My friend, a crazy guitarfreak, came over tonite and he had a cd with some guy called Kenny Wayne Shepherd. I came to song #7 "While we cry", and it`s amazingly similar to Yellow Ledbetter. I mean, it was really really similar! And the album was called "Ledbetter Heights"...of all things..

Anyone else heard this song?

Ledbetter is the last PJ song anyone should be complaining about being ripped off.

exactly its not like it sounds like Hendrix or anything but since the album is called "Ledbetter Heights" maybe he meant it as a compliment. I have to ask though what with the new avatar? I'm assuming its some kind of joke, right?

Gee, what would tip you off to that. I mean if someone has something in their avatar that must mean they're all serious about it, amirite?

This is actually pretty old news...but I had always heard that the KWS version came first and it was Mike who stole the riff---anyway, I went and looked and it says that the first album containing the song in question was released in 1995, which places it well after YL's release, but the version on the album is a live version...so its hard to tell when his version was actually first played. I know that doesnt clear anything up.

oh yeah, and ledbetter heights is in reference to the area of shreveport where he grew up---if you believe what you read on wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ledbetter_Heights


The Ledbetter Heights neighborhood, traditionally known as "The Bottoms", is one of the earliest parts of Shreveport to be settled outside the original downtown district, dating back to the 19th century. For almost all of its history, it has been predominantly African-American. In the early 20th century, there was a red-light district with legal prostitution within this neighborhood, and musician Huddie "Leadbelly" Ledbetter, after whom the neighborhood is now named, lived and performed there. The renaming of the neighborhood to Ledbetter Heights in the 1990s was part of an effort to rehabilitate the area's image, as it had become known as an economically depressed and crime-ridden area.

Where on earth did you hear this? My goodness, LOL. It's absurd. I'm not laughing at you, it's just amazing what gets repeated.



It's clear.

For one thing, KWS was a child prodigy. He was about 17 (at the most) in 1995. Since PJ recorded theirs in 92, KWS would have to have been 14 AND recorded something for Mike to hear in order for Mike to have ripped him off.

There's no confusion and nothing to clear up. PJ never complained for reasons pointed out above, but PJ came first and the song was quite famous by the time the kid played it.

I hope this helps clear things up.

: )

.

In the booklet the song is copyrighted to 1993...

And Yellow Ledbetter can be traced back to...1990

Anyway, YL is a Hendrix tribute, right ?

IIRC Huddie "Leadbelly" Ledbetter was the guy who invented some riff pattern or something like that (I'm not a guitar freak ), which was later used by Jimi Hendrix in "Little Wing", and as we all know, "Yellow Ledbetter" was kind of "Little Wing" rip-off. Mike knew about Hendix's inspiration, hence the song's title. Nice sense of humour by him

P.S. "Alive" has similar story: solo was taken from a song by Kiss, but Kiss had taken it from someone else before.

Leadbally is a blues legend.
The Alive solo is reminiscent of 5to1 by The Doors.

Semi off topic:

here's a band from where I lived the past two years. They got some good tunes, put a good show.

Love Kenny Wayne Shepard and PJ

http://www.myspace.com/ledbetterheights

ahhh newbs

McCready: "I copied Ace Frehley's solo from 'She,' which was copied from Robby Krieger's solo in the Doors' 'Five To One'." Guitar School 5/95 you elitist prick

A rip off of a rip off...

Im not sure where I heard/read it...like I said, it was actually pretty old news. I checked the date info on an mp3 of the KWS song on my comp and it said it was created in 2001--which means it has been at least 6 years ago since I downloaded the song to compare it, and maybe longer since I did get a new comp in the spring of 2001 and I am not sure how the file info is generated.

Anyway, all I was saying was that was what I had heard, then I stated that when I took 5 minutes to research it, it did not seem to be true. I also did not really think the album title had anything to do with Pearl Jam, other than maybe KWS and MM both wanted to pay some sort of tribute to the same musician. Regardless, both tracks are amazing, imo.

touche, newb... this is my first time busting out a newb comment so i'm sticking by that

Facts like this tend to go unnoticed around here sometimes.