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Re: Be the first
Submitted by Bob Allen <allenre@apci.com> on 14/Mar/2008 in reply to Be the first posted by Todd Gardner on 11/Mar/2008
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Firstly, I'd just like to say what an excellent job Todd has done here compiling all this. I thought I knew it all but when I read this, I realised that my knowledge was sorely lacking.
Where Led Zeppelin plagiarists? This is an accusation that is often levelled at them but I think it’s far too simplistic, the sort of cynicism raised by those who want everything simply stated black and white. In my personal opinion - and it’s only an opinion - they covered other artists songs but were perhaps a little relaxed about crediting some of them. Famously, they should have credited “Whole Lotta Love” to Muddy but that’s all done and dusted now.
More than that, though, they lifted riffs or phrases to insert into their own songs or base them on but this only continues a practice that has prevailed in blues since the dawn of that music. As a parochial, undocumented and un-manuscripted art form it was inevitable that it would grow by borrowing or copying from one itinerant singer to another and this set the trend for the whole of the genre. Many famous rock artists cite Robert Johnson as an influence but, in truth, very little of Johnson’s work was genuinely original. And if in the fifties Howlin’ Wolf sang the Mississippi Sheiks’ “Sittin’ On Top Of The World” from the ‘30s, how is that different from Zep lifting his own “How Many More Years” a mere decade later? Lots of others have done the same but just don’t receive such condemnation - how often do you hear Marc Bolan being criticised for stealing Wolf’s “You’ll Be Mine” for his “Jeepster”. I just think those critics out there should cut Led Zeppelin a bit more slack.
One more small adder regarding the “Moby Dick” entry: Jimmy Page has gone on record as citing the very excellent Bobby Parker as an influence so this surely gives evidence that the riff for this track came from “Watch Your Step”.
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