Led Zeppelin lift offs
Homer Simpson: "There’s Jimmy Page, the greatest thief of American black music
who ever walked the earth."
The issue of uncredited lifts by Jimmy Page and others of the Yardbirds and
Led Zeppelin has been debated since
the late 1960's. On July 27, 2007, interest
in it, and debates on the Internet, arose again after it was discussed
on The
Howard Stern Show.
A subset of the Zep fans are fanatical. To them, Led Zep are gods and they
refuse to admit LZ misuse
of research material (in contrast to. say, Eric Clap-
ton's credit-giving habits). "My heroes are Gods, and sin is
to be less than
God, so by definition my God can't sin." Present an example and some ironically
accuse you of
making it up out of hate for the group. The fan seems like a cult
member with a persecution complex. It's like
I'm writing another chapter on the
Jehovah's Witnesses.
They may even find old quotes from artists who took substantial ideas from
others without credit who said,
"It's just borrowing--everybody does it. It's
an homage," etc. But it makes a difference in where the money
goes, too, and
Led Zep money could be substantial. If somebody "borrowed" your car like that,
you probably wouldn't
call it an homage and say everyone does it, and your car
probably isn't worth as much.
I'd recommend just presenting the evidence and not getting frustrated about
subjectivity clouding their ability
to be objective--that's not your responsi-
bility. Actually, I enjoy a number of Yardbirds and Led Zep recordings,
but
that, and that they were talented and wealthy, is why the lifts seem all the
more stupid to me like Oprah or McCartney
trying to run out of a grocery store
without paying for the stuff in their shopping cart. I don't know a case of
credit
hogging as big for any other major act.
The basic groundrules I'll be using:
Generally in pop music, the song is the melody. The words, if any, are the
lyrics. The song may
also be thought to be the melody and the lyrics. The rest
is the arrangement.
A song can be given a variety of arrangements and some variation but if it's
substantially recognizable as
the original the credit typically goes to the
original songwriter(s), possibly with an added "arranged by."
To be considered a stolen part of a song/arrangement, the part has to be more
distinctive than something commonly
used without anyone considering it a theft
such as the phrase "I love you" and more substantial than just a reference to
a
distinctive name or such.
Judgment may vary depending on the particulars of a case. Some old songs have
become public domain (yet
I still prefer to see credit for the author or, if un-
known, "trad. arr. by"). I'm not a legal authority don't want
to force points,
so I'll just give the evidence and point out where I find the sort of distinc-
tive substantial similarities
in songs that show something was taken from an
earlier work without credit.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musical_plagiarism
****
****
This would be easier to demonstrate if someone supplied the evidence, which
includes recordings found on You
Tube, which some people also have a problem
with. Oh, where, oh, where will we find such a disreputable person?
"Stroll On"
"Smile On Me"
"White Summer"
"Babe I'm Gonna Leave You"
"Dazed and Confused"
"Black Mountain Side"
"How Many More Times"
"Whole Lotta Love"
"The Lemon Song"
"Moby Dick"
"Bring it on Home"
"Tangerine"
"Hats Off to (Roy) Harper"
"Since I've Been Lovin' You"
"Stairway to Heaven"
"When The Levee Breaks"
"Custard Pie"
"In My Time of Dying"
"Trampled Under Foot"
"Boogie With Stu"
"Nobody's Fault But Mine"
"Stroll On"
The songwriting credits for "Stroll On" are given to Jeff Beck, Chris Dreja,
Jim McCarty, Jimmy Page, and Keith
Relf. Writing new lyrics for a song doesn't
honestly make it your song, though. (Don't you kids try it at home.)
It would
have been better if they chipped in to help the director pay the regular royal-
ties or persuaded him to pick
a different song.
"Smile On Me"
Basically, it's a rewrite of two blues songs.
The melody of the verses have a structure similar to "All Your Love," and both
break into a faster part for
the solo, but it's probably too basic a blues for-
mula to be a copyright violation. It's more a case of using someone
else's
basic format to write your own basic blues song with.
"Rack My Mind" on "The Yardbirds" (also known as "Roger the Engineer"), 1966,
was based on "Baby Scratch My
Back," 1966, by James Moore, who used the name
"Slim Harpo." The credit for "Rack My Mind" was given to Beck, Dreja,
McCarty,
Relf, and Samwell-Smith.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_the_Engineer
"Smile On Me" (with cool guitar solo breaks--don't let it be said I'm stingy
with the coolness credits when
something is cool) is credited to Dreja, McCarty,
Page, and Relf.
Jimmy Page practically made a recital of the distinctive things about it as if
it was meant to teach people
how good Davy's version was. He gave it the name
"White Summer."
The credit for "White Summer" on "Little Games," 1967, by the Yardbirds, and
later Led Zep albums, was given
to Jimmy Page. It's cool, but Page neither
wrote the song nor came up with the basic idea for the version.
The title is
original.
What's next? Jimmy Page has a lovely follow-up song for the holidays--"White
Christmas." He'll
be standing with a pipe by a fireside, "I'm dreaming...."
Then the ghost of Bob Hope comes out and slaps him right in the
face. No, no,
no--sorry.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJSUT8Inl14
According to Wikipedia, Janet Smith came up with a version of it but lost
track of the authorship. "It
became the opening track on Joan Baez in Concert,
Part 1. When this album was in production, Vanguard Records contacted
Smith to
determine the authorship of the song. Because Smith was unable to track down
Bredon prior to the release
of Baez's album, the song was credited as 'Tradi-
tional, arr. Baez' on Joan Baez in Concert, Part 1. Anne Bredon
was properly
credited, however, in the Joan Baez Song Book, which was published in 1964."
The original 1962 Joan Baez version--the one credited as a traditional--from
"Joan Baez in Concert, Part 1"
is at the next link. But it can't be the only
source for Led Zep's version because the lyrics have a lot of differences
from
Led Zep's version. If Led Zep is the source of those differences for what they
thought was a traditional
song it's weird, especially considering some of these
other examples, that originally Led Zep didn't claim any credit for
the song-
writing--they only left out credit (and royalties) for Bredon.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFNpKaxzNMo
Now she has credit but it's part credit (so 1/3rd royalties) shared with two
that didn't think they wrote it
but changed their minds and decided they did
after legal action began.
This segues nicely into:
Jake Holmes opened for the Yardbirds with Jimmy Page in 1967.
Keith Relf of the Yardbirds changed some lyrics and Jimmy Page added a middle
section for a Yardbirds version.
Page rewrote the lyrics again for the first
Led Zep album.
The 1969 Led Zep credit is Jimmy Page. According Will Shade, when he asked
Holmes when he knew about
the Led Zep version, Holmes said, "When the album came
out! And then, stupidly, I never followed up on it," Jake
Holmes said. "In the
early 1980's, I did write them a letter and I said basically: 'I understand it's
a collaborative
effort, but I think you should give me credit at least and some
remuneration.' But they never contacted me."
