The one musician Jimmy Page called their own “genre”
Led Zeppelin rose meteorically with their pulsating, swaggering grooves. However, as we know, the group weren’t always purely original, and actually formed the bedrock of their sound by pilfering from the work of artists they loved. This would land Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, and the rest of the band in hot water on numerous occasions, such as when they used Howlin’ Wolf’s ‘Killing Floor’ as the basis of 1969’s ‘The Lemon Song’.
In December 1972, Led Zeppelin were sued by Arc Music, the owner of the publishing rights to Howling Wolf’s song, for copyright infringement over the track that appeared on their hit album Led Zeppelin II three years prior. Eventually, the parties settled out of court, and the great blues pioneer Wolf received a $45,123 cheque from the company not long after it was announced. All subsequent releases included a co-songwriter credit for him. It was the least they could do for one of their most important inspirations.
Led Zeppelin would most blatantly steal songs from their heroes in their early years. Clearly, landing themselves in legal hot water proved to be enough for the band to change their approach and start to utilise the influence of musicians they loved in more subtle ways. This would mostly be the case moving forward, but there would be the odd moment where the influence of others would be pretty obvious.
Perhaps the most famous is ‘Going to California’ from 1971’s Led Zeppelin IV, the record deemed the quartet’s masterpiece. A touching slice of folk rock, it tapped into the countercultural spirit and has since been revealed by frontman Plant to have been a reference to the work of Joni Mitchell, an artist whom he loved intensely. When playing it live, the vocalist would sometimes even sing the word “Joni” after the line, “She plays guitar and cries and sings”.
While it makes perfect sense for the band to pay homage to the ‘Lady of the Canyon’ due to their profound folk influences, their 1973 follow-up, Houses of the Holy, included what might be the most unexpected musical nod to another star. Known for their heavy grooves and extended jams, Led Zeppelin took a different route with the deeply funk-infused track, ‘The Crunge’. This song was crafted as a tribute to the genre’s pioneer, James Brown, famously known as ‘Mr. Dynamite’.
There’s no doubt that the group was heavily steeped in American musical traditions, but Brown’s work is something that you wouldn’t necessarily associate with their sound, despite drummer John Bonham being a big fan and the fact that feel is central to all their work. However, band leader and guitarist Page was in no doubt about Brown’s significance. He said of his singular nature: “He [James Brown] was almost a musical genre in his own right and he changed and moved forward the whole time so people were able to learn from him.”
‘The Crunge’ emerged from a jam in the studio between Bonham, who started the beat, bassist John Paul Jones, who laid down the incredibly James Brown-esque line, and guitarist Jimmy Page, who added the appropriately choppy riff. To achieve that typically funky sound, Page swapped out the meaty humbucking sound of his Les Paul for the chiming single-coil clangour of the Fender Stratocaster.
While ‘The Crunge’ has always been an oddity in Led Zeppelin’s back catalogue, they did a remarkable job of replicating James Brown’s unique sound. The track is mostly in 9/8, giving it its staggering groove, and also lacks a bridge, a trick Brown weaponised many times. This leads to Plant comically asking in the final moments, “Have you seen the bridge?” He then answers himself with, “I ain’t seen the bridge!” and “Where’s that confounded bridge?” He strangely sounds like Jack White.
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