Palmer argues that Led Zeppelin or any other rockers have the right to borrow so freely from bluesmen, credit or no: "Our copyright laws were written to the specifications of Tin Pan Alley and are of little relevance here, it seems to me. So when Page finally released one long-bootlegged tune on the 1990 boxed set, "Travelling Riverside Blues," originally recorded and broadcast for a 1969 BBC radio show, it was credited to "Jimmy Page & Robert Plant/Robert Johnson," although it's obvious they just arranged Johnson's "Traveling Riverside Blues" and, in fact, once more used the line about squeezing lemons that everyone continues to associate with Plant.
And it is not surprising that living blues artists demanded some compensation, if not recognition, for sounds and words blatantly stolen from them and presented to audiences of millions as the original thing.Īnd the Led Zeppelin boxed set does not note that, amid the loads of borrowed blues riffs and phrases on the band's first album, chunks of "How Many More Times" is composed of Albert King's "The Hunter." Indeed, Hooker's own "Crawlin' King Snake" was based on the Tony Hollins' 1941 recording, which itself was based on Blind Lemon Jefferson's 1926 "That Black Snake Moan."īut dusty old 78s from the Mississippi Delta were hardly "contemporary sources" for the high-powered, high-paying world of English-based rock 'n' roll. It is the custom in blues music for a singer to borrow verses from contemporary sources, both oral and recorded, add his own tune and/or arrangement and call the song his own. Willie Dixon successfully sued Led Zeppelin for using "You Shook Me" and "I Can't Quit You Baby" without credit on its first album.īut, as music writer Robert Palmer notes in the Led Zeppelin boxed set booklet, several of Dixon's copyrights involve material from the folk-blues public domain tunes such as "My Babe" were current in the South long before he claimed them. Living bluesmen suing rockers is nothing new. "I talk with them all the time," Hooker says. "Keith Richards did something on my album, you know," Hooker says, referring to a remake they did of his "Crawlin' King Snake" that appeared on Hooker's latest album, "Mr. Hooker nevertheless harbors no litigious feelings toward the Stones, either. But the Stones use the groove from "Boogie Chillun' " just as explicitly as ZZ Top on their "Shake Your Hips" piece from "Exile on Main Street." You've got to do what you can to tell people, `Hey check this cat out.' "Īnother track on "Exile" of interest is a version of Mississippi Fred McDowell's "Shake Your Hips." Although the track is credited to the bluesman, who was living at the time, the Stones' version features a boogie guitar intro that's identical to the one used by ZZ Top on "La Grange" and, consequently, "Boogie Chillun.' " Hooker has a long history with the Stones. When you know about something and comparatively few other people know about it, that's a crime in a way. Ironically, Richards also writes: "Everybody should know about Robert Johnson. In the case of "Love in Vain," "I started searching around for a different way to present it, because if we were going to record it, there was no point in trying to copy the Robert Johnson style or version," Richards says. Keith Richards admits in the booklet accompanying the 1990 Robert Johnson boxed set that he knew precisely whose songs he was stealing. They pulled the same trick when they recorded a version of Johnson's "Stop Breakin' Down" for 1972's "Exile on Main Street," which was also credited as a traditional. The Stones' most lowly steal came when they recorded Robert Johnson's "Love in Vain" for the album "Let It Bleed." Not only was its studio version credited to a fictitious character named Woody Payne, the live version, on the 1970 album "Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out," was listed as a traditional.
Not only has the enduring English band based its career on American blues (and another star from the Chess Records stable, Chuck Berry), but, more important, the band certainly has the cash to pay out. One of the biggest targets for a potential lawsuit may be the Rolling Stones, who, in fact, named themselves after a blues song - "Rolling Stone" by Muddy Waters. "A whole lot of people going to be sued." "You ain't kidding," Hooker says with a chuckle.