Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page and the former folkie composer of “Dazed and Confused” have settled a lawsuit in Los Angeles alleging the rock guitarist disregarded an earlier agreement over composer credits to the song, which was covered by both the Yardbirds and Led Zep, according to court papers filed Friday.
The suit, brought in Los Angeles federal court in May, accused Page, Sony Pictures and a music publisher of ignoring a 2011 settlement agreement by issuing early live recordings of the song and featuring it in the recent documentary “Becoming Led Zeppelin” without permission, payment or proper credits.
Originally a folk tune by New York-based singer-songwriter and jingle composer Jake Holmes, “Dazed and Confused” became a Led Zeppelin staple when revamped by Page as an extended blues-rock workout.
The lawsuit — which sought $150,000 per alleged infringement in connection with the song’s performance by the Yardbirds in the documentary and on about a half-dozen Yardbirds live recordings — has been fully resolved, according to a settlement notice filed Friday.
“The parties are in the process of finalizing a written settlement agreement and anticipate filing a stipulated dismissal of the action with prejudice within 30 days,” Holmes’ attorney, Daniel A. Johnson, wrote.
No details of the settlement were immediately available.
Johnson declined comment and a representative for Page could not be reached.
According to the lawsuit, the documentary incorporates at least two performances of “Dazed and Confused” — one by the Yardbirds and one by Led Zeppelin. Holmes says the film states that the Yardbirds’ version of the song was written by Page alone, while the Zeppelin version in the documentary is credited to Page and “inspired by” Holmes.
Holmes — a onetime folkie who also composed the music for the 1980s U.S. Army recruitment jingle “Be All That You Can Be” — wrote and recorded “Dazed and Confused” in 1967, the suit says.
The British band the Yardbirds, which included Page from 1966 to 1968, performed the number on stage starting in 1968. Page then left the Yardbirds to form Led Zeppelin, in which he reinterpreted Holmes’ tune for the band’s self-titled debut in 1969.
Holmes sued Page for copyright infringement in Los Angeles in 2010 over versions of the song credited to Page alone. The dispute was settled outside court the following year, the lawsuit states. No details of that settlement were released.
“Starting in or around 1968, the Yardbirds began to publicly perform the Holmes composition,” according to the complaint. “Every performance of `Dazed and Confused’ by the Yardbirds is a performance of the Holmes composition.”
Along with Page, Sony Pictures and music publisher Warner Chappell, the suit’s plaintiffs include Page’s publishing company Succubus Music.
In 2016, Page and Led Zep singer Robert Plant were sued in L.A. federal court for alleged copyright infringement over the intro to Zeppelin’s signature song “Stairway to Heaven.” The pair had been accused of lifting the opening riff from a song by the long-defunct Los Angeles band Spirit, with whom Zeppelin toured in 1968.
After testimony in downtown Los Angeles from the surviving members of Led Zeppelin — Page, Plant and bassist John Paul Jones — the jury returned a verdict in favor of the defendants, finding that the Spirit riff was not essentially similar to the opening chords of “Stairway.” A March 2020 decision by a federal appeals court allowed the jury decision to stand.