I Don't Like Reggae, I Love It: The History of "D'yer Mak'er" by Led Zeppelin

Published: March 26, 2021, 2 p.m.

b'In this\\xa0 episode of "I Don\\u2019t Like Reggae, I Love It"\\xa0 a special audio series of the Ska Boom podcast about the historical origins and impact of reggae on popular music, I focus on the king of all cod reggae songs -- "D'yer Mak'er" by Led Zeppelin. As a new wave and ska kid who completely ignored hard rock, I was completely caught off guard when I started hearing the song, we Americans mispronounce as DIRE MAKER -- more on that mispronunciation in the episode.\\xa0 It confused me that the kids at my high school who worshipped Zeppelin loved a song that sounded like straight up reggae to me.\\xa0 Though I wasn\\u2019t inspired enough to buy the Houses of The Holy album at the time, whenever D'yer Mak'er was played on the radio \\u2013 and it was played a lot \\u2013 I secretly liked it. Led Zeppelin have been dogged for most of their career as having a reputation for stealing and plagiarizing songs from obscure sources and claiming them as their own.\\xa0 Did they do the same with D'yer Mak'er?\\xa0 You decide...If you\\u2019ve listened and received some value from this episode, then please help support the podcast for as little as $3 per month on Patreon. Supporters get access to exclusive content like special episodes of this series and advanced promo chapters from my forthcoming book Ska Boom: An American Ska & Reggae Oral History. Just go to patreon.com/skaboompodcast for more information.Please note: The music clips included in this podcast fall under the \\u201cFair Use Doctrine\\u201d as defined by Section 107 of the Copyright Act. The law allows for use of music clips for purposes of criticism, comment, and news reporting.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices'