Inspiration or Plagiarism?: 'How Many More Times'

The Led Zeppelin song that displays the most different influences has to be 'How Many More Times', the concluding track of their 1969 self-titled debut album. Jimmy Page never denied those influences, admitting the song "was made up of little pieces I developed when I was with the Yardbirds. ... After the Yardbirds fell apart and it came time to create Zeppelin, I had all those ideas as a textbook to work from" (Tolinski, page 82, 50). Robert Plant never hid it, either, saying, "it's got all those Sixties bits and pieces" (Wall, page 50). This blog will observe each "little piece" to illustrate how 'How Many More Times' came together.

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The most obvious influence is Howlin' Wolf's 'How Many More Years' (1951), which shares a nearly-identical title and modest lyrical similarities.

Howlin' Wolf: 'How Many More Years' (0:26-0:51)
How many more years have I got to let you dog me around?
How many more years have I got to let you dog me around?
I'd as soon rather be dead, sleeping six feet in the ground

Led Zeppelin: 'How Many More Times' (0:40-1:18, 7:11-7:47)
How many more times, treat me the way you wanna do
How many more times, treat me the way you wanna do
When I give you all my love, please, please be true
...
​How many more times, barrel house all night long
How many more times, barrel house all night long
Well I've got to get to you, baby, oh, please come home

Another lyrical influence is Albert King's 'The Hunter':

Albert King: 'The Hunter' (0:14-0:56)
They call me the hunter, that's my name
A pretty woman like you, is my only game
I bought me a love gun, just the other day
And I aim to aim it your way
Ain't no use to hide, ain't no use to run
'Cause I've got you in the sights of my love gun

Led Zeppelin: 'How Many More Times' (6:17-7:05)
Well, they call me the hunter, that's my name
Call me the hunter, that's how I got my fame
Ain't no need to hide, ain't no need to run
'Cause I've got you in the sights of my gun

Zeppelin biographer Stephen Davis claims it also borrows riffs from King's song (Davis, page 59), but I don't hear any. Author Keith Shadwick also claims the "sledgehammer walking riff" was "borrowed from Albert King's 'The Hunter'" (Shadwick, page 59). But since neither Davis nor Shadwick provides any evidence to support or validate the claim, I'm confident dismissing it as nonsense.

Less obvious, but still significant, Plant also borrowed from 'Kisses Sweeter Than Wine' (1957) by Jimmie Frederick Rodgers (not to be confused with country singer Jimmie Charles Rodgers).

Jimmie F. Rodgers: 'Kisses Sweeter Than Wine' (0:01-0:25, 1:20-1:42)
Well, when I was a young man never been kissed
I got to thinkin' it over how much I had missed
So I got me a girl and I kissed her and then, and then
Oh, lordy, well I kissed her again
Because she had kisses sweeter than wine
...
Well our children they numbered just about four
And they all had a sweetheart a-knockin' on the door
They all got married and they wouldn't hesitate
I was, whoops oh lord, the grandfather of eight
Because she had kisses sweeter than wine

Led Zeppelin: 'How Many More Times' (4:08-4:48)
I was a young man, I couldn't resist
Started thinkin' it over, just what I had missed
Got me a girl and I kissed her and then and then
Whoops, oh lord, well I did it again
Now I've got ten children of my own
I got another child on the way that makes eleven

Once again, there appears to be some confusion whether or not Rodgers' influence was also musical. Another Zep biographer, Mick Wall, claims, "there was even a lick of two appropriated from Jimmy [sic] Rodgers' 'Kisses Sweeter Than Wine'" (Wall, page 55). But here again, I do not hear any significant musical similarities, and since Wall provides no evidence to support his statement, I cannot agree with the conclusion.

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So if neither King or Rodgers served as musical inspiration for 'How Many More Years', then who did?
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Five years before Zeppelin released 'How Many More Times', The T-Bones released the same song. ​Wall claims Zep's version has "more than a passing nod to a mid-Sixties version of the same tune by Gary Farr and the T-Bones (Wall, page 55), but to my ears "a passing nod" is generous.

Rather, the most significant thing to notice here is that The T-Bones changed the original title of 'How Many More Years' to 'How Many More Times' - an alteration that Zeppelin would retain.

Much more significant are things Zeppelin does differently from The T-Bones. The cover opens with a repeated two-measure riff absent from The T-Bones' recording...

... but present in a 1965 Yardbirds cover of Howlin' Wolf's 'Smokestack Lightning'.

Though The Yardbirds never released a studio recording of 'Smokestack Lightning', at least three live recordings have been released:

• 10 or 20 March 1964, 5:35, heard on Five Live Yardbirds (track 3) and Having a Rave Up (track 7)
• 7 August 1964, 5:53, heard on Glimpses (disc 1, track 12)
• 16 or 18 November 1965, 4:57, heard on Glimpses (disc 2, track 7)

Of those three, only the last employs the riff to be recycled on 'How Many More Years'. 

Eric Clapton joined The Yardbirds in October 1963, and quit in March 1965. Presumably that means the first two recordings - the ones WITHOUT the 'How Many More Years' riff - feature him on guitar.

Jeff Beck joined in March 1965, and quit in the fall of 1966. Presumably that third recording - the one WITH the riff - features him on guitar. So Beck might have written it, or perhaps he, in turn, borrowed it from someone else. Either way, the 'How Many More Years' riff was NOT invented by Jimmy Page.

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More confusion is found regarding Page's solo on 'How Many More Times'. Wall claims Page's solo is "a slowed-to-a-crawl take on Jeff Beck's solo from the Yardbirds' 'Shapes of Things' (Wall, page 55), and Davis insists "the guitar solo is from 'Shapes of Things' (Davis, page 59). But is that true? And if so, how?

Here's Beck's solo from 'Shapes' (starting at 1:34):

And here's the beginning of Page's solo from 'More Times' (starting at 2:11):

To my ears, the only similarity is the I-bVII harmonic ostinato (|G|F| in 'Shapes'; |E| |D| | in 'More Times'). I hear no significant similarities between the actual solos.

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There is one more musical similarity: The bolero rhythm.

French composer Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) is most famous for his 1928 composition 'Bolero', which features this rhythmic ostinato throughout:

After departing The Yardbirds in 1966, Jeff Beck launched a solo career. His 1968 debut solo album, Truth, includes the track 'Beck's Bolero', which incorporates a similar rhythmic ostinato.

One year later, Jimmy Page (who produced and performed on 'Beck's Bolero') and John Paul Jones (who also performed on 'Beck's Bolero') would incorporate an identical rhythmic ostinato into 'How Many More Years'.

SOURCES
Davis, Stephen. 1995. Hammer of the Gods: Led Zeppelin Unauthorized. Pan Books, an imprint of Macmillan General Books; London, England.

Shadwick, Keith. 2005. Led Zeppelin: The Story of a Band and their Music 1968-1980. Backbeat Books; London, England.

Tolinski, Brad. 2012. Light & Shade: Conversations with Jimmy Page. Crown Publishers; New York, NY.

Wall, Mick. 2008. When Giants Walked the Eart: A Biography of Led Zeppelin​. St. Martin's Griffin; New York, NY.