This isn’t the first time that Led Zeppelin has been accused of ripping off another band’s music… Have you ever heard “Taurus” by Spirit? It sounds eerily familiar to “Stairway to Heaven.” Check it out, it really kicks in around 47 seconds in.

Well now there’s a new lawsuit that alleges that the song “Dazed and Confused” was also a rip-off, this time off of folk singer Jake Holmes’s song also named “Dazed and Confused.” TMZ has some audio links to compare the songs.  In my opinion this is less damning than the Stairway/Taurus similarities, and why Holmes waited 41 years to sue is quite beyond me, especially since he only stands to get 3 years of royalties of the judge finds in his favor.

Still, I can’t help feeling unsettled by this news, because I really do love Led Zeppelin.  Stairway to Heaven may have “borrowed” its opening riff, but the song is so much more than that.  Dazed and Confused is also fairly different from the song it allegedly stole from.  Not to mention all of the other gems on the band’s collected works – they really made some amazing music while they were together.  (Not to mention since – if you haven’t listened to Robert Plant and Alison Krauss’s album ‘Raising Sand,’ you’re really missing out, although that may not be the best example to use here since it is an album chock full of cover songs.)  Of course their talent doesn’t serve as an excuse for stealing the work of others, but I guess in my mind, it’s better for a band to improve upon another artist’s work, as opposed to the rampant sampling that goes on nowadays, when classic songs are completely butchered to make a vastly inferior pop tune.

I’ve said my piece, I’m coming down from my soap box now.  (For the moment…)