Led Zeppelin: Innovators more than imitators

NOTE: This article responds to John Mac Ghlionn’s “Rock gods or riff thieves?” which you can read here.

For all the plagiarism accusations against Led Zeppelin — and many are valid — the vast majority of the band’s greatest songs are truly original.

“Kashmir.” “Ten Years Gone.” “In the Light.” “Ramble On.” “Good Times Bad Times.” “Heartbreaker.” “What Is and What Should Never Be.” “Black Dog.” “Rock and Roll.” “Celebration Day.” “The Song Remains the Same.” “The Rain Song.” “No Quarter.” “Dancing Days.” “Over the Hills and Far Away.” “Immigrant Song.” “The Ocean.” “Trampled Under Foot.” “Achilles Last Stand.” “In the Evening.” “Fool in the Rain.” So many.

Did Spirit borrow from Davey Graham for ‘Taurus’? As Page and Plant testified, memories of that time tend to be a little fuzzy.

What’s more, the ones they nicked are far superior to the originals for the most part. It’s too bad, really, because the band could have leaned into their obvious skills and creativity a bit more and avoided the lion’s share of plagiarism chatter, but they didn’t — mostly in the first several years of their existence.

Why? Who knows. Record company pressure, deadlines. It’s an old story. Plus, they paid for it with lawsuits filed by a few of the original artists, and rightfully so.

A YouTuber has made a three-part series examining these plagiarism accusations in depth, and they’re pretty eye-opening.

Is the band guilty? For the most part, I would say yes. But as I noted previously, listening to Led Zeppelin tunes back-to-back with the original recordings only underscores how much better Zeppelin’s versions are, for the most part. That speaks to the band’s enduring talent and ability to create musical magic, both in the studio and onstage.

In addition, some plagiarism charges against Zeppelin are fairly nuanced.

For instance, when the band recorded “Whole Lotta Love,” the music was quite original, and singer Robert Plant was at fault only for lifting Wille Dixon’s “You Need Love” lyrics. Guitarist and elder statesman of the group Jimmy Page would have known the words to this future worldwide hit were plagiarized but apparently didn’t step in.

However, while Dixon sued Zeppelin in 1985, it wasn’t the first time Dixon’s “You Need Love” was copied. Long before Zeppelin committed their sophomore album to tape, Small Faces (and singer Steve Marriott) recorded “You Need Loving” — a blatant Willie Dixon “You Need Love” rip-off.

Not only that, a cursory listen to the Small Faces version makes it pretty clear that Plant copied Marriott’s vocal delivery for “Whole Lotta Love.” But Dixon didn’t sue Small Faces; he sued Zeppelin, even though Zeppelin weren’t the first offenders. I guess that’s understandable, as Zeppelin had far deeper pockets.

And a final word on “Stairway to Heaven” — a song, by the way, that a 2016 court decision (upheld in 2020) ruled Led Zeppelin hadn’t plagiarized.

As with “Whole Lotta Love,” Zeppelin is not the only would-be culprit. How many music fans out there know that British guitarist Davey Graham wrote a tune predating both “Stairway to Heaven” and “Taurus” called “Cry Me a River” — a song that contains a similar descending acoustic guitar figure?

Did Spirit borrow from Davey Graham for “Taurus”? As Page and Plant testified, memories of that time tend to be a little fuzzy.

Finally, consider the “evidence” compiled by a Dutch TV show demonstrating how prevalent the main riff of “Stairway to Heaven” has been in popular music over the years.

You be the judge.