The Will Shade article also contains this segment of a 1990 interview in Musi-
cian magazine with Jimmy Page:
Musician: I understand "Dazed & Confused" was originally a song by
Jake Holmes. Is that
true?
Page: [Sourly] I don't know. I don't know. [Inhaling] I don't know
about all that.
Musician: Do you remember the process of writing that song?
Page: Well, I did that with the Yardbirds originally... The Yardbirds
were such a good band
for a guitarist to play in that I came up with a
lot of riffs and ideas out of that, and I employed quite a lot
of those
in the early Zeppelin stuff.
Musician: But Jake Holmes, a successful jingle writer in New York,
claims on his 1967 record
that he wrote the original song.
Page: Hmm. Well, I don't know. I don't know about that. I'd rather
not get into it because
I don't know all the circumstances. What's he
got, The riff or whatever? Because Robert wrote some of
the lyrics for
that on the album. But he was only listening to.... we extended it
from the
one that we were playing with the Yardbirds.
Musician: Did you bring it into the Yardbirds?
Page: No, I think we played it 'round a sort of melody line or some-
thing that Keith [Relf]
had. So I don't know. I haven't heard Jake
Holmes so I don't know what it's all about anyway.
Usually my riffs
are pretty damn original. [laughs] What can I say?
Jimmy sure sounds guilty. Will Shade asked Yardbird Chris Dreja what he
thought about Page's 40-year
denial. Chris said, "It's the guilt."
"During a 1967 tour of the United States by English rock group The Yard-
birds, Jake Holmes performed
as the opener at the Village Theater in Green-
wich Village on August 25, 1967. The Yardbirds were inspired by his
perfor-
mance and decided to work up their own arrangement. Their version featured
long instrumental passages
of bowed guitar courtesy of Jimmy Page, and dynam-
ic instrumental flourishes. Page has stated that he obtained
the idea of us-
ing a violin bow on his guitar from a violinist named David McCallum, Sr.,
during his
session days before joining the Yardbirds in 1966. At that time,
it even had a little Eastern influence, as can
be heard on some French tele-
vision appearances. It quickly became a staple of The Yardbirds' live perfor-
mance during the last year of their act.
"The song was never officially recorded by the band,
although a live ver-
sion recorded on 30 March 1968 is included on the album Live Yardbirds: Fea-
turing
Jimmy Page under the alternate title 'I'm Confused'. Notably, it is
the only track that has no songwriter credits
on the release. Another live
version of the song, recorded on the French TV series 'Bouton Rouge' on 9
March 1968, was included on the CD Cumular Limit in 2000 and was credited 'by
Jake Holmes arr. Yardbirds.'
"The Led Zeppelin version was not credited to Holmes. Page used the title,
penned a new
set of lyrics, and changed enough of the melody to escape a pla-
giarism lawsuit from Holmes — the song's
arrangement, however, remained
markedly similar to the version performed by The Yardbirds the previous year.
While Holmes took no action at the time, he did later contact Page in regards
to the matter. Page had not replied
as of 2001. In June 2010 Holmes filed a
lawsuit in United States District Court, alleging copyright infringement
and
naming Page as a co-defendant. The 2012 live album Celebration Day attributes
the song to 'Page; inspired
by Jake Holmes', although the writer's credit with
ASCAP remains unchanged."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dazed_and_Confused_%28song%29#Led_Zeppelin_studio_recording
"It is still not widely recognized that Holmes was the author of the clas-
sic song. Page,
while on tour with the Yardbirds in 1967, saw Holmes perform
the song in Greenwich Village. Within months, he had
adapted the song for
that group, and later, for Led Zeppelin. For reasons that are not entirely
clear,
Page claimed sole songwriting credit for the song when it appeared on
Led Zeppelin's debut album. Holmes later sent
Page a letter about the song-
writing credits but received no reply.
"In June 2010,
Holmes filed a lawsuit against Jimmy Page for copyright in-
fringement in United States District Court, claiming
Page knowingly copied
his work.
"November 2012's release of Celebration Day (The
Led Zeppelin Reunion Show
at the O2) credits Dazed and Confused as written by Jimmy Page inspired by
Jake
Holmes."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jake_Holmes#Dazed_and_Confused
Do you get royalties for "inspired by"? I think I'd prefer (Jake Holmes;
adapted and additional material
by Jimmy Page) or (Holmes/Page).
I'm agreeing with Jake Holmes on this one. Holmes should get partial credit,
and people should ask for
and get permission first before copyrighting a combin-
ation they create with someone else's song.
See the section below on "Tangerine."
Jimmy Page did a slightly embellished version except without the vocal, called
it "Black Mountain Side," and
released it in 1969.
"The accompaniment was nicked by a well-known member of one of the
most famous rock bands,
who used it, unchanged, on one of their records,"
Jansch was quoted as saying in Doug Kennedy's 1983 "The Songs
and Guitar
Solos of Bert Jansch."
http://www.furious.com/PERFECT/yardbirds2.html
The Led Zep credit is Jimmy Page. Page didn't write the song. He has a fol-
low up soon to be released--"Foggy
Mountain Breakdown," featuring his new style
of snazzy pickin.' (The rumored follow-up is tentatively titled "Dueling
Danelectros.")
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icMTVV5Lwaw
Led Zeppelin mainly used Otis' 1966 version for "Led Zeppelin," 1969.
It's a blues song Willie Dixon wrote for Otis Rush, 1956, and credited to
Dixon. I just added it to this
list because it lends support to the idea Led
Zep knew Dixon was the author of the other songs of his they didn't credit
him
for originally.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uy2tEP3I3DM
The lyrics...
"I was a young man, I couldn't resist
Started thinkin' it all over, just what I had missed
Got me a girl and I kissed her and then, and then
Whoops, oh Lordy, well I did it again"
"Well, when I was a young man never been kissed
I got to thinkin' it over how much I had missed
So I got me a girl and I kissed her and then, and then
Oh, lordy, well I kissed her again"
The lyrics...
"Well they call me the hunter, that's my name
They call me the hunter, that's how I got my fame
Ain't no need to hide, Ain't no need to run
'Cause I've got you in the sights of my gun"
"They call me the hunter, that's my name
A pretty woman like you, is my only game
I bought
me a love gun, just the other day
And I aim to aim it your way
Ain't no use to hide, ain't no use to run
'Cause I've got you in the sights of my love gun"
"Alexis Korner--On the Move" features "O Rosie," credited to "Trad. Arr. Korn-
er" and "Steal Away" which Robert
Plant co-wrote with Alexis Korner and Steve
Miller and recorded in 1968.
The lyrics...
"Oh, Rosie, oh, girl
Steal away now, steal away
Little Robert Anthony wants to come and play"
...of "How Many More Times" refer to two songs by others. Alan Lomax recorded
them in the southern USA.
