Why no led zep?
a huge portion of their catalogue was stolen whole cloth from black american blues artists who died penniless and without recognition for their work. not “covered”, absolutely stolen and uncredited. like, everybody knows they ripped off stairway to heaven from spirit (a white band) but so much of their sound comes directly from the american south, specifically the Mississippi delta, and chicago.
Off the top of my head without even needing to look this up? A list of stolen zep songs: when the levee breaks, the lemon song, traveling riverside blues, babe I’m gonna leave you, whole lotta love, you shook me, black mountain slide, bring it on home, in my time of dying, gallows pole. Off the top of my head! That’s not an exhaustive list!
spn specifically bugs me because they could have addressed this! they had a whole episode about Robert Johnson (crossroads blues) who was a blues pioneer and from whom zep stole a lot of their most recognized work. deans favorite song is “traveling riverside blues” (a Robert Johnson song). this could have even worked thematically if they tried! zep being johns favorite band, John being a symbol of Americana and masculinity and whiteness and his favorite band being British people who stole their sound from black Americans. But no! Totally unaddressed. it’s also the reason i kind of hate the impala and the leather jacket etc. they were foisted upon dean, he was told to love and revere them because his dad did. and now he does! Like, that could absolutely have been a symbol of the lie that dean has been living by looking up to a history and to a man that isn’t real. But.
and I do get that I’m a white lady talking about racism. I get it! I try to approach this from the perspective of someone who has studied music history, someone who loves blues music and grew up in the blues scene in Chicago, and I never want to speak over any POC fans on this topic. I will say all this more eloquently in a longer post some time.
GO SEE SINNERS, IN THEATERS NOW !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
