The College of Musical Knowledge

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1. John wrote:

   “Stairway to Heaven”

   Often topping radio and magazine polls as the greatest rock song ever “Stairway to Heaven” has been performed by innumerable bands, both famous and unknown. Hell, your local high-school marching band could probably bust out a version if you asked them to. As luck would have it, while writing this post I was made aware of the fact that WFMU has a page where they have gathered 101 cover versions of the song, http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2006/05/stairways_to_he.html (personally, I love the “Gilligan’s Island” version, a mash up of the lyrics from the “Gilligan’s Island” theme and the “Stairway” music). Thanks to Christian for sending me this link.

   Recorded for the album, Led Zeppelin IV (the one that used symbols for the album title), “Stairway” is actually based on the melody from the song “Taurus” by Spirit. This band is remembered equally for their minor hit “I Got a Line on You” and the trivia nugget that the group featured a father/son combo of Randy California (at age 15 he played with Jimi Hendrix in Jimmy James & the Blue Flames) on guitar and his step-father Ed Cassidy (a jazz musician who had played with Cannonball Adderley, Roland Kirk, Lee Konitz, Gerry Mulligan, and Art Pepper; in 1964 he founding The Rising Sons with Ry Cooder and Taj Mahal) on drums. After touring as the opening act for Spirit in 1968, not only did Led Zeppelin come away with the basis for “Stairway”, but their drummer John Bonham also picked up Cassidy’s trick of playing the drums with his bare hands. In addition, “Stairway” allegedly pinches parts of “And She’s Lonely” by the Chocolate Watchband (who opened for the Yardbirds, Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page’s previous band), Johnny Rivers’ “Summer Rain”, and Cartoone’s “Ice Cream Dreams” (a song which Page played on during his days as a session musician).

   Unfortunately, this would not be the only song that Zeppelin was accused of “borrowing” from other sources. Imagine the indignity of being the world’s biggest band and having people say you stole some of your songs from various unacknowledged sources! In and of itself this is not a problem, as musicians are often the sum of their various influences and can’t help but recycling them in their own work (using the “yardbird” connection, Charlie Parker’s “Koko” and “Chasing the Bird” are good examples of this practice). However, what has given legs to this controversy is the fact that Zeppelin would repeatedly fail to credit the musicians that they lifted bits from, instead claiming full songwriting royalties for themselves*.

   The most egregious example would be the song “Dazed and Confused.” While touring with the Yardbirds, Jimmy Page originally heard the song performed by American folk singer Jake Holmes. The Yardbirds loved the song, reworked the lyrics and made it a staple of their live act. After forming Led Zeppelin, Page changed the lyrics again (still keeping the original melody) and recorded it for their debut record, credited solely to Jimmy Page. The song became one of Zeppelin’s signature tunes, played at most of their shows until they disbanded in 1980. Though Holmes would contact Page about the matter in the early 1980’s (receiving no reply), he decided against taking any legal action. As an interesting side note, Holmes later had enormous success writing and singing commercial jingles; “Be a Pepper” (Dr. Pepper soda), “Raise Your Hand if You’re Sure” (Sure deodorant), “Be All That You Can Be” (US Army), “Best A Man Can Get” (Gillette razors), “Come See the Softer Side of Sears” (Sears department stores) and others.

   However, not everyone was as charitable as Holmes, and Led Zeppelin ended up being sued a few times over improper songwriting credits:

   -In 1972 ARC music, the publishing arm of blues label Chess Records, sued Zeppelin over the song “Bring it on Home.” Originally performed by Sonny Boy Williamson and written by blues legend Willie Dixon (who’s songs “You Shook Me” and “”I Can’t Quit You Baby” were covered on Zeppelin’s debut record), the song was recorded for the album Led Zeppelin II. Aside from adding an original verse or two in the middle of the song, it’s really just a rocked up version of the original, credited solely to Jimmy Page and Robert Plant. The case was ultimately settled out of court, with Dixon finally receiving credit on the song. Ironically, Dixon then had to sue ARC Music and Chess Records over his own royalties for this song. Decades later, when Zeppelin released their live video How the West Was Won, a 1972 version of “Bring It On Home” was credited to Dixon, while the middle section was renamed “Bring It On Back” and credited to Bonham/Jones/Page/Plant.

   -Later in 1972 ARC sued Zeppelin again; this time over “The Lemon Song”, also from Led Zeppelin II. This song is basically a cover of “The Killing Floor” by Howling Wolf, with a few lines from Robert Johnson’s “Traveling Riverside Blues,” (the “squeeze my lemon” part) thrown in, yet credited only to Page/Plant/Jones/Bonham. Once more, the suit was settled out of court, with Chester Burnett (Howlin’ Wolf) finally getting the songwriting credit. Not long after this suit was settled, ARC sent Wolf a royalty check for $45,123. All this money (and litigation) made Wolf think he might have been ripped off (considering Led Zeppelin II ended up selling over 12 million copies by 1999, he was probably right) which prompted him to sue ARC himself in 1974. As a result of his lawsuit, both Muddy Waters and Willie Dixon would also sue ARC and Chess Records within the next few years.