"Oh, Rosie" is a prison work song Lomax recorded in
1947 or 1948 for "Prison Songs: Historical Recordings from Parchman
Farm 1947-
48, Volume 2." "Steal Away" originated in the days of US slavery and is a
Christian spiritual for "Negro
Religious Songs and Services." "Steal Away" was
also sung as a "freedom song" by activists in the civil rights movement
in the
1950s and 1960s.
(According to the "Turn Me On, Dead Man" web site, the bass line is like that
of the Yardbirds' cover of Howlin'
Wolf's "Smokestack Lightning," which is es-
pecially clear on the Dec., 1965--before Page was a member--version by the
Yard-
birds on the BBC Sessions collection. Dunno--I couldn't find it on You Tube.)
The song is credited to Bonham/Jones/Page. Robert Plant, the fourth member of
Led Zep, would have claimed
the songwriting credit, too, but according to Wiki-
pedia:
- "As with all the other tracks on Led Zeppelin's debut album, Robert Plant
didn't get a writing credit for
this song due to unexpired contractual obliga-
tions, but he undoubtedly had a large influence in its construction."
- "In an interview he gave to Guitar World magazine in 1993, Page stated that
the song 'was made up of little
pieces I developed when I was with the Yard-
birds, as were other numbers such as 'Dazed and Confused.'"
- "...all new Led Zeppelin releases since 1993 have co-credited the song with
Chester Burnett via arrangement
with his publishing company, ARC Music. Cover
versions by many artists, such as the LA Guns 1999 version on the album
Shrink-
ing Violet, however, are not credited to Burnett."
If Burnett gets 1/4th credit, after legal proceedings, for just the basic
structure and title, a couple others,
Lee Hayes and the Booker T. lyricist of
"The Hunter," are owed remunerations, too. Led Zep has another original compan-
ion
song saved up for release: "How many more roads must a man walk down before
you call him...." arranged by Les Zimmerman.
Further answering the age-old musical question, "How do they come up with them
so fast?":
In May, 1966, Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, Keith Moon, and John Paul Jones recorded
some things and they (I think
it was just the first three?) and John Entwistle
considered forming their own group.
Sometime during the last couple years of Jimmy Page's tenure with the Yard-
birds, 1966-1968, a hostile reaction
came from the Small Faces' management when
they were asked if Steve Marriott could be the vocalist for the potential new
group.
http://www.furious.com/perfect/yardbirds2.html
According to an interview by Steven Rosen for Modern Guitars, May 24, 2007,
Jimmy Page said this about Steve
Marriott and his management:
"He was contacted, and the reply came back from his manager’s office: 'How
would you like to have a group
with no fingers, boys?' Or words to that effect.
So the group was dropped because of Marriott’s other commitment,
to the Small
Faces."
For Led Zep's version of "You Need Love," "Whole Lotta Love," Robert Plant
used Steve Marriott's vocal style,
including a variation of the same kind of
break near the end of the song the Small Faces used ("Woman...you need...
love....").
It has Willie's words and basic blues construction but sounds
more--a whole lotta more--like Steve Marriott.
(It also has one of those "Magic Carpet Ride," Steppenwolf, 1968, solo sec-
tions where nobody solos but just
makes sounds or whatever for five minutes or
so, an idea John and Yoko unfortunately elaborated on seemingly interminably
from
around this time for several years, possibly the fault of heroin use in the
case of John and Yoko. We're not sure
if that part's a matter of songwriting
credit or blame. Page was financing organized crime buying their cocaine,
then
heroin, throughout his time with Led Zep, too. Everybody listening to the Led
Zep break speeds past it to
the part where the band comes in with "womp womp"s
like "I Ain't Got You" by the Yardbirds with Eric Clapton except used
in the
first of pairs of measures instead of the second of pairs.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjHQoWRbMf8 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Page#Drug_use http://criminal.findlaw.com/criminal-charges/drug-cartels-and-organized-crime.html
Led Zep originally credited "Whole Lotta Love" to Jimmy Page and Robert Plant.
Since the lawsuit was settled
out of court in 1985, the name Willie Dixon was
added to Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Bonham, and John Paul Jones.
I guess
Steve didn't play fair about crediting Dixon either (or Jimmy was PO'ed about
what happened when he talked to
Small Faces' management) so Led Zep considered
him as disqualified. Actually, it owes at least as much to Steve,
though. The
basic song, not determined by arrangement, solos, and tempos, should recognize
Dixon via Marriott.
Like "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You," it got better and worse the same way: two
more Led Zep members decided they
helped write the song since it was first re-
leased, so the claimant got an even smaller fraction of the royalties--1/5th.
Sound-alike recordings have become a matter of identity ownership litigation
in recent years, too. I'm
no entertainment lawyer, but I wonder if it matters
regarding the Steve Marriott impression.
(See "Bring It On Home.")
(The quote at the start of it is by Pres. Lyndon Johnson: "I speak tonight for
the dignity of man, and the
destiny of democracy. I urge every member of both
parties...")
(I guess the sax solo near the end of it correlates to the section of noises
near the end of "Whole Lotta Love"
except the sax soloist actually does some-
thing.)
According to the Wikipedia article on "The Lemon Song": "The song borrows sig-
nificantly from Howlin' Wolf's
'Killing Floor", which was a song Led Zeppelin
often incorporated into their live setlist during their first concert tour
of
the United States. For the second and third North American tours the song
evolved into 'The Lemon Song,' with
Plant often improvising lyrics onstage.
However, despite Howlin' Wolf's influence on the arrangement, the album sleeve
of
Led Zeppelin II initially credited only the four members of Led Zeppelin."
The right column of that Wikipedia article only credits those four, too.
According to the Songfacts site: "On the original British copies of Led Zep-
pelin II, the label on the record
lists 'Killing Floor' as the third track and
is credited to Chester Burnett (Howlin' Wolf's real name), while the liner
lists
'The Lemon Song' and credits Led Zeppelin."
http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=315
The basic song, not determined by arrangement, solos, and tempos, should not
only at least but primarily recognize
Wolf, who ended up listed last in the
credits. (For those keeping score on the home game, mention could be made of
a
small lyric contribution by the Electric Flag.) Credit for the lyrics added by
Robert Plant should have been
added after permission was granted to add them if
permission was granted.
However, unlike "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You," Led Zep seems to have seen some-
thing coming on this one and was
already prepared to say all of them helped
write the song so the most the claimant would get (and derive from Led Zep roy-
alties)
is 1/5th.
"The Girl I Love She Got Long Black Wavy Hair," on the 1997 album "BBC Ses-
sions," 1997, credits Bonham/Estes/Jones/Page/Plant.
