Led Zeppelin – "Dazed and Confused" (1969)

Been dazed and confused for so long it's not true
Wanted a woman, never bargained for you

[NOTE: Led Zeppelin may have stolen “Dazed and Confused” from Jake Holmes.  But it’s still the best track on what may be the best classic rock album ever, so it should come as no surprise that I chose it for the inaugural class of the 2 OR 3 LINES “GOLDEN DECADE” ALBUM TRACKS HALL OF FAME.  Here’s a mashup of three 2015 posts I did on three different recordings of “Dazed and Confused.”]

The Yardbirds went through three of the greatest guitarists in rock music history – Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and Jimmy Page – in their five-year history.

When Clapton decided to leave the Yardbirds in 1965, Page was asked if he wanted to replace him.  Page declined the offer but recommended his friend Beck, and Beck was hired.

Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck

In May 1966, Beck went into the studio to do some solo recording.  He called on Page to help him work up some songs to record.  

Page came up with the idea of basing an instrumental on Maurice Ravel’s famous 1928 composition, Boléro (which became enormously popular when it was featured in the Bo Derek movie, 10).

Beck then recruited disaffected Who members Keith Moon and John Entwistle to play drums and bass.  Moon showed up for the session, but Entwistle did not, and John Paul Jones – who later joined Jimmy Page in Led Zeppelin – played bass instead.

Keith Moon

The recording of “Beck’s Bolero” went so well that Beck, Page, Moon, and Jones talked about forming a group and doing more recording.  According to Page, Moon quipped “Yeah, that'll go down like a lead Zeppelin,” which gave Page the idea for the name of the group he did form after the eventual breakup of the Yardbirds.  (John Entwistle has also claimed credit for the quip.) 

Page got the songwriting credit for “Beck’s Bolero,” although Beck later said that he should have shared that credit.  Page also claimed that he was the record's actual producer, but he did not get the producing credit.

Click here to read more about “Beck’s Bolero.”

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After “Beck’s Bolero” was recorded, Page was invited to join the Yardbirds.  During the few months when both Beck and Page were in the group, Beck played lead guitar and Page shifted to bass.

The only comparable situation that comes to mind is seven-time All-Star shortstop Alex Rodriguez shifting to third base when he joined the Yankees, leaving shortstop to Derek Jeter.

A-Rod and the Captain

The popularity of the Yardbirds was declining by the fall of 1966, when Beck was fired from the band and Page took over as lead guitarist.  

The band finally broke up in July 1968.  Drummer Jim McCarty and singer Keith Reif authorized Page and bassist Chris Dreja to put together a new group – to be called the New Yardbirds – to fulfill a contractual commitment to play a series of shows in Scandinavia that fall.

Page wanted Terry Reid to be the new group’s lead singer.  Reid said no, suggesting that Page use Robert Plant instead.  Plant then recommended his former Band of Joy bandmate, John Bonham, to be the drummer.  When Dreja decided to drop out of the new group, Page recruited John Paul Jones -- the bassist on “Beck’s Bolero.”

The New Yardbirds played the Scandinavian dates, then went into the studio and recorded an album in just nine days.  Dreja threatened legal action if the group continued to call itself the New Yardbirds, so they became Led Zeppelin.

Led Zeppelin

Atlantic Records signed them to a contract without ever having seen them perform.  The first Led Zeppelin album was released in January 1969, and the rest . . . is history.

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That album included a song called “Dazed and Confused,” which also was the title of a song from a relatively obscure 1967 album by Jake Holmes. 

Holmes opened for the Yardbirds at the Village Theatre in New York City on August 25, 1967.  Holmes performed “Dazed and Confused” that night, which he later described as the night that his song “fell into the loving arms of Jimmy Page.”

The Yardbirds’ drummer, Jim McCarty, said years later that he was so impressed by “Dazed and Confused” that he bought the Holmes album the next day so the group could work up a cover of the song.  

But the author of a book about the Yardbirds quotes a man who says he saw Jimmy Page himself buying the Holmes album at a particular record store on Bleecker Street.

The Yardbirds never recorded “Dazed and Confused” in the studio.  But there are several recordings of them performing the song live before they disbanded.  Click here to view one of them.

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Led Zeppelin recorded “Dazed and Confused” with entirely new lyrics – except for the words of the song’s title.

But the arrangement was recognizable as the same basic arrangement that the Yardbirds had used.  That’s not surprising since Page was largely responsible for the Yardbirds’ arrangement.) 

I think most people would say that Jake Holmes’s “Dazed and Confused” is the same song as Led Zeppelin’s “Dazed and Confused.”  But Led Zeppelin did not give a songwriting credit to Jake Holmes.  

Although Holmes heard Led Zeppelin’s “Dazed and Confused” shortly after it was released, he didn’t do anything about it for for more than a decade.  

When Holmes did finally write to Page to ask for a shared songwriting credit and some do-re-mi, he never heard back.

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Led Zeppelin has been sued several times for copyright infringement.  In 1985, veteran blues musician Willie Dixon sued the band, alleging that “Whole Lotta Love” infringed not just one, but two of Dixon’s songs.  (The case was settled out of court.)  More recently, the estate of the late Randy California claimed that “Stairway to Heaven” infringed California's composition, “Taurus,” which was recorded by the band Spirit in 1967.

Holmes finally sued Page in 2010.  His complaint was eventually dismissed – probably because the two parties agreed to an out-of-court settlement.  

While the terms of any such settlement have never been released, it appears that Holmes won at least a partial victory.  The Led Zeppelin reunion concert album, Celebration Day – which was released several months after the presumed settlement of the Holmes lawsuit – contains this songwriting credit for “Dazed and Confused”:  “Jimmy Page; inspired by Jake Holmes.”

To read more about the controversy over the authorship of “Dazed and Confused,” you can click here – or you can click here -- or you can click here.

Click here to listen to the Led Zeppelin recording of “Dazed and Confused.” 

Click on the link below to buy the song from Amazon: