Good Ol' Classic Blues Songs

nofi · January 11, 2011, 02:27:02 PM

in spite of any alleged artistic merit i think moral and ethical concerns trump that everytime. hell, i like zeppelin but i don't think i can listen to them quite the same way anymore.

Highlander · January 11, 2011, 02:29:13 PM

I posted the reference to Spirit and that zep tune and also this bit they borrowed for the rest of the melody...

It's actually not credited on the tune but it's the second part that comes in around 3:10 - the song is called "Promises" and was released in this form on a live album in 1970...

uwe · January 12, 2011, 04:45:51 AM

"That's because he hadn't heard it until his daughter pointed it out."

That to me sounds like a legal argument construed to avoid having to answer why he sued so late. Frankly, I rule out that you could have lived in America from 1968 to 1985 and not have heard Whole Lotta Love. That is unfathomable unless you were deaf. I'm happy for Herr Dixon to have his royalties - a fellow bass player after all! -, but here he was conveniently making things up. Of course "I never heard that song before" is almost impossible to disprove so it lends itself easily as an argument.

Almost 20 years go by and neither he nor one of his many musicans (that must have recorded or played that song live with him) nor his wife nor any relative nor blues enthusisasts that adore him and write him letters catch that Whole Lotta Love (the biggest hit of the most consitently successful rock band in the US all through the seventies) is his song retitled and with a different rhythm (lifted from Hendrix' "Hey Joe" version btw), yet with the same lyrics and harmonies?

Come on. He wasn't a Japanese soldier stranded on a Pacific island who didn't know WW II had ended with the Emperor's surrender.

nofi · January 12, 2011, 07:22:01 AM

over here i would guess most black folks did not and do not listen to classic (white) rock. i can see how dixon and company missed this until many years later. not to make this a racial issue but that's the way it is.

uwe · January 12, 2011, 10:35:20 AM

I'm aware that radio was still segregated then (and possibly is to this day), but even in Africa where I lived Whole Lotta Love was known. It's like Ted Nugent saying he never heard James Brown's Sex Machine (though living in Detroit!) because he never listened to black radio (not that he ever said that), I wouldn't believe that either.

gweimer · January 12, 2011, 03:41:54 PM

"From 7 to 11" was lifted from a very obscure album by a band called Raven. I'm not even sure where they came from, but a friend of mine had it, and played the original for me.

Led Zeppelin isn't the only band to borrow/steal liberally. As much as I love Cheap Trick, they know how to borrow when needed. I've always heard "Cry, Baby, Cry" in the middle of "I Want You To Want Me". This one just astounded me. It's REALLY obvious...

nofi · January 12, 2011, 07:12:25 PM

raven was a nwobhm band back in the 80's. they made several records but didn't get very far.

Freuds_Cat · January 12, 2011, 07:13:45 PM

There is a Blackmore quote somewhere where he says that he never wrote a song that the idea wasn't stolen from another song.

gweimer · January 12, 2011, 08:14:05 PM

Quote from: nofi on January 12, 2011, 07:12:25 PM
raven was a nwobhm band back in the 80's. they made several records but didn't get very far.

Wrong band. This was from the early/mid '70s.

Nocturnal · January 12, 2011, 09:26:21 PM

I think the Raven from the 80's had a drummer that wore a hockey helmet and would use his head to play the drums. I don't remember much else about them.

Found this POS example:

uwe · January 13, 2011, 05:01:03 AM

Quote from: Freuds_Cat on January 12, 2011, 07:13:45 PM
There is a Blackmore quote somewhere where he says that he never wrote a song that the idea wasn't stolen from another song.

He's credited Burn to Glenn Miller's Fascinating Rhythm, Black Night to Ricky Nelson, Perfect Stangers to Zep's Kashmir, the Highwaystar solo to classical composers, Space Trucking to the Batman theme, Lazy to Eric Clapton's Stepping Out, Smoke on the Water to Oscar Peterson and Pictures of Home to the intro of some Bulgarian shortwave radio station (Jon Lord: "Ritchie always heard the weirdest radio stations. Through a radio built in his stovepipe hat no doubt!"). Machine Head was in that way a very "inspired" album!

But with Blackmore it is hearing a riff, being inspired by it and taking it as a starting point for something different, which is perfectly legitimate. Zep swiped (swope?) whole songs, lyrics and even arrangements.

Pilgrim · January 13, 2011, 09:19:58 AM

Quote from: uwe on January 13, 2011, 05:01:03 AM
Machine Head was in that way a very "inspired" album!

One of my favorite numbers from that album was the instrumental "Hard Road (Wring that Neck)". It was the "B" side on the 45 of Highway Star, IIRC.

Anyone else a fan of that one? IMO it really stomped! If I were a baseball player, it would be my batting intro music.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EfhDuM3kbs&feature=related

So it's not old-style blues.....meh.

uwe · January 13, 2011, 10:15:10 AM

I always loved that track. It is a good example of extending the blues with classical references. And it works here.

Freuds_Cat · January 13, 2011, 03:41:29 PM

Quote from: Pilgrim on January 13, 2011, 09:19:58 AM
One of my favorite numbers from that album was the instrumental "Hard Road (Wring that Neck)". It was the "B" side on the 45 of Highway Star, IIRC.

Uwe shows better restraint than me but when it comes to Deep Purple I'm too pedantic not to correct this one. Apologies Al

Wring that neck was on the 1969 album The Book of Taliesyn.
Listen to that hammond riff and tell me thats not heavily influenced by The Man with the Golden Arm theme.

Thanks for that Al I had never noticed that before.

Pilgrim · January 13, 2011, 05:51:31 PM

I won't argue about the album - I was thinking of a 45 I have - I thought Hard Road was the B side of Highway Star, but it has been a long while since I've held that 45 so I won't swear to it. I'm suffering from CRS as usual, y'know.

There are few sounds in music I love more than a B-3!!!