Dazed and Confused: The Evolution of a Classic

I'd always heard that Led Zeppelin's Dazed and Confused had been "inspired" by an obscure song written and recorded by Jake Holmes on this 1967 album The Above Ground Sound of Jake Holmes, released on Tower Records, a Columbia subsidiary.

Holmes shared a bill with Jimmy Page's Yardbirds at New York City's Village Theater in August, 1967 and that's when Holmes claims Page was first exposed to Dazed and Confused. Finally hearing the Holmes track confirms that the songs share similar melodies, descending bass lines and lyrics. Page took the sole composers credit when Zeppelin released Dazed and Confused on their first album. This was possibly due to the fact that the lyrics have been changed and the arrangement has been embellished and expanded.



A missing link between the Holmes version and Zeppelin's can be heard in this clip of the Yardbirds performing Dazed and Confused from French TV in March, 1968. Note that the lyrics adhere to Holmes version, while the musical elements of what would become Zeppelin's version are already apparent.

It's also interesting to hear the late Yardbirds lead singer Keith Relf s vocals on the song rather than Robert Plant's. Released decades later this version was credited to "Holmes: arr. Yardbirds."





Holmes has had a successful and varied career which has included writing songs for Sinatra's Watertown album (a neglected gem in the Chairman's catalog),and the Four Seasons Genuine Imitation Life Gazette. He's also written numerous ad jingles including "Be all that you can be" for the U.S. Army. Although he wrote a letter to Zeppelin's publisher regarding Dazed and Confused during the 1980s, he said he never received an response. He's never taken any further legal action in the matter.