Led Zeppelin is one of the most litigated bands in history. Like The Beatles, it is a big payday for any artist when a jury of their peers finds even a snippet of a song may originated elsewhere. Forget that Jimmy Page, John Bonham, Robert Plant, and John Paul Jones (the bassist who stole his name from a famous navy admiral), might have improved the original. Bottom line, when an artist sells nearly 300 million albums, there is a significant bottom line.
The band maintains all titles were researched for proper accreditations. Memphis Minnie was listed as a songwriter for “When the Levee Breaks,” updated by Led Zep 1971, and received healthy residuals. Randy California of Spirit sued over “Stairway to Heaven,” claiming the opening notes were way to close to his instrumental composition “Taurus” from 1968. His heirs were still in court when California passed in 1997. The dispute ended in Zeppelin’s favor in 2020.
For a good legal brief on Led Zeppelin in court, check out this testimonial from Rolling Stone.
Today we hear three tunes from the first Zeppelin LP that were mostly controversy free. “Babe I’m Going to Leave You” came from a Joan Baez recording of a song written in the Fifties by Anne Breton. Here we get it from the pop prep rambling Plebs. Willie Dixon was correctly identified as the composer of the other two songs, as we hear pre-Zep versions of “I Can’t Quit You’ from Otis Rush and Muddy Waters on “You Shook Me.”
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BABE I’M GONNA LEAVE YOU The Plebs
One of the amazing things when you spend a lot of time in the Old School detention hall is that songs you always assumed were originals were really covers. That’s right, the walkin’ in the park every day knock out punch from Robert Plant was also the only release by The Plebs back in 1964. Stranger still, it’s a traditional folk song recorded two years before that by Joan Baez. But today we get it post-Joanie and pre-Robert Plant. The Plebs and “Babe I’m Gonna Leave You…”
I CAN’T QUIT YOU Otis Rush
Left-handed blues guitarist Otis Rush left his hometown of Philadelphia Mississippi when he was 14 years old. He headed straight for the South Side of Chicago, where he began playing in small clubs and working on the legend. In 1956 he was all of 21 when he signed with the Cobra label, where he stayed for three years until the label went bankrupt. Rush’s career went strong until a stroke sidelined him in 2004. British blues took a major page from the Otis Rush book. You can hear him in Eric Clapton and certainly in Led Zeppelin. Here he is from that first Cobra album in 1956, with a song that went to number 5 on the R & B Charts.
YOU SHOOK ME Muddy Waters
Willie Dixon’s song “You Shook Me” got covered twice in 1969. Once by the Jeff Beck Group featuring Rod Stewart, and another time on the debut album from Led Zeppelin. Dixon was 54 at the time and enjoyed the royalties, which were much more than he received when it was covered in 1962. Here’s that version, featuring Muddy Waters.
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