Did the Zeppelin Plagiarize or honor the Belly?

[Ocklawaha]

I found this to be a real trip when checking out some old railroad songs, I knew of Linin' Track by Lead Belly.

Our story starts in ENGLAND with an old British folk song called "The Maid Freed From The Gallows"

John Jacob Niles - collected and sang: "The Maid Freed From The Gallows"

Born in Louisville, Kentucky, Niles learned music theory from his mother, and began writing down folk music as a teenager. He became a serious student of Appalachian folk music by transcribing traditional songs from oral sources while an itinerant employee of the Burroughs Corporation in eastern Kentucky, from 1910 to 1917. After serving in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War I, in which he was injured, he studied music in France, first in Lyon, then in Paris at the Schola Cantorum, also meeting Gertrude Stein. Returning to the United States in 1920, he continued his studies at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music. He sang opera in Chicago and folk songs on early radio. In 1925, he moved to New York City and held various jobs in the entertainment industry. In the 1930s, he toured Europe and the United States with contralto Marion Kerby. He performed at the White House in 1938, and on occasion at the Newport Folk Festival during the 1950s

Leadbelly â€" either learned it differently or rearranged it as: The Gallis Pole

Born the son of a Sharecropper on Jan. 23, 1889 (come debate about that date but LB himself recorded this date for the US Army and we have to take his word). Lead Belly was born to Wesley and Sallie Ledbetter as Huddie William Ledbetter in a plantation near Mooringsport, Louisiana, but the family moved to Leigh, Texas, when he was five. By 1903, Lead Belly was already a 'musicaner', a singer and guitarist of some note. By the 1910s, Huddie William Ledbetter - also known as "Lead Belly," a blues singer and guitarist who eventually achieved worldwide fame - was performing for Shreveport audiences in St. Paul's Bottoms, the notorious red light district of Shreveport which operated legally from 1903-1917. Ledbetter began to develop his own style of music after exposure to a variety of musical influences on Shreveport's Fannin Street, a row of saloons, brothels, and dance halls in the Bottoms. Twice sent to prison, once in Texas for murder of a relative and again in Louisiana for attempted murder, pardoned both times due to his talents. He was finally discovered in 1935 and hustled off to New York City, but never grew wealthy. After his second imprisonment, Lead Belly returned to a surging New York folk scene in 1940, and befriended the likes of Woody Guthrie and a young Pete Seeger. During the first half of the decade he recorded for RCA, the Library of Congress, and for Moe Asch (future founder of Folkways Records), and in 1944 headed to California, where he recorded strong sessions for Capitol Records. In 1949 he began his first European tour, but fell ill before its completion, and was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig's disease. Lead Belly died later that year in New York City, and was buried in the Shiloh Baptist Church cemetery in Mooringsport, 8 miles west of Blanchard, Louisiana, in Caddo Parish.

The Kingston Trio
In 1957 The Kingston Trio emerged from San Francisco's North Beach club scene to take the country by storm, bringing the rich tradition of American folk music into the mainstream for the first time. During the late 50s & early 60s, the Trio enjoyed unprecedented record sales and worldwide fame, while influencing the musical tastes of a generation.

Through changing times, the Trio has played on, remaining popular for a simple reason... great songs that sound as good today as the first time you heard them. And fifty-four years after Tom Dooley shot to the top of the charts, the Trio is still on the road thirty weeks a year, bringing back all the great memories and making new ones.

THE SMOTHERS BROTHERS - Took an irreverent liberty with - HANGMAN

It was five decades ago that Tom and Dick Smothers first took stage together professionally. Comedy was about to change.

Many comedy duos, have had success but none as enduring as the Smothers Brothers whose lengthy career has surpassed all other comedy teams in history. Their cutting-edge humor has not only been ahead of its time but has remained timeless as well.

Tom and Dick’s first professional appearance as the Smothers Brothers was at the Purple Onion in San Francisco in February, 1959.  In the early 60’s they also recorded the first of twelve top-selling albums.

But it was February of 1967 that was a defining moment in their career. The #1 show on TV was the long-running series “Bonanza.” Many shows had fallen in its wake. CBS-TV decided to schedule “The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour” against the western never suspecting that it would soon unseat “Bonanza” from its lofty perch.

“The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour” had become as controversial and influential as it was popular, satirizing politics, racism and the unpopular Vietnam War among other topics. Despite the show’s success, in April of 1969, the Smothers Brothers were fired by the CBS Television Network. “Smothered,” a film by award-winning director, Maureen Muldaur, documents the Brother’s struggle against censorship and, as a lawsuit later determined, the wrongful firing by CBS.

Although Tom was integrally involved with the writing of “The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour,” when it came time to submit the names of the writers for Emmy consideration in 1968, he refused to include his name for fear that he had become too controversial and it would hurt the show’s chances of winning. The show did win the Emmy for Outstanding Writing Achievement in Comedy Variety that year. It took 40 years but in September, 2008, during the live television broadcast of the 60th Annual Emmy Awards, Steve Martin presented Tom with an Emmy acknowledging his contributions as a writer on “The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour” in 1968.

The connection to rock goes BACK across the pond to England where LED Zeppelin recorded a hit single called "Gallows Pole." The song "Gallows Pole" is an updated arrangement of a traditional folk song called "The Maid Freed from the Gallows". So you can follow the songs evolution from the 1800's until today. There are many other artists that have now jumped in with their own arrangements of either "Hangman," or "Gallows Pole," which as we have proved came from the same root. More interesting to me is how a group in England comes to take the name "Led" then features a song originally made famous by "Lead Belly."

ANYWAY, If you still with me, enjoy!

OCKLAWAHA

http://www.youtube.com/v/rkCNevvWjYQ?fs=1&hl=en_US

http://www.youtube.com/v/MmTNgJxlrCY?fs=1&hl=en_US

http://www.youtube.com/v/e-9h2NcLbgU?fs=1&hl=en_US

http://www.youtube.com/v/WeGzPohkyew?fs=1&hl=en_US

http://www.youtube.com/v/1I5WU8r9Uj8?fs=1&hl=en_US