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JAKE HOLMES: The Above Ground Sound  (Tower US 1967)

Rating: 7 out of 10

Sounds best on: 50s-style roach

Info at: http://www.furious.com/perfect/jakeholmes.html

Availability: No reissues yet

    Since both Vernon Joynson and Ron Moore omitted Jake Holmes in their tomes, I'll try to set the record straight. Originally one of a zillion talented young Village troubadors caught in the shadow of the three Tims, J H got his break in 1967 in the unlikely form of LA-based teen-beat peddlers Tower. Stranger still they gave him free reins, limiting their commercializing to the very clever "underground" inversion of the title. The whole thing was packed in a nice period-style sleeve and shipped to unsuspecting consumers.

    Holmes was no wimpy Simon & Garfunkel bi-product however, something this undeservedly obscure debut proves. Now, before getting into the full trip, here's the question you've all been asking: Yes, "Dazed & Confused" is on board, and yes, it sounds almost exactly like the Led Zep version; only Jimmy Page's hard rock riff and a few Keith Relf lyric alterations set them apart. Page has claimed in recent interviews that he hasn't heard the original and only knows it from Relf, but ex-Yardbird Jim McCarty says otherwise: "We played with Jake Holmes in New York and I was struck by the atmosphere of 'Dazed and Confused'. I went down to Greenwich Village and bought his album and we decided to do a version. We worked it out together with Jimmy contributing the guitar riffs in the middle." (read more at http://www.furious.com/perfect/jimmypage.html) What Jimbo M doesn't tell you is that Holmes' original is much better than Zep's "classic", with a doomy intense atmosphere fueled by his world-weary, un-Plantesque vocals, and a killer acid fuzz break. It is the centerpiece of the LP, but around it revolves several more reasons why Page chose to mortgage his Crowley castle to settle out of court.

    The opening track "Lonely" kicks in with breakneck guitar strumming while Jake raps on most poignantly in NYC street fashion, after which guitars of all shapes and colors enter the soundscape. Introspective folky soul searchers & everyday light-jazz observations follow suit, all nicely highbrow and confident, a few strands of coffee house masturbation redeemed by Jakeys unusually atmospheric voice, which sounds not unlike DEEP-era Rusty Evans. The 45 pick "Genuine Imitation Life" is especially good, a fact that didn't escape the eagle eye of Frankie Valli who based a bizarre Four Seasons 1968 Sgt Pepperish LP extravaganza around it. The two garage acid excursions are the best, however. All over a really good LP, had it been on Elektra Holmes would've been running neck to neck with Tim Buckley.

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[Holmes is most famous for two '70's anthems. However, few people know he wrote either of them. One is the aforementioned song that Jimmy Page & Co. nicked, "Dazed And Confused." Holmes has never received a songwriting credit or royalties from the band ]

WS: Do you remember playing at The Village Theatre on August 25, 1967 with The Yardbirds and The Youngbloods?

JH: Yes. Yes. And that was the infamous moment of my life when "Dazed And Confused" fell into the loving arms and hands of Jimmy Page.

WS: What exactly is that song about? I've read that it's about a bad acid trip, but the lyrics really don't seem to justify that interpretation.

JH: No, I never took acid. I smoked grass and tripped on it, but I never took acid. I was afraid to take it. The song's about a girl who hasn't decided whether she wants to stay with me or not. It's pretty much one of those love songs. I guess because of the fact that we had this open section, this instrumental break where we were getting into this psychedelic music . . . we weren't really doing it for the actual psychedelic aspects. We were doing it because it was cool to extend songs out and do these long musical ideas, kind of exploding your music out. Letting people riff more.
.............
WS: Back to playing live. On "Dazed And Confused" I've read that you would have these dramatic silences, these caesuras.

JH: Yeah, we did do that. We would kind of go down and up and down. We played so much together, especially at The Bitter End, that we would get to our last set and there would still be the same people from our first set. And I've have no more tunes to play. So, I could just get up on stage and Ted and Rick were so great they could just pick it up as I made it up right there and then. Or I'd extend a song out because we had nothing else. We did stuff that would interest us. It wasn't just riffing.
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WS: Anyway, do you remember that particular show with The Yardbirds?

JH: Great show. They were really great.

WS: Did you interact with them at all before or after the show?

JH: The thing I remember most about interacting with any band was with The Doors. I found them the most hostile, angry, pains-in-the-asses-in-the-world. I spent a whole afternoon in a trailer with them for a TV show and that was a disaster.

But as for The Yardbirds, we were also playing with The Youngbloods. I knew them much better, especially Jesse (Colin Young) from the Go Go. I loved them. Especially Jesse's voice.

