RE: [Harp-L] Re: Zep tunes [When the Levee Breaks]

[robert mcgraw <harpbob@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

> I'll have to check this out when I get home. I've got Led Zeppelin's self-titled LP, the one with the Hindenburg on it. I specifically remember Willie Dixon getting at least two writing credits on that one album. 
--- I think you have the later edition, David. I think there was some legal action by either Dixon or his estate against Led Zepplin...if memory serves me correctly Zepplin paid some fees to the Dixon estate and may well have started giving songwriting credit.
 
> Now, on a lot of this stuff, when Zeppelin got done with it, it was pretty much a different song with the same lyrics. 
---True, and i said that musically, "When the Levee Breaks" was Zepplin's own. I'm talking about the lyrics.
>But, on the other hand Lynyrd Skynyrd did the same thing to Jimmie Rodgers "Blue Yodel (No. 1)" but they made a point to say "this is an old song by Mr. Jimmie Rodgers" and said so on the recording.
---Good for them. That was the right thing to do, I think.
 > That doesn't mean they were always ripping off each other, although sometimes they did, most of these lyrics, I believe the technical word is "floating lyrics," had been circulating around before Edison cut his first wax cylinder. 
---Yes, again you are correct; this has been part of the folk tradition for as long as there has been a folk tradition. My argument is that, while Zepplin is a part of the blues [re: folk] tradition, because of the nature of blues history, music and culture, and because of exactly who and what Zepplin was, they had a certain responsibility to be very clear and forthcoming about their sources and respective creative contributions.
   Let me again underscore the fact that I like and admire a lot of the music of Led Zepplin...just wish they hadn't done this.
WVa Bob  
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