music industry has no talent anymore.... its erroding from the inside out....screw corporate rock...lets all go back to our roots.
    i hate people who bash led zep. if you had some education in music, you wouldnt do that at all. go back home and listen to your backstreet boys cds.

    this is the most retarted thing ever.
  • renodave
    Sounds like the reasons people give for stealing music...
  • Jerry
    YEE-e-YEE! Preach SON!
  • sheplaysguitarandcriesandsings
    well....old blues men were covering songs for many many many years. and writing credit was never given. led zep did it in the same style. they were just a type of new school blues men...and thats what blues men do is cover old songs from years and years ago. plus, its 12 bar blues... and one more thing, no one ever called robert johnson a plagiarist...but theres no proof he actually wrote any of the old blues songs he played either. so there. led zep just made it mainstream...and combined rock and roll, metal and blues together. therefore being INNOVATORS. enough said. why shit on the best band of all time? some people are just jealous.
  • jamespages
    ok. I am guilty
  • curious
    i'm not sure if i missed this somewhere, but i was just wondering if anymore similarities occur on any other albums, besides led zeppelin IV since thats what stairway is on
  • ofallon101
    i like to see when the other songs were written if you can find the info and only a few really sound like they could have been considered plagiarism. Zeppelin Rocks
  • jahonaaaaaaa
    audio not working
  • bluemu
    Oh man it hurts, I have been cheated on all this time. I feel like britney spears now

    bluemu.
  • Bapudi
    I never really liked Led Zeppelin.
    Let the hate comments begin.
  • silentjay
    i guess a piece of lettuce , a tomato , a pickle and a bun are plagiarist for being put on a piece of beef. think about it for a minute.
  • BIGLEDZEPFAN
    I am a huge Led Zep fan. I saw them on their 3rd to the last live show ever, in Germany, about 3 months before Gonzo died. I heard Stern that day talking about it, the original artists did get a bit of a raw deal, but the real bottom line is this; these songs would never have been heard by the masses if not for Led Zeppelin. Most of these these songs were obscure, living in the ears of only hard core blues lovers until LZ put them on their first album. I do have to take issue with "Your time is gonna come" It really doesn't sound that similiar to the Traffic tune at all. Take care
  • renodave
    Yeah, I don't hear this one either and a few others are a stretch also.
  • marcus
    all artists do this... just most pay the people who's stuff they steal or borrow or whatever you want to call it...
  • kim garbow
    Isn't the use and re-use of various songs by different artists more a characteristic of the blues and folk genres? I had always assumed that many of Led Zeppelin's songs (like many other British bands of this period) were performed and recorded with the implication that no one can take original credit for them as they had been passed on for so long, much like no one can take credit for a folk tale. Whether they abused this notion, i'm not sure, but it seems more likely that Led Zeppelin came along in a time when the record industry was changing greatly in that the business of it was beginning to conflict with its artistic aspects. Where once recycling songs was an accepted form of innovation, it was now a matter of cash in somebody's pockets. Also, Joan Baez didn't even write that song. Some other lady did.
  • Paul
    This page seems pretty silly. I mean I am in now way defending Led Zeppelin,I am of the opinion that they are the #1 most overrated band in the history of music. But some of these songs are so obviously similar that Led Zeppelin would have to have been retarded to try and get away with stealing them. They probably gave credit to all these artists in the liner notes, and some of these songs are probably tribute to the other band, especially Black Mountain side to black waterside. The stair way to heaven one was interesting though, not cause it shows they copied from them, but that Spirit, whos a better band than led zeppelin, but much less known, had almost the exact same riff years before zeppelin but got no where near the amount of radio play or fame zeppelin got from the worlds #1 most over played over rated shitty song stairway to heaven.
  • Bill
    Many Bands have covered other musicians who inspired them , but to call Led Zeppelin a
    " Cover Band " is ,in my opinion , an insult. "Kashmir"," Ten Years gone"," The Ocean," In My
    Time of Dying" "Moby Dick ". These songs alone say it all.
  • Actually, they sorta nicked the riff of 'Moby Dick' from Bobby Parker's 'Watch Your Step', which is where The Beatles got the riff from 'I Feel Fine'. Both bands have admitted this. You can hear both songs come through in the Parker tune, even though 'Moby Dick' and 'I Feel Fine' sound nothing alike.
  • Tony
    Plageurism IS a big deal nowadays. Not all artists steal lyrics and music from other bands. And when they get caught, they get sued. Tom Petty (Mary Jane) sued Red Hot Chili Peppers (Dani California) and Vanilla Ice (Ice Ice Baby) was sued for stealing from Under Pressure. So you can't say that everyone does it and it's no big deal. It IS a big deal. Does this make Led Zepplin Milli Vanilli? No. It just makes them like hundreds of other bands these days that are good at singing and playing their own instruments, but not writing their own music. They should at least have given credit and royalties to the original authors of the songs
  • Chunk
    Get over yourselves. Songs that weren't written by the band are credited as such in the liner notes of the album. You do know how to read those, right? There should be no surprise about any of this, except for the fact that most of those songs are nothing like the comparative samples. Others, well let's just say that Vanilla Ice wasn't the first person to steal a riff.
  • renodave
    Great song though. I remember listening to this song under the covers at night when I was a kid. There were some cool radio stations then...
  • changchongchingy
    you forgot to mention the song "how many more times" which is a great zeppelin tune. this first album is really what every band does when they first get together, learn together by practicing other peoples songs, zeppelin was just phenomenal at it...
  • renodave
    Um, it's funny you mention that and I'm surprised this isn't in the original post. Actually, the "hunter" portion of "How Many More Times" is a direct rip-off of "The Hunter" by Albert King. The song was credited as being written by Booker T and The MG's, but "How Many More Times" is credited to Page, Jones, and Bonham. You just can't do that.
  • That is disturbing. Great post, dude. Well put together.
  • Hey I am glad someone had the balls to say it. I have been slipping in anti Led Zepplin BLASPHEMY here and there for years and people always look at me like I just puked on their shirt when I say it. But I just don't really like them, I can't help it!
    But hey , when people talk trash about the Beatles I probably look at them like they just puked on my shirt
  • lol
    no shit sherlock.

