Jimmy Page has been hit with another lawsuit regarding the songwriting credits to ‘Dazed And Confused’.
The suit against the guitarist and songwriter has once again been put forward by musician Jake Holmes, who is said to have written the original track that inspired the famous Led Zeppelin release.
Holmes wrote and recorded ‘Dazed And Confused’ back in 1967, and alleges that the guitarist heard the song in August of that year when he opened for Page’s other band, The Yardbirds.
The Yardbirds went on to share their own version of the song shortly afterwards and played it regularly at their shows. Although an official studio version was never made, they did share live recordings of their version of ‘Dazed And Confused’ in 1967 and 1968.
Later, Page would share another version of the song with Led Zeppelin. This sounded very similar to the original version by Holmes, although it contained new lyrics and instrumental melodies written by Page. It remains one of Led Zeppelin’s most popular releases.
For years now, there has been commotion about the songwriting credits in Led Zeppelin’s version. In 2010 Holmes filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against the guitarist, and the settlement (decided outside of court) led to the songwriting credit on the Led Zeppelin version being changed to “inspired by Jake Holmes”.
It was unclear whether or not the agreement also applied to recordings shared by The Yardbirds, and now that several archival releases from the band have been shared, the lawsuit from Holmes has been revived once more.
As per the new filing (via Rolling Stone), Holmes claims that he has not been given credit nor royalties for the early versions of ‘Dazed And Confused’ performed by The Yardbirds. The suit references the newly shared film Becoming Led Zeppelin, which has the Led Zeppelin version credited as “inspired by Jake Holmes” but the Yardbirds version as only “written by Jimmy Page”. It also names Sony Pictures and music publisher Warner Chappell as defendants.
“The Yardbirds’ performance of ‘Dazed and Confused’ in the film is a performance of the Holmes Composition,” reads the filing (via RS). “Defendants have thus committed multiple acts of willful infringement by continuing to use the Holmes Composition without authorization and in the face of both specific knowledge of Plaintiff’s rights and Plaintiff’s cease and desist demand.”
This is an ongoing story. Jimmy Page’s legal team have not yet shared a public statement about the revived lawsuit from Holmes, nor responded to requests from RS. NME has reached out to Sony Pictures and Warner Chappell for comment.
