This song was originally performed by acoustic folk artist, Jake Holmes. It appeared on his first and only album, The Above Ground Sound of Jake Holmes. In its original form, the song described a bad acid trip in lurid detail.
Jimmy Page's band (as well as at various times, Eric Clapton's and Jeff Beck's band), The Yardbirds frequently covered this song in its original form, and in fact, claimed it as their own, changing its name to I'm Confused.
When the last incarnation of the Yardbirds became Led Zeppelin, it was once again renamed Dazed and Confused, but the lyrics were changed to reflect on a bad relationship, in the traditional blues "woman is the devil" paradigm. It featured both Robert Plant's screeching vocal chords and the screech of Jimmy Page's violin bow against his psychedelic sunburst 1959 Fender Telecaster, late of his Yardbirds days.