Led Zeppelin mainly relied on the riff, the same riff as Led Zep used on the
BBC but no vocal, for the beginning
and end of "Moby Dick" on "Led Zeppelin II,"
Oct., 1968. It's really just the basic blues changes used for a riff
song,
though, and it's basically identifiable as Bobby Parker's riff. The writers are
given as Bonham/Jones/Page.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moby_Dick_%28instrumental%29
Willie Dixon (see "Whole Lotta Love") wrote "Bring it on Home."
Led Zep added a middle section but didn't credit Dixon for the beginning and
end. As with "Whole Lotta
Love," the beginning and end of this recording sound
more like cover versions, in this case with Robert sounding like he's
doing an
impression of Williamson II. It was settled for Dixon, if not Williamson, out
of court, and is now credited
to Willie Dixon, Jimmy Page, and Robert Plant.
Again, Led Zep should ask for and get permission before adding to someone
else's
song and copyrighting it.
Jim McCarty. a former member of the Yardbirds, said, "He [Keith Relf] should
really be given a credit for that
one," referring to the lyrics of the second
verse of "Knowing That I'm Losing You," which appear as the first verse of
"Tan-
gerine."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPh1r32TCMY
The verse he referred to is:
"Led Zeppelin III," 1970, gave the credit for "Tangerine" to Page, who also
suppressed the release of the later
Yardbirds recordings the other surviving
Yardbirds wanted to release:
One was "Live Yardbirds Featuring Jimmy Page," released most recently on CD
in 2000, suppressed despite Jim
McCarty, Chris Dreja, and Keith Relf's family
favoring the release.
"The Anderson Theatre show I didn't think was too bad--Jimmy says Keith had a
bad night," McCarty said. "I
think it was more a case of doing 'Dazed and Con-
fused' pre-Zeppelin that made him withdraw it."
The other was "Cumular Limit," 2000, mainly the final studio sessions from
New York City in April, 1968.
"Knowing That I'm Losing You" was kept off it,
then the CD itself was suppressed. It credited a live version of "Dazed
and
Confused" as noted by Wikipedia: "A Yardbirds live recording from french TV ser-
ies 'Bouton Rouge' (recorded on
9 March 1968) was released on Cumular Limit in
2000, credited as 'Dazed and Confused' by Jake Holmes arr. Yardbirds."
It also credits "White Summer" to "trad. arr. Page." (Again, what about Davey
Graham? Poor little
Davey, tears frozen to his cheeks standing out in the cold
with a cup.) Maybe Jimmy could change his name to "traditional"
and get it over
with. ("Thanks for singing 'Happy Birthday To You' to me. I'll take bills,
checks, or credit
cards.")
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cumular_Limit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folk_music
The lyrics are almost entirely a mix from several blues songs, notably slight-
ly changed but recognizable
lines from "Lone Wolf Blues" by Oscar Woods and
"Shake 'Em On Down" by Bukka White, with a slight variation of a couple
lines,
also used in "Custard Pie," from "Help Me" by Sonny Boy Williamson II. It also
has the title phrase from
"Brown Skin Woman" by either Sunnyland Slim or Howlin'
Wolf, and a couple of lines I don't know the original author of.
The slide gui-
tar sounds similar to Mississippi Fred McDowell's version of "Shake 'Em On Down."
When I done quit hollerin', babe
Shake 'Em On Down
I believe I'll shake 'em on down
Shake 'Em On Down
Get me, baby, won't be
late
?
You know by that I mean not seconds late ?
Must I holler, must I shake 'em on down Shake 'Em On Down
When I done
quit hollerin', babe
Shake 'Em On Down
I believe I'll shake 'em on down
Shake 'Em On Down
Well, I ain't no monkey, I can't climb no tree
Lone Wolf Blues
No brown-skin woman
Brown Skin Woman
Gonna make no monkey outta me
Lone Wolf Blues
Yeah, I ain't no monkey, sure can't climb no tree Lone Wolf Blues
I been
mistreated, babe
Lone Wolf Blues
I believe I'll shake 'em on down
Shake 'Em On Down
Well, I been mistreated, babe
Lone Wolf Blues
I believe I'll shake 'em on down
Shake 'Em On Down
Listen, mama, put on your morning gown
Help Me
Put on your nightshirt, mama
Help Me
We gonna shake 'em on down
Shake 'Em On Down
Must I shake 'em on down
Shake 'Em On Down
Well, I done been mistreated baby
Lone Wolf Blues
I believe I'll shake 'em on down
Shake 'Em On Down
Gave my baby twenty-dollar bill
Lone Wolf Blues
If that don't finish her, I'm sure my shotgun will Lone
Wolf Blues
Yeah, I gave my babe twenty-dollar bill Lone
Wolf Blues
Well, if that don't get that woman out
Lone Wolf Blues
I'm sure my shotgun will
Lone Wolf Blues
Yeah, I'll go shoot her, now
"Hats Off to (Roy) Harper" is credited on "Led Zeppelin III," 1970, as a trad-
itional song, which precludes
royalty payments, arranged by Jimmy Page (the
pseudonym Charles Obscure was used early on). What traditional song?
Credit
should go at least to Oscar Woods and Bukka White.
The two songs are similar blues songs, and the lyrics of the opening verse,
bridge, and closing verse of the
two are similar.
The first verse of "Never":
Working from 11:00 to 7:00 every night
Ought to make life a drag
And I know that ain't right
The lyrics of both otherwise share "the best of fools," "I love you, baby,"
and references to crying.
The lyrics of "Since I've Been Loving You":
Working from seven to eleven every night,
It really makes life a drag, I don't think that's right.
I've really, really been the best of fools, I did what I could.
'Cause I love you, baby, How I love
you, darling, How I love you, baby,
How I love you, girl, little girl.
But baby, Since I've Been Loving
You. I'm about to lose my worried mind, oh, yeah.
Everybody trying to tell me that you didn't mean me no good.
I've been trying, Lord, let me tell you,
Let me tell you I really did the best I could.
I've been working from seven to eleven every night, I said It kinda
makes my life a drag.
Lord, that ain't right...
Since I've Been Loving You, I'm about to lose my worried
mind.
Said I've been crying, my tears they fell like rain,
Don't you hear, Don't you hear them falling,
Don't you hear, Don't you hear them falling.
Do you remember mama, when I knocked upon your door?
I said you had the nerve to tell me you didn't
want me no more, yeah
I open my front door, hear my back door slam,
You must have one of them new fangled
back door man.
I've been working from seven, seven, seven, to eleven every night, It kinda makes my life a drag...
Baby, Since I've Been Loving You, I'm about to lose, I'm about lose to my worried mind.
(The switch of 7 and 11 pm has Robert complain about working a four hour
shift, for some reason. It's
not exactly one of those prison work songs about
inhumane treatment--long concert night?)
The lyrics of both otherwise share "the best of fools," "I love you, baby,"
and references to crying.
