Well seeing how LF wrote their songs themselves and LZ's track record of NOT , I'd bet my money on LZ were up to there usual techniques of inspiration on this one as well.
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Do you consider Led Zeppelin a METAL band?
- Thread starter MAJOR METAL
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- band led led zeppelin metal
I said that the plagiarism statement holds a little bit of water...
But this post...
...seems to be aimed at trying to reduce them to much less than their place in the history of rock music.
As far as LF's Ride the Sky...that song and the Immigrant Song have little to do with each other.
That suggestion is equally as non-valid as the claim that Stairway to Heaven came from Spirit's Taurus.
On the other hand, Lucifer's Friend sound like the father band of the Klaus Meine era Scorpions, and Judas Priest, Iron Maiden and all the other vibrato voice "Opera Singer Guy" metal bands. LF seem to be the first "Opera Singer Guy Metal" band (my most hated brand of metal).
If you want to find the roots of Stairway to Heaven..it comes from Bach, which Jimi Page is at least as familiar with, as he is some other rock band.
This video seems to make that pretty clear.
This video shows an awful lot of people playing similar chord progressions in a bunch of very different songs.
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Led Zeppelin plagiarized old blues songs, but radically changed their structure and added their own riffs. It was great! The problem Jimmy Page points out is that Robert was supposed to come up with his own lyrics. 
Anyway, if they plagiarized a song of mine and didn't give me credit, I would sue. I don't see how it affects their standing as one of the all-time great bands. They really had a unique and cool sound, and I don't think time has been unkind at all; in fact I think they hold up much better than many of their contemporaries.
Ironically many 80s bands ripped THEM off, and so the wheel just kept on turning.
Anyway, if they plagiarized a song of mine and didn't give me credit, I would sue. I don't see how it affects their standing as one of the all-time great bands. They really had a unique and cool sound, and I don't think time has been unkind at all; in fact I think they hold up much better than many of their contemporaries.
Ironically many 80s bands ripped THEM off, and so the wheel just kept on turning.
I guess you didn't hear the French horn? Look, Led Zepplin was great because they sounded unlike anything else of their time. Just like Chris Stapleton now. Then you find out that his big song was an old standard and he suddenly doesn't seem as great as you first thought. Now if all those LZ songs were theirs then everything changes.
Radically is the perfect word to describe what they did and then you got Bohnam!!!!Led Zeppelin plagiarized old blues songs, but radically changed their structure and added their own riffs. It was great! The problem Jimmy Page points out is that Robert was supposed to come up with his own lyrics.
Anyway, if they plagiarized a song of mine and didn't give me credit, I would sue. I don't see how it affects their standing as one of the all-time great bands. They really had a unique and cool sound, and I don't think time has been unkind at all; in fact I think they hold up much better than many of their contemporaries.
Ironically many 80s bands ripped THEM off, and so the wheel just kept on turning.
Short answer: Just my opinion; they started the genre. Immigrant song (although it is in f#) has classic metal lyrics and metal vocals. Paranoid (classic e minor) came out around the same time. I was twelve. There wasn't anything else like them. Both evolved, particularly LZ which started with the blues and went on to record an electric mix of many genres.
I heard the French Horn, sounds like the opening soundtrack of an old spy movie I saw on television when I was a kid in the early/mid 60's....or maybe the french horn part was plagiarized from Led Zeppelin's Immigrant Song.
The two blasts of French Horn was six seconds in the three minute song.
Like I said, if you are looking for similarities you will hear them.
If you are not, they are completely different songs, the whole tune, the whole main guitar riff that drives The Immigrant Song right from the beginning, not the same at all.
Nothing I've ever heard about Led Zeppelin made them suddenly seem not as great, they were a great rock band, there is no dispute about that.
Obviously bits and pieces were stolen from various old blues tunes and transformed, and they covered some as well, and a few of the bits and pieces were big pieces.
Meanwhile, they wrote a bunch of really good music outside of the songs in question and delivered a number of the greatest rock records ever recorded.
It was pretty clear when I heard the first Led Zeppelin record, that they were another band that were huge blues fans, and later I learned that they were a bit liberal about borrowing lyrical phrases, as had been done in the blues for years, but that it mattered a whole lot more when they did it.
The Immigrant Song:
Inspired during their visit to Reykjavik Iceland in the summer of 1970, Robert Plant wrote his song about Vikings.
Six days after their visit to Iceland, Led Zeppelin first performed The Immigrant Song in concert at the Bath Festival 27–29 June 1970.
LF recorded Ride the Sky in November 1970, the Led Zeppelin III album was released in the USA in November 1970.
How certain are you that LF did not plagiarize Led Zeppelin?...I don't believe either one was plagiarizing the other, but people believe what they want to believe.
Just to bring the Immigrant Song and blues ripoffs subplots full-circle...
IMO Plant's "A-A-AAAAAAAA-AH" vocal riff is a simplified version of Little Walter's post-chorus lick in (Willie Dixon -penned classic) "Mellow Down Easy".
Not that there's anything wrong about that!
IMO Plant's "A-A-AAAAAAAA-AH" vocal riff is a simplified version of Little Walter's post-chorus lick in (Willie Dixon -penned classic) "Mellow Down Easy".
Not that there's anything wrong about that!
And people were discussing if Zep was heavy metal. Ok, I'll guess, if Journey counts as "heavy metal"... well Zep definitely even more NOT (!?) was heavy metal.
The one that eludes me is Jake Holmes "dazed and confused" how they did get away with that one in the first place. Just a credit on the album and due paid royalties. Considering the sales of that album, they wouldn't mind spending a small percentage which must've been like below one percent. Stairway I can very well see where it comes from. Some others not. I do think it had with lyrical content moreso than other things. For chissake, is there anyone really thinking that a blues shuffle backing track WITHOUT VOCALS is some rip off, even if it's a simple riff?
IMHO, every song Tom Scholz ever wrote for Boston was based off a 20 second riff from the Cream classic, Badge.
If you listen to the musical structure, while there are similarities with other tunes in some cases, in most they do their own thing...
This is the lamest thing I have ever heard Jimmy Page say.The problem Jimmy Page points out is that Robert was supposed to come up with his own lyrics.
They do, and I think a big part of that was Page's production--he is an underrated producer--and think that was his biggest contribution to Zeppelin's sound.
But all 4 contributed to that and without an one of them it wouldn't have been the same
