Which would proclude him from receiving a writing credit from Atlantic for the length of the contract. Are you trying to claim it isn't germaine to the subject? Semantics it may be, but you said as A lyricist, not THE lyricist. If that's what you meant, why the hell did you get your knickers in a twist when I said it was highly dubious that it was his first lyrical contribution to the band? As far as stage ad libs not being writing Bong Man, would you say the same for the riffs Jimmy discovered ad libbing on stage? Whole Lotta Love was only one of those. There is more than one way to write, and on stage discoveries through improvisation definitely count.

Quote from Wikipedia Robert Plant Entry: Plant and Page immediately hit it off with a shared musical passion and after Plant joined the band, they began their writing collaboration with reworkings of earlier blues songs, although Plant would receive no songwriting credits on the band's first album, allegedly because he was still under contract to CBS Records at the time. Article sitations: ^ Led Zeppelin In Their Own Words compiled by Paul Kendall (1981), London: Omnibus Press. ISBN 0-86001-932-2, p. 14. ^ Dave Lewis and Simon Pallett (1997) Led Zeppelin: The Concert File, London: Omnibus Press. ISBN 0-7119-5307-4, p. 10. ^ Hammer Of the Gods, by Stephen Davis ISBN 1-57297-306-4 (p.48-49) ^ Gilmore, Mikal (August 10, 2006). "The Long Shadow of Led Zeppelin". Rolling Stone (1006). Retrieved on 2007-12-09.  ^ The History of Rock 'n' Roll: The '70s: Have a Nice Decade ^ http://www.superseventies.com/ssrobertplant.html ^ "Stairway to Heaven, Paved with Gold: Led Zeppelin’s Snowdonia." The Independent, 6th April, 1991. Also sited on the Led Zeppelin Infrequently Murmured Trivia List " Robert Plant did not receive any songwriting credits on 'Led Zeppelin' as he was still under contract to CBS at the time."

I'm not sure why I should, considering the disprespectful way you've treated me in this thread. But why not? You're on the losing end of this one. I'm well aware that a quote exists from Jimmy Page that 'Thank You' was the first song Robert wrote all the way through by himself. But that's not what you're trying to claim, you say that 'Thank You' was Robert's first attempt as a lyricist for Led Zeppelin, which would imply that Robert made no contribution to the lyrics of Led Zeppelin I. For what it's worth, the story about Robert being under contract to CBS is all over the web, including on Robert's Wikipedia entry. Substantiating it in a book will have to happen when I'm home from work. I don't know about the rest of you, but "It feels good to have you back again And I know that one day baby, it's really gonna grow, yes it is. We gonna go walkin' through the park every day." sure sounds pretty Robert to me.

Plant received no songwriting credits on Led Zeppelin I because of contractual obligations to CBS, but to claim that he had no involvement in the lyrics prior to 'Thank You' is highly dubious at best.

This: I'm sorry, I just don't agree. I was once a fan of the man, and now I'm not. Guitar playing should say something beyond 'look what I can do', and I don't really hear EVH doing that. And again, his "innovation" was an evolutionary dead end. No one taps anymore, no one uses the wang bar anymore. And can I just say . . . thank GOD. Give me Derek Trucks seven days a week and twice on Sundays.

That's all well and good, but we aren't talking about whether or not EVH was innovative, but if he was more innovative than Page. And I still say BULLSHIT to that idea. I was a Van Halen fan, my favorite album of theirs is Van Halen II. So I know the earlier years. But quoting "Secrets" at me doesn't change the fact that EVH works in an extremely limited palette, and Page works from one of the widest palettes of any rock musician EVER. God, we differ on that. If you said I could save either Jack White OR every hair metal guitarist on the planet from certain death . . . let's just say the bottom would fall out of the spandex and hairspray industries. Eddie's solos sound like Page's, but Jack's RIFFS sound like Page's- and in the end, that's better. How much or little of the credit for that do you give his guitar playing? What can I say. To me, Jimmy is Led Zeppelin, and EVH is Van Halen. (not that Plant and Roth aren't great, they are. But somebody's got to be the man, and in these cases IMHO the guitarist is the man.) Therefore, if you like LZ better than VH, you like Jimmy better than you like Eddie. Well, good. But if you think EVH is a better guitarist, all I can say is . . . ding dong, you're wrong!

My favorite show, 9/14/71, has some of the best Plantations: "You should have been here last night, last night there were several boller hatted beatniks." "Here's something that was got together . . . I was gonna say the Scottish Highlands . . . I was gonna say the Welsh mountains . . . but really it was somewhere like Gorham Hotel on West 57th St. So here's to the days when everything was really far out, all the time. And on that theme, it's not a very good cup of tea you get here, is it? And on that theme, this is called Going to California, which is somewhere near hear. With the flowers in me hair." I also like when he takes the piss out of Keith Relf before they play For Your Love at the Fillmore West, January 69: "We're going to carry on with something Keith Relf had todo with. Do you remember him? Works for Hammersmith Council now." I guess some of those negative reviews were getting to Robert.

Bullshit. Tapping and wang bars proved to be an evolutionary dead end in music, but the innovations of Page still make up the backbone of hard rock. So that refutes the innovation claim. EVH may have speed and cleanliness to his playing, but in terms of improvisational composition Page is better than EVH. Dexterity, you might have a point, but imagination around the guitar and the guitar solo itself? Bullshit. Once you've heard Eruption you've heard all of Eddie's tricks really. Compared to Page, EVH has a grey withered husk of an imagination. When Franz List and Chopin played together, List had more complex technique, but Chopin moved the audience to tears. Emotion and idiosyncracy count at least as much as speed, and they are why Page will ALWAYS trump EVH. Shred rock guitarists with no grounding in roots music went out with acid washed jeans; but Page never goes out. What's more, with a single well placed gig in London, Page's one concert reunion upstaged EVH's whole reunion tour. What does that tell you?

I saw "There Will Be Blood" last night. It was good! A bit longish, but Daniel Day Lewis deserves the Oscar he's going to win. "I DRINK YOUR MILKSHAKE! I DRINK IT UP!"

I thought so! Congratulations!

Otto, she looks familiar! Did you two meet on the board?

18-1!!!!!!!

And there's a little Skip James in Robert Johnson. Not even he was above a little "borrowing".

I'll always have a soft spot for the Warren/Dickey lineup, which was the version of the group I saw the first four times I went to their concerts. This vid is an example of just how well Dickey and Warren played off of each other in live performance: Southbound 1995

Kind of a silly poll. I mean, is anybody going to say Jason? Maybe by virtue of the fact that he is presently alive. But if we're inlcuding past recordings in this, it'll be a shut out.

If you want to know, follow the link in my sig.

Thanks, C 'n Q! (great handle, BTW. ) I do know that Willie Dixon successfully sued Arc Music. But I'm not sure how much sympathy he really deserves- in the Howling Wolf Bio Moaning At Midnight an eyewitness remembered Wolf performing Little Red Rooster in the 1930s. Fast forward thirty years and it's a Dixon song? Things that make you go hmmmmm. In any case, it's quite clear that "borrowing" is standard procedure in music in general and the Blues in particular. Anyone who says different has an axe to grind.

Another pic of Duane, this time playing his beautiful Tobacco Sunburst. This photo comes from New York's Central Park in 1971.

Here's a favorite pic of Brother Duane: