Believe it or not, there are people who would call Led Zeppelin a plagarist. They've received accusations of plagarising their songs all the time. Some say they steal other people's riffs. Some even say they steal whole songs. I don't know about that, but I do know that Led Zeppelin tends to sound remarkably like other songs on occasion. Here is a little demonstration of what I do know sounds like Led Zeppelin.

Immigrant Song

I would never have known this one myself, but my mum pointed it out. Once, I made her listen to Led Zeppelin III, with the Immigrant Song. At the part with the scream, Mum suddenly said: "Hey! That's from Rodgers and Hammerstein! It's from South Pacific! Those plagarists!" I asked her what she meant, and she explained that the scream sounds like the tune of "Bali Hai" from South Pacific. Later, she got a CD of the songs from it, and I listened to Bali Hai. It didn't sound that terribly like Immigrant Song, but I can see why somebody would think so. (I personally think it sounds more like the theme from "Get Smart", but that's just me.)

Stairway to Heaven

Ah, Stairway to Heaven: the number one classic rock song of all time! (Actually, my personal #1 is Bohemian Rhapsody. But that's just me and a million other Queen fans.) It's so popular, how could it be plagarized? More so than you think.

I used to listen to the album "Cosmo's Factory", by Creedence Clearwater Revival all the time. One of my favorite songs was Ramble Tamble. I kinda forgot the song over the years, but when I rediscovered it, I was very surprised. Not because of the lyrical content or anything, but because the guitar solo in the middle sounded almost exactly like the middle part of Stairway! I asked people I knew who were knowledgable about this sort of thing as to which album came first, and nobody could answer. (I believe it was Cosmo's Factory.) Were Led Zeppelin plagarising from this album? Who knows. But it makes me wonder...

Whole Lotta Love

At first I didn't think this song was plagarised. In fact, I don't have much proof that it really was. However, that makes the following comment no less interesting: "Whole Lotta Love", by Led Zeppelin, sounds almost exactly like "American Woman", by the Guess Who.

It happened like this: my mum and I were in the car one day, listening to the radio. The song American Woman came up. I listened to it, and almost instantly, I exclaimed, "Mum! That song! It's the same tune as Whole Lotta Love!" And it was. I'm of the impression that the Guess Who stole Led Zeppelin's tune and used it for their (completely unrelated) song. Either that or Led Zeppelin stole from the Guess Who. I don't know which came first. (Notice that I said that someone stole the music, not the lyrics. I can't see too much similarity between the lyrics of the two songs.)

Achilles' Last Stand:

Yes. Achilles' Last Stand. For shame, guys! I thought you were better than this, not to do any more plagarism! Come on! Led Zeppelin, this is one of your best tunes! Why did you have to steal it?

Well, I guess that if you're going to steal a song, it ought to come from an awesome band. Which is exactly what this one does. The aforementioned "awesome band" is one that happens to be called Yes. (Yes, they are fantastic.) The first song on their album "Fragile", which is called Roundabout, begins fairly innocuously...except then it goes into this thing that sounds almost exactly like Achilles' Last Stand! And if that weren't enough...I half expect Jon Anderson to come out singing, "It was an April morning, when they told us we should go..." Actually...that almost sounds like something he might have written...hmmm....very suspicious...

All this doesn't mean I think Led Zeppelin is bad. In fact, I like them. I think their music is good. And even if they did occasionally take from other people's songs, they still had enough of their own talent. After all, I'm sure we all "plagarise" a little. Nothing's really new, and music is the same. I mean, there's only so many riffs or chord progressions you can make and still sound good. But still, it's interesting to look at this stuff and wonder...