Greta Van Fleet...Anyone?

Be careful with the term "live". It's definitely lip synced. Compare his vocals to the album version and you'll find they are indeed the same track, and if you look close there are tons of spots where he is singing into the mic on that video and no sound is produced.

 

Thing is, we've seen LZ imitators before. GVF are not even as good as the Cult, in my opinion. And those guys didn't last. Zeppelin also wouldn't have lasted if they hadn't regularly varied the formula and tried new things. I am willing to give GVF the benefit of the doubt - I bought the EPs last year. But if they are going to be more than a thinly veiled tribute band, we need to see how they develop.

 

Since I'm far too lazy to sift through 900 posts, I'll just say that Robert Plant has a quite humorous interview where he discusses the singer and says:

"beatiful little singer....I hate him"

 

I think you're making a leap there; in fact, I'm going to call BS on it. There are wails and vocal ad libs even within the first couple of minutes (when they're playing the song pretty straight and close to the studio version) hat clearly are not in the studio vocal; and the vocalist's other vocals around that part of the song sound identical in timbre and ambience to those live ad-libs. There also are moments when he is singing into the mic but he is very low in the mix - around 1:40 to 1:50 in the video, he gets very low in the mix but his voice is audible and it comes back up very quickly.

Not to mention that the studio track is 6 minutes long and this video is 26 minutes. So even if they flew in all of his vocals from the studio version - which they clearly did not - there still would be 20 minutes' worth of live vocals on that track.

 

This video has been put under the microscope on other sites, and it's clear. There are studio recorded vocals on there. And if you think there is anything close to 20 minutes worth of vocals in that video, you haven't watched it. The vast majority of it is instrumental jamming with no vocals at all.

 

We'll agree to disagree - and you are also avoiding the point that while of course there are not 20 extra continuous minutes of vocals there, you know full well - as does anyone else who watches the video - that there are plenty of substantial, live vocals in that 20 extra minutes, including wails and screams, as well as ad-libbed song lyrics (like Rollin' and Ttumblin') that don't appear on their studio tracks.

The singer's voice annoys many people, but he doesn't have problems with going flat or being unable to actually sing or carry notes. So the idea that they would fly in an entire (or mostly entire) studio track's vocals is both silly and unnecessary - and makes no sense since there are literally dozens of other GVF live videos on YouTube, including major festival performances of his exact song (Lover Leaver) where the vocals are obviously live. People might indeed have put it under a microscope, but their conclusions are driven by expectation bias - GVF are a fraud, so it's totally plausible they would fly in vocals to manufacture a cool faux-live performance, so let's notice similarities and totally ignore the obvious differences in timing, ambience, wails and other sounds that are not on the studio track and happen during the allegedly flown-in vocal segment, and so on.

It's petty and in the end irrelevant.

 

In the words of Ralph Wiggum, "I can't believe I used to like you."

 

I'll happily be Lisa to your Ralph.

 

Yes. Seeing these guys live made me realize how old I really am. I found myself wondering how they could sustain that energy for that long, and this was the third night in a row. They’re in their 20’s, nuff said. It never degenerated into something boring I just wanted to end. I just kept watching with egg on my face.

Even though I was no hater to begin with, I really underestimated this band. I was only there as a chaperone for five teenage boys. I’m really just damn sick of the Zeppelin comparisons. These guys love Zeppelin but this is a different time, they’re a different band and they rock the hell out of whatever venue they get. (My understanding is that the mighty Zeppelin wasn’t really consistently that impressive on stage. I must admit I never saw them.)

They just need truly great songs. They have a few really good ones. I hope they don’t go the way of the Black Crowes and fall into feud. I hope they either become consummate song writers or collaborate with someone who’ll put them over the top. I mean, come on. This is real music being made in the 21st century against all odds (deleted)
Why? Because Zeppelin was great? Because Rush was great? That’s not news anymore guys. Go see these guys perform their hearts out in the spirit of that stuff and try to walk away a hater. Now, that’s news.

 

This "real music " argument is
a) specious
b) tedious
c) indicative of a real prejudice in favour of old glory uber alles
As a local DJ here used to say : "Don't mistake energy for talent."

Nostalgia... Heaven must be made of it.

D.D.

 

All well and good - if that argument/standard were applied in a consistent and even-handed way by a critical mass of members of this forum, which it most certainly is not.

And I've yet to see any criticism of the chops of the guitarist and bassist - and while the drummer is merely fine/good, I've yet to see any serious criticism of his playing either.

The main critique is of the singer - who is simultaneously criticized for being a bad singer, and for being too much like another, great singer.

It's just hard to take the "they are not musically talented" argument seriously.

The secondary critique - which I do agree with - is that the quality of the songwriting is not there. And that's where GVF truly is nowhere near Zeppelin's league: they lack the guitar innovation of Page, and the compositional genius of John Paul Jones - talents that were honed, as @quicksrt pointed out above, by being session musicians for years beforehand.

GVF are IMHO quite well-honed as a live performing act from years of gigs; but their songwriting is uneven, to say the least, and I think that's actually where some of the instrumentally derivative stuff comes from - their musical vocabulary is too limited at this point. Zep drew from so many sources, and GVF seems to draw from fewer. But they are absolutely more blues and folk-based than most Zep pretenders, and I think the future of GVF's songwriting is uncertain. They could stagnate, but they also could grow. Time will tell.

 

No, I think he's being criticized for being a bad imitation of a great singer.

 

This band has made a career of being compared to a band with timeless tunes. If GVF can come up with a good song, one which has the potential of being timeless, great. But i'm not holding my breath.
That's how a band stops me in my tracks. A great song. Not by being a reasonable (or not) facsimile of something that's familiar. That's not enough. And it shouldn't be for any discerning music listener.
There are so many new artists with great tunes, i can't afford to waste time with GVF.

 

Yea it's hard to believe anyone is still making the "real music" argument. As if playing 50 year old blues licks is harder to do than programming electronic dance music

 

Your understanding is false.

 

Switched On Pop | Stairway to Hell: Greta Van Fleet’s Scorching Album Review That Went Viral

This was highly entertaining. Although they missed my favorite riff lift in the song-by-song comparison.

 

I just saw in another thread on another forum that Greta Van Fleet is appearing in SNL tonight. Is that correct (it didn't look like an old post)?

 

Great example of the curmudgeonliness so prevalent in this thread. It's one thing that on the surface, GVF sounds a lot like Led Zeppelin. Dig a bit deeper, and it becomes clear that by using Zep as a roadmap, these kids are developing a good sense of song construction and craftsmanship. Give them another album or two and their real sound will start to emerge. Its great that someone is out there carrying the flag for real rock music.

 

Another album or two? They've had plenty of time to come up with a reasonably decent song. They could get away with sounding like whoever they want if they could muster some memorable material. If you're confident you know what "real rock music" is and this band is good enough for you, have at it.

 

That is correct. The lead singer will be dressed as a Perrier bottle. Oh wait... it's been done. Mind you, that hasn't stopped him before.

D.D.

 

Am I the only one who hates when the singer goes "ma ma ma ma ma ma..." in every other song? It's the worst kind of Plant impersonation, and he sounds like a crow.

 

How's the crops today, Farmer Brown?

 

The band itself is tongue-in-cheek.

 

They might have been the worst musical performance on SNL ever...and that is saying something ...

 

His voice sounded terrible on SNL...really shrill. Nails on a chalkboard.