    all music is influenced by all music heard by the musicians. even scales are based on what is heard alot.
  • Tito
    Actually, Zeppelin settled out of court a long time ago for most of the plagiarist claims. They mixed songs with their own style and further stampings of their records have been credited to Willie Dixon. Stupid stuff like this pops up all over the net and if this stops someone from liking Zeppelin just because of that, then they weren't a real fan anyways. It still doesn't deny the fact that LZ was just bad-ass talented. They thought they were making something original by sampling from another artists. Obviously they were wrong, and it didn't stop them from creating more awesome albums.
  • Chris
    I've heard a lot about how many songs they've covered/stole, but between Bonham's great drums, Page's innovative guitar playing, Paul Jones' groovy ass bass lines, and Plant's unparalleled voice, Zeppleins still the shit
  • chris
    the music before you can start to make the generalization that all their stuff is plagiarized. You Shook Me for one they credited on the album, everyone knows its an old blues song. Dazed and Confused Page played with The Yardbirds before Zeppelin, so you can see why they might heavily rework a favorite song of his. And as for When the Levee Breaks (even though its not on the list), if you listen to it, they rewrote a lot of the lyrics and gave it a big makeover and in my opinion more of a tribute than anything else. They loved the blues, I hardly think their intention was to milk and exploit it.
  • Brian
    JOAN BAEZ- Although a songwriter herself, especially in the mid-1970s, Baez is most often regarded as an interpreter of other people's work, covering songs by Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan, The Beatles, Jackson Browne, Paul Simon, The Rolling Stones, Stevie Wonder and myriad others.-wikipedia
  • hender
    Using ideas from other bands or artists is very common.. I can name numerous instances of such occurances.. The examples of Led Zeppelin vs others bear in my opinion very vague and light similarities in most cases. Innovators for sure.
  • john
    the willie dixon songs are covers and i believe babe im gonna leave you is too because thats what they played when they first got together cause they all knew it. It was in the book stairway to heavon uncensored.
  • RC67
    I remember when Kingdom Come released their album and their Single "get it on". Robert Plant trounced them as a Led Zeppelin Rip Off. Oh how the mighty have fallen. He even berrated David Coverdale and called him David Coverplant....Shame on him.
  • Dick
    Very interesting indeed, but I have to second Matt. Some of the comparisons were a bit of a stretch. The blues scale does make alot of songs sound like each other, and also Led Zeppelin was always open about idolizing their blues heroes, and made it no secret when they covered a song. In a way they them covering songs helped the blues medium reach a larger audience that would have otherwise remained in obscurity.
  • silentjay
    ohya and one more thing - Led Zeppelin(debut) was recorded in about 36 hours - so it was basically one long jam session. And - "Good Times Bad Times" & "Communication Breakdown" are the best work on the album and were 100% original - Page "virtually invents the guitar riff as a key songwriting component" .
  • silentjay
    Led Zeppelin were innovators. If you really want to get technical about lyrics well i'm not sure there's easy answers for that - if you're going to stand behind that logic I think you may as well just say that Rock N' Roll itself is plagiarism. And if it is - then I think maybe that's what make's it what it is. Someone once said -" A good poet borrows- A great poet steals"
  • silentjay
    Interesting topic , and I get what you're trying to say here shaun but I think you're missing something here and that is that led Zeppelin did'nt by any stretch of the imagination start the whole "white boys doing the blues" thing - it started in the 50's with Elvis and just about any rock n' roll band you can name 10 years before Zep including Beatles & Stones etc. Page's "new blues sound" or "heavy" blues was directly influenced by Jeff Beck Group "Truth" album. it was common in those days to leave out direct credits. Page himself played literally hundreds of studio sessions he was never credited for.
    i think plagiarism is a pretty harsh word to use in this case. I think it had alot more to with homage & tribute and also reaching a young audience.
  • renodave
    Yes, Lep Zep wasn't the only act ripping off other artists. That doesn't make it right. But again, you're referring to other artists that gave full credit to the songwriters of the songs they were covering. LEP ZEP didn't do that!!!
  • A little bit of research will show you that the only mistake made here was that Zeppelin accidentally credited the wrong people for these songs. Babe, I'm Gonna Leave You was credited to Joan Baez when it was supposed to be credited to Anne Bredon's composition of the song. Also, I Can't Quite You and You Shook Me were both credited to Willie Dixon and turns out You Shook Me should have been credited to J.B. Lenior. I quit after this because it took me 5 minutes to shoot down 3 of your outrageous claims.

