Anne Bredon

Anne Bredon (born September 7, 1930, Berkeley, California, USA) is an American female folk singer, songwriter and designer, perhaps best known for her composition "Babe, I'm Gonna Leave You". Some time around 1960, while attending Berkeley, Bredon (then Anne Johannsen) sang this song on the live folk-music radio show, The Midnight Special. Janet Smith, another folk singer, developed her own version of the song and performed it on the same radio show some time later. The song caught the attention of Joan Baez who included it on the album 'Joan Baez in Concert, Part 1" (1963). The song was initially credited as "Traditional, arr. Baez", but correctly attributed on Baez's 1964 sheet music, "The Joan Baez Song Book". The English rock band Led Zeppelin adapted the song after hearing Baez's version, crediting the song as "Traditional, arr. Page". In the 1980's, 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 and gets 50% of the royalties and Page and Plant split the other half. Bredon lived in North Fork, California where she created beaded jewelry and is a Navajo-style rug-weaver and basket-weaver. Died November 9, 2019, in Clovis, California.