Led Zeppelin's history, like much of the past, is now fodder for re-examination by those filled with unease because they love the music but are offended by the behavior of the time. The irony is that the music itself, the reason the band is even known certainly more so that any shenanigans they got into or boorish behavior they engaged in, is almost never discussed.
Stereo Williams, in his DailyBeast article, notes the stories that are part of Zeppelin's lore concerning bacchanalia, groupies, and their noted nicking of other people's music. None of this is new. Nor I suppose is the righteous indignation that is heaped upon those of us who were actually alive at that by those who were not.
Sorry, but if I'm supposed to feel bad, it's not working..
I won't argue that during the 60's and 70's a certain attitude prevailed within the rock 'n roll community concerning sex and drugs. Nor would I dismiss accusations that it was male dominated and that misogyny played a role in the attitudes that some had towards women. Should they have had sex with 14 year olds? No. And I won't dignify the argument that the boys in the band thought they looked older or that booze and drugs addled their judgement; they knew what they were doing. And believe it or not, so did most of the groupies. As the woman in the article admitted, she didn't think she was abused, though she thinks, in hindsight, that it probably wasn't a smart thing to do.
And it wasn't as if what was going on wasn't known about, it was. I know people now hate to hear this, but it was cool back then and a lot of people wanted in on it.
That doesn't make it right, of course, but it's always easy to judge at a distance...
As far as Page and Zeppelin using other people's music without accreditation, unless sued, I won't try to justify that either. Whether it was cultural appropriation depends on how you view legacies and the sharing of music, but to me, the problem, and I get it, is that a good number of people will think Zeppelin created their songs whole and won't have any inkling of the songs history or who originally performed them and more often than not, it was by black performers, who have largely gone unsung, though the British rock stars most noted for it, from Clapton to Richards and Page, have acknowledged their love of American blues, R&B, etc.
The difference, of course, is that Zeppelin and the others made a fortune with the music whereas the black performers did not. I'd be put out too. If someone makes a fortune off your song, then you should get a piece of the pie. Hence the need to sue. Page, for his part has been more than willing to obfuscate the obvious, almost to absurdity. It's ok to own up, dude.
My biggest problem with a lot of these "how shocking" pieces is that it's easy to bad-mouth people you don't know and times you didn't live through (though I think a great many, in their heart of hearts, would love to see what it was really like, though they'd be loathe to admit it). This assumes that these terrible things no longer take place, to which I would say BS. It's human nature. Given the opportunity, sad to say, people will drink and drug and f**k themselves to death. The opioid crisis is the latest iteration of our self-destructive tendencies. The other assumption is that because we're now aware or woke, we can easily condemn those who were not. The real work, however, is making the world better, in real tangible terms, not just an awareness that it should be. Talk and self-congratulation is just that.
Inevitably, this always circles back to the art; in the case of Zeppelin, to the music. The art endures, and that's the problem for some. It's also easy to bad-mouth the dead, because they can't call you on it from the grave. If you abhor their behavior in life, then don't follow their example. In 20 years, it's probable that there will be no living members of Zeppelin left. All that will survive is their music. At that point and beyond, it's whether it says something to you, and if you base your opinion on the artist's life and behavior, then you do, but most people won't take a lot of time exploring the past. If the art moves them, whatever the artists flaws, then the art endures. History is replete with artists, in all realms, music, literature, painting, whose behavior I wouldn't condone, but if the art endures, it is because it speaks to something that moves us, that moves beyond the actions of who created it.
©2019 David William Pearce
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