   -In 1985 Willie Dixon finally sued Zeppelin himself, over “Whole Lotta Love”, yet another song from Led Zeppelin II. This one is pulled from Dixon’s song “You Need Love”, as done by Muddy Waters. At that point, the best defense Zeppelin’s lawyers could offer was “It’s strange that someone would wait all that time (to file a suit).” Following the established pattern, this case was settled out of court, with the new song credit going to Page/Plant/Jones/Bonham/Dixon. Shortly after this, Willie Dixon would found the Blues Heaven Foundation to secure copyrights and royalties for blues musicians who had been exploited in the past. Amusingly, this wasn’t the only source for “Whole Lotta Love”, as Zeppelin nicked the “you need cooling…” part from “You Need Loving” by the Small Faces. Not only was Robert Plant a devoted Small Faces fan, but their singer Steve Marriot was one of Jimmy Page’s first choices for a vocalist when he assembled Led Zeppelin, so they were obviously familiar with the Faces song.

   What does all this mean? The more you dig, read, and listen, one comes away with the sense that Led Zeppelin could be a little lazy when composing their songs. Verses of old blues lyrics here, chord progressions and melodies from obscure songs there, a traditional song or two claimed as their own, it all went into the blender and came out attributed to a variation of Page/Plant/Jones/Bonham. If you believe Jimmy Page, “…Robert was supposed to change the (lyrics), and he didn’t always do that, which is what brought on most of our grief…So, anyway, if there is any plagiarism, just blame Robert!”, conveniently glossing over his own habit of poaching the actual music from other sources. Robert Plant summed it up years later with “…well, you only get caught when you’re successful.” In the end, it’s sad that this just gives credence to the adage “good artists copy, great artists steal.”

   *If you are really interested in this subject, I suggest reading “The Thieving Magpies” by Will Shade. http://www.furious.com/perfect/jimmypage.html, or you can search out the compilation “The Roots of Led Zeppelin” for more details on where they got some of their material.

   “Stairway to Heaven” by Dolly Parton, 2002

   “Stairway to Heaven” by Pat Boone, 1997
   This is from a bizarre concept album that had Mr. Whitebread covering metal classics by AC/DC, Alice Cooper, Deep Purple, Dio, Judas Priest, Metallica, Ozzy Osbourne, Van Halen, and others.

   “Stairway to Heaven” by Tiny Tim and Brave Combo, 1996
   This is from a record where Tiny Tim is backed up by the avant-polka band Brave Combo. Needless to say, this version is pretty strange.

   “Stairway to Heaven” by Frank Zappa, 1991
   I especially like how the guitar solo is performed by a horn section. Zappa claims he never heard the original “Stairway”, but that just makes you wonder who the hell arranged the song for him.

   “Stairway to Heaven” by Led Zeppelin, 1971
   This is an early acoustic version of the song, still in an embryonic stage.

   “Taurus” by Spirit, 1968
   Though one might claim that the melody is a simple scale, there is no denying the striking similarity between this song and “Stairway”.

   “Dazed and Confused” by Jake Holmes, 1967
   Imagine how rich Jake Holmes would be if he had been properly credited on Zeppelin’s song of the same name…I’m sure he has.

   “You Need Loving” by the Small Faces, 1966
   This is a live version, recorded for the BBC. Here the similarities between it and “Whole Lotta Love” are more apparent than on the studio version. It is well documented that Robert Plant loved the Small Faces, repeatedly showing up at their gigs and striking up a friendship with the band.

   “Climbing Through” by The Authentics (with Jimmy Page), 1964
   The Authentics were led (HA!) by Mick O’Neill, who once filled in for the Yardbirds when Keith Relf suffered an asthma attack and could not perform. Recorded during his days as a session musician, Jimmy Page contributes guitar.

   “Operator” by Alexis Korner (with Robert Plant), 1968
   Alexis Korner was an English musician and blues traditionalist who bands featured future members of The Rolling Stones, Cream, Pentangle, the Small Faces, the Jeff Beck Group, Free, and the Bluesbreakers. He and Robert Plant were working on an album at the time Plant was asked to join Led Zeppelin.

   “Nevaeh ot Yawraits” by Nileppez Del
   After all of this, I didn’t even get into the myth that satanic messages can be heard when “Stairway” is played backwards. Listen for yourself and see if you can find any words of devotion for the dark lord.

   Personally, I can’t believe all the hours I spent on this post, it almost makes me wish I had taken up knitting instead.

   Saturday, January 31, 2009 at 11:05 am | Permalink

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