de=da=duh=D'OH/ bloooooze and thievery

[Ted Jackson jr. s2h2]

> From:          Paul Mather <paul at GROMIT.DLIB.VT.EDU>
>
> => To a great extent, Zep were only doing what generations of musicians before
> => them had done. They were doing what most of the "Blues Fathers" had
> => probably done themselves: combining stuff they heard with stuff they made
> => up. However, by doing so they violated copyright laws that had not been in
> => force a century before--and that's the chief difference. Note, I'm not
> => discussing whether what they did was right or not--that's a legal and
> => social issue determined by other factors. I'm only discussing the process.
>
> I would believe that a lot more had Led Zeppelin originated their
> material in the nascent field of the blues pioneers.  But since they got
> their's second-hand, through *recordings* (and, in some cases, with
> members---e.g., Page---*playing* with some of the forerunners involved),
> it's difficult for me to believe they had a hard time attributing the
> source of "You Shook Me," "I Can't Quit You Baby," etc.  At least in the
> case of the early blues pioneers there was a shortage of extant
> recordings to document claims.
>
And remember too, that Page had an extensive background as a studio
musician before he joined the Yardbirds.  Surely he knew the ins and
outs of copyright, and simply chose to ignore them.  Probably figured
nobody would notice, or that the original writers lacked either the
resolve or resources to question what LZ was doing.  Whatever the
rationale, what Page/LZ did was outrageous...

théo