Led Zeppelin Plagiarism - (the greatest cover band in the world?)

Successful suits and settlements:
en.wikipedia.org...


On Led Zeppelin's album Led Zeppelin II (1969), parts of the song "Bring It On Home" were copied from Sonny Boy Williamson's 1963 recording of "Bring It On Home," written by Willie Dixon. On the same album, "The Lemon Song" included an adaptation of Howlin' Wolf's "Killing Floor." In 1972, Arc Music, the publishing arm of Chess Records, brought a lawsuit against Led Zeppelin for copyright infringement over "Bring It on Home" and "The Lemon Song"; the case was settled out of court for an undisclosed sum.

Led Zeppelin's song "Whole Lotta Love" contained lyrics that were derivative of Willie Dixon's 1962 song "You Need Love." In 1985, Dixon filed a copyright infringement suit, resulting in an out-of-court settlement. Later pressings of Led Zeppelin II credit Dixon as co-writer.[19]

Led Zeppelin also paid a settlement to the publisher of Ritchie Valens' song "Ooh! My Head" over "Boogie with Stu" (from their album Physical Graffiti) which borrowed heavily from Valens' song.





Led Zeppelin sued for alleged plagiarism of Dazed and Confused

American folk-singer Jake Holmes claims authorship of the song, saying Jimmy Page first heard it when he opened for the Yardbirds in 1967

www.guardian.co.uk...



Zep is one of my favorite rock bands, but i wonder if i would feel they same way if they hadn't stolen some of their best riffs. i still like them, but i don't look at them as the songwriters i used to.

for example they stole their most famous song, which went on to be one of the most famous guitar riffs in the history of rock.
if you play guitar chances are that you know "stairway to heaven" and they stole it

im sure this has been discussed before on here but i couldn't find any threads specifically about it.


what do you think ATS?

All music is inspired by something.
I listened to some of each video and they sound similar but are not the same.

Whats so wrong about it? Sure its against the law but its a crummy law. I am a musician and I get inspiration from allot of other music. Its not like they completely copied the songs they used. They made them their own. Its not like the "original" writers could have come up with what they came up with. Its ridicules copy writing music so that no one can use any part of what you gave to the public is like copy writing chord progressions.

reply to post by GmoS719


i would agree is it was one or two songs. but it's not. it's many.. lyrics and riffs.

it's not influence, it's stealing... plain and simple


they gave no credit to the other artists until they were sued.


very disappointing

Originally posted by Infi8nity
Whats so wrong about it? Sure its against the law but its a crummy law. I am a musician and I get inspiration from allot of other music. Its not like they completely copied the songs they used. They made them their own. Its not like the "original" writers could have come up with what they came up with. Its ridicules copy writing music so that no one can use any part of what you gave to the public is like copy writing chord progressions.

stealing a song in 1969 and recording it is not the same as writing something in 2013 that accidentally sounds like something else.

chord progressions are one thing but they took both lyrics and riffs, entire songs.

that's no accident

Talk to George Harrison about plagiarism and "My Sweet Lord".
All of the first Led Zeppelin album tunes were ripped off from Blues artists without a single hint of actual authorship.
One poster has said LZ paid out huge sums - I'd like to see proof of that because living here in Texas I've met a few of these old timers that maintain they didn't get a dime (maybe their music publisher's did, but not the artists).
By the time Led Zep III rolled around, a majority of tunes were original.

They weren't the only ones - Clapton made a version of Sammy Meyers "Sleeping in the Ground" without crediting him, but did make it up in later years at least a little bit.

ganjoa

Led zeppelin had a big influence on me, so its a bit of a downer to realise they copied much of their stuff. But I guess as there are only so many combinations of notes you can play, you're gonna get repetition to some degree. I seem to vaguely remember Dylan having similar problems too.

Originally posted by inj3ct0r
There's no doubt about it. They themselves admitted to it and payed large sums of money to the original artists. They did most of it on their first few albums and it probably helped them in the beginning to adapting into the music they were influenced by. They were still great songwriters in their own right and would have been just as big without resorting to plagiarism. Most of the artists they ended up paying out of court to avoid publicity. And of those artists many considered it a lasting tribute to have influenced Led Zeppelin and considered this the ultimate compliment.

