Singer-songwriter Jake Holmes has revived a copyright lawsuit against Jimmy Page over the songwriting credits for Dazed and Confused.
According to an investigation conducted by Rolling Stone, Holmes is claiming that he hasn't received proper credit or royalties for the earlier versions of the track performed by the Yardbirds – one of which features in the recently released documentary, Becoming Led Zeppelin.
Despite reportedly sending a cease and desist to Page and the other defendants last month, Holmes hasn't received a reply, which led him to file a lawsuit.
Holmes wrote Dazed and Confused in 1967, even recording it for his album, The Above Ground Sound of Jake Holmes. After Holmes opened for the Yardbirds at a Greenwich Village gig in New York, Page allegedly took a liking to the track, and in the years that followed, the Yardbirds would perform their own rendition. However, it was never properly recorded, until Page revisited it for Led Zeppelin's debut album.
As Holmes would later comment in Greg Russo's book Yardbirds: The Ultimate Rave-Up, “That was the infamous moment of my life when Dazed and Confused fell into the loving arms and hands of Jimmy Page” – complete with the infamous descending riff that is unmistakably similar to Holmes' original.
While Holmes was aware that the song had found its way onto Led Zeppelin's eponymous debut album, he did not take any action. In the early ’80s, Holmes tentatively wrote to the group and asked for a co-credit but received no reply. It was only in 2010 that Holmes sued Page for copyright infringement – a case dismissed “with prejudice” in January 2012 after an out-of-court settlement.
The new lawsuit notes that over the past three years, several archival Yardbirds recordings of the track have since come out. According to Holmes, these have been falsely credited to Page and, as a result, he has allegedly been cheated out of royalties.
Furthermore, Holmes argues that in Becoming Led Zeppelin, the Zeppelin version is properly credited as “Written by Jimmy Page, inspired by Jake Holmes,” unlike the Yardbirds version, which simply says “Written by Jimmy Page.”
“The Yardbirds’ performance of Dazed and Confused in the film is a performance of the Holmes Composition,” the lawsuit states.
“Defendants have thus committed multiple acts of willful infringement by continuing to use the Holmes Composition without authorization and in the face of both specific knowledge of Plaintiff’s rights and Plaintiff’s cease and desist demand.”
In other Led Zeppelin news, newly unearthed Super 8 footage of the band performing in Denmark in 1979 has surfaced online after 45 years – complete with the original audio.
