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Just watching celebration day
My word what a band they were!
I know they are massive blues rip off merchants but did they do it with some class!
‘Massive blues rip off merchants’????!!!
Is that right? Says who? Apart from you obvz...
Keep watching, then listen to some more and then put on Kashmir with volume on 11.
****ing blues rip off merchants... how old are you?!
Butthurt megafan @slackalice in "doesn't actually knlw anything about the band's music" shocker 😉
Hey @chevy... I’m butt hurt eh?
****.
They even admit it. They love delta blues and that shows.
I suggest you go and have a listen to some blues.
And have a read of this..
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/led-zeppelins-10-boldest-rip-offs-223419/
Howling Wolf
I know they are massive blues rip off merchants but did they do it with some class!
Who wasn’t. Everyone was copping songs, tunes, riffs off of everyone else, including blues singers. Who were often taking even older songs and adapting them; folk singers have been doing the same thing for generations.
They were a great band though, Plant and Page were using what are eastern chords and rhythms before ‘world music’ became a thing, on ‘Kashmir’ in 1974. I saw them at Earle’s Court on the ‘Physical Graffiti’ tour, ‘Kashmir’ was incredible live, but then, the band were as well.
I saw Page and Plant play together as well as Plant solo a number of times, he always does several Zep songs in his set.
Meh! Sabbath were better
Sabbath?
A couple of decent efforts but that's it.
As individuals and collectively Zep were so much better.
Love both Zep and Sabbath, and both bands had a peerlessly impressive first 4 albums (Sabbath a great first 6 albums)
Zep = delta-blues + folk + virtuoso hard rock (lyrics mostly about a boat* sallying forth to new lands and having adventures)
Sabbath = A weird (in a good way) kind of doomy industrial gospel/soul rock with some spooky, classical/hypnotic interludes (lyrics mostly about mental anguish, war, politics and fairies in boots)
Deffo not ‘battle of the bands’ territory in my mind. Unless very drunk (even then there can be only win)
*Lemon. I meant lemon.
Stick this in your pipes:
I love sabbath and they are possibly my favourite band ever but zep out class them.
Never liked Zeppelin. Even way back in the day when I loved my heavy rock / prog rock. Just meh!
As rock music is based on blues then all rock bands are blues based. Many maybe don't as directly take from a few songs but it is not like all of their songs are directly taken from earlier blues songs. As said above, similar to their folk influences.
Good documentary here in case people are not aware of the history
I understand Led Zeppelin's importance in rock history, but never liked more than a couple of tunes and some catchy riffs.
Would be a dull world if we all liked the same
Im sure they ripped off Dread Zeppelin too.
If you like zep you may like Greta van fleet and a german band called kingdom come....
I have a CD somewhere by Kingdom Come - bought on the back of a couple of decent tracks and a bit of Meh!
So yes, how I feel about Led Zeppelin 😄
I understand Led Zeppelin’s importance in rock history, but never liked more than a couple of tunes and some catchy riffs.
Would be a dull world if we all liked the same
Sums up my feelings too. Lyrically they are extremely cheesy. Odd really as I’m a huge rock fan, but lean more towards the alt rock side. Now Clutch, there’s a phenomenal rock band and when they’re being cheesy the tongue is firmly in the cheek.
Led Zeppelin were the high water mark of guitar based rock, which was at its zenith in the seventies.
Of course that's a subjective comment, but I reckon if you could be bothered spending the time you could build a case for it. Mainly by asking who achieved more with a broader range of influences and styles. And then there is the competency of the individual members on their instruments, and as producers and arrangers.
And the plagiarism accusations have foundation, but in my opinion are so vehemently pushed because of the bands success. Who likes a winner? To compare the Memphsis Minnie version of Levee Breaks to Zeppelins is 95% pointless - it's an example of what they could do to songs and an example of their greatness.
You can probably guess I'm a Zep fan!
P.S. Love a bit of Sabbath also.
Love the music, always have done.
The lyrics though are mince. Embarrasing even for a teenager.
Not as bad as Kiss, obviously, but all that Devil's doorknob, sub Tolkien mystic shite is awful. 🙂
The lyrics though are mince. Embarrasing even for a teenager.
I can play Black Dog but can't bring myself to sing the lyrics, I've been tempted to write some alterantive lyrics about Page, plant and groupies. When I lived in Aberystwyth we used to see them on the beach totally overdressed but looking very cool with their hippy-looking lady friends. They gave good-natured replies to our quips.
Embarrassing even for a teenager
Back in '96 Camille Paglia deconstructed the lyrics of 'Stairway' for a Guitar World special on the song. A cherished possession that lives inside the none more black copy of the Spinal Tap Official Companion book.
She is a tad scathing.
Led Zeppelin were the high water mark of guitar based rock
Jimi Hendrix Experience were a much better example of how to update the blues. The book Crosstown Traffic explains it well and is a great blues history as well as the best book on Jimi. How to pay tribute and advance a sound without just plagiarising. Jimi took the blues somewhere new. Zep just turned it up and added awful lyrics. Interestingly it would also appear that Jimi wasn't a fan.
It's not like rock is dead either, there are bands from the last twenty or thirty years that are brilliant and better than Zep in my opinion.
Sabbath wrote better songs, Zeppelin hardy even wrote songs, they copied old classics or just sang out loud pages from a JR Tolken novel.
Sabbath sang about a dystopian J.G. Ballardian like future when others were too busy putting flowers in their hair. Ozzy's voice was a primal scream, Iommi opened the gates of hell, Bill Wards drumming was a jazz masterclass and Geezer Butler was as funky as Bootsy Collins.
Plant and Page were using what are eastern chords and rhythms before ‘world music’ became a thing,
I think The Beatles, in particular George Harrison, might disagree with you
Eddiebaby, thanks for that.
I might buy a copy for someone I dislike intensely. 🙂
The kinks too.
Sabbath wrote better songs, Zeppelin hardy even wrote songs, they copied old classics or just sang out loud pages from a JR Tolken novel.
Sabbath sang about a dystopian J.G. Ballardian like future when others were too busy putting flowers in their hair. Ozzy’s voice was a primal scream, Iommi opened the gates of hell, Bill Wards drumming was a jazz masterclass and Geezer Butler was as funky as Bootsy Collins.
Exactly this. Sabbath on their first two albums were amazing and the rhythm section was one of the best in rock by far. They had a groove that not many other rock bands could touch.
Led Zep are up their with Man O War for real bands that out Spinal Tap Spinal Tap.
And they ripped off Alexis Korners Top of the Pops theme.
SLAAAAAAAAAAAAYERRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'm surprised no-one has mentioned Cream - surely the masters of white middle class blues? Plus, they actually acknowledged who's songs they covered (Robert johnson, Skip James, Muddy waters et al). We'll just leave aside the fact that EC was/is a ****. Jack Bruce was a genius.
Back to Led Zep - even 'Whole Lotta love' was a rip off, first from the Small faces, who had also ripped it off. Wasn't Robert Plant a Small faces fanboi?
I love Led Zeppelin and really like Black Sabbath and both had amazing musicians - - however the claim:
Geezer Butler was as funky as Bootsy Collins.
Can’t be serious! Bootsy is in a league of his own - a league of one. He is the funk.
Can’t be serious! Bootsy is in a league of his own – a league of one. He is the funk
Larry Graham would like a word with you.
Never got them. Always loved Black Sabbath, early Genesis, most other 60s and 70s rock stuff but Led Zep? Nah.
Jamj 1974,
Bootsy's great, Larry's great, we know that.
The funkyness of Geezer Butler is overlooked, especially considering Sabbath were the heaviest of rock bands. Geezer and Bill Ward gave Sabbath a grooviness and swing unmatched in heavy rock music
What about Deep Purple? They were/are suburb and had some genuinely brilliant musicians, Ian Paice world class drummer and Blackmore had to be one of the most important and forgotten guitar greats of all time.
People slagging off Clapton should also thank him for sparking the Rock against Racism movement. I'm not sure RAR would have ever happened without that gobshite moment in Birmingham. Irony at it's best.
If black musicians, who seem more than happy to share a stage with him don't bear a gudge, I won't either.
So many good guitar rock bands in the early 70s: ZZ Top, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Queen - The glam rock image meant the heavy fan's couldn't admit to liking them but Brian May was exceptional on Brighton rock. And this was 1974:
supercarp,
Ritchie Blackmore remains forgotten for a reason. He 'ain't that good and was too full of his own greatness, like many of the British blues rock artists mentioned on this thread.
And they ripped off Alexis Korners Top of the Pops theme.
My parents had the classic CCS album so was part of my childhood.
Good shout for ZZ Top, and Skynrd, rock with a a groove and a bit of swing. Hendrix reckoned Billy Gibbons to be the best of the rest.
And talking of the pomposity in 70's rock, if you're going to be pompous you might as well turn it up to 11. Like The imperious Queen.
Surprised no one's pulled a rewind and mentioned the Doors? Blues rock from the 60's that gives pretty much anything from the 70's a run for its money.