Its a sad fact of life I'm afraid, some people see plagiarism as an easy way to get the things they want, be it money, respect, fame, stars, influence or even just to save time and effort... why re-invent the wheel kind of thing, ya know??

In fact I know 100% that certain comments on this thread (and a lot of others it seems) are plagiarized. Why would someone plagiarize a comment on a thread about plagiarism, you may ask??? The mind boggles

reply to post by spaceg0at

Zep is one of my favorite rock bands, but i wonder if i would feel they same way if they hadn't stolen some of their best riffs.

They didn't steal any riffs, unless you count the rhythm guitar part in the fast section of 'The Lemon Song', which is a straight lift from Howlin' Wolf's 'Killing Floor'. A riff (the formal musical term is 'ostinato') is a repeated instrumental figure that continues throughout a whole piece of music, or a whole section of one. Riffs are a basic ingredient of hard rock and metal.

They are a big element in Led Zeppelin's music. Very often – think 'A Whole Lotta Love', 'Heartbreaker', 'The Immigrant Song', 'Black Dog' – the riff is pretty much the whole song. And while Jimmy Page and Robert Plant stole musical elements and lyrics from all over the place, the riffs – those head-melting, bone-crushing Led Zeppelin riffs – were always original.

They may have stolen everything up to and including the acoustic guitar intro on 'Stairway to Heaven', but nobody else ever sounded like Led Zeppelin. Nobody yet has. As Page is quoted as saying in the linked article, 'Usually my riffs are pretty damn original.' It's hard to disagree.

they ripped of many people, no question

they should have given fair credit and been done with it

Yes i have been aware of this for long time thats why i never can get into their music much.

reply to post by spaceg0at


Yeah, they ripped off other musicians like Willie Dixon. But they were still incredible and made a lot of very original and entertaining music...I don't see it as nefarious in the sense that some people like to paint it as.

A lot of musicians pay homage to other musicians that came before them...it's pretty much a given that this is going to happen in blues music.

How many times did Jeff Lynne "rip off"...I mean...pay homage to The Beatles?

It's a common practice in blues if you asked me.

Originally posted by spaceg0at

Originally posted by Infi8nity
Whats so wrong about it? Sure its against the law but its a crummy law. I am a musician and I get inspiration from allot of other music. Its not like they completely copied the songs they used. They made them their own. Its not like the "original" writers could have come up with what they came up with. Its ridicules copy writing music so that no one can use any part of what you gave to the public is like copy writing chord progressions.

stealing a song in 1969 and recording it is not the same as writing something in 2013 that accidentally sounds like something else.

chord progressions are one thing but they took both lyrics and riffs, entire songs.

that's no accident

I never said it was a accident.

I think that's a putting as black an interpretation of what Zeppelin did as you possible can.It's true they should probably have given more credit for where some of the inspiration for some of their songs came from but to say they're ust blatant rip offs is rubbish.

Have you heard 'You need love' or 'Killing Floor' ??

To say they're an influence on 'Whole lotta love' or 'Lemon Song' is fair enough but to call them rip offs is pure s**te.They took what had gone before and created something new which totally influenced the sound and feel of rock music from then on.The whole notion of the guitar riff while not new was cemented by Zeppelin.It can't be denied Jimmy Page is responsible for some of rocks most iconic,effective and best riffs to this day !!!

Having said that there are actually a couple of complete rip offs which I'm amazed no-ones has mentioned (although they could be said to be trad. folk songs so not anybody's property but particular arrangements are !!!)



You'll recognise this one for sure ~ Black Mountain Side Zeppelin I but it's Bert Jansch's version of Darkwater Side from the early 60's



Sound familiar ~ White Summer.

As I said although you could accuse them of possibly taking elements of earlier music you can't accuse them of stealing anyones music or sound.Nobody sounded like Zeppelin nobody ever will,there will never be another Zep but then I'm totally biased being a lifelong fan.

I've got a poster of only 3 people in my 'music' (wee box) room.One is Jimi Hendrix,one is Bon Scott and the other Jimmy Page