According to the guitarist, Richard Cole mistakenly attributed the idea for the song to Robert Plant
A lie reflected in a book by the club’s former tour manager Led Zeppelin he goes Jimmy Page irritated. The band recorded a version of “Babe I’m Gonna Leave You” for their 1969 debut album. The song is an original composition by Anna Bredon.
As published in the book From a Whisper to a Scream: The Complete Guide to the Music of Led Zeppelinfrom Dave Lewisthe idea of adapting the song was born Pagewhich would have affected her Roberto Pianta in their first meeting, way back in 1968.
“There’s a book written by our tour manager, Richard Colewhich made me completely angry. I was so irritated by this that I can’t even read the entire book. The two parts I read are so false that I’m sure if I read the rest I could sue Cole and the publishers,” the guitarist said in an interview with World of guitar in 1993 (via Igor Miranda’s website), quoting stairway to Heaven (1992).
One of the fake stories is about “Babe, I’m Gonna Leave You.” The book states that when Roberto he initially came to my house to discuss the band, of which I listened to a recording Joan Baez singing ‘Babe’ and I asked him, ‘Can you imagine us playing something like that?’. The book says that Robert took my guitar and started playing me the arrangement that ended up appearing on the album.
“First of all, I had already worked on the arrangement a long time before Roberto come to my house and secondly, Roberto I didn’t even play guitar at the time. Third, I didn’t ask him if he could imagine us playing this song, I told him I wanted to play it. And you can confirm it directly from the source,” he continued, in the translation of Igor Miranda’s website.
“That’s only in the two pages I read. You can imagine how sketchy the rest of the book must be. I’d like to know what his source of information was.”
Source: Terra
Earl Johnson is a music writer at Gossipify, known for his in-depth analysis and unique perspective on the industry. A graduate of USC with a degree in Music, he brings years of experience and passion to his writing. He covers the latest releases and trends, always on the lookout for the next big thing in music.
