01-09-10: MacdadtexasYou shouldn't make emphatic statements when the facts don't entirely back that up.
My point, which you in no way addressed, was that the statement Robert Plant from Led Zeppelin among others didn't acknowledge his/their predecessors was WAY off the mark, and I stand by that.
Led Zeppelin released "The Lemon Song" in 1969 on the Led Zeppelin II album,and it's original writing credits were Jimmy Page and Robert Plant. That particular song "borrows" lyrics from prior blues artists work.
The first, second and fourth verses of "The Lemon Song," are clearly recognizable from Howlin' Wolf's original song "Killing Floor".
Also is Plant's "Squeeze the lemon 'til the juice runs down my leg" phrase, look to Robert Johnson's 1937 song "Traveling Riverside Blues." Of course, Johnson wasn't the only blues artist to use this type of imagery. In the 1929 song "I Want It Awful Bad," Joe Williams had included the lines "You squeezed my lemon/Caused my juice to run," and Roosevelt Sykes used similar imagery in his 1937 song "She Squeezed My Lemon." Nonetheless, it is highly unlikely Plant/Page created the line on their own.
The phrase "you take my money, give it to another man" most likely was taken from "Black Eye Blues" by Ma Rainey.
It wasn't until Led Zeppelin WAS SUED BY ARC Records in 1972, and an out of court settlement, that the band was forced to give those blues artists writing credits on Zepp pressings.
Honestly, we could give you a long, long, long, list of famous songs and artists in the great age of Rock & Roll who did (what we now) legally consider theft of prior work. Many others were more performer than songwriters and musicians. That doesn't take anything from them, by the way.
Of course, back then, it was a bunch of kids doing songs they love. But, in some ways, everyone always knew songwriting credit was where all the money was made. A choice not to list someone meant more money in their own pockets.
I should also mention that I liberally "borrowed" all these facts/assertions from this web page