WARNING! Reading this post, and following the enclosed links, may cause serious disillusionment among Led Zeppelin fans who do not know where a lot of their music came from!

If you love LZ as they presented themselves, and have no wish to explore their roots, go no further...


Oh, yes, both Jimmy and Robert were very nuaghty boys, indeed. Jimmy richly deserves much of the disapproval accorded him by his contemporaries. He was a >thief<, >plain and simple<. His only redeeming grace was the awsome majesty that he brought to his version of these songs.

I think History will mark Jimmy Page as an inspirational, if sloppy, guitarist, and a brilliant, though >immoral<, producer.

I remember assembling a cassette tape of some wonderful blues artists for a friend of mine. He later howled that I had ruined his enjoyment of listening to Led Zeppelin, because he could no longer hear any of their songs without wondering who that wonderful music had been stolen from. I admit that my own sense of wonder has been greatly diminished, but I realise that I was young, and ignorant, when I first heard Led Zep (when they first hit the airwaves). I have come to be thankful that they introduced me to a lot of artists that I might never have known about otherwise.

Tread softly as you follow these links. There is indeed blood on the tracks, and the shattered dreams of those who were denied the chance to present their creations as well as Jimmy Page ultimately did.