Did Led Zeppelin's "The Lemon Song" Rip Off Howlin' Wolf's "The Killing Floor"?

Led Zeppelin - The Lemon Song

Howlin' Wolf - Killing Floor

In 1964, artist Howlin’ Wolf wrote the song Killing Floor. A few years later in 1969, Led Zeppelin wrote The Lemon Song. Due to many similarities in the two songs, ARC music sued Zeppelin for plagiarizing lyrics from Killing Floor. In this blog post, we will be determining if Led Zeppelin really copied Howlin’ Wolf or if his song was his own idea.

When I first listened to The Lemon Song and Killing Floor, I instantly noticed that some of the verses were nearly identical to each other. For instance, in the first verse of The Lemon Song the lyrics are, “I should have quit you, long time ago I should have quit you, long time ago I wouldn’t be here, my children Down on this killin’ floor.” which compared to Killing Floor, is very similar as the lyrics are, "I should have quit you, long time ago I should have quit you, long time ago I wouldn’t be here, my children Down on this killin’ floor". This means that Zeppelin clearly copied lyrics from Wolf and only slightly changed them. Not only that, but if you listen to both of the songs, the way they sing some of the verses is so alike that it seems suspicious.

On the other hand, people can make the argument that the song is original and that it isn't a rip off of Killing Floor. The beat is extremely different and the lyrics may have only been inspired by Killing Floor. Also, the genre's for both songs are different as The Lemon Song is a rock song and Killing Floor is a blues song making it somewhat original.

In my opinion, I think that Zeppelin's song is a rip off of Wolf's song because there are way too many similarities between the two, and even if the lyrics are only inspired, Wolf still deserves to be credited as it was his ideas. As I mentioned in the beginning, ARC music sued Zeppelin for plagiarizing and I think that it was well deserved because Wolf received no credit whatsoever for the lyrics that were copied. In addition, I think artist's writing songs should always check to see if they are plagiarizing from someone else to make sure that the lyrics or beat are original and not copied. If they are planning to use another artist's song for a cover, they also must provide credit to the original artist to avoid getting into legal problems. This not only applies to music but movies, TV shows, and creativity in general.

Citations:
Smith, Benjamin. “The Case Against Led Zeppelin: Is Hard Rock's Greatest Band Guilty Of Musical Plagiarism?” VH1 News, VH1 News, 21 Oct. 2014, www.vh1.com/news/53929/the-case-against-led-zeppelin/.