"Since I've Been Loving You" is credited to Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, and John
Paul Jones. The Moby Grape
lyricist should at least be included and should have
been asked if it was okay first.
Not related to the controversy:
"Stairway to Heaven" is on the untitled fourth Led Zeppelin album (also called
"Zoso"), 1971.
"Taurus" starts on the first four strings (counting down from the top) of Bm
and "Stairway to Heaven" starts
on the first four strings of Am--two frets low-
er--on an acoustic guitar. They both make a descending chromatic
run (one fret
at a time) from the low note--the 4th string, every 2nd beat 5 times. In both,
the notes of the
2nd and 3rd strings are maintained up to the 3rd time down the
run. The biggest difference so far is that "Stairway"
adds notes on the 1st
string on the upbeat before each of those 2nd beats and each 2nd beat of that
run.
They both use the 5th note of the descending run for the low note of the notes
of a chord ("Taurus" uses D
major 7 and "Stairway" uses the note F and adds Am)
for the whole 3rd measure. They resolve differently for the first
few beats of
the 4th measure ("Taurus" uses the notes E and B and "Stairway" uses the notes B
and G then C and A).
Both repeat except do something different for the last beat of the 4th mea-
sure.
"Taurus" intro
E--------------------|--------------------|---------7---7-----|------------------|
B-----7-------7----|-----7-------7-----|-----7---7---7----|------------------|
G---7-------7------|---7-------7-------|---7-----7---7-5-|------------------|
D-9-----9-8-----8-|-7-----7-6-----6-|-5-----5---5------|---------------7-|
A--------------------|--------------------|--------------------|-7-----7---------|
E--------------------|--------------------|--------------------|---------7--------|
"Stairway to Heaven" intro
E-------5-7-----7-|-8-----8-2-----2-|-0---------0-----|----------------------|
B-----5-----5------|---5-------3------|---1---1-----1---|-0-1-1-------------|
G---5---------5----|-----5-------2----|-----2---------2-|-0-2-2--------------|
D-7-------6--------|-5-------4--------|-3----------------|----------------------|
A-------------------|--------------------|-------------------|-2-0-0---0--/8-7-|
E-------------------|--------------------|-------------------|----------------------|
(The passage also sounds like something Page favorite Davey Graham plays at the
start of verses of his uptempo
rendition of "Cry Me a River," though the rest
isn't similar.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWeejHJxGjs
"Taurus" doesn't use the opening eight measures for the rest of the melody.
Then the whole melody repeats.
"Stairway" repeats the eight measures to use them at the start of verses, and
the bass adheres more to the descending
run than the guitar.
(Page allegedly denies that he based his version on that section of "Taurus"--
I haven't found a quote yet).
According to the Wikipedia article about "Stairway to Heaven": "In the liner
notes to the 1996 reissue of Spirit's
debut album, songwriter Randy California
writes: People always ask me why 'Stairway to Heaven' sounds exactly like 'Taur-
us',
which was released two years earlier. I know Led Zeppelin also played
'Fresh Garbage' in their live set. They
opened up for us on their first Ameri-
can tour."
Listener: "Speaking of Led Zeppelin, the guitar introduction to your
1967 composition, 'Taurus,'
is a dead ringer for Zeppelin's introduction
to 'Stairway to Heaven,' released in 1971. Did they ever acknowledge
their artistic debt to you? They must of known 'Taurus,' having per-
formed as your warmup band."
California: "Well, if you listen to the two songs, you can make your
own judgment.
It's an exact.... I'd say it was a rip-off. And the
guys made millions of bucks on it and never said,
'Thank you,' never
said, 'Can we pay you some money for it?' It's kind of a sore point
with me.
Maybe some day their conscience will make them do something
about it. I don't know. There are funny
business dealings between
record companies, managers, publishers, and artists. But when artists
do it to other artists, there's no excuse for that. I'm mad! [laughs]."
Listener: "Well, take comfort in the fact that you're the true author
of one of the most
instantly recognizable guitar riffs in rock history."
California: "Yeah, right...."
Randy drowned when he saved his son from a strong rip current at Molokai, Haw-
aii in Jan., 1997.
I think this might be a gray area. Jimmy was in the circumstances to hear
"Taurus," the other examples
of this article show he wasn't shy about taking
other people's stuff (like Ed Norton helping himself to Ralph's refrigerator
in
"The Honeymooners"), but what he took in this case may be basic enough, and
personalized his own way enough, that I'm not
sure what a court would do with
it. The final test is if people recognize it, and about anyone does. But if
the
court didn't rule in favor of the claimant, it would be left to be another
example we'd know of Jimmy taking something
and not being forthright about it.
Led Zeppelin covered the song with their own arrangement on "Led Zeppelin IV,"
1971. "According to Led
Zeppelin guitarist and producer Jimmy Page, the song's
structure 'was a riff that I'd been working on, but Bonzo's drum
sound really
makes a difference on that point.'" The credits listed are Bonham, Jones, Mem-
phis Minnie, Page,
and Plant. I would figure it for (Kansas Joe McCoy and Mem-
phis Minnie; arr. by Bonham, Jones, Page, and Plant).
http://www.metrolyrics.com/when-the-levee-breaks-lyrics-led-zeppelin.html
I don't know any examples of credit/royalty filching for the next Led Zep al-
bum, "Houses of the Holy,"
1973. And again, that "The Rain Song" sure is purty.
This holy house didn't do anything wrong with the money from
the collection
plate (other than that thing of financing organized crime to buy their cocaine).
Their next album was
a double album of tunes, though, and apparently they
cracked under pressure like they did for the first one.
Drop down, baby, let your daddy see
Drop Down Mama
Drop down, mama, just dream of me
Drop Down Mama
Well, my mama allow me to fool around all night long
Drop Down Mama
Well, I may look like I'm crazy, I should know right from wrong Drop Down Mama
See me comin', throw your man out the door
Drop Down Mama
Ain't no stranger, been this way before
Drop Down Mama
See me comin', mama, throw your man out the door
Drop Down Mama
I ain't no stranger, I been this way before.
Drop Down Mama
Put on your night shirt and your morning gown
Help Me
You know by night I'm gonna shake 'em on down
Shake 'Em On Down
Put on your night shirt Mama, and your morning gown
Help Me
Well, you know by night I'm gonna shake 'em on down Shake 'Em On Down
Your custard pie, yeah, sweet and nice
I Want Some of Your Pie
When you cut it, mama, save me a slice
I Want Some of Your Pie
Your custard pie, I declare, it's sweet and nice
I Want Some of Your Pie
I Like your custard pie
I Want Some of Your Pie
When you cut it, mama... mama, please save me a slice I Want Some of Your Pie
Chewin' a piece of your custard pie
I Want Some of Your Pie
Drop down
Drop Down Mama
"Physical Graffiti," 1975, gives the credits as Page/Plant. Stripped to the
essentials, "Custard Pie"
is a basic blues song, Page did a riff for it but Led
Zep didn't write any more than slight rephrasing of some lyrics,
and Sleepy John
Estes and Blind Boy Fuller at least deserve to be included in the songwriting
credit since it's basically
a blues medley assembled from the lyrics of two of
their tunes.
