Conflicted about Zep?

Ok, now the thread has officially derailed.

 

IBTL

 

Glad we can provide you with some good laughs, and also with the blues music that you understand and appreciate so much better than we do.

I've never been to your fair country, but my time in France, England, and Italy has demonstrated to me that Americans have no monopoly on stupidity.

 

We had a thread just recently started by a European member - about the nebulous 'blues purist'. When I think blues purist, the first thing that comes to a mind is someone who's not American.

As a 19th century social historian once said: generally the farther one is from the subject they're interested in - the more they tend to assert their expertise. Asserting the academic is often to make up for the lack of actual experience.

 

It's not even worth mentioning in any discussion about Led Zeppelin "borrowing".

 

That is probably true - but it does not rule out a great deal of knowledge on the part of the adademic. Would love to read stories about "real-life blues experiences" on this forum, but they seem to be scarse unfortunately.

 

You're welcome to come over to Mississippi and hit the juke joint with me. Wouldn't be the first Euro-dude to make that pilgrimage.

 

Perhaps they were confused by the fact that you did not use the word "influenced" in your previous post. You used the word "borrowing". It's a very different word with a very different meaning.

Of course your argument wouldn't have gone anywhere if you had used the word "influenced" from the start. But I suspect that you knew that...

 

No doubt. I'm with ya. I'm sure we could get together and have a few laughs over glug about the lesser aspects of our respective cultures. Sweden is not so mysterious where I live because a sizable part of the population trace our ancestry to the nordic peninsula and isles. Plus, I have a couple friends who have summer cabins there up north, and split time between the countries.

 

When I first heard Led Zep, ages ago, I was turned off by the seeming exhibitionism of it all. Then I heard their models from Chess and wound up being impressed—Robert Plant does a pretty mean Sonny Boy Williamson. Now I find the band among the most musically interesting of its time. The earlier music—the first 2 LPs—gave me more problems, the blatant rip-off [to my mind] of the Chess "sound" being at the top of that list. Now I find them particularly interesting from "Houses of the Holy" onward dues to how much they "appropriated" from "Prog." Very interesting group.

 

i would venture that americans have a better insight into the ethnographics of sweden than swedes in general.

 

I'd love to hear your experiences on the subject.

My advice is to quit while you're ahead. Insulting an entire country that you know little about isn't going to gain you any favour in this debate.

 

Not sure how you mean there...? I highly doubt it but don't know what people you know.

 

That... I disagree wholeheartedly with. But we're off subject.

 

Ouch, better watch out for your allies the Norwegians then. Anyway, I do bow out so this can get back on topic.

 

You can bet your life on the forum Zep haters coming out of the woodwork for these threads, I could list them all off by heart, it's funny.

 

I think he meant that that statement was just as silly as the notions that Swedish blues fans have more of an insight into blues culture than the Americans who live it and created it do.

 

holy crap, it was a JOKE based on your assertion that swedes know more about the blues. sorry...next time i'll t y p e s l o w e r.

 

I didn't take his post as an insult. (In fact there is some truth to it.) To be fair, some of my favorite historical works & treatises on American culture and history are authored by historians / writers from Europe. Having a different vantage point and perspective is extremely valuable. I should mention though that all of them immersed themselves in America (i.e. lived here). We are a land of foreigners after all, some of us having docked a bit earlier than others.

 

Aren't jokes supposed to be funny or cutting? Thought so.

 

I asked a friend to help us get back on track...

 

ah man, i should have checked with you first since you are the expert on what's funny. sorry.

 

and to the subject at hand, count me as one who is conflicted on zep. i loved them as a teenager but eventually sold off all my cds. now i have most of their discography on vinyl and i'll play a record every once in a while, but it doesn't move me the way it used to. i guess i've moved on.

 

Exactly!

 

I wish I could recall the source but I remember reading this wonderful review of the Allman Brothers, about the sources of their music, what it was like to grow up as a kid in the south of the 40's and 50's. The point was that no kids from that period ever had to 'study' their heritage and culture, they were steeped in it, they naturally absorbed it, consciously and subconsciously, whether black or white. The Allman's et al played southern music with its gospel and blues and country flavors as naturally as they were bred on its air.