When will rap music be less mainstream?

And didn't Willie Dixon sue Zep for them totally ripping him off without giving him credit?

He actually sued them over "Whole Lotta Love" and they settled it with him as soon as they found out about the suit, it was in the late 1980's. The reason it never went to court was their respect for him, and also the fact that the song does sound extremely similar to one of his songs from the early '50's which I can't remember the title of, but the opening riffs did sound incredibly similar to the bridge of Wille's song.

This is one of the incidents that I remember from Led Zep talking about thier influences because I saw an interview with Jimmy Page talking about the incident and his admiration for all of the Chess regards group, with special attention to Willie Dixon and Johnny Lee Hooker (was he at Chess?).

01-09-10: Macdadtexas
My point, which you in no way addressed, was that the statement Robert Plant from Led Zeppelin among others didn't acknowledge his/their predecessors was WAY off the mark, and I stand by that.

You shouldn't make emphatic statements when the facts don't entirely back that up.

Led Zeppelin released "The Lemon Song" in 1969 on the Led Zeppelin II album,and it's original writing credits were Jimmy Page and Robert Plant. That particular song "borrows" lyrics from prior blues artists work.

The first, second and fourth verses of "The Lemon Song," are clearly recognizable from Howlin' Wolf's original song "Killing Floor".

Also is Plant's "Squeeze the lemon 'til the juice runs down my leg" phrase, look to Robert Johnson's 1937 song "Traveling Riverside Blues." Of course, Johnson wasn't the only blues artist to use this type of imagery. In the 1929 song "I Want It Awful Bad," Joe Williams had included the lines "You squeezed my lemon/Caused my juice to run," and Roosevelt Sykes used similar imagery in his 1937 song "She Squeezed My Lemon." Nonetheless, it is highly unlikely Plant/Page created the line on their own.

The phrase "you take my money, give it to another man" most likely was taken from "Black Eye Blues" by Ma Rainey.

It wasn't until Led Zeppelin WAS SUED BY ARC Records in 1972, and an out of court settlement, that the band was forced to give those blues artists writing credits on Zepp pressings.

Honestly, we could give you a long, long, long, list of famous songs and artists in the great age of Rock & Roll who did (what we now) legally consider theft of prior work. Many others were more performer than songwriters and musicians. That doesn't take anything from them, by the way.

Of course, back then, it was a bunch of kids doing songs they love. But, in some ways, everyone always knew songwriting credit was where all the money was made. A choice not to list someone meant more money in their own pockets.

I should also mention that I liberally "borrowed" all these facts/assertions from this web page

Dark-"Dude from the Matrix"

I stand by my point, and it's still right on. You make it sound as though these bands denied the connection between themselves and the blues greats. They never did, that.

I never said they did not emulate or anything else, they worshipped these guys as their musical Gods, and my point, and I stand by it, was that they have always, always, given them credit as their main influences.

Macdadtexas, they may have always given them credit in interviews and live concerts, but they didn't always do so where it counted most - legally and financially, in the songwriting credits.

That, is a fact.

And I agree with you that they worshipped the blues greats.