    I don't even really care for Zeppelin, but the claim that they're plagiarists is pretty ballsy. I suggest you do some simple research before posting this crap.
  • Yeah, dude. It's you that needs to do the 'simple research'.
  • shaun76
    had you taken a minute to read the post you'd see that they were credited AFTER the greatest hits album. No royalties were paid for the use before that album.
  • Jessica
    If you don't think they are plagiarized, just look up all the court cases that were brought up against Led Zeppelin by the original artist... Led Zeppelin lost them all. Also, many of the ones that "sound similar" but aren't quite the same.. many of those artists were people that Jimmy Page went and saw in concert, mere days before writing his "original" song.
  • johntasha
    I'm curious whether "THE THIEVING MAGPIES" article and website by Will Shade (circa 2001) had any influence on your article. I suppose not, because I don't see any credits to him and since this is all about plagiarism, surely you would have given Will his due. http://www.furious.com/perfect/jimmypage.html
  • shaun76
    Will Shade's article is great, but because it talks more about the yardbirds, I did not use the information. You have a good pout though, and I guess I could have listed where I found the comparisons. I found most of them through various comments in other posts, then listened to the two songs to see if I could hear the similarities.
  • matt harrison
    "Although a songwriter herself, especially in the mid-1970s, Baez is most often regarded as an interpreter of other people's work, covering songs by Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan, The Beatles, Jackson Browne, Paul Simon, The Rolling Stones, Stevie Wonder and myriad others. In more recent years, she has found success interpreting songs of diverse songwriters such as Steve Earle, Natalie Merchant and Ryan Adams." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_Baez


