Where there are famous bands, there will also be controversy. For Led Zeppelin, that controversy manifested in two ways: being potential satanists and stealing music from other artists. In music, only one of those things is truly considered a sin.
Rock music has always been somewhat associated with the devil. Before it was the biggest genre in the world, it was very much a part of counterculture, with an aggressive tone that resulted in over-the-top reactions from fans. Many saw the way people acted as ungodly, and accused those who elicited such responses as satanic.
Subsequently, when Led Zeppelin initially started making music and quite easily cemented themselves as one of the biggest rock bands in the world, it wasn’t long before people started pointing fingers and saying that the band were the spawn of Satan. I mean, how else could you explain their otherworldly talent?
Rumours circulated that the band had agreed to sell their souls to the devil in exchange for some great musical talent. People also speculated that the band would drink blood on their tour bus and engage in religious practices on behalf of the devil. Naturally, this was all the stuff of fiction, and in the eyes of rock lovers, the mystery only added to the appeal of Zeppelin. That being said, just because people were fine with the idea of the band being satanists didn’t mean that they weren’t at the heart of controversy for other things.
Let’s be honest, Led Zep often faced accusations of lifting material from other musicians. Their trademark sound thrived on blurring the edges between blues, folk, and hard rock, which fucking delighted most listeners but rubbed some purists the wrong way. For those working inside those traditions, the band’s mash-ups felt less like innovation and more like outright thievery.
Jimi Hendrix was one of the artists who turned his nose up at Led Zeppelin slightly. “I don’t think much of Led Zeppelin,” he said, “I mean, I don’t think much about them.”
While public criticism by Hendrix of the band is difficult to come by, those who were close to the guitarist recall plenty of times that he made his thoughts on Zeppelin known. For instance, Carmine Appice, drummer for the famous covers band Vanilla Fudge, recalled multiple instances when Hendrix had vocalised his disdain towards Led Zeppelin.
“Jimi Hendrix personally told me that he didn’t like Zeppelin because they were like excess baggage and they stole from everybody,” recalled Appice. The drummer went on to list the bands that people thought Led Zeppelin stole from: “’You Shook Me’ was on Jeff Beck’s record. ‘Dazed and Confused’ has a bit of Vanilla Fudge on it, and it has parts of ‘Beck’s Bolero’ in it. I think I was told by a member of the band that the ‘Good Times Bad Times’ riff came from Tim Bogart’s bass line.”
While Led Zeppelin are a band very much celebrated, there continue to be listeners who question their validity as rock legends because of the question marks that linger over their integrity. Zeppelin have given songwriting credits to a number of different tracks, but there are other songs people believe are a bit too much inspired by different artists. This is a point of contention which will ring on amongst music lovers.