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LED ZEPPELIN'S INFLUENCES | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Nobody's Fault But Mine | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
In Led Zeppelin's latter years, they drifted away from the blues, or at least from direct blues influences. "Nobody's Fault But Mine" from the 1976 album Presence is an exception. The liner notes for Led Astray assert that Led Zeppelin's "Nobody's Fault But Mine" "bears a strong resemblance" to Blind Willie Johnson's composition with the same title, and that Robert Plant acknowledged that the Zep song was based on "another written a long time previously."
[1] Led Zeppelin may have drawn their initial inspiration from Blind Willie Johnson, but "Nobody's Fault But Mine" is quite removed from the original. The only recognizable common element between the recordings by Led Zeppelin and Blind Willie Johnson is the title line. Beyond that, however, Led Zeppelin's work would appear to be original. Though it is essentially a blues song complete with harmonica solo, a complex prog-rock rhythm underlies Led Zeppelin's track. Also, Led Zeppelin's lyrics are distinct from Blind Willie Johnson's and express a different sentiment than had the devoutly religious country blues/gospel singer. In Blind Willie Johnson's spiritual struggle, reading the Bible was the path to salvation, or, rather, the failure to do this led to damnation. "I have a Bible in my home/If I don't read my soul will be lost/Nobody's fault but mine" Blind Willie Johnson recorded "Nobody's Fault But Mine" in 1927, a time when illiteracy was common in the rural South. Blinded as a young child, presumably Johnson was singing this song as a warning to those who had learned to read, but concerned themselves too much with earthly matters. Led Zeppelin's "Nobody's Fault But Mine" doesn't concern itself with Bible reading, but of giving in to the pleasures of the flesh (or at least that's what I think they mean by "ding dong ding dong"). Blind Willie Johnson and Led Zeppelin express a similar kind of personal guilt (after all, it is "Nobody's Fault But Mine"), but Blind Willie Johnson tries to point the way to salvation while Led Zeppelin give in to temptation.
Nobody's Fault But Mine Nobody's Fault But Mine
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| Notes | ||
| 1. | Liner notes for Led Astray | |
The Blues and Folk Roots of Led Zeppelin's Music. Are They Plagiarists? |
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