    you wanna piss on great rock musicians....good fuckin luck.......get your fuckin story straight at least....
  • shaun76
    "Jimmy Page got the idea to cover this after hearing Joan Beaz' Folk version. He and Plant were both fans of Baez."
    http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=299

    One of only about 100 mentions that the song was RIPPED from Baez, who admitted to borrowing the song from Anne Bredon. So, to quote you..."Get YOUR fuckin story straight" before you flame me for doing hours of research.
  • pedrocs
    But... it's a cover. It makes it *not* plagiarism.

    Is it a crime to cover?
  • shaun76
    not a crime to cover, but it IS a crime to put "Page/Plant" for writing credit. That keeps the original composer from receiving royalties. Not sure how that applies to folk songs, but usually writing credit would say, "Traditional."
  • hafronix
    if you look at it all bands took way back classic rock like elvis and made songs that yes u could trace back i meant everyoen, aerosmith, led zepplin, etc. so i dont find it that big of a deal
  • Rob U.
    Plant's vocals and lyrics to "Whole Lotta Love" are almost identical to Steve Marriott's in "You Need Loving" by Small Faces.
  • johnnyluddite
    Whole Lot Of Love was based on a Willie Dixon number, I believe he sued Zep and won.
  • bobbym51
    I've known this for almost 30 years! Zep was just one of a number of British bands who were infatuated with American blues and did covers of songs from the late fifties. They were just one of the more obvious examples, others such as Clapton also capitalized on their discovery of an American musical form that was ignored by the vast majority of Americans.

    This is no revelation, just a very late realization by second generation Zeppelin fans.
  • renodave
    You're missing the point, which is that Lep Zep stole songs without giving proper credit and usually taking the credit themselves. Why is this so hard to understand? I distinctly remember Cream crediting Skip James for writing "I'm So Glad."
  • Alnoga
    I completely agree with bobbym51.
  • Steve C.
    I don't understand why people deny this obvious fact, and I also don't understand why people get so upset about it. When I found out that they stole most of the music, it just inspired me to look up the originals, which got me into a whole lot more good music then I probably would have otherwise.
  • Tyler
    Listen to "Boodie With Stu" by Zep and then listen to "Ooh My Head" by Ritchie Valens.
  • THEN...listen to 'Ooh! My Head' from Valens and then listen to 'Ooh! My Soul' from Little Richard.
  • Mike N
    thought every knew there's not much new in the world. Heard this a long time ago and always viewed them differently afterwards.
  • Rpet
    I'm givin you a thumbs down just because you asked for a thumbs up cudos will be given when deserved not asked didn't your mother ever teach you that
  • shaun76
    I did NOT ask for a thumbs up - it simply reminds viewers coming from SU to give a thumbs up IF they enjoy it. That's the point of SU - if you like something, you help spread it for others to enjoy. It's almost the same as having the Digg badge at the beginning of a post.

    Thumbs up or down, I appreciate you visiting and commenting. :-)
  • shane
    Good point and good post!
  • Zippy
    Fake - Photoshopped.

    Ooops, I'm on the wrong site.

    I'm sure that if you delved into the history of many of the greatest bands around, you will find a level of similarity with previously published tracks from other artists. However, there is a reason why bands such as LZ become one of the greatest bands around - they come with a certain dynamic which works across all their published music.

