This here is the Jake Holmes thread

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yeah, he wrote zep's "Dazed & Confused". he also co-wrote the Four Seasons "Genuine Imitation Life Gazette" (which i wish i could find). also co-wrote Frank Sinatra's "Watertown" (another one i'd like to find).

recently picked up "So Close, So Very Far Away" which get's 1.5 stars on AMG. it's not AMAZING, but it's not that bad.

just downloaded "The Above Ground Sounds of Jake Holmes" which is really good.

discuss

― Jah Pastafari (jaxon), Wednesday, 14 September 2005 20:05 (twenty years ago)

Big fan of "So Close," a great tune that I've long thought Robbie Williams should cover. Even got a video in my head: he's alone on a hilltop doing that Scott Stapp Christ-pose thing at strategic moments.

So is that more or less what the rest of his material sounds like? I assume he never recorded D&C for himself.

― Joe McCombs, Wednesday, 14 September 2005 20:25 (twenty years ago)

he recorded an acoustic version of Dazed & Confused in 67 on his "Above Ground Sounds of.." It's an amazing version. really spooky and the timing is really weird. Zep's was from 69

― Jah Pastafari (jaxon), Wednesday, 14 September 2005 20:57 (twenty years ago)

the track "So Close" is the opener on the "So Close, So Very Far Away" album (i think). i'll listen to it again when i get home tonight. but i bet you'll like the earlier two albums much better. they're dark and twisted and he plays a really freaky, almost experimental acoustic guitar. strums really fast and tweaky.

― Jah Pastafari (jaxon), Wednesday, 14 September 2005 20:59 (twenty years ago)

His version of Dazed and Confused is much better than Zep's. I didn't realize that he was involved in Genuine Imitation Life Gazette. I just bought that album recently but somehow I lost it so I haven't had a chance to listen to it yet. I have his "How Much Time" album from the early 70s which isn't so great from what I remember.

― walter kranz (walterkranz), Wednesday, 14 September 2005 21:50 (twenty years ago)

the 70's stuff is extremely underwhelming. the first two are all you really need.

― scott seward (scott seward), Wednesday, 14 September 2005 21:52 (twenty years ago)

recently picked up "So Close, So Very Far Away" which get's 1.5 stars on AMG. it's not AMAZING, but it's not that bad.

i'd actually agree with AMG on this one. but above ground sound really sets the bar high. i still need the second one, the song "leaves never break" is great.

― el sabor de gene (yournullfame), Wednesday, 14 September 2005 22:48 (twenty years ago)

does the rating system on amg base it on the artists other work? like if some completely other person did that, would it be a 1.5 star album? probably not. granted, i just got it the other day and have only listened to the first side while doing stuff, but it wasn't horrible.

― Jaxon (jaxon), Wednesday, 14 September 2005 23:00 (twenty years ago)

finally found the Four Seasons "Genuine Imitation Life Gazette" and it's very wonderful

― Jaxon (jaxon), Monday, 19 September 2005 18:30 (twenty years ago)

the 8 page newspaper album cover w/comics insert is amazing.

― Jaxon (jaxon), Monday, 19 September 2005 18:30 (twenty years ago)

How come none of y'all have mentioned his jingles yet?

His version of Dazed and Confused is much better than Zep's.
walter, have you heard the Yardbirds do this?

― k/l (Ken L), Monday, 19 September 2005 18:48 (twenty years ago)

BE! ALL THAT YOU CAN BE!

― el sabor de gene (yournullfame), Monday, 19 September 2005 23:05 (twenty years ago)

walter, have you heard the Yardbirds do this?

Yeah, I've heard a live version and as much as I love the Yardbirds I still think the original is the best. I think it sounds much darker when it's done in a sparse, acoustic version.

― walter kranz (walterkranz), Monday, 19 September 2005 23:09 (twenty years ago)

I blogged this back in June. The mp3s are all down, but some helpful info and photos remain.

http://mysticalbeast.blogspot.com/2005/06/jake-holmes-week-funny-thing-is-that.html

and

http://mysticalbeast.blogspot.com/2005/07/jake-holmes-week-concludes-watertown.html

― dlp9001, Tuesday, 20 September 2005 00:29 (twenty years ago)

you're actually who i first heard about him from. i dig yr site. thanks.

― Jaxon (jaxon), Tuesday, 20 September 2005 00:53 (twenty years ago)

one year passes...

finally found a copy of watertown and it kinda blew my mind. closest thing to scott walker sinatra's done. super dark. great arrangements. i actually listened to the lyrics on this thing (not my kinda thing to do) and it's really fucking sad.

― jaxon, Thursday, 30 August 2007 00:27 (eighteen years ago)

Didn't he also write "I'm a Pepper, you're a Pepper"?

― James Redd and the Blecchs, Thursday, 30 August 2007 01:55 (eighteen years ago)

GILLETTE!! THE BEST!! A MAN!! CAN GET!!

― Mr. Snrub, Thursday, 30 August 2007 02:34 (eighteen years ago)

Watertown is a great album, but Frank's voice sounds a little over oaked to me , it's jarring

― Stormy Davis, Thursday, 30 August 2007 02:54 (eighteen years ago)

one year passes...

This guy's life history would make a good This American Life story.

― litcofsky, Friday, 15 May 2009 00:02 (sixteen years ago)

A Letter To Katherine December is a tremendous album. Worth the effort to track down...

― Carroll Shelby Downard (Elvis Telecom), Friday, 15 May 2009 00:22 (sixteen years ago)

It's on emusic, fwiw. Also a few other (legal) mp3 sites.

― dlp9001, Friday, 15 May 2009 00:48 (sixteen years ago)

^awesome, now i know how to spend the rest of this month's downloads

― jump in the looool (electricsound), Friday, 15 May 2009 00:58 (sixteen years ago)

His version of Dazed & Confused is HEAVY.

― Marco Damiani, Friday, 15 May 2009 08:37 (sixteen years ago)

eleven months pass...

'wish i was anywhere else' slays me

― hell and the handbaskets (electricsound), Friday, 7 May 2010 09:41 (fifteen years ago)

one year passes...

I was just playing his Dazed & Confused for a friend the other day, and then noticed that he finally did sue Led Zep back in 2010. I wonder whatever happened...

http://www.classicrockmagazine.com/news/jimmy-page-sued-over-dazed-and-confused/

― dlp9001, Sunday, 4 March 2012 15:33 (thirteen years ago)

It's still moving through the courts.

I've been watching this closely. It may be the most bulletproof plagiarism case ever. If there's any doubt that Zep's version is a direct steal from Holmes, the pre-Zeppelin live versions that Jimmy Page performed with the Yardbirds in 1968 with Jake's lyrics still intact dispell that notion. (they heard Jake's original version when he opened a show for the Yardbirds at the Fillmore East in 1967). The Yardbirds clip below is one of several on YouTube; their rendition of "Dazed..." released on the Yardbirds' Cumular Limit is credited entirely to Jake Holmes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYDhx_DgDxE

I had the pleasure of talking with Jake several years back. He didn't sue Led Zeppelin at the time because he didn't think it was a big deal. Zep was just another new band at the time that few had heard of with only one album out and no hit singles, and neither he nor anyone else knew they'd go on to become one of the most popular acts of all time, and that "Dazed" would become a heavy-metal touchstone, and the title of a classic movie named for it.

― everything else is secondary (Lee626), Monday, 5 March 2012 09:50 (thirteen years ago)

Oh, for comparison, the original version, which predates the above by a year. Hear any resemblance?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTsvs-pAGDc

― everything else is secondary (Lee626), Monday, 5 March 2012 14:31 (thirteen years ago)

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