WS: Did you know that The Yardbirds had incorporated "Dazed And Confused" into their repertoire when they returned to New York City the next spring?

JH: (laughs) I had no idea. I had no idea.

WS: When did you find out that Zeppelin did it?

JH: When the album came out! And then, stupidly, I never followed up on it. In the early 1980's, I did write them a letter and I said basically "I understand it's a collaborative effort, but I think you should give me some credit at least and some remunity." But they never contacted me.

WS: Well, The Yardbirds just came out with a CD of archival material (ed. note: Cumular Limit) and they included a version of your song that they did on French t.v. in 1968. And it's credited properly! It reads "Jake Holmes; arranged by The Yardbirds."

JH: (laughs) God! Really! Get out of town!

WS: I just interviewed two of The Yardbirds for another piece and they don't split hairs at all. They say the song is definitely yours.

JH: (laughs in disbelief)

WS: Do you want to hear one more thing?

JH: (laughs) I'm starting to get weird here. But yes!

WS: The Yardbirds are back together and they play your song!

JH: (laughs hysterically) Well, that's nice to hear.

WS: Further, there's a compilation out right now that has "Leaves Never Break" on it. It's called Growing Slowly Insane. Actually, WFMU in New Jersey plays that song and "Dazed And Confused" quite a bit.

JH: Please e-mail me this information.

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Jake Holmes - "Dazed And Confused"
From 1967's "The Above Ground Sound"

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"Dazed and Confused" was one of Led Zeppelin's signature numbers, but this song was originally written by Jake Holmes and included on his 1967 album The Above Ground Sound of Jake Holmes. A 1990 interview with Jimmy Page in Musician is revealing.

MUSICIAN: I understand "Dazed and Confused" was originally a song by Jake Holmes. Is that true?
PAGE: [Sourly] I don't know. I don't know. [Inhaling] I don't know about all that.
MUSICIAN: Do you remember the process of writing that song?
PAGE: Well, I did that with the Yardbirds originally.... The Yardbirds were such a good band for a guitarist to play in that I came up with a lot of riffs and ideas out of that, and I employed quite a lot of those in the early Zeppelin stuff.
MUSICIAN: But Jake Holmes, a successful jingle writer in New York, claims on his 1967 record that he wrote the original song.
PAGE: Hmm. Well, I don't know. I don't know about that. I'd rather not get into it because I don't know all the circumstances. What's he got, The riff or whatever? Because Robert wrote some of the lyrics for that on the album. But he was only listening to...we extended it from the one that we were playing with the Yardbirds.
MUSICIAN: Did you bring it into the Yardbirds?
PAGE: No, I think we played it 'round a sort of melody line or something that Keith [Relf] had. So I don't know. I haven't heard Jake Holmes so I don't know what it's all about anyway. Usually my riffs are pretty damn original [laughs] What can I say?

The interviewer let the matter go at this point, but the article adds the following footnote: "The acoustic "Dazed and Confused" on The Above Ground Sound of Jake Holmes (Tower Records ST 5079, June 1967) is very, very close to Led Zeppelin's 1969 version, musically and lyrically."[1] Sources have suggested that Jimmy Page was well aware of Jake Holmes and his song "Dazed and Confused." Stephen Davis writes that the Yardbirds heard Jake Holmes at Caf? a Go Go during a stint in New York in 1967. They were impressed with his performance of "Dazed and Confused," which they felt was "a brilliant number?dramatic, frightening, and very stealable."[2] According to Greg Russo, on August 25, 1967, Holmes opened for the Yardbirds at the Village Theater in Greenwich Village. Jim McCarty and Jimmy Page were so impressed with Holmes's performance that each of them went out and bought a copy of The Above Ground Sound of Jake Holmes.[3] Greg Russo is perhaps the more credible source, as he is the author of Yardbirds: The Ultimate Rave-Up. He also wrote the liner notes for the 2003 EMI reissue of Little Games, the last studio album released by the Yardbirds. This reissue adds a number of tracks, including a live performance of "Dazed and Confused." With some changes from Holmes's original version, including somewhat altered lyrics and additional instrumental flourishes, "Dazed and Confused" became part of the Yardbirds live repertoire.

It's clear that Page had heard Jake Holmes's version of "Dazed and Confused" before the Yardbards performed the song, let alone before Led Zeppelin recorded it for their first album. Jake Holmes has never received any acknowledgement or compensation for "Dazed and Confused." In an interview with Will Shade, Jake Holmes revealed that he did approach Led Zeppelin several years after the release of Led Zeppelin I about the authorship of "Dazed and Confused". No one from Led Zeppelin replied to Holmes' queries and he didn't pursue the matter.[4]

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