    In older times, I'm pretty sure that many small artists would have felt a great deal of honour in being 'ripped' by a major band such as LZ. Now-a-days, they'd all be throwing each other into court with hefty suits against each other.
  • renodave
    No, plagiarism lawsuits are nothing new in the music biz. Why do you think Led Zep giving credit to the original artists?
  • Will Sturgeon
    I disagree with everyone who says music has ALWAYS been plagarized. There is a lot of music that has been INSPIRED and INFLUENCED, which is different than PLAGERIZED. Granted, a lot of music HAS been plagerized. However, ALL music has not ALWAYS been plagerized. Let's try to stay away from extremes.

    And I do agree with a lot of people who claim that some of these songs aren't really relevant. I can't really hear Communication Breakdown, and Stairway to Heaven could definitely be attributed to the "common chord progression" syndrome. Finally, the twelve-bar blues point is valid as well.

    HOWEVER, Dazed and Confused? What the eff, Zep. That was pretty low. Not the stealing, but the lack of admission of "covering," which classifies it as plagerism. Black Mountain Side is definitely close enough to be considered as plagerism, even just by looking at the names and similarities in chord changes. And Babe I'm Gonna Leave You is also a crazy example, because the similarities are there.
    All in all, it doesn't hurt to cover a song. But to take full credit for it, or let people assume that you are taking full credit for it, is low.

    So people, don't be so ignorant as to just write this off.
    And Zep is still great.
  • pedrocs
    Babe I'm gonna Leave you is a traditional folk song!
  • renodave
    Oh? Then why did they end up giving the other singer credit? Were they just feeling generous?
  • CW
    Everything is pretty legit except for stairway to heaven. You CANNOT copy write a chord progression, if you could, there would have been no new music for the past 200 years. That said, a chromatically descending baseline with a chord progression in a major key isn't unique to those two songs at all. Go back and listen to a couple songs, that chord progression is probably one of the most under used progressions, but every time it comes back people froth at the mouth with compliments. Good snoop work.
  • A
    All i can say is Zep's version of babe im gonna leave you kills the original to the ends of the earth, they definitely should have been more open about the sources of their music though, but it does not by any means make them any less amazing.
  • Will
    Music has *always* been plagarized. In the 20th Century, particularily in anything touched by the blues genre. Elvis didn't write 'Blue Suede Shoes'. Did Carl Perkins complain? No, he made a career out of it. Some of these pieces are pretty much direct copies, some are obvioudly influencing ideas, and some I just don't here. Should the artists be recognized, and recieve some of the profits off their songs... Probably. Did Led Zepplin ad their own unique vibe that took these songs to a new, exciting level? Definitely. Personally my life is better because Zepplin took from these artists and created very exciting works. I just hope some one takes from them, and makes even *more* exciting works.

    P.S. Bring back 90's hip-hop sampling. We're losing a lot of great music, because people feel the need to monetize everything. Sometimes great art should be its own payment.
  • renodave
    What's you're referring to is totally different. Elvis and Carl were friends. Elvis didn't take credit for writing 'Blue Suede Shoes' like Led Zep did with these other artists. He simply covered the song and Carl got full credit for writing it. And I'm sure Carl got plenty of royalty checks out of Elvis' version. Actually, Perkins' version sold a million copies, but his career stalled a bit while he recovered from an auto accident.
  • Steven
    Zep are scenewhores who make crap music, what more needs to be said?
  • John
    Trolls are awesome.

    Back on topic, I must say I find this quite sad. Just why didn't they admit this in the original release of the album?
  • Mikey
    Anne Bredon was the the original composer of "Babe I’m Gonna Leave You". Joan Baez and Zeppelin both covered the song.

    While a student at UC-Berkeley in the 1950's, Anne Bredon appeared on a live folk-music radio show “The Midnight Special” on station KPFA, in which she sang "Babe, I'm Gonna Leave You."

    When Led Zeppelin covered the song after hearing Joan Baez's version, they credited the song as arranged by Jimmy Page. In the 1980s, Bredon was made aware of Led Zeppelin's version of the song and since the 1990's Led Zeppelin's version has been credited to Anne Bredon/Jimmy Page & Robert Plant, and Bredon received a substantial back-payment in royalties.

