Topic: Is Led Leppelin the most successful cover band of all time?

[westside ryan]

Howard Stern Exposes Led Zeppelin As a Farce!

http://www.hark.com/clips/qmqjfdsztg-howard-stern-exposes-led-zeppelin-as-a-farce

I am not a Howard Stern fan, but I ran across this and found it interesting.  I knew that they ripped off some Dixon tunes, but was unaware of most of the others!

[jphauser]

I think that Led Zeppelin was the first band to arouse curiosity about the blues in me when I was a kid.  They should have given Dixon and the others credit, but they did lead me to the blues and I spent tons more money on blues albums than I did on my two Zeppelin albums.  Hopefully, that is the case for many others.

Your post reminds me of Bruce Springsteen on Little Steven's Underground Garage talking about how he wrote various songs and built them around riffs (and maybe even melodies?) from songs by the Animals and his other influences.  Unfortunately, I don't remember the specifics, but it was very surprising and I wondered in the back of my mind if he was opening himself up to being sued. 

I thought it was great of Springsteen to share songwriting credit with Sonny Boy Williamson for his song "Cross My Heart" on his Human Touch album even though it barely resembles Williamson's "Cross My Heart." 


I found this below on the "folk tradition" section of Wikipedia's entry for "Musical Plagiarism."  (I always take anything from Wikipedia with a grain of salt, though.)

The issue of plagiarism in folk music is problematic as copying and not crediting songs was common. Noted blues author and producer Robert Palmer states "It is the custom, in blues music, for a singer to borrow verses from contemporary sources, both oral and recorded, add his own tune and/or arrangement, and call the song his own".[3] Folklorist Carl Lindahl, refers to these recycling of lyrics in songs as "floating lyrics". He defines it within the folk-music tradition as "lines that have circulated so long in folk communities that tradition-steeped singers call them instantly to mind and rearrange them constantly, and often unconsciously, to suit their personal and community aesthetics".[4] In 2012, when Bob Dylan was questioned over his alleged plagiarism of others music he responded, "It's an old thing ? it's part of the tradition. It goes way back".[5] Princeton University professor of American history Sean Wilentz defended Dylan's appropriation of music stating "crediting bits and pieces of another's work is scholarly tradition, not an artistic tradition".[6] In 1998, B.B. King stated on the issue:

    I don't think anybody steals anything; all of us borrow.[7]

[Rivers]

Right up there with Elvis as the most overrated act in modern history, IMNSHO 

[SleepyJohn]

There are several YouTube videos up that I saw a while back that go through every Led Zep album playing a sample from one of their song followed by one from the source they stole the song/riff/lyric from.

[jphauser]

This may be one of those Youtube videos.  You can find more by typing "Led Zeppelin plagiarism" in the Youtube search box.

[frailer24]

The best I can say about LZ is that they turned me onto the original artists, whom I may never have heard otherwise as a kid.

[Bunker Hill]

In 1969 Led Zeppelin recorded The Lemon Song, which consisted mainly of lyrics taken directly from Wolf's Killing Floor. It also had a similar, albeit slowed down, bass line as used in Howlin' Wolf's rendition. ARC Music, who owned the publishing rights to Wolf's Killing Floor, sued Led Zep and management for copyright infringement and the case was eventually settled out of court in 1972 for an "undisclosed sum." Somewhere I still have the relevant cutting from the UK trade paper Music Week report of the event.

[Mr.OMuck]

I hate them.

[Parlor Picker]

I hate them.

Come on, O'Muck - say what you really feel! 

[jrn]

I hate them.

Mr. OMuck,

Just throw in the Song Remains the Same, and watch Page do a two hour guitar solo. I'm sure you'll change your mind!  Me and a buddy of mine were just laughing about that DVD the other day.

Spinal Tap was a far better band, if you ask me.

[Mike Billo]

  There have always been artists that, even though I don't like them, I understand what appeal they hold for some and why they're popular.

  In the case of Led Zeppelin, it's always been a complete and absolute enigma, to me, why these guys had the career they did.

  I've always thought of them as a, dime-a-dozen garage band and nothing more. I'm well aware that mine, is a minority opinion but after all these years I've never got their appeal.

[Stumblin]

Interesting article, I didn't realise they were such consummate and prolific plagiarists.
Massively over-rated, their enduring popularity and so-called "legendary" status amply demonstrate the value of a big marketing budget.
Sometimes, I have to nod and smile when people bang on about how great Led Zeppelin were, just to oil the wheels of civil society.
Perhaps, though, an argument could be made for allowing the ignorati to keep their Zeppelins, Winehouses and Claptons et al; because if they all suddenly started colonising our musical universe, where would we go then?

[jphauser]

 The link below is to a video of Son House which includes his "monkey junk" quote and a reference to the "youngsters today" taking anything and making a blues out of it.  I think he's referring to bands like Led Zeppelin.

http://www.nme.com/nme-video/youtube/id/DPO3GXemNY0/search/son%20house