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Original Yardbirds and later-to-be Led Zeppelin guitar legend Jimmy Page has been accused of plagiarizing the blues drenched 'Zep' staple Dazed and Confused from someone else's work. Jake Holmes has stepped forward claiming the song as his own and that it had been offered to The Yardbirds in 1967 while Page was still a member. They did not record it. However, the song was recorded by 'Zeppelin and released two years later on their self-titled 1969 debut album where it was credited as being composed by Page, but with a curiously sperate copyright. Mr. Holmes is suing for total statutory damages of $150,000 USD - a figure that, in light of the song's impressive sales on original albums, reissues and compilations alike, can doubtlessly stand a great deal higher today than if the claim had been hastily pursued four decades ago. (July 1, 2010)

Original Kinks bassist Pete Quaife has died of kidney failure at the age of 66. As a founding member of the infamous "British Invasion" band, Quaife had initially hooked up with brothers Ray Davies and Dave Davies. With Ray fronting and Dave on lead guitar, the rock'n'roll combo passed through a few name changes before establishing themselves as The Kinks in 1964. At that point, the band had an accomplished drummer, Mick Avory on board. What's now regarded as the "garage-band" sound was likely born when their song You Really Got Me ascended to number one on the British Charts, followed shortly by All Day and All of the Night replete with it's signature distorted bass-guitar "grunge." Quaife's full-time involvement with the band ended in 1966 giving way to his departure by 1969. By then, various creative and personal disputes with the other band members had reportedly descended to a physical altercation level. Quaife's health had began failing in the late nineties, culminating in renal failure which necessitated ongoing rounds of dialysis treatment. Residing in Denmark at the time of his death, Quaife is survived by his fiancée and daughter. (June 26, 2010)

A back injury sustained by U2 vocalist Bono during rehearsal training has resulted in a one-year postponement of the band's 2010 North American tour. According to doctors at the German hospital where the fifty year-old singer underwent emergency surgery just days ago, a period of at least eight weeks will be required to both recuperate and begin a rehabilitation program. The sixteen stop U2360 tour was originally set to begin June 3 in Salt Lake City and would have concluded July 23 in New Jersey. A representative of Live Nation Touring announced that details on the rescheduled dates will be made available shortly and advised admission holders to keep their tickets. (May 25, 2010)

Ronnie James Dio has died at age 67 following a battle with stomach cancer. Dio's earliest bands included The Vegas Kings, Elf and Rainbow. Fame struck in 1979 when he replaced Ozzy Osbourne in Black Sabbath. Dio left Sabbath in 1982 and formed his own band Dio with drummer Vinnie Appice. He was inducted into Hollywood's Rock Walk of Fame in 2007. Over the following years, Dio and Appice teamed up with original Sabbath members Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler to perform on the Heaven And Hell tour. Following a stomach cancer diagnosis last year, Dio pulled out of the tour as his health began to worsen. He is survived by his wife Wendy, a son and two grandchildren. (May 16, 2010)

Singer Doug Fieger who sang vocals and played rhythm guitar in the late-seventies band The Knack has passed away at age 57. His family had announced his death as resulting from complications of lung cancer. He died at his home in Woodland Hills Calif. Over the years, The Knack had come to symbolize rock 'n' roll's dreaded yet respectably iconic one-hit-wonder status. Their wonderfully high-energy single My Sharona from the album Get The Knack shot rapidly up to number one on the charts during the summer of 1979, where it remained for six weeks. Unfortunately, that kind of success eluded the band's follow-up attempts. Their next release, Good Girls Don't taken from the same album, narrowly missed making it into the top ten. Before Fieger's passing, the band had already lost a founding member. Drummer Bruce Gary had died in 2006. (February 16, 2010)

John Mellencamp's son Spek wants his dad to quit smoking - so he made a little deal with his father. It's as simple as this: Spek has started up a dedicated "my dad John Mellencamp will quit smoking" Facebook page and John has agreed that once 1,000,000 have visited the page, he will quit smoking. I might be reading more into this than I should, but considering that "dad" didn't insist on some form of time limit, he just may be content to see this thing drag on as long as possible. (December 6, 2009)

The inventor of the solid body electric guitar and for that matter, the underlaying sound of most rock 'n' roll, has died. Les Paul has passed away at age 94 following a bout of what a representative described as "severe pneumonia." Paul was highly renowned for both his artistic and technical mastery of guitar music. He was an early pioneer of recording studio techniques such as electronically produced echo and multi-tracking, which in the early days used magnetic tape running on reel-to-reel machines. As a musician, Paul had formed a duo with his wife Mary Ford, turning out several hits in the 1950's. After developing a six-string guitar body that allowed for superior tone-control and pickup placement, Paul partnered with the Gibson guitar company where his designs achieved unrivaled success and status over the years that followed. (August 13, 2009)

The recent on-stage fall of Aerosmith front man Stephen Tyler has resulted in the postponement and possible cancellation of the next show on their current tour, with some doubt being cast over succeeding shows proceeding as originally scheduled. Initial reports on the accidental fall during an August 5 show in Sturgis, South Dakota, held that Tyler's injuries were sufficiently minor that the tour's forthcoming schedule would not be affected. Unfortunately, the band's management has since informed promoters that today's August 7 stop in Winnipeg Manitoba would have to be postponed in light of a more thorough medical assessment of Tyler's condition. The 61 year old singer had been performing (rather ironically we think) Love In An Elevator to entertain the crowd during a sound system outage when he lost his footing and tumbled quasi-head-first downwards off a narrow cat-walk appendage to the main stage. The incident brought the show to a halt. Tyler, who has already undergone surgery on his foot and knee, had sustained visible head, neck and shoulder injuries. He was reportedly feeling some pain afterwards but remained in good spirits while being airlifted to hospital. (August 7,2009)
UPDATE: Aerosmith has announced that due to the extent of Tyler's injuries, the remainder of the band's summer tour has been postponed. The latest information is posted on the band's website.

Musician David Byrne, has some harsh words for U2 and it's lead singer Bono. The former Talking Heads vocalist is crying foul over the lavish size and scale of the legendary Irish band's current tour in light of Bono's high-profile urging for leaders of well-off nations to increase their financial stake in the war against third-world poverty. Byrne has posted on his website: "Those stadium shows may possibly be the most extravagant and expensive (production-wise) ever: $40 million to build the stage and, having done the math, we estimate 200 semi trucks crisscrossing Europe for the duration. "It could be professional envy speaking here, but it sure looks like, well, overkill, and just a wee bit out of balance given all the starving people in Africa and all." U2 had previously faced similar criticism over plans to corporately relocate outside of Ireland for the purpose of paying less in taxes. (August 2, 2009)

Procol Harum keybordist Matthew Fisher has been awarded a portion of the royalties the band has been receiving from the classic 1967 song A Whiter Shade of Pale. Although he had both composed and played the song's distinctive organ riff, Fisher's claims for a share of royalty payments have been cast in doubt by arguments from fellow band members Gary Brooker and Keith Reid that Fisher had signed away all his rights to the original recording. The award was part of a ruling handed down by the U.K's highest court which made references to how the riff contributed to the song's success and memorable attributes. (August 2, 2009)

Preceeding reports are located in the Plugged-In Archive

The reports and commentary on this page are based on reports from a variety of on-line and print media resources. In rare cases where direct quotes are used, the editor will endeavor to name the original source that reported the quote.

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