    Led Zeppelin is still one of the greatest hard rock bands of all time.
  • Keith
    Great research. It'd be great to hear Anne Bredon's version.
  • pedrocs
    What do you mean, great research? It's taken from wikipedia! Which is what the author of this post should have done.

    Some songs are covers and duly credited, others are adaptations and/or quotes/winks at the original songs.

    Everybody knows this and yet you act as if you discovered something. Get real.
  • Untrusting
    Some of the songs sound nothing alike, this is utter BS.
  • I love Arthur
    Every day when you're
    Walking down the street,
    Everybody that you meet
    Has an original point of view.
    And I say - Hey! (Hey!)
    What a wonderful kind of day
    If we could learn to work and play
    And get along with each other.
    You gotta listen to your heart,
    Listen to the beat,
    Listen to the rhythm,
    The rhythm of the street.
    Open up your eyes.
    Open up your ears.
    Get together
    And make things better
    By working together.
    It's a simple message, And it comes from the heart.
    Believe in yourself, For that's the place to start.
    And I say - Hey! (Hey!)
    What a wonderful kind of day
    If we could learn to work and play
    And get along with each other.
    Hey! What a wonderful kind of day. Hey!
    What a wonderful kind of day. Hey!
  • seth
    I kind of wish I never knew this.
  • me too :|
  • Joe Pike
    Me three. I always considered them overrated, now just to a higher level.
  • meh
    These bear tenuous resemblances at best. Try not to waste so much of your life with such pointless stuff.
  • ZepScholar
    Although you are correct in demonstrating that these songs were in fact mostly fleshed out by other artists you fail to recognize one fact. Jimmy Page, and/or Robert Plant were directly associated with the majority of the writing of the original tracks as studio musicians, or as band members of the other artists, they maintained the legal rights to the songs, and as co-writers were allowed to publish them as original works given they altered some specified percentage of the work.
    So covers these are not- simply the resycling of old songs that they legally owned and wrote.
  • ekow
    You're saying that any of the members of Zeppelin, at one point worked with ALL of the artists mentioned above, including Willie Dixon who is almost 30 years older than them?
  • Kris
    Find me any artist that has not ripped a song, songs, entire albums, entire works, etc, from other artists. To quote Shakespeare "There is nothing new under the sun" (even that quote has been traced back to the Bible).
  • renodave
    Um, I really can't think of anyone. Maybe you could do us a favor and find us another artist who has ripped off other artists as extensively as Led Zep.
  • YahooSerious
    Oh come on....anyone singing/playing slow blues is gonna sound the same. I'm not convinced on "I can';t quit you".
    Nervous Breakdown...not even close
    Black Mountainside...not enough to accuse plagarism, but some similarities
    Your Time is Gonna Come...a little...kinda like saying "Welcome to the Jungle" sounds like "You Really Got Me". But there is that riff in there.....
    Dazed and Confused...WTF! Woah....seriously, WTF!
    You Shook Me....I knew this was a cover when it came out...you mean to say they tried to play it off as one of their own. My god...I'm getting more pissed the more I check this out.
    Babe I'm gonna Leave You...nah, don't hear it. But these fucking rock star millionaires owe some money to a couple of these cats...a LOT of money



  • morelaak
    okay.

    are you completely aurally challenged? VOCALS makes all of that "gonna sound the same" shit you're spouting fly straight out the window.

    not convinced on I can't quit you? are you KIDDING? the lyrics are EXACTLY THE SAME. SO. when the LYRICS are the same, and they SOUND the same, it's not up to slow blues sounding like slow blues. its up to the same song sounding like the same song.

    i agree, Dazed and Confused is a little hard to hear. but you can't shrug off the lyrics and go based on the track alone. if they DIDN't have the lyrics, i'd be more inclined to agree with you, that their style is easily emulated, and that there are others that sound very similar, but are not the same. HOWEVER. the fact that the lyrics ARE the same (or painfully close) make it IMPOSSIBLE to overlook.

