It’s no secret that folk singer Jack Holmes wrote Dazed and Confused 40 years ago. The song appears on his debut album.
The story goes like this: Jack Holmes’ band opened for the Yardbirds at a NYC gig in 1967. Jimmy Page, then with the Yardbirds, liked that song and decided to a version of it. Page made it his own and added his unique guitar riff to the track.
When Page joined Led Zeppelin a year later, Dazed and Confused came with him and ended up as a hit song on the band’s debut album.
Holmes is now 70 years old. Why he waited 40 years to file a lawsuit remains a mystery but it is now before the courts.
Due to the statute of limitations, if Holmes is successful, he will only be able to claim damages and royalties for the last three years.
There is still a lot of money at stake. Led Zeppelin released two compilation albums in the last three years, Mothership (2007) and Definitive Collection (2008). Holmes could be looking at a claim of around $1 million.
In the lawsuit, Holmes mentions a 1967 copyright for the song that was renewed in 1995.