bloooooze and thievery

[Keith Henderson]

Paul said...

>=> You are so right!  Rolling Stones being perhaps the biggest thieves
>=> of all time--and the least talented.  Pains me to say it, but ZZ Top
>=> are plagiarizing bastards too.  Weren't they the band that Willie
>=> Dixon sued?  I always figured that had something to do with the
>=> absence of a ZZT boxed set...
>
>No, Willie Dixon successfully sued Led Zeppelin.  Listen to his "You
>Need Love" (e.g., as performed by Muddy Waters) and their huge hit
>"Whole Lotta Love" from _Led Zeppelin II_ and tell me he doesn't have
>a cast-iron case. :-)
>
>The big difference between Led Zeppelin and the like of the Rolling
>Stones is that the Rolling Stones were explicitly doing blues covers
>(at least in their early days) and were crediting them as such.  But,
>with Led Zeppelin, they took the heinous step of crediting themselves
>as the authors of the tunes.  (Subsequent to the lawsuits, I believe
>the original authors also are credited---rightly so!)
>
>Even "trad., arr. Led Zeppelin" would've been better than what they
>did.  I like their music, but stealing other people's credit fairly
>stinks.

(To start, how do you steal 'fairly'?)  :)

But anyway, I have to forgive Zeppelin their transgressions in this
department compared to other artists in more recent times that IMHO have
done worse things, while *not* trying to steal credit.  I mean, those that
build careers upon the backs of others' classic tunes they've covered for no
reason whatsoever.  OK, in the old days, performing artists didn't
necessarily create their own tunes.  And of course, that's why popular music
before the late sixties generally sucks.  :)  But there are some famous
artists/bands in the 70s, 80s, and 90s (when original songwriting *has*
mattered) that haven't really done a damn thing to warrant any notice at
all.  George Thorogood is the most obvious culprit.  Maybe Carl's right and
you can't write any original blues songs, but I don't think George has ever
tried.  I'm sure he credits all the people who wrote those songs, and money
must certainly go back to the original songwriters (or their heirs), but why
does he even exist in the first place?  He's added nothing to the rock/blues
music library IMHO.  Same with Brian Setzer.  And I'd throw the Black Crowes
in there also.  Stupid nostalgia trips for the Pavlovian masses that are too
ignorant to know how worthless their 'modern' music is.  Actually, their
fans are worse than the artists who take advantage of them.  You can call
them all 'parrotheads' I suppose, whether or not they listen to Jimmy
Buffett...same small-brained people without even the advantages of binocular
vision.

At least Led Zeppelin stole only the 'song'...what they created from it was
so totally different from anything previous, that in this case (and perhaps
*only* this case) I believe the arrangement and performance style of the
tunes ('Whole Lotta Love' or anything from the first two albums) outweigh
the tunes themselves. (Though that doesn't mean they shouldn't have paid
Dixon, of course.)  Anyway, exactly the opposite of what the other losers I
mentioned have done.  Built careers (fairly) while contributing absolutely
nothing.  There should be a limit now on how many songs you can cover in a
given career.  Like two perhaps.  Linda Ronstadt - violation!  Van Halen -
bzzzzzzz!  Lenny Kravitz - Warning!!

ObOnTopic point...Take Dave Brock's Illusions (c. '67) that became HW's
'Mirror of Illusions' ('70) that became 'Mask of Morning' ('92).  After
twenty-five years, I'd say that Brock had written an entirely different song
by that point.  So I'd have forgiven him if he'd recredited the writing to
Sean McManus, or even George Spelvin.

And look, total # of Hawkwind covers in 30 years, two.  And one was really
pre-Hawkwind and the other for charity purposes.  Hence, no violation!
Total self-plagiarized Hawkwind tunes...well, we won't get into that, will
we?  :)

I like to keep things black and white, but in these situations, I see a lot
of gray.  I'll take a plagiarizing bastard that has creativity over a
law-abiding mimicker that prays upon public ignorance anyday.  "I'm your
Venus, I'm your fire...."  (Let's wait until the kids are too young to
remember this one!)

Keith H. (FAA)