Look out! He's got a knife!

Alllllright I ignored that bizarre lava debate but you goaded me into a comment this time Pearce. Not to disagree - its clear Zep may have gone too far in being "influenced" by the old blues. But a lot of those claims in the link seem to be a little tenuous in terms of influenced by/ripped off. They were a blues band, and their sound is going to sound like their influences.

Music has always been littered with copying claims - "My Sweet Lord" redoes "He's So Fine", Oasis blatantly use the Beatles - but like most art, turning old stuff into something new is how most new things come into being. Having heard the orignal of Travelling Riverside Blues (Robvert Johnson?) and the masterpiece that is Zeps cover - well the original blues stuff was amazingly groundbreaking, but Zep turned it into something
else entirely. I'm sure that holds true for most of their stuff.

There may be some hypocrisy in their protection of work, but they are mainly known for not letting anyone use it - no soundtracks, commercials etc, so their protectionism is linked to not selling out at least.

Finally remember that Led Zep, along with the earlier likes of the Stones and the Animals, introduced the Blues to white America. They toured the states saying they worshipped the old time black bluesmen and thus thrusting them into mainstream. As the excellent Scorsese Blues doco made the point, the brit invasion also gave those old guys like Muddy Waters, Howling Wolf etc the fame, respect and money they deserved. Zep was the best thing to ever happen to the legacy of their influences.

End Rambling.

Good points.

It wasn't all Zep, though. For example Jimi Hendrix was covering Howlin' Wolf and other blues legends (and giving them credit AND paying them royalties) before Led Zeppelin even existed.

While in a certain respect I find your arguement hard to fault I still find it difficult to totally agree. The example of Howlin Wolf and Jimi Hendrix is a good one in regard to possible grey areas. Hendrix frequently covered Wolf's 'Killing Floor'and royalties are still being paid, I would guess, from versions like the one on the BBC Sessions double CD. Later however, Hendrix re-recorded the song with new lyrics, calling it 'Lover Man'. My guess is that, though the tune is identical, he owned the rights to this new version in toto. The context all this occurred in was evolving, as it had been when Muddy Waters, Howlin Wolf and others drew from their influences. Characteristic of the era in which Led Zep recorded and due in no small part to the efforts of their own management, was the increasing power of recording artists relative to the labels they recorded for. If the situation had earlier remained static any royalties outstanding would likely have been paid to the labels earlier artists worked for rather than the artists themselves, as it was the labels who owned the publishing rights. Either-or propositions may well obscure a clearer perception of the situation in development.

Yeah you got points regarding money going to labels. Arc Records sued Led Zeppelin over their appropriation of a Willie Dixon song, but Willie Dixon then had to sue Arc Records himself to get any of the money they won. Next time they did it, he cut out the middle man and sued Zep himself.

Howlin' Wolf died in 1976, which meant that by the time he got any of the (settled out of court) royalties from Zep for Killing Floor, he was almost dead. Oops. Luckily he was getting paid by other musicians (The Doors, Cream and Hendrix to name but three) in the meantime.

Not every label was able to grasp with both hands, though. For example when Chubby Checker scored a hit with his cover of The Twist, the royalties went to the song's original performer and composer, Hank Ballard. Why? Because HE READ HIS CONTRACT and made sure he knew what he was entitled to. This all happened in the early '60s, so there were clearly SOME artists who weren't getting screwed.

But this is all beside the main point. The main point has nothing to do with money or royalties or any of that jazz. It's this:

Led Zeppelin took songs that they KNEW other people had written, and pretended to have written them themselves. That's plagiarism, pure and simple. Widely regarded as the single most offensive thing you can do to a creative artist.

Royalties schmoyalties. Changing the industry to protect artists (as an aside to grasping all they could get with both hands) - so what? The did the artistic equivalent of kidnapping someone else's children and pretending they were their own. It's abhorrent.

More:

Regarding the My Sweet Lord / He's So Fine case, John Lennon had something interesting to say along the lines of "George was stupid. I used to borrow bits of other people's songs all the time, but I was smart enough that by the time we recorded them I had changed them enough to be unrecognisable. He should have done the same."

This is just lame.

Led Zeppelin rock. Who cares about some old wrinkled fogies croaking away? Their songs would blow fat whores without the mighty Zepp to inflate them to full majesty!