Conflicted about Zep?

c'mon now..... "certain aspects of" it are a hoot to us too!

 

By no means does my statement assume that.

 

Cut me some slack. I deleted my post just prior to reading your response.

His comments were offensive to me. What can I say.

 

oops sorry, just keeping it light.

Its like that old saying, I can punch my little brother but anyone else tries it, they'll get clocked.

 

Yes I am a little conflicted about Zep.

Though Zep remains one of my favorite all time bands, Jimmy Page wouldn't make my top 10 favorite guitarist list maybe not even top 20 and neither would Robert Plant as a vocalitst. But together along with John Paul and Bonzo they did record some great albums a few of them such as LZ 1 are also among my all time favorites. Yet there are songs on some of the later lp's that I don't like at all. I still can't listen to Stairway due to it being so overplayed back in the 70's, 80's and 90's on AOR and Classic Rock stations.

As for live, I saw them twice in 71 and again around 74. Both shows were among the most exciting and certainly loudest shows I have seen, but musically they made numerous mistakes and at times you couldn't even tell what song they were performing, yet the concerts were memorable for some reason.

So yes, LZ conflicts me.

Rick G

 

I believe Miles Davis once said, "If you're not making mistakes, you're not really playing." He was referring to jazz and jazz improvisation, of course, but the same holds true for rock. I'd rather go see a rock concert where the band makes some mistakes (whether through improvising, or just getting into the energy of the performance and jumping around on stage) than one where the band plays a sterile, perfect, note-for-note replication of their record.

 

what live concerts have you heard?
how the west was won kind of sucks imo.... the song remains the same is ruined by the additional dream sequence footage...also the sound is subpar.
the zeppelin 2003 dvd is the best i think.

but what other stuff have you heard?

 

Conflicted about the mighty Zep? Never.

 

compare this vocal to 'whole lotta love' and tell me there was no deliberate theft-

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cheers,
rob

 

When the first LZ album came out, I was transported by the combination of blues and hard, driving rock. It was a revelation for the time- I was not turned on to Jeff Beck's 'Truth' until years later, and while I understand that he anticipated LZ, he did not keep that band together (though he is an amazing guitarist). I think you have to judge LZ as more than the sum of its parts. I could care less about the 'rock star' lifestyle, the private jet, the Crowley magik or any of the other nonsense that is part of their legacy. Jimmy Page was a first tier session guy before LZ - look at his discography. The fact that people are arguing about them almost 45 years later speaks volumes. Overhyped- of course. But almost every creative talent that reaches that level of fame is hyped to a degree. I did lose interest in them in their later years, but only recently discovered how much music is on the later albums as well.
In a similar way, I didn't really 'get' Elvis when I grew up- by then, he was already doing his Vegas schtick and was not the hillybilly rock and roller that first put him on the map. But, now i can appreciate better who he was and what he did so well.
What is also worth considering is how many young fans LZ still has today- folks who weren't even alive when LZ was at its peak.
That also speaks volumes for the staying power of their music.

 

I hear no resemblance.

 

Well I didn't actually mean to make that old argument in this case. You're right, "influenced" would have been a better term.

 

I've struggled to think if I have any conflict about Led Zeppelin and the answer is nah, I like it all.

 

Pardon my ignorance, who is hyped as the greatest of all time?
Just curious.

 

I could see A Swede having a great deal of knowledge about American blues but not Swedes in general. Could be wrong though. It would be interesting if they were ALL that dorky.

 

A soap box derby cart and a Firebird have more in common.

 

are you serious?!? sorry, man, every music freak friend that i have played the small faces cut to has seen the fact that plant ripped the vocal style for 'whole lotta' from steve marriot. and i think a sleek classy aston martin to a vulgar, pumped up trans am would be a closer comparison. i do enjoy some zeppelin, but 'whole lotta love' is the sort of overblown 'look at my big c**ck' crap that turned me off to most standard 70s rock.

cheers,
rob

 

I think you meant to type "overblown 'look at my big cock' crap with a cool, freaky theremin interlude and backwards echo vocals and razor-tight ensemble playing that makes me enjoy it even though I might be skeptical about 70s rock."

 

And to a great many of us Americans as well, I assure you

 

That song does sound like a poor man's WLL in places, but only when I stretch my imagination to the limits of credibility.

 

I spent a lot of time (about 5 years) in Stockholm on and off on a big project. The Swedes can be a very warm, giving people who value calm and a certain degree of humility. Our brash Americanism is, to them, a turn-off, but the friends I made there (now going on almost 20 years) value our industry and willingness to defy convention to make things happen- our impatience and 'want it now' mentality are, I think, perceived as both a flaw and a virtue. I don't see bashing each other's cultures as productive, particularly if done out of ignorance. I feel like the people I met over the years working in Stockholm left some of their preconceptions at the door as they got to know me- a NYC lawyer wearing cowboy boots and chain smoking filterless Camels. (I've since stopped smoking, but still have the boots).
I'm the first to admit that I wouldn't have gotten into blues music without hearing white guys play it- part of that is the racial divide that existed (and still exists) in popular music in the States.
And yes, American culture can be totally absurd- which is what makes it fun. You can't visit Graceland without a smile on your face.

 

i wish i could say that was what i meant but, sadly, no. just have never- in 30 odd years of trying been able to 'get' or even warm up to that side of zep or of rock in general. of course, with my belief that the whole rock/pop thing reached it's absolute peak of true sonic perfection sometime between '65 and '67 and seriously lost it around 'tommy' ( with a few noteworthy exceptions and a strong revival with post-punk and college radio), i am admittedly rather biased. but i will gladly go with 'over the hills...', 'when the levy breaks', 'fool in the rain' and quite a few others as justifying at least some of the l.z. hype.

cheers,
rob

 

may i take the s**t-eating grin to mean you are being ironic?

cheers,
rob