A: Jake Holmes Q: Who Wrote and Sang the Original 'Dazed and Confused?'
Those of you who are big Led Zeppelin fans probably already know that Led Zep didn't actually write 'Dazed & Confused.' But, I didn't know. At least until I read Leo Blokhuis' amazing music book, 'Het Plaatejesboek.' (http://www.leoblokhuis.nl/result_titel.asp?Id=17) Well, to be honest, to say that I have read it would be an exaggeration since it is all in Dutch and I don't read Dutch very fluently. But, Dutch-English Dictionary nearby I struggled through parts and it was well worth the effort. Please, Leo, please, translate it! If I had the time I would try my hand, but it really needs a fluent speaker of both tongues with time to do the job justice.
I think there would be a market for it. Beautifully designed by Blokhuis himself, who, before becoming the 'Don' of Dutch music experts, was a graphic designer the book traces the stories of a series of artists and songs. Blokhuis is especially interested in 'covers,' tracing back to the originals which brings us back to Mr. Holmes.
The original 'Dazed & Confused' was written by a folk singer, Jake Holmes. http://www.furious.com/perfect/jakeholmes.html
Holmes is one of those underrated artists that are somehow more interesting than most famous artists; he is in fact, number one on Blokhuis' list of the ten most under-rated artists followed by Little Willie John, Joe Henry, Larry Jon Wilson, Karla Bonoff, Paul pena, Willie Hightower, Willis Alan Ramsey, Alison Moorer, and Eddie Hinton.
So, if you can find a copy of Holmes' 1967 debut, you can hear his version of the tune Led Zeppelin made so famous and so different that they also have a copyright on the same song. Or maybe not so different! there are some who say they ripped Mr. holmes off - he is not credited with writing the song on the Zeppelin album....or look for it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTsvs-pAGDc
There is also a track on the CD included with the Blokhuis book!
How many other songs are copywritten by two separate artists, the original writer and an 'interpreter?' I can't think of any others.
I recently came across a copy of Holmes' most commercially successful album in the racks at Jerry's. The 1970 album, entitled 'so close so very far to go,' includes the near-hit, 'so close' that rose to number 49 that year on the Billboard chart. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nP-P8OaqKdQ
The album itself only reached 135.
Later, as his solo career waned, Holmes became a successful 'jingle writer' and became known as 'Jingle Jake.' I promise you, you've heard 'Jingle Jake's' work on countless commercials and never even knew who wrote them. But, I'll bet you haven't heard his best work, written when he was 'Dazed & Confused.'
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