Monday, March 17, 2014

In Retrospect, I'm Surprised Jimmy Page Didn't Plaigarize It First!

So if you missed last Friday's successfully recycled Weekend Listomania -- Theme: Cover Versions That Should Be But So Far Aren't -- you also missed my suggestion that Led Zeppelin blowtorch their way through The Dave Clark 5's 1964 Brit Invasion smash "Bits and Pieces."

And you also missed the following comment by reader Anonymous:

[Robert] Plant (Led Zep by extension) DID cover "Bits & Pieces" with Plant's version of Kenny Dino's 1961 single "Your Ma Said You Cried in Your Sleep Last Night," which the DC5 essentially rewrote as 'Bits and Pieces'."


He did it on 1990's "Manic Nirvana" album.

Well, knock me over with a feather...



...but sure enough it's true -- the 5 DID pretty much rip off the earlier tune. Granted, they added their own bridge section, but still; the provenance is pretty blatant.

As for Plant's version...



...it takes a little while to get going, but in the final analysis it does indeed have that real gone spirit.

Heh. The things you can learn on the intertubes.

7 comments:

steve simels said...

Note to self: Possibility that Dave Clark may not have been totally on the up and up less interesting to readers than hoped.
:-)

Shriner said...

The DC5 (for the most part) did not interest me. "Catch Us If You Can", and (maybe), "Any Way You Want It" were the only real songs that ever interested me...

MJConroy said...

Apparently, they took it from a cover of it, read this: http://books.google.com/books?id=S5UbIgKdAS4C&pg=PA93&lpg=PA93&dq=%22Your+Ma+Said+You+Cried+in+Your+Sleep+Last+Night,%22+%22bits+and+pieces%22&source=bl&ots=x68xf_kZpJ&sig=Cz0dXBlo7eG2NAQmiJ9dG4Cqrr8&hl=en&sa=X&ei=TFQnU4-qIuaNygHDzQE&ved=0CDkQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=%22Your%20Ma%20Said%20You%20Cried%20in%20Your%20Sleep%20Last%20Night%2C%22%20%22bits%20and%20pieces%22&f=false

buzzbabyjesus said...

I can't believe I'm saying this but Robert Plant's version is the best of this bunch.

Oxy said...

I liked the DC5 and still enjoy most of their songs. Musicians pinching stuff from other musicians? Who would have thought it. Thieving Magpies! Even more shocking, according to the book
thoughtfully provided by MJConroy, is that the DC5 appeared to be faking it on some of their live TV performances! Back then, especially on shows like Shindig, Ed Sullivan, American Bandstand, etc. I thought it was customary for every band to lip sync their hit," live" on stage. The first time I felt the music was truly live was when shows like Midnight Special and Don "I'm so hip" Kirshner's Rock Concert started to appear.

Anonymous said...

The Beatles on Sullivan were live. So were the DC5.

Allan R.

PS: Steve - we have jobs and can't comment until we get home and can sit down at our computers so don't get paranoid if you don't here from us right away.

Anonymous said...

as the poster of the original on Friday, I love your headline.

THE anonymous