I Got Dem Ole Plagiarism Blues Again
11/07/2014
In which we examine how someone plagiarises a plagiarist
to document another plagiarism.
While image-searching for my posting on sneakers, I ran across a music blog with an elaborate post entitled "Zeppelin Took My Blues Away".
It was a nicely written piece on Led Zeppelin's uncredited use of other peoples music. As a purchaser of their first LP at the time of its release, I think I can say I am a long-time fan of the band. I have always known the "accusations" circulating regarding their so-called plagiarism, and found the post very interesting. The author took the approach of creating a set of "Trading Cards", each documenting the source/s of a Led Zeppelin track. Ref. Willard's Wormholes - Zeppelin Took My Blues Away. (Update, 28/09/2020 - The site died in 2016, but thanks to the magic of the Wayback Machine, you can still see a capture of it HERE. I think I can now safely reveal that the site disguised a source of carefully curated music collections you could illegally download, complete with cover artwork if you wanted to burn a CD. The pic at Left was intended as a CD front cover.) So far, so good. Then I noticed the "Trading Card" for Memphis Minnie, with its bright pink tones, looked a bit flashy for an old picture of an artist of the same vintage as my grandfather. (Memphis Minnie is at least co-credited as a writer on the Led Zeppelin untitled fourth LP, on the SIDE TWO label.) A Google image search quickly revealed that the image is a unique painting that has been used, uncredited by Mr Willard, from an Art Website's individual artist's page. fineartamerica Memphis Minnie Kay Robinson I note the artist has not mentioned anywhere that the painting is after an original photograph. The image was easily recognisable as done from a photograph, because I had just eyeballed past many copies of the photograph in the search results while looking for the painting. This is the best copy of the source photograph I could find, at a blog dedicated to the music of Memphis Minnie, where it is credited to the Frank Driggs Collection (which is worth investigating in its own right). Incidentally, as a guitar player, I was surprised to find out the guitar she is holding is an electric guitar, a National New Yorker, a.k.a. Memphis Minnie Model, 1936. You can see one of two control knobs, and the cord at picture Left. I wondered how many more of these "Trading Cards"
documenting Led Zeppelin's musical borrowings were themselves created from "borrowed" images, and decided to investigate further. The results are below. |
My assessments of the sources for all the card images
1. Jake Holmes Album cover crop, reversed, text removed.
2. Bert Jansch Album cover with text edited out.
3. Howlin’ Wolf Credited book illustration.
4. Anne Bredon Taken off a crafts web page probably.
5. Willie Dixon Credited book illustration.
6. Howlin’ Wolf Probably album cover, pic is everywhere on the net.
7. Willie Dixon Pic on the net
8. Bukka White Album cover crop
9. Bob Mosley Album cover crop
10. Bert Jansch Album cover sketched crudely
11. Randy California Album cover crop
12. Memphis Minnie Uncredited. Taken from Artist's site, Uncredited, artist copied from old
photo credited to Frank Driggs Collection.
13. Sleepy John Estes Album cover crop reversed.
Blind Boy Fuller Credited book illustration.
14. Blind Willie Johnson Crop of Guitar Tutor cover, with drawing of old photo everywhere on the net.
Josh White From Wikipedia, "The photo may be used for any purpose, provided that credit be given to the photo
owner, The Estate of Josh White (Sr.) and the Josh White Archives. Photo courtesy of Douglas A.
Yeager Productions, Ltd., 300 West 55th Street, Suite # 15E, New York, New York 10019."
15. Ritchie Valens CD cover crop
16. Blind Willie Johnson Ref 14, crop of same old pic.
17. Davy Graham Album cover crop
18. Sleepy John Estes Album cover crop ref 13, unreversed.
Bobby Parker Album cover crop
2. Bert Jansch Album cover with text edited out.
3. Howlin’ Wolf Credited book illustration.
4. Anne Bredon Taken off a crafts web page probably.
5. Willie Dixon Credited book illustration.
6. Howlin’ Wolf Probably album cover, pic is everywhere on the net.
7. Willie Dixon Pic on the net
8. Bukka White Album cover crop
9. Bob Mosley Album cover crop
10. Bert Jansch Album cover sketched crudely
11. Randy California Album cover crop
12. Memphis Minnie Uncredited. Taken from Artist's site, Uncredited, artist copied from old
photo credited to Frank Driggs Collection.
13. Sleepy John Estes Album cover crop reversed.
Blind Boy Fuller Credited book illustration.
14. Blind Willie Johnson Crop of Guitar Tutor cover, with drawing of old photo everywhere on the net.
Josh White From Wikipedia, "The photo may be used for any purpose, provided that credit be given to the photo
owner, The Estate of Josh White (Sr.) and the Josh White Archives. Photo courtesy of Douglas A.
Yeager Productions, Ltd., 300 West 55th Street, Suite # 15E, New York, New York 10019."
15. Ritchie Valens CD cover crop
16. Blind Willie Johnson Ref 14, crop of same old pic.
17. Davy Graham Album cover crop
18. Sleepy John Estes Album cover crop ref 13, unreversed.
Bobby Parker Album cover crop