Whole Lotta Stealin

Freesoul asked a question on last Friday's musical post... did Led Zeppelin do anything original, and that's a very good question.  There are at least 13 Zeppelin songs whose origins are questionable or in dispute.  Since there are so many of them I'll just give you the names and artists with links to the songs grouped together and you can compare them yourselves. In some instances it's the music, in others the lyrics that are in question.  There are five of them (marked by asterisks) that Led Zeppelin has subsequently credited the artist for on rereleases.

Led Zeppelin - Black Mountainside
Bert Jansch - Black Waterside

Led Zeppelin - Babe I'm Gonna Leave You*
Anne Bredon - Babe I'm Gonna Leave You* 

Led Zeppelin - How Many More Times 
Howlin Wolf - No Place To Go 
The Yardbirds - Smokestack Lightning 

Led Zeppelin - Whole Lotta Love*
Willie Dixon - You Need Love*

Led Zeppelin - The Lemon Song*
Howlin Wolf - The Killing Floor*

Led Zeppelin - Bring It On Home* 
Sonny Boy Williams - Bring It On Home* 

Led Zeppelin - Hats off to Roy Harper
Bukka White - Shake em On Down
Oscar Woods - The Lone Wolf Blues

Led Zeppelin - Since I've Been Lovin You
Moby Grape - Never

Led Zeppelin - Stairway to Heaven
Spirit - Taurus 

Led Zeppelin - Custard Pie
Sleepy John Estes - Drop Down Mama
Blind Boy Fuller - I Want Some of Your Pie

Led Zeppelin - In My Time of Dying
Josh White - Jesus gonna make up my dying bed

Led Zeppelin - Boogie with Stu
Ritchie Valens - Ooh My Head

And since I didn't do all this research myself... go and read this good article Led Zeppelin: Plagiarism? at Turn Me On Dead Man

Another good read is The Case Against Led Zeppelin: Is Hard Rock's Greatest Band Guilty of Musical Plagiarism? at VH1

Still, they're an awesome rock band!!! I'll leave it to the musicians among us to sort out fact from fiction.