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LED ZEPPELIN'S INFLUENCES | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Lemon Song | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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"The Lemon Song" quotes blues greats Howlin' Wolf and Robert Johnson. Howlin' Wolf's "Killing Floor" provides the basic theme of the song, and to that Robert Plant adds Robert Johnson's lemon phallic reference from "Traveling Riverside Blues". On Led Zeppelin's first American tour in 1969 they regularly included "Killing Floor" in their sets, but after that they performed the song as "The Lemon Song" and recorded it under that title for Led Zeppelin II with songwriting credits given to Jimmy Page and Robert Plant.
[1] Robert Plant's lyrics, however, are clearly recognizable from Howlin' Wolf's original song. In 1972, ARC music sued Led Zeppelin, claiming that they had plagiarized Howlin' Wolf and a settlement was reached out of court. Chester Burnett (Howlin' Wolf's real name) is now given songwriting credit for "The Lemon Song".
[2] Robert Johnson has yet to be credited on this song, even though he should be. "The Lemon Song" includes the following lines, which draw heavily from his 1937 song "Traveling Riverside Blues": Squeeze me, babe, 'till the juice runs down my legThis section is a key part of the song and became one of Robert Plant's signature lyrics. He often inserted these lines into other songs during live performances. On BBC Sessions, Robert Plant used them in "How Many More Times" and "Communication Breakdown", and Dave Lewis points out that he often included this in the "Whole Lotta Love" medley during live shows. [3] Led Zeppelin performed "Traveling Riverside Blues" as well, and it is included on BBC Sessions, the first box set, and as a bonus track on the version of Coda included in The Complete Studio Recordings. For some reason, the songwriting credits are listed as "Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, Robert Johnson" for this song. This serves as one of the more egregious examples of Jimmy Page and Robert Plant taking credit for a song they did not write. Other influences are evident in "The Lemon Song" as well, which are worth mentioning even if they don't warrant changing the songwriting credits. Dave Lewis points out that the arrangement of "The Lemon Song" is similar to Albert King's "Crosscut Saw", a song Robert Plant often performed with the Honeydrippers after his days with Led Zeppelin. Also, the last line of the lemon section of the song is not Robert Johnson's line from "Traveling Riverside Blues". Robert Johnson's lyrics go as follows: Now you can squeeze my lemon 'til the juice run down my...The reference to falling out of bed comes instead from "Stop Messin' Round" from Fleetwood Mac's 1968 album Mr. Wonderful. I want you to squeeze a me, baby, 'til my face turns cherry redLed Zeppelin were clearly fans of Fleetwood Mac, particularly when that band was primarily a blues band under the leadership of Peter Green. Fleetwood Mac's influence played a role not only in "The Lemon Song", but in "Rock and Roll" and "Black Dog" as well. In his scathingly negative review of Led Zeppelin II in Rolling Stone when the album was initially released in 1969, John Mendelsohn took exception to Led Zeppelin's blues posturing. Mendelsohn's review is laced with sarcasm and reveals a lot about why Led Zeppelin acquired such a bad reputation with the rock press, particularly with regard to the issue of plagiarism. To Mendelsohn, Led Zeppelin's heavy interpretation of the blues was a bastardization of a vaunted form. That Robert Plant's lyrics would quote so freely from the original sources while the instrumental parts had lost the essence of the original was grounds for ridicule to Mendelsohn. Plant later stated that he thought that Mendelsohn "was just a frustrated musician. Maybe I'm just flying on my own little ego ship, but sometimes people seem to resent talent." [4] The recent special edition of Q is kinder to Led Zeppelin about "The Lemon Song" stating, "'Forgetting' to credit [Howlin' Wolf] almost landed Zeppelin in court, but in truth the electrifying combination of Bonham's sledgehammer drums and Page's dazzling solo makes it entirely their own." [5] Had Led Zeppelin been better about citing their sources, they may not have met with such hostility from the rock press in their early years and it may not have taken such a long time for the rock press to evaluate Led Zeppelin's music on its own terms.
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| Notes | ||
| 1. | Dave Lewis, Led Zeppelin: The Complete Guide to Their Music, (New York: Omnibus Press, 2004), p. 17. | |
| 2. | Michael Goldberg, "Willie Dixon Sues Led Zeppelin over 'Whole Lotta Love',"Rolling Stone (March 14, 1985), p. 12. | |
| 3. | Dave Lewis, Led Zeppelin: The Complete Guide to Their Music, (New York: Omnibus Press, 2004), p. 17. | |
| 4. | Quoted in Paul Kendall and Dave Lewis, ed., Led Zeppelin in Their Own Words, (New York: Omnibus Press, 1995), p. 48. | |
| 5. | "We're Gonna Groove," in Led Zeppelin, Q Special Edition (2003). | |
The Blues and Folk Roots of Led Zeppelin's Music. Are They Plagiarists? |
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