Yardbirds/Zeppelin

[Cousin It]

Something to stir up the fans

http://www.furious.com/perfect/jimmypage.html

[Andy]

Seems like an exercise in futility. Of course that never mattered before.

[Holy Zoo]

I thought it an entertaining read, although I think I've heard of all these instances before. Funny though, I've always heard of the Stairway intro riff was stolen from Gentle Giant. Maybe it was just a coincidence after all. :)

In the end... to me it's just "the sincerest form of flattery". ;)

[Cousin It]

Yes,I thought it was a very good article on where Zep got their sources.It is a bit nasty but still there is nothing wrong there as far as where they got those sources that isn't true.I was just listening to Spirit's debut yesterday and every time I hear the intro to "Taurus" I chuckle. I can vouch for the Bert Jansch track
"The Waggoner's Lad" from his "Jack Orion" album as being the source for "Bron-Y-Aur Stomp". A heads up for fans of 60's folk Brit style but Castle have reissued the 1965 debut(and only as far as I know) album by Jackson C Frank.It sold only a handful of copies back then and features the original version of "Blues Run The Game",if you like grab it or you'll end up moaning when you have to pay an arm and a leg for it on E-bay.Paul Simon brought the song back with him from England. :) :) :)

P.S Has anyone out there ever heard the Jake Holmes version of "Dazed And Confused" ??

[Highway Star]

Give a listen to Johnny River's Something Strange off his album Realization and you'll hear a similarity with Spirit's Taurus and Zep's Stairway..., in particular the song's intro and about 2:50+ towards the end.

[KLM]

I love Zeppelin and have noticed over the years as my collection included albums from the great blues men that there are many similarities and riffs/lyrics that were "liberated" into a Zeppelin tune. I'm afraid history will not change and I'm sure there are many other examples of this borrowing. In the end it's a shame and it would be nice if this could be rectified, but I doubt it. I still am a huge Zep fan though I was never under the false impression that they were originators of all of their music. Credited or not, much of the great classic rock owes it roots to the American Blues as all present and future music draws from the past- Classical, Jazz, blues, etc.

[Paul Chang]

Originally posted by Holy Zoo
In the end... to me it's just "the sincerest form of flattery". ;)
Sincere about "stealing your money" and "robbing you blind". Take a guess - whom did I lift those lines from?

[Cousin It]

Originally posted by KLM
I love Zeppelin and have noticed over the years as my collection included albums from the great blues men that there are many similarities and riffs/lyrics that were "liberated" into a Zeppelin tune. I'm afraid history will not change and I'm sure there are many other examples of this borrowing. In the end it's a shame and it would be nice if this could be rectified, but I doubt it. I still am a huge Zep fan though I was never under the false impression that they were originators of all of their music. Credited or not, much of the great classic rock owes it roots to the American Blues as all present and future music draws from the past- Classical, Jazz, blues, etc.

That's exactly the way I feel and the way I came across a lot of Zep's borrowings.The Bert Jansch track "The Waggoner's Lad" I didn't know about 'til I got the album,it starts of with a banjo pickin that fast riff and then the guitar plays those 3 chords and then I thought I had the wrong album(LOL).If you ever hear the "Jack Orion" album you can hear his version of "Black Waterside" (aka"Black Mountain Side" to Zepheads) on it as well.
One problem I have always had with the Zep blasters is that they only ever really blast Zep and not others(Zep hatred is not dead,I guess??).This person also has the habit of blasting over borrowing Public Domain material (P.D),I mean it is public so what's the problem but hell you dilute the article that way.Willie Dixon is a good example of someone taking P.D material and re-writing it and slap your name on it and BAM it's yours.The song "Spoonful" had kicked around for more than 30 yrs in various recorded guises(the first being Charley Patton's 1928(?) rendition) who knows how much further back that song existed.Fact is that Willie Dixon was the A.P Carter of the blues wheras Carter will get short shrift from many (virtually always) non-country music writers for his use of P.D material,the fact is he and the Carter Family recorded a lot of stuff that would have otherwise been lost to time and A.P did change material around quite a bit before it was recorded(with Sara usually doing the arranging).The usual hand wringing by Zep critics over credits has always been funny to me because they are all like sheep when writing about it,they all list Zep's rendition of "You Shook Me" as being somehow ripped of from Jeff Beck even though it has a Willie Dixon credit and let's face it they are not exactly the same and you can't (as far as I know) copyright an arrangement to an already copyrighted song,only arrangements of P.D material,so the argument over Beck's version is a moot point as far as I'm concerned.The one thing these sheep (to my knowledge) have never seemed to notice was the "suspect" credits on Beck's "Truth" album.The writer in this article credits Beck for not taking credit for "Greensleeves"(A P.D tune but since the melody was written by Henry the 8th(not Peter Noone) people are afraid to put their name to it in case Henry reappears and cuts the blighter's head off) and yet right under their noses are "Let Me Love You" and "I Ain't Superstitious" credited to someone named "J.Rod".The former is a 1960 Buddy Guy classic and the latter is a classic Howlin' Wolf track yet this person and all the writers have made the same omission so they all obviously just copy each other and don't research on their own,anyone who has got the Truth album look and all will be revealed.