Led Zeppelin Had A Problem With Plagiarism.
The most iconic case of this is their “Stairway To Heaven” fiasco. It came about whenever a band named Spirit claimed the band had stolen their intro from the song “Taurus” – give it a listen and you would have probably done the same! Other bands from that time had the same problem. Even The Rolling Stones would experience this problem when recording a song called “Love in Vain” that Robert Johnson originally wrote, but they failed to credit it to him.
But the guys had a knack for doing first and asking for forgiveness later. The most controversial songs include:
- “Babe I’m Gonna Leave You” a song originally done by Ann Brendon
- “Dazed and Confused” a song first done by Jake Holmes
- “Whole Lotta Love” a song where the lyrics were borrowed from
- “You Need Love” by Willy Dixon and Muddy Waters
- “The Lemon Song” who’s lyrics were taken from Chester Burnett aka “Howlin Wolf”
- “Since I’ve Been Loving You” another song’s whose lyrics were taken from one of Robert’s favorite bands Moby Grape.
There are also a few other songs but the similarities are quite debatable. Give some of these songs a listen, especially the first example, and see if you think they had any similarities other than a simple nod to their creation.
Where did we find this stuff? Here are our sources.
“20 Facts You Probably Didn’t Know About Early Led Zeppelin”. Nick Deriso, Ultimate Classic Rock.com
“About Led Zeppelin” Wikipedia
“Led Zeppelin Discography” Wikipedia
“Led Zeppelin’s 10 Boldest Rip offs” Gavin Edwards, The Rolling Stones.com
“The Long Shadow Of Led Zeppelin” Mikal Gilmore, The Rolling Stones.com
