The Song Still Remains The Same: the unauthorized etymology of Led Zeppelin songs. Bring It On Home

Bring It On Home - Led Zeppelin

Bring It On Home - Sonny Boy Williamson

We are back (after a long hiatus) with our fourth installment of The Song Still Remains The Same: the unauthorized etymology of Led Zeppelin songs. You know, that little thing I do where I look at a song Led Zeppelin claims to have written, and then play you the original song...that they didn't write.

We started with Dazed and Confused. 
Then we looked at Whole Lotta Love.
Then we analyzed Since I've Been Lovin' You.

Today, we look at Bring It On Home.

The last song on the October 1969 release of Led Zeppelin II is a song called Bring It On Home. As you can see from the above label scan, it is a song that Jimmy Page and Robert Plant have claimed to have written. The song is a laid back blues shuffle with Robert Plant's trademark billy-goat styled vocal delivery. Plant pleads with his lover:

Bbbbaaaaabbbbbwwwaaaayyyyy. Well,  Bbbbaaaaabbbbbwwwwaaaayyyyy, I'm going to bring it on home to you. I've got my ticket, I got that load. Join up, going higher, all aboard. I'm going to take my seat, railway bag. Ooh-ch'yeah. Watch this train roll down the track. I'm going bring it on home, break it on down now to you.

Ahhh, you can hear Robert Plant's native Mississippi accent as he drawl's out his pained lyrics.

Whoa. Wait. No. That's not right. Robert Plant isn't from Mississippi, he's from the UK. And Jimmy Page wasn't an itinerant sharecropper who made his way to Chicago after World War II. How did I mess this up? Oh yeah, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant didn't write the damn blues song! They stole it.

Sonny Boy Williamson (II) recorded the Willie Dixon penned song, Bring It On Home, in January of 1963 at Chess Studios in Chicago. However, the number wasn't released on Chess Records until February of 1966, shortly after Sonny Boy Williamson's death in Helena, Arkansas in 1965.

It's undeniable that it is the same song. Lawyers for Atlantic Records agreed and settled out of court for an undisclosed sum in 1972. Subsequent pressings of the record show Willie Dixon as the composer. Only one person seems to still believe it is a different song:

The thing with Bring It On Home, there's only a tiny bit taken from Sonny Boy Williamson's version and we threw that in as a tribute to him. People say, "Oh, Bring It On Home is stolen." Well, there's only a little bit in the song that relates to anything that had gone before it. Just the end.
--Jimmy Page as interviewed by Dave Schulps, Trouser Press, October, 1977. 

Well, to that, I just have to say...Huh? Just a little bit? It's the same frickin' song, Jimmy. It's not just taking the shuffle, it's not just lifting a lyric or two. It's not just that it's the same title. You even have Robert Plant even imitates Sonny Boy Williamson! It's the same thing Led Zeppelin did when Robert mimicked The Small Faces' Steve Marriott with Whole Lotta Love (aka, You Need Lovin').  You make call it an homage, Misters Plant and Page, but it's not. It's standing on the shoulders of others and pushing them down in the mud. Not OK lads.

And yes, I understand that Sonny Boy Williamson tended to steal stuff too...like another person's entire identity! But we are dealing with just one deviancy at a time here.

Listen for yourself. Let us know what you think. Until next time, we'll see you On The Flip-Side!

Song of the Week: Timi Yuro - What's A Matter Baby/Thirteenth Hour

What's A Matter Baby?

Thirteenth Hour

Small package, big voice. A teenage Timi Yuro was discovered sometime in the late 1950s singing to patrons in her parent's Italian restaurant in Los Angeles. She cut a number of albums and singles over the year, but never really "made it". Was she country? Soul? Cabaret? Pop? She didn't fit neatly into any single category. And that's tough when trying to sell records.

We feature today both sides of her June 1962 single for Liberty Records, What's A Matter Baby (Is It Hurting You)/Thirteenth Hour. I first came to What's A Matter Baby? via The Small Faces who covered the Yuro number as the Flip-Side of their debut single from the Summer of 1965. What's A Matter Baby has a real blue-eyed soul vibe to it and thus fit in perfectly for Steve Marriott and the Mod band. The song is an acerbic conversation with a past lover. A lover who cheated, ran around and bragged about it. Now that lover is getting a taste of their own medicine. And Timi is not crying any crocodile tears for her ex. Damn it, she's found somebody new!

As we are prone to do here, we like to flip our records over and listen to that other side -- the Flip-Side, if you will. We were more than pleasantly surprised by the country-esque Flip-Side, Thirteenth Hour. This could have been Patsy Cline's next big hit. But nope, it's just a kick ass song hidden On The Flip-Side of a kick ass single.

Until next time, we'll see you On The Flip-Side!

Song of the Week: Screaming Lord Sutch - The Train Kept A-Rollin'

The Train is still A-Rollin', for one more day, at least. Today we bring the train into the station with a Joe Meek production. And, like our last Joe Meek production with Heinz, this number features none other than Ritchie Blackmore on guitar. Screaming Lord Sutch released his (and Joe Meek's) take on The Train Kept A-Rollin' in May of 1965 for CBS Records in his native UK. It's a unique version, and, I have to say, like Mikey from the Life Cereal commercials in the 70s, I like it, I like it, I really do. I love the way the fuzz guitar and the saxophone blend seamlessly together both in tone and attack. Screaming Lord Sutch stood firmly on the silly/gimmick side of music, but he delivers earnestly here. He did seem to have a problem translating some of the lyrics, however. How did he get from Albuquerque to "Al-Kentucky"? Did they not have an Atlas in 1965?

Interestingly, the Flip-Side of the single is Honey Hush, the same Flip-Side as Johnny Burnette's single. Gee, I wonder where Joe Meek picked this one up?

Until next time, we'll see you On The Flip-Side!

Song of the Week: Scotty McKay Quintet - The Train Kept A-Rollin'

Scotty McKay was a Texan who had been trying to make it in the music biz since he was 15. He was even a member of Gene Vincent's Blue Caps in the twilight of the 1950s. He released a gaggle of singles on various labels without much cohesive identity. In 1967, Scotty Mckay served as an opening act for The Yardbirds on some Texas dates. He was inspired by The Yardbirds and was befriended by Jimmy Page. The two cooked up plans to record The Train Kept A-Rollin' together, but Jimmy's train kept a-rollin' on the tour and couldn't make the session. Scotty went ahead with his recording and sent the master tape to Jimmy Page who overdubbed a guitar lead and mailed it back to Scotty. Problem was, Scotty had no record deal. So he released the number on a new label he created himself. Falcon Records. It's a faithful and nice rendition of The Yardbirds version and Jimmy Page adds some very tasty guitar work to lift the number to a higher level. Too bad the song fades out with Jimmy's lead. What's up with that?

Until next time, we'll see you On The Flip-Side! 

Song of the Week: The Yardbirds - The Train Kept A-Rollin'

You knew it was coming. I knew it was coming. So here it is. The Yardbirds started recording The Train Kept A-Rollin' on September 12, 1965 at Sun Studios with Sam Phillips at the controls. A few days later, on September 22, a more sober Keith Relf re-recorded his vocals in New York. In the US it was released on the Havin' A Rave-Up LP.