I don't want to seem too harsh. God forbid I don't show forbearance. But if
John Lennon can be
brought to task for two lines from Chuck Berry's "You Can't
Catch Me," I'm saying "guilty."
If claimants come forward and win such a case, again Page and Plant are pre-
pared to try to reduce what the
claimant gets to a fraction of the credit/royal-
ties.
Led Zep did the same song for "Physical Graffiti" in 1975 but all four agreed
to be at the ready from the start
on this one and took songwriting credit for
it--Page, Plant, John Paul Jones, and John Bonham. They did put a picture
of
Johnson on the cover, not that songwriting royalties are decided that way. Led
Zep did a distinctive version
but it was a traditional song none of them wrote
with an added uptempo middle section. That would be "traditional;
additional
music and lyrics by...."
"Physical Graffiti," 1975, credits it to Page/Plant/Jones. Jones played the
clavinet and said in an interview
that the clavinet part is based on the one in
"Superstition."
Baby baby baby baby baby,
Don't you know my love is true,
Honey honey honey honey honey,
Get up off of that money,
Love love love love love,
Ooh! my soul.
Baby baby baby baby baby,
Don't you know my love is true,
Honey honey honey honey honey,
Get up off of that money,
Kiss kiss kiss kiss kiss,
Ooh! my soul.
Baby baby baby baby baby,
Don't you know my love for you,
Honey honey honey honey honey,
Get up off of that money,
Love love love love love,
Ooh! my soul.
Gimmie gimmie gimmie gimmie gimmie,
Gimmie all the love you got,
Gimmie gimmie gimmie gimmie
gimmie,
You got the best of lovin' now,
Love love love love love,
Ooh! my soul.
Well, well, now, now baby
Let's just go all night long
Well, on, on, on, on, darlin
I just want you-to-go-on more
There won't be no tuttie fruiti
No lolly pop, c'mon baby just
Rock, rock, rock
Well, now, now, now, now, honey
We gonna rock all night
Well babe, babe, babe, babe, baby
We're just gonna go fine
Well on, on, on, on, darlin'
Ooh, my head!
Well, Bonie Moronie, Peggy Sue yeah!
They ain't gonna be around no more
Well, on now dit-a-little
darlin
We just gonna party some more
Daylight, I love you darlin
Ooh my head! (now let's go)
Well now, now, now, now, baby
Keep me rockin on an on
Well I just reelin' till it's over
Oh,just all night long
Well, now
Ooh my head!
Alright, WAIL.....
Rock it out.....
Come on.....
My head is tired!
"Boogie With Stu"
"Been in town, my baby, We just got to rock on
Yeah, darling, we just got to go home
I don't
want no tutti-frutti, no lollipop
"Ooh My Head"
Come on, baby, just rock, rock, rock.
"Ooh My Head"
Yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah, honey
We've been shakin' all night
Oh, darlin', we just got to roll
right
Ooh, my head... rock on.
"Ooh My Head"
Hey babe, hey babe [repeat]
I don't want no tutti-frutti, no lollipop
"Ooh My Head"
Come on baby, just rock, rock, rock."
"Ooh My Head"
Several of the "Boogie With Stu" lines that aren't direct lifts use "just" and
"all night" like "Let's just
go all night long" and "We gonna rock all night" in
"Ooh My Head." It sounds like a cover of "Ooh My Head" with a
few similar lines
made up for forgotten ones.
Led Zep covered "Ooh My Soul" but called it "Boogie With
Stu" for "Physical
Graffiti," 1975, and credited it to Page, Plant, Jones, Bonham, Ian Stewart (the
"Stu" of the title),
and the mother of the late Ritchie Valens--apparently, an
accommodation was made so Valens' mother would get Valens' royalty,
which was
cut to 1/6th of what it should have been.
Overlooking the fact that none of them wrote it except whoever (probably Rob-
ert Plant on the spur of the
moment) added a few lines to, and changed the title
of, "Ooh My Head" without permission, it's was good and bad mix of
trying to
help Mrs. Valens but only gave Ritchie, via his Mom, partial credit and possibly
no royalties.
According to Wikipedia:
"In its credits, a 'Mrs. Valens' is mentioned as co-author in an attempt by
Led Zeppelin to pave the way for
some of the royalties to reach Ritchie's moth-
er. Eventually, a lawsuit was filed and it remains unclear whether
Mrs. Valens
received any payment."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ritchie_Valens#Tributes
GW: "When you were borrowing from classic blues songs on the first
two albums, did you ever
think it would catch up to you?"
Page: "You mean getting sued? Well, as far as my end of it goes, I
always tried to
bring some thing fresh to anything that I used. I
always made sure to come up with some variation.
In fact, I think
in most cases, you would never know what the original source could
be. Maybe not in every case--but in most cases. So most of the
comparisons rest on the lyrics.
And Robert was supposed to change
the lyrics, and he didn't always do that--which is what brought on
most of the grief. They couldn't get us on the guitar parts of the
music, but they nailed us on the
lyrics.
"We did, however, take some liberties, I must say [laughs]. But
never mind; we did try to do the right thing, it blew up in our
faces... When we were up at Headley
Grange recording Physical
Graffiti, Ian Stewart came by and we started to jam. The jam turned
into Boogie With Stu, which was obviously a variation on 'Ooh My
Head' by the late Ritchie Valens, which
itself was actually a vari-
ation of Little Richard's 'Ooh My Soul'. What we tried to do was
give Ritchie's mother credit because we heard she never received
any royalties from any of her son's
hits, and Robert did lean on
that lyric a bit. So what happens? They tried to sue us for all
of the song!! We had to say bugger off. We could not believe it.
So anyway, if there is
any plagiarism, just blame Robert [laughs].
"But seriously, blues men borrowed from each other constantly,
and
it is the same with jazz. It is even happened to us. As a
musician, I am only the product of my
influences. The fact that
I listened to so many various styles of music has a lot to do
with the way I play."
Uh, yeah--nice. I guess "the one time we did try to do the right thing" can
be taken as an admission
about some of the other cases listed in this article,
though it would still be more responsibly reflected in credits and
royalties,
which aren't determined by flattery in interviews. For those not familiar with
the UK slang Page used
about Ritchie Valens' mother, the phrase means "f**k
off."
