Jimmy Page is facing fresh legal heat from singer-songwriter Jake Holmes, who’s once again challenging the Led Zeppelin guitarist over songwriting credit for “Dazed and Confused”.
According to Rolling Stone, Holmes has filed a new copyright infringement lawsuit, claiming he’s owed credit and royalties for early versions of the track performed by the Yardbirds. One such version appears in the recent Becoming Led Zeppelin documentary. Holmes says he issued a cease and desist last month, but with no response from Page or the other parties, he’s now escalating the matter legally.
Holmes wrote and recorded the original “Dazed and Confused” in 1967, and Page allegedly first heard it that year when Holmes opened for the Yardbirds in New York’s Greenwich Village. The Yardbirds soon adopted their own version into live sets, though they never recorded a formal studio take. Several live recordings, however, were made between 1967 and 1968 — versions Holmes says are clearly derived from his original.
Page famously took the song with him into Led Zeppelin, adding new lyrics but retaining the core riff. Holmes kept quiet for decades — reportedly telling Rolling Stone at one point, “What the hell, let him have it” — but filed his first lawsuit in 2010. That case was settled out of court, and Zeppelin’s version was eventually credited as “inspired by Jake Holmes.”
But Holmes now argues that Yardbirds performances continue to be misattributed to Page, including in archival releases and in Becoming Led Zeppelin, where the Yardbirds’ take is credited only to Page.
“The Yardbirds performance of ‘Dazed and Confused’ in the film is a performance of the Holmes Composition,” reads the lawsuit, adding: “Defendants have thus committed multiple acts of willful infringement by continuing to use the Holmes Composition without authorization and in the face of both specific knowledge of Plaintiff’s rights and Plaintiff’s cease and desist demand.”
Holmes claims this ongoing misattribution constitutes willful infringement — and he’s once again asking the courts to step in.
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