Who wrote the Led Zeppelin song ‘The Girl I Love’?
Fans of rock and roll, despite being passionate about the genre they love and individualistic in their approach to appreciating that style of music, remain united by Led Zeppelin. Regardless of the branch of rock music someone likes, they seem to be intrinsically linked by an adoration for Robert Plant, John Paul Jones, John Bonham and Jimmy Page, who took what rock music was and added multiple layers to it.
The secret behind Led Zeppelin was both their talent as individuals and their ability to merge those talents to create something cohesive and exciting. Each band member was a pioneer in their own right, instrumentally, but they were also able to integrate their creative output so that Led Zeppelin’s sound celebrated their talent whilst also being accessible to the everyday listener.
Of course, their fame didn’t come without controversy, as many people have often criticised the bands for ripping off other artists and stealing songs. A lot of the time, Zeppelin weren’t trying to pawn tracks off as their own, but they were sparse with how they credited the artists who did create songs. It wasn’t strange for a Led Zeppelin album to have covers, but they wouldn’t say who the covers were by.
Consider their track ‘Babe, I’m Gonna Leave You’, which was originally written by Anne Bredon in 1950 and later covered by Joan Baez on her album Joan Baez in Concert. Rather than openly saying who the song was by, Led Zeppelin simply credited the track as a “traditional” folk song. It wasn’t until the 1980s, 20 years after their version of the track was released that the band acknowledged Bredon.
The mindset seemed to be that if they are subtle in the way they cover songs and only take sections of the music rather than the whole thing, then they could get away with not giving out full credit. Some would say that Led Zeppelin only took the folk elements of ‘Babe, I’m Gonna Leave You’ so that initial credit was on point.
This has led to many people being trepidatious about acknowledging Led Zeppelin’s work. Another example of them taking from other people’s work and passing it off as their own is with their song ‘The Girl I Love’. It’s a great song packed with the energy that Led Zeppelin was synonymous with, but it’s not the work of just the band members alone. Granted, their individual talent and cohesion as a group may have taken the song to another level, but they did take some of the lyrics from the track from an older number.
So, who actually wrote ‘The Girl I Love’
The song’s full name is ‘The Girl I Love She Got Long Black Wavy Hair’, and it was recorded by the BBC on June 16th, 1969, for a special recording session. The tape resurfaced some years later, and fans were able to enjoy the fantastic Led Zeppelin track. While the song’s instrumentation is all original and the by-product of each member’s effort, the lyrics are taken from a different song.
They are a modification of the lyrics in a 1929 blues song, ‘The Girl I Love She Got Long Curley Hair’. It’s easy to see the similarities, and Robert Plant played into them when putting together the lyrics for this track. Despite being a loved song, this is another example of when Led Zeppelin would take the work of somebody else and make minor altercations to pass it off as their own. The original track was by Sleep John Estes, a blues artist from the ‘20s.
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