    Besides, they gave credit AFTER THE FACT on greatest hits. so they WERE plagiarized, and you are arguing a moot point.

    kthxbai.
  • mrsleep
    They did not try to play it off as their own.
    On the original releases, the original artist is credited.
    When you look at greatest hits albums, you are looking at albums created by their record companies (usually to fulfill a contract). In such a situation, it's easy for the record company to be a bunch of ninnies and falsely attribute writing credit to the band.
  • shaun76
    exactly! I agree that blues will sound the same, but using the same words is ridiculous. I would have NO problem with this if they hadn't omitted the original writers. And adding them on the Greatest hits album is basically an admission of guilt. Sad thing is, the royalty checks started from the greatest hits album - no retro for the years before that album.
  • soapyNinja
    what about When The Levee Breaks? they stole that one too
  • shaun76
    What was the name of the original song/artist?
  • llimllib
    Kansas Joe and Memphis Minnie:

    http://www.archive.org/details/Kansas_Joe_Memphis_Minnie-When_Levee_Breaks

    I appreciate that not giving writing credit + royalties is shitty, but I can't stop loving the LZ versions. Also, the "Dazed and confused" original is waayyy different from the LZ version, they even have few words in common, though a similar guitar breakdown.
  • Alex
    Tell me another joke! This is hilarious!
  • daniel burford
    stairway to heaven one is irrevelant i think
    ok they do sound a little(and i mean very little) bit alike

    and i mean damn where do u think people get the idea's for there songs?
    o yea thats right OTHER SONGS, so stairway to heaven is irrelevant
  • Cool post Shaun. i never knew about any of this.
  • shaun76
    thanks Steve.
  • DarkTape
    the stairway to heaven one is similar, but they are NOT THE SAME, but the others are close enough to consider plagiarism.
  • some dude
    i agree stairway to heaven and taurus both use scale based riffs so it's not plagerism
  • matt
    First off its no secret that zep used ideas from other artists especially blues stuff but surely this is a nod towards how good they are(or were).Film directors do this and its congratulated.
    Also the pentatonic and blues scale has a tendency to seem similar to other songs using it.Basically if you look hard enough you'll find similarities to another song with ANY song.
    And finally Led Zep fuckin rocked.
    But yeah i enjoyed your post.


  • Bllarson
    In the end of all things regardless of how this all ends, they were a great band and this will be but a footnote.. as History is written by the winners. They will almost surly not be dethroned by ..
  • meh no matt
    When directors use subtle hints that reference other movies, they are congratulated. This is not the same thing at all. If a different director were to remake the same movie, without any recognition of the original work, he'd be destroyed by critics.
  • shaun76
    ha ha. Thanks. And yes, the pentatonic blues scale - actually anything played in a 12 bar blues, sounds similar, but when the exact words are used, that's a different story. I was a musician for 19 years, and I tend to think that it takes a great deal of talent to find the right song to emulate (steal, whatever). I think this would have all been overlooked had the writing credit been given - who actually reads that stuff anyway?
  • KC
    Hmmm. So what would a Led Zep cover band be ?
  • Knobbly
    A cover cover band or a cover band covering a band that coverd other bands
  • jillo
    Lez Zeppelin.
  • Duze
    Well, it's not considered a rip-off if they openly admitted from the beginning that these were covers. Jimmy Page was a big fan of all this music and on their first album (and scattered among others) he does covers. I dare you to find an artist or band out there that doesn't borrow directly from other artists they're inspired by.
  • shaun76
    The thing is... they didn't "openly admit" anything. They did NOT show writing credit until the greatest hits album was released, and even then, not all of the original artists were mentioned.
  • Tom
    "Whole Lotta Love"
    A cover of the Small Faces, "You Need Loving"
    Which is a cover of Willie Dixon (I believe).
    The only ones that give credit are Savoy Brown (You need Lovin).
    If you listen to the ending of the Small Faces version it's eerie. When you get to the part with, "Woman, Choo need it . Loooooooooove" You could play them side by side.
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