Led Zeppelin are back in court, and this time, it’s not about stairways or heaven.
Jake Holmes, the original writer of “Dazed and Confused,” has filed a new lawsuit against Jimmy Page, Sony Pictures, and Warner Chappell Music, claiming they used his song without proper credit or permission in the documentary Becoming Led Zeppelin.
Holmes is also suing Paradise Pictures, the company owned by “Becoming Led Zeppelin” director Bernard MacMahon and producer Allison McGourty, as well as the film’s US distributor Sony Pictures Classics, the film’s sales company Altitude Films and producer Big Beach.
A lawyer representing Holmes filed the lawsuit on May 5th in California. The complaint accuses Page and others of failing to comply with a 2011 settlement, reached following an earlier lawsuit Holmes filed in 2010.
After Holmes released the original version of “Dazed and Confused” in 1967, he opened for The Yardbirds in New York on August 25, 1967. The band then began performing their own version of Holmes’ song.
A 1968 live performance of “Dazed and Confused” featuring Page was released on the 1971 live album Live Yardbirds: Featuring Jimmy Page. In 2017, Page released that recording again as part of Yardbirds ’68.
According to Holmes’ complaint, the version of “Dazed and Confused” performed live by The Yardbirds was a cover of his original song. Holmes’ lawsuit claims, “Every performance of ‘Dazed and Confused’ by the Yardbirds is a performance of the Holmes Composition.”
Led Zeppelin’s 1969 debut album includes the band’s own version of “Dazed and Confused” that was originally solely credited to Page. Holmes sued over this in 2010, accusing Page of copyright infringement.
According to Holmes’ lawsuit, his 2011 settlement included an agreement that “Holmes created and had and has complete ownership of the Holmes Composition and the unrestricted right in perpetuity, throughout the World, to use, license, and exploit the Holmes Composition in any manner he sees fit.”
Holmes accuses Page and others of breaking this 2011 agreement by releasing more live Yardbirds recordings of “Dazed and Confused” on albums such as Page’s 2017 release Yardbirds ’68 that was sold through his website.
In his complaint, Holmes accuses the record labels of “falsely claiming” that Page wrote the original version of the song, not Holmes.
Holmes also takes issue with the use of “Dazed and Confused” in “Becoming Led Zeppelin”. The film contains two uses of the song: One where The Yardbirds perform it and another where Led Zeppelin perform it. Holmes said he never gave permission for his original version of the song to be used in the film.
According to the complaint, the credits fail to acknowledge Holmes for writing the Yardbirds version of the song. Instead, Holmes alleges, the film’s credits state the song was “written by Jimmy Page. Published by WC Music Corp. on behalf of Succubus Music Ltd.”
