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Rymin' and Stealin'


baccaruda

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Alright. They buy Tom Petty's stuff too. He and Dylan should harmonize and go for "World's most irritating noise" vs. alarm clocks and car alarms.

Didn't they already do that? The Travelling Willbury's? Threw some other no-talent slobs in there, too. Like Roy Orbison, George Harrison, Jeff Lynn. Just terrible, they were.

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Knockin' On Heaven's Door has been recorded dozens if not hundreds of times with some very good (Clapton) and poor (GnR) interpretations, but the one that does it for me is Warren Zevon. He recorded his last album (The Wind) while he was terminal with lung cancer. :puppyeyes: It's a very poignant and touching message coming from a man on his deathbed. Check it out. (The whole disc is excellent btw).

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I like Smith's (late-1960's group fronted by Gayle McCormick) version of "Baby It's You" better than the original by the Shirelles

There´s an amazing version by Johnny Thunders and Patti palladine. I also prefer the Beatles cover.

And Elvish is right, Hendrix made a better "Watchtower" than Dylan.

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I've always thought about cover songs, and I've generally liked the original better than the cover. But with Led Zeppelin I must admit that all their blues songs that were covered are much better (subjectively, of course) than their predecessors. To name a few:

Gallow's Pole (originally by Leadbelly)

In My Time of Dying (originally Dylan)

Whole Lotta Love (originally by...someone...Howlin Wolf?)

You Shook Me (originally Muddy Waters)

Traveling Riverside Blues (originally by Robert Johnson)

I like Eric Clapton's version of After Midnight better than the original JJ Cale version.

Ooh, here's a good one, Orgy's Blue Monday is better than the 80's synth-pop original.

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I've always thought about cover songs, and I've generally liked the original better than the cover. But with Led Zeppelin I must admit that all their blues songs that were covered are much better (subjectively, of course) than their predecessors. To name a few:

Gallow's Pole (originally by Leadbelly)

In My Time of Dying (originally Dylan)

Whole Lotta Love (originally by...someone...Howlin Wolf?)

You Shook Me (originally Muddy Waters)

Traveling Riverside Blues (originally by Robert Johnson)

I like Eric Clapton's version of After Midnight better than the original JJ Cale version.

Ooh, here's a good one, Orgy's Blue Monday is better than the 80's synth-pop original.

They also did a bang-up job on Sonny Boy Williamson's "Bring it on Home". I still won't go so far as to say that Zeppelin did it better, though.

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I've always thought about cover songs, and I've generally liked the original better than the cover. But with Led Zeppelin I must admit that all their blues songs that were covered are much better (subjectively, of course) than their predecessors. To name a few:

Gallow's Pole (originally by Leadbelly)

In My Time of Dying (originally Dylan)

Whole Lotta Love (originally by...someone...Howlin Wolf?)

You Shook Me (originally Muddy Waters)

Traveling Riverside Blues (originally by Robert Johnson)

I like Eric Clapton's version of After Midnight better than the original JJ Cale version.

Ooh, here's a good one, Orgy's Blue Monday is better than the 80's synth-pop original.

Some added information about LZ and The Lemon Song

The Lemon Song

"The Lemon Song" quotes blues greats Robert Johnson and Howlin' Wolf. Howlin' Wolf's "Killing Floor" provides the basic theme of the song, and to that Robert Plant adds Robert Johnson's lemon phallic reference from "Traveling Riverside Blues" ("Squeeze my lemon 'til the juice run down my leg"). John Mendelsohn took exception to this in his review of Led Zeppelin II in Rolling Stone in 1969. Mendelsohn's sarcastic negative review of the album reveals a lot about why Led Zeppelin acquired such a bad reputation with the rock press, particularly with regard to the issue of plagiarism. To Mendelsohn, Led Zeppelin's heavy interpretation of the blues was a bastardization of a vaunted form. That Robert Plant's lyrics would quote so freely from the original sources while the instrumental parts had lost the essence of the original was grounds for ridicule to Mendelsohn. (Plant later stated that he thought that Mendelsohn "was just a frustrated musician. Maybe I'm just flying on my own little ego ship, but sometimes people seem to resent talent."[1]) The recent special edition of Q is kinder to Led Zeppelin about "The Lemon Song" stating, "'Forgetting' to credit [Howlin' Wolf] almost landed Zeppelin in court, but in truth the electrifying combination of Bonham's sledgehammer drums and Page's dazzling solo makes it entirely their own." [2] In 1972, ARC music sued Led Zeppelin, claiming that Led Zeppelin had plagiarized Howlin' Wolf and a settlement was reached out of court.[3]

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