Did Led Zeppelin steal ‘Dazed and Confused’?
Back in 2010, the American folk singer Jake Holmes began lawsuit proceedings against Jimmy Page and Led Zeppelin, claiming that he wrote the band’s iconic song ‘Dazed and Confused’. Though Holmes’ authorship of the material had been cited for some time, Holmes was seeking $1 million in damages.
In the filed documents for the lawsuit, Holmes made reference to an original 1967 copyright registration for ‘Dazed and Confused’, which was renewed in 1995. The song had originally been released on Holmes’ 1967 debut album.
The route that ‘Dazed and Confused’ took from Holmes to Page and Led Zeppelin is well-documented. In 1967, Holmes opened for the Yardbirds (then featuring Jimmy Page) in Greenwich Village. Holmes said of the show: “That was the infamous moment of my life when Dazed and Confused fell into the loving arms and hands of Jimmy Page.”
Jim McCarty, the drummer of the Yardbirds, said that he went to purchase a copy of Holmes’ album the very next day. Then he commented: “We decided to do a version. We worked it out together with Jimmy contributing the guitar riffs in the middle.”
Then, following the dissolution of Yardbirds in 1968, Page took the new ‘Dazed and Confused’ version to his new band, Led Zeppelin, which was recorded and subsequently released on their self-titled debut album. Although Holmes’ contribution to the song is well known, Page was listed as the only songwriter in the credits.
When Page was asked whether Holmes was indeed the original songwriter in 1990, he replied: “I don’t know about all that. I’d rather not get into it because I don’t know all the circumstances. What’s he got – the riff or whatever? I haven’t heard Jake Holmes, so I don’t know what it’s all about anyway. Usually, my riffs are pretty damn original.”
Holmes had only been able to claim the royalties and any damage caused over the last three years before the lawsuit was filed. Led Zeppelin subsequently settled the lawsuit out of court. As Holmes had been missing entirely from the songwriting credits, he said: “I understand it’s a collaborative effort. But I think you should give me some credit at least and some remunity [sic].”
Zeppelin are well known to have plagiarised several blues and folk classics, cranking up the volume and then not giving credit to the origin of the ideas. It appears that it’s clear that Page nicked the idea for ‘Dazed and Confused’ from Holmes, and fortunately for Holmes, the credits now read “inspired by Jake Holmes,” but not without him fighting for it.
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