Sheesh. Joni seems all Tangled Up In Blue.She should only know just how many people not named Dylan have borrowed or rewritten what came before them. I could run her down a volume equal to the Manhattan telephone book, but I'll just begin with these:
Original: Robert Johnson, "I Believe I'll Dust My Broom"; most famous rewrite: Elmore James, "Dust My Broom" and "Dust My Blues."
Original: Skip James, "Devil Got My Woman"; most famous rewrite: Robert Johnson, "Hellhound on My Trail."
Original: Howlin' Wolf, "Killin' Floor," and Robert Johnson, "Stones in My Passway"; most famous rewrite: Led Zeppelin, "The Lemon Song."
Original: Willie Dixon (for Sonny Boy Williamson), "Bring It On Home"; most famous rewrite: Led Zeppelin, "Bring It On Home." (They took the writing credit over that riffy midsection but never acknowledged Dixon writing the bookends they used.)
Original: Willie Dixon (for Muddy Waters), "You Need Love"; most famous rewrite: Led Zeppelin, "Whole Lotta Love."
Original: Bo Diddley, "I'm a Man" and the Yardbirds, "Over Under Sideways Down"; most famous rewrite: The Count Five, "Psychotic Reaction." (Actually, they nicked that one entirely from the Yardbirds---they used the famous percussing guitar finale of the Yardbirds' version of "I'm a Man" with the basic verse structure of "Over Under Sideways Down," a Yardbirds band composition.)
And let's not get started on how many instrumental licks were borrowed over the years, none of which began with a) Steely Dan nicking the bass line of Horace Silver's "Song for My Father" to use in "Rikki Don't Lose That Number"; or, Grand Funk Railroad borrowing the guitar lick that kicked off the Monkees' "Pleasant Valley Sunday" and using it to kick off "Closer to Home (I'm Your Captain)" . . .
And the most blatant, The Byrds ripping off Coltrane on "Eight Miles High."
Very nice summation. When it comes to the oft-controversial Led Zeppelin stolen bits - I think it’s often the case that Page came up with the innovative guitar licks. When it came time to go into the studio Plant had to sing *something* and often had to come up with something PDQ. As a consequence some of the lyrical riffs he came up with were ones he already knew. Hence all the plagiary charges. I don’t want to get into the right vs. wrong or who got the writing credits etc. It’s just to say that’s kind of how it went down. I think Led Zeppelin is a great band - one for the ages - and a lot of folks like to throw stones any way they can. And the charge of plagiarism has been the most handy stone to throw.
Thanks for the ping/analysis (#143), BluesDuke...(after reading entire thread). Good stuff.