Led Zeppelin

[studiotwosession]

What's interesting to me about all this, is that the performance rights organization that has these songs in their catalogue should have picked this up early on and blocked all royalty payments until ownership of the disputed songs was sorted out. That's how the process is supposed to work.

Indeed. It was Dixon's daughter who heard Zep's version and alerted someone, her Dad or a lawyer. That wasn't until '84 or so. They should have sued their publisher as well. You can't only imagine how bad that publisher was if they didn't catch a song version by one of the biggest bands of those times and that garnered tons of airplay.

[tamborineman]

After reading all this it's hard to beleive Goerge Harrison was sued for My Sweet Lord
I still like Page's guitar playing. I don't think Beck was to happy with him after The Yardbirds ethier

[shamustwin]

l'll try again. Muddy Waters played at Monterey, didn't he?

[peewee]

l'll try again. Muddy Waters played at Monterey, didn't he?

Nope. Muddy did play the Newport Jazz Festival and he also played shows at the Fillmore as did numerous other Blues artists.

[lyle_from_minneapolis]

Zeppelin certainly had gall, but I still don't consider them "crooks"--just not very bright, and probably greedy and egotistical. My point about being tired of continually rehashing the issue stems from the fact that it was resolved: they settled the Willie Dixon case out of court and paid dearly...as well they should. So that "crime" is over and done, and justice was served as far as the Dixons were concerned. Still, lots of uninvolved parties don't want to accept that...it seems to really enrage them, yet in a seemingly selective way. Muddy Waters, for example, had the hit with "You Need Love"...he never paid Willie Dixon a dime. No one seems to care. Oh well.

Here are some other famous copyright infringement cases:

http://www.illegal-art.org/audio/historic.html

[sloop_john_b]

Muddy Waters, for example, had the hit with "You Need Love"...he never paid Willie Dixon a dime. No one seems to care. Oh well.

But the song has Willie's name on it, and has since the beginning. It wouldn't be up to Muddy to pay anybody, it would be up to the record label (Chess?) and/or the publishing company.

[lyle_from_minneapolis]

That's true, good point. I wonder who got Willie's money in that case? Oh well.

[mgauction]

Very good points of view, Mark! Thanks for the link.

[winston]

That was an exellent link Mark. It was well a written piece and it certainly gives the reader something to consider when they are in the process of writing a new song that has elements of someone elses work in it.

[studiotwosession]

[quote="My point about being tired of continually rehashing the issue stems from the fact that it was resolved: they settled the Willie Dixon case out of court and paid dearly...as well they should. [/quote]

So what about Dazed and Confused? And the music from Stairway? Until they come out with reasonable explanations, or put someone else's name on the music, the details will continually be rehashed, unsettled, and a big, fat asterisk for LZ, especially when the band itself has rented out its masters and in doing so made millions from companies that make ****** cars (to be used in ****** commercials for them.) Also, the fact that the uncontested lyrics in the LZ catalog are so weak by comparison to what they nicked doesn't help. It's nobodies fault but there's.

[chuck_king]

Zeppelin is not really metal, but they were very heavy, and I think that's where the conflation of them with heavy metal comes from. Jimmy Page's real legacy will be as a producer: he managed to give weight to music that it had not really had before. In particular, the recording of drums on Zeppelin records set new standards.

Few bands have made an initial impact with the first song off their first album to rival the opening to "Good Times Bad Times".

[studiotwosession]

The differences in recording tech available to them in 69 and beyond, compared to what Hendrix, Cream and the Who had just a few years earlier, made all the difference in the world. People often make the same observations about the drum sounds on Abbey Road. Ringo often attributes it to the heads on his kit but the real difference is it was their only 16-track album. As far as recording tech goes. LZ was at the right place at the right time when they kicked off their career. I can't even imagine what Cream and Hendrix would sound like had they had that kind of bandwith. Considering the fact that Cream had a full member less than Zep, they were quite a bit more dynamic, with two guys who sang vs. one, and both could sing lead well.