I'd assume the tunes for which songwriting credit is in question in this arti-
cle were ones both Jimmy and
Robert were familiar with, and Page's credit is
also questioned in any of them in question, not just Plant. In other
cases,
where it's strictly a matter of one of them whose responsibility is criticized,
it's usually over the music (instrumentals
"White Summer," "Moby Dick," "Black
Mountain Side") and songs done or heard while Page, not Plant, was a member of
the
Yardbirds ("Dazed and Confused," "Knowing That I'm Losing You," possibly
"Taurus") and traditional songs taken credit for
(a couple of those instrumen-
tals and "In My Time of Dying").
Coming up with different arrangements or solos for others songs wasn't and
isn't typically a determining factor
in songwriting credits. The issue has
evolved but that was generally understood long before Led Zeppelin made their
first
record. One of the reasons it had evolved since the early 20th century
was to prevent ripoffs. There was and
is the possibility of exceptions made due
to friendly agreements, though none of these cases seem to be matters of those.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackface#Legacy
Jimmy dodged the subject and put whatever blame he'd concede on his friend
Robert, describing himself as having
done something that's commonly accepted.
(This part is more like an old Hope and Crosby movie.)
"Boogie With Stu" is Valens' "Ooh My Soul" as a matter of course and not de-
termined by flattery or flame
wars, solos, or older cases of musicians getting
ripped off. If you wanted to offhandedly add a few lines to the
lyrics of a
song and get credit you could if given permission. (Don't add a change to a few
lyrics in a live recording
or come up with a different arrangement and put your
name in the songwriting credits on your own.)
But if you wanted to credit anyone beyond Valens by what had already been es-
tablished, you could more importantly
add that Little Richard (whooo!) came up
with that construction but he wasn't credited, thanked, or given a picture on
the
cover.
As with several previous examples, all four members of Led Zep were at the
ready to take songwriting credit
for it, this time getting friend and pianist
Ian Stewart in on the act and including one of the two writers the basic song
idea
really came from via their Mom. (Listen to it--how many people would it
take to write this thing? What's the
5th guy do--say, "Have it go on for anoth-
er verse"?) Being a good Mom, she chastised the young lads for their discrepan-
cy
and was given the Led index finger for the trouble.
The Led Zep version on their album "Presence," 1976, breaks up the rhythm and
changes most of the lyrics of
the gospel blues created by Blind Willie Johnson
with a vocal and slide guitar. After changing "Superstition" enough
to call
their own ("Trampled Underfoot"), they took a song from a second black blind
guy, this time getting their own
copyright for an uncopyrighted song by one that
passed away.
According to Wikipedia: "Many of the lyrics in the song such as 'Devil he told
me to roll' are traditional
although American blues singer Blind Willie Johnson,
recorded it first in December 1927. The 1927 version was about
Johnson fretting
about physically not being able to read his Bible, being totally blind, and in-
curring the wrath of
God. The song in a sense is apocryphal in that Johnson
later died from pneumonia that set in from sleeping on a wet
mattress after the
roof burned off of his house. Johnson never applied for a copyright for the
song and so the
band was free to apply their own."
That's probably how "White Summer" came to be credited to Jimmy Page, too. It
was a traditional song
without a copyright, so he applied his own for a false
songwriting credit.
As with "How Many More Times," "Nobody's Fault But Mine" is recognizable as
based on a blues tune, and makes
the specific one clear by using the title the
same way and featuring some slide guitar.
The lyrics otherwise have been changed to include old expressions like:
- "roll the log" for rolling a joint and/or a euphemism for sex,
- "hit the gong" for smoking opium (one example: "He took her down to China-
town, And he showed her how to
kick the gong around" in "Minnie the Moocher" by
Cab Calloway and Irving Mills and recorded in 1931 by Cab Calloway),
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minnie_the_Moocher
Of the songs on this list, the lyrics of this song come the closest to being
candid about the Led Zep habit
of sending funds to criminals for hard drugs.
(I smoked some herb around the time I graduated, but was put upon by some
issues
later that made me realize first hand that the money didn't go to a benign ab-
straction.) By this time,
Jimmy had advanced to heroin, which would be stupid
enough if it were grown with hydroponics in a nearby barn and they
were giving
it away for free. Thankfully, he's since quit taking heroin, although in a
Wikipedia quote from Q
magazine in 2003, "Page responded to a question as to
whether he regrets getting so involved in heroin and cocaine: 'I
don't regret it
at all because when I needed to be really focused, I was really focused. That's
it. Both
Presence and In Through the Out Door were only recorded in three
weeks: that's really going some. You've got to be
on top of it.'"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Page#Recreational_drug_use
The song is credited on "Presence" to Jimmy Page and Robert Plant. Since the
case for it being derived
from a Blind Willie Johnson tune wasn't a legal obli-
gation, his name wasn't credited.
This actually isn't a surprising coverage of the ethics of the use of research
material to find brought up
in association with concerns about the outlook about
it held by the JWs leaders.
The case I'm seeing has nothing to do with subjective reactions to songwriting
ability otherwise ("The Rain
Song" sure is purty and the bass is especially cool
in "The Lemon Song"), and you don't get royalties from flattery in
interviews,
just song writing credits, as any session musician in the '60's would know.
This is concerned with strictly
ethical authorship crediting, and how the effort
to seem exclusive, especially for money, can make some people cook up
the facts.
You can't copyright basics, like E A D chord changes of common lengths, or the
phrase "I love you," etc., just
more specific things. A lot of this music and
these lyrics creations are such specific recognizable things.
The talent shown
just makes glomming onto others' credits seem all the more unnecessary.
What makes the theft of millions of dollars especially stupid is that the
members of Led Zeppelin are all very
rich and popular. This isn't a case of a
poor woman who stole a tin of tuna because she was starving. The song
credits
in question are for about fifteen songs--most of a double album's worth, includ-
ing Yardbirds examples and
ones that were sort of fixed, kind of. If the cred-
its were corrected, and that allowed to drift farther and farther
into the past,
they'd still be rich, popular, and acclaimed as talented. It's like if Oprah
Winfrey stole a car
to get wherever she went like someone in a Grand Theft Auto
game, or Paul McCartney tried to run out of the grocery store
with his cart
without paying whenever he went shopping--it's that kind of stupid.
****
P.S. about Crowley (see "Nobody's Fault But Mine"), a white male UK-'centric
person still popular with
some in the UK:
Crowley was a good example of how a guy can try too hard to seem exclusive.
He was another JWs leader type--a guy who never invented anything substantial
(came up with his own recipe
of a stew of old mystic ideas, came up with a funny
turn of phrase now and then, if also some bad taste ways of straining
to be dif-
ferent by symbolically phrasing sex or mystical things as if about murder or
pedophilia and such) but was
an elitist, anyway. So, just like a JWs leader, he
cooked up a case for it.
