85-year old Jake Holmes, who wrote and recorded “Dazed and Confused” in 1967 before Jimmy Page and The Yardbirds got a hold of it and Page and Led Zeppelin recorded it in 1968 for their self-titled debut album in 1969, alleges that he hasn’t received proper credit or royalties for early versions of the songs performed by The Yardbirds, including a recording featured in the new Zeppelin documentary, Becoming Led Zeppelin.
Holmes sent a cease and desist to Page and the other defendants last month, but it went unanswered so he filed a suit in California federal court.
If this sounds familiar, it is.
Holmes first filed suit against Page in 2010.
That lawsuit was settled out of court with the songwriting credit indicating the song was “inspired by Jake Holmes.”
BUT in the recent doc. Becoming Led Zeppelin, the Led Zeppelin-version of the song is properly credited as “Written by Jimmy Page, inspired by Jake Holmes,” but the version by The Yardbirds is credited only as “Written by Jimmy Page.”
According to the lawsuit,
“The Yardbirds performance of ‘Dazed and Confused’ in the film is a performance of the Holmes composition. 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.”
Page has employed the “Communication Breakdown” tactic and has not yet commented on this latest legal headache.
