Anne Bredon

Anne Bredon (born Anne Loeb on September 7, 1930 in Berkeley, California) is an American folk singer, best known for composing the song "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You" while she was a student at University of California, Berkeley in the late 1950s. Bredon is the daughter of physicist Leonard Loeb and granddaughter of physiologist Jacques Loeb. She majored in art at Humboldt State University and completed her master's degree in mathematics at Berkeley, California.[1]

Some time around 1960, while attending Berkeley, Bredon appeared on a live folk-music radio show, The Midnight Special, on radio station KPFA singing "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You".[2] Janet Smith, another folk singer, developed her own version of the song and performed it on the same radio show some time later, catching the attention of Joan Baez who used the song on Joan Baez in Concert, Part 1 (1963).[2] The song was initially credited as "Traditional, arr. Baez" but properly attributed on Baez's 1964 sheet music, The Joan Baez Song Book.[2]

The English rock band Led Zeppelin adapted the song after hearing Baez's version, crediting the song as "Traditional, arr. Page". In the 1980s, Bredon was made aware of Led Zeppelin's version of the song and so, since 1991, this version has been credited to Anne Bredon/Jimmy Page & Robert Plant. Bredon also received a back-payment of royalties.[3]

Bredon married Lee Johannsen in 1951. She divorced in 1959, leaving her first two children, Lenore and Joel, with her ex-husband. Later, she married Glen Bredon, a mathematics professor at UC Berkeley. In 1969, Glen moved to Rutgers University New Brunswick. The couple moved to New Jersey, where they raised their two children Joelle and Aaron.[1] She currently resides on Trail's End Road in North Fork, California where she is active in the Sierra Mono Museum designs and sells beaded jewelry.[1][4] Bredon is also a Navajo-style rug-weaver and basket-weaver, focusing on Mono Indian. She possesses an extensive knowledge of the complex aspects of harvesting and preparation of grasses and materials used in traditional California "Indian" basket weaving.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Melissa Tav, Embracing life one bead at a time, Madera Tribune, January 22, 2007.
  2. 1 2 3 Janet Smith, The 'Babe I'm Gonna Leave You' Story, in The Gate at the End of the World: A Collection of Songs by Anne Bredon (Bella Roma Music, 1991), pp. vii-x.
  3. ↑ Dave Lewis (1994), The Complete Guide to the Music of Led Zeppelin, Omnibus Press, ISBN 0-7119-3528-9
  4. ↑ Williams Gallery West
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