Would Led Zeppelin have benefitted from a fifth touring musician?

Whoever it was would have had to cope with life on the road a la Zep too. Not for everyone, especially circa 1977

 

Absolutely. Whoever that might be, he'd have to have a strong stomach, for sure

 

I don’t think so. One of my favorite things about listening to live performances is hearing the rawer, more simplified versions of songs. When you listen to How the West Was Won, it becomes abundantly clear that Jimmy Page didn’t need a rhythm guitarist to sound powerful and explosive live.

 

I had the pleasure of seeing them once. They needed at least four extra musicians.

 

Perhaps a rhythm guitarist would've been a good addition. JPJ had the Bass and keys combo down to an art, so no bother for him.

 

As a zeppelin live collector i never thought. damn a second guitarist or bass/keyboard player is needed here.
JPJ played bass and keyboard at the same time like ray from the doors.

 

Exactly. It's like Hendrix - I like it when it gets raw and risky. It gives the artists two very different universes.

 

Jonesy didn't need 4 hands. When he played the keyboards live (includijng the Steinway grand), he was also playing custom made, bass foot-pedals with his feet.

 

NO

 

I think they could've benefited. I'm generally not a fan of Zep live. I don't mind early Zep live but after 72 - the stuff I've heard and watched - wasn't that good live. I realize they were doing a different thing live than the records and that's cool but for my money - the live stuff most times was ramble shamble or empty sounding.

 

Might have made for some live recordings that could be anywhere near as worth hearing as their studio work.

 

Branford Marsalis?

 

Do any of their songs feature horns?

 

Only Satan's horns

 

As a general rule the more musicians you put on stage, the more your arrangement has to take that into account to make good use of the addition. You have to find a musical space to put that additional person into. For many bands that is a very doable thing, but in Zeppelin's case it would have had an impact on Page in particular. In adding someone, something would have been lost.

As for Jones and the keys, I have huge respect for him and all his contributions, keys or on bass. But for the most part the songs that used keys I think were viewed by them as something of a changeup. Their primary sound was guitar bass and drums and in fact a single vocal line. That was their strength. When they would change it up and Jones played keys, he'd play the bass line either with his left hand or even with bass pedals. They arranged those songs so that they would not need another player to cover him with the bass.

It's true getting back to Page that on some studio recordings the double tracked guitar is both quite noticeable and then when played live quite noticeably absent. But that obviously was not a huge problem for them. Would they have really been better with adding a rhythm guitarist? Should have been a quintet on the road?

On balance I don't think so.

 

That's what his bass pedals were for.

 

Exactly. The OP's question assumes that sounding more like the studio recordings would have been a "benefit" in a live setting. Far from a given for any band.

 

You'll see "extra" musicians if Jimmy (Ever) Tours....

And I'm just talking guitars here....

 

Behind a curtain?

 

He did?

 

Which you don't see today. It seems like every artist try to replicate their studio sound live. The Who also looked at the studio and and live performance being very different.

 

The charm of LZ live was the 4 of them without a net
The sets did get less free form later
but the space between them was important
and I always enjoyed hearing just Jimmy would assimilate or leave out to play one of his guitar army songs

good heavens - Achilles Last Stand or Ten YEars Gone
they actively played not avoided those
so they were up for the challenge


Page and Plant brought an extra guitarist with them their first tour (95ish?) - boring

 

I always wished they had a multi-instrumentalist tour with them! Their official live output often sounds frail to me. The early, bluesier stuff sounded great as a quarter, but their more ambitious material (starting with IV or HotH, perhaps) would have benefitted greatly from a rhythm guitarist/backup vocalist/keyboardist.

JPJ was great, mind you, but some extra electric piano or organ or guitar certainly could have beefed things up, IMO.

 

I really really like the fact that the only people on that stage were the ones who had a hand in the creation of those songs directly. No hired hands, no extras. And they made it work live on their own terms, Jimmy didn't need anyone else - he took care of all the guitar duties live and still made one guitar sound like an army