Though Crowley took a lot of his specifics from outlooks outside of Christian-
ity (some of his symbolism was
more book of Revulsion than Revelation), he bas-
ically reminded me of Charles Taze Russell and others of the late 1800's/early
1900's
whose stance was an overdone caricature of the Protestant effort to res-
tore the original Christianity. They were
trying to be exclusive about things
which were already covered too much in the mainstream to create any distinction
for
them, so Russell and others played prophet and cooked things up, including a
proportionate amount of bashing of mainstream
Christianity to declare exclusive-
ness.
Like Russell, Crowley had left Protestant Christianity as a youth, so I about
wanted to have someone to
lean over to and tell "I told you so" when I read
about another dubious effort to return it to the original church:
Like the JWs leader Rutherford, one notoriously bad way he played phony elit-
ist was with bigoted swipes against
other groups of people--Crowley picked wom-
en, Jews, black people, and others. If some in his time may have tried
to ex-
cuse their use of "ni**er" as just meaning "black" and not derisive for "black,"
he showed he meant the derogatory
sense by using the "n" word for blacks, Indi-
ans, and Italians--non-blacks typically only considered it as meant as offen-
sive.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigger
"...we [British] always somehow instinctively think of the Italian as a nig-
ger. We don't call them
'dagos' and 'wops' as they do in the United States,
with the invariable epithet of 'dirty'; but we have the same feeling."
("Diary
of a Drug Fiend," Book I, Chap.9, 1922)
http://www.arcane-archive.org/faqs/crowleyracistfaq.php
According to Wikipedia, he defended "antisemitic pogroms in Kishinev Russia
and elsewhere, on the grounds that
the murder of thousands of Jews was a ration-
al response to the implied danger of Jewish ritual cannibalism," and that
"Human
sacrifices are today still practiced by the Jews of Eastern Europe," etc. Women
outside his cult were given
as "'tolerable', he wrote, when they served the role
of solely helping a man in his life's work. However, he said
that they were in-
capable of actually understanding the work."
He had the way of judging people by their looks, also shown by Charles Rus-
sell, that led to the eugenics
favored by Joseph Rutherford and the Nazis ("GTJ
Brooklyn," pp.1a and 6):
"One must further remark that each sign governs two main types...the active
and the passive. Thus Aries:
the high brows, long face, aquiline nose, tall
thin muscular figure, shows the fiery and martial qualities of the sign.
But
there is an evil and averse counterpart corresponding to the ovine nature. We
have the gross, hooked, pendulous
proboscis; the thick, flabby, moist lips; the
patient stupid eyes, and timid, hunted gait of the bad type of Jew." ("Confes-
sions,"
pp.762,763, 1929, 1969)
http://www.arcane-archive.org/faqs/crowleyracistfaq.php http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Confessions_of_Aleister_Crowley
It's not complicated--it's the usual 'centric view about groups the bigot
didn't see himself in except with
the language a little more dressed up than
usual. If Crowley wanted to display compelling evidence that he was the
spokes-
man for messages from higher eternal wisdom from the beyond--he claimed to have
channeled a being called Aiwass--he
had the wrong phone numbers because he al-
ways started dialing with the phone number of the local bad dumb bar and just
used
numerology to add extensions to it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aiwass
Some Crowley fans have alleged that there's an exception to Crowley's bigotry
in chap.IX "OF SILENCE AND SECRECY:
AND OF THE BARBAROUS NAMES OF EVOCATION" of
Crowley's book "Magic in Theory and Practice":
"However, there is no doubt that an assemblage of persons who really are in
harmony can much more easily produce
an effect than a magician working by him-
self. The psychology of 'Revival meetings' will be familiar to almost every
one,
and though such meetings are the foulest and most degraded rituals of black
magic, the laws of Magick are not thereby suspended.
The laws of Magick are the
laws of Nature.
"A singular and world-famous example of this is of sufficiently recent date to
be fresh in the memory of many
people now living. At a nigger camp meeting in
the 'United' States of America, devotees were worked up to such a
pitch of ex-
citement that the whole assembly developed a furious form of hysteria."
http://www.sacred-texts.com/oto/aba/chap9.htm
If the added phrase is actually by Crowley, it's not an exception to his rac-
ial bigotry. It just shows
he bashed Christians of any color as less human than
himself.
Most notably, he considered followers of himself a special exception (like a
JWs leader would) that rose above
the usual case. As it says in Wikipedia, his
stance was that "his own preferred 'master class' was above all distinctions
of
race." This was always such a tiny group that Crowley could generalize away
condescendingly about whole groups
of people otherwise. If he ever thought bet-
ter of it, he still used it for pandering to bring in the bigots.
He must have run into people who called him on having been stupid. But one
excuse attempted for this
dubious bid for exclusiveness is based on the fact
that he'd worked in the USA for British Intelligence during WWI encouraging
German
militancy to spur the US to enter the war--Crowley handled that by en-
couraging the sinking of The Lusitania (like Sept.11
except think passenger lin-
er instead of skyscrapers), studying the effects of peyote by slipping it into
people's
food without telling them, etc. The attempted excuse is that he'd
been working secretly for the British government
during WWII to show such Nazi
bigotry that he'd undermine its credibility.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleister_Crowley https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMS_Lusitania#Sinking https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/September_11_attacks
To get the feel of the lameness of the excuse, imagine being the bigot who
tried it sometime: "I'm not a bigot--I
was hired by the government like James
Bond to act like one secretly--Churchill wanted to decide things with some tarot
card
readings"....
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thoth_tarot_deck
But there's no evidence he was given the job (gee, I wonder why?), only that
he aspired to it. (The previous
example of his outlook on southern US bigots
indicates he probably had the stance that the Nazi reasons weren't as good
as
his.) And he hadn't written as if a script writer for Archie Bunker to show
bigotry was stupid, it was written
like Archie wrote it himself and over a
broader range of years than those for WWII. As the horrors of the Nazis became
well
known, WWII-era quotes like "Before Hitler was, I am" (an alteration of
John 8:58) led to his dwindling popularity.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleister_Crowley#United_States:_1914.E2.80.9319 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleister_Crowley#Later_life http://people.tribe.net/ionamiller/blog/e7ce4dc9-5570-4c6b-ae19-204452d95625 ("Do What Thou Wilt: A Life of Aleister Crowley," Lawrence Sutin, p.249, 2000)
http://books.google.com/books?id=NU28kNVR_UsC&pg=RA1-PA247&lpg=RA1-PA247&dq=aleister+crowley+German+propaganda+agent&source=web&ots=kMO3loQB6l&sig=xziD8WkKj7EmAg8nNthyGrLocSY&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=10&ct=result#PRA1-PA252,M1 http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,934216,00.html
What a yutz. Along with encouraging the deaths of innocent Lusitania passeng-
ers and long term hard
drug use, he stands as a symbol through the generations
of a guy who didn't know how to party right. (Partier: "I
got the keg and the
women are on their way." Crowley: "I'll get the pedophilia poems and the heroin
and get rid
of the ni**ers." Partier: "Crowley, get the f*** out of here, will
you please?")
