Led Zeppelin (Official Thread)

E-Z said:

After 50 years the question is why can't I still get into Led Zeppelin?.

The band were musically just a three piece band with limited sound so maybe if the band had brought in a second guitarist to fill out their sound they would have been a lot more interesting to listen to with a fuller sound?. Guitarist's from the same era the 1970s like Rory Gallagher could front a three piece power trio cos Rory could play 'all over and up and down the guitar' when and if he wanted to where as Jimmy was a pretty boring player.

Peter Grant wanted to manage Rory Gallagher but Rory turned the offer down.

Click to expand...

Maybe they didn't create the songs and gel - maybe the sum of the parts didn't add up to more than the whole (think I've got that a bit wrong, but you know what i mean). The Beatles, ABBA (not good examples, but....), some other bands that I can't think of right now - the sum of the parts added up to make exceptional songs (the craft of the individuals was buried in the songs - but made the songs better).
They (Led Zep) were three (or four) disparate parts and they stayed separate, rarely gelled - like Deep Purple - they were all just separate parts 'showing off'. Which is, at least, partially, what they were revered for - brilliant musicianship - but, I think, sometimes (often) to the detriment of the songs. I really don't like guitar, drum, bass(?!?), or vocal solos.
I know this (what I'm saying) is also bollocks - but when they did come together (black dog, rock n roll, various other tracks) they were brilliant - but there's so much individual 'showing off' to also wade through. Too often there was too much 'showing off' to the detrement of the actual songs. I know others will disagree, but I can't be doing with ten minutes of Jimmy Page pratting around with a violin bow... or theramin, or whatever.
I like Led Zep and keep trying to like them more - but there's tracks where i just draw the line. As I've said before, I don't really understand, with their bloated, elongated, 'show-off' versions of tracks, how they got to be so popular in the States (maybe I'm deing disengenious [maybe not the right word] to Americans?). They really had their moments; black dog and, especially, rock n roll, come close to Paranoid as the best early 'heavy metal' tracks (even though they, obviously, weren't 'heavy metal' in any later sense of the term). Sacriledge; the single (cut) version of Whole Lotta Love is better than the album version....! I like later stuff too (obviously not a true Zep fan!).
Anyone, feel free to disagree....

Maybe I was a bit harsh on Led Zeppelin it's just that EVERYONE name drops Led Zeppelin as THE GREASTEST ROCK BAND OF ALL TIME which is nonsense their were loads of better rock bands from the late 1960s & 1970s in my humble opinion it's just that some of them never got the breaks or had bad management and no luck.

Led Zeppelin was a great rock band.

I was obviously a bit 'harsh' too - obviously they played brilliantly together, but, to my mind (and ears), there was too much not playing together too. They were the blues side of rock, rather than the 'pop' side - but so were the Stones and they came up with loads of, arguably, better songs. Whilst brilliant, maybe what bands like Led Zep, Deep Purple (even Rainbow) lacked was a good songwriter(s) - but not every band is lucky enough to have a Jagger / Richards or Lennon / McCartney - who could create something (as suggested above) that's more than the sum of it's parts?

To be honest I don't really know a much about Led Zeppelin other than what the average fans already knows not being that much interested in them or even listening much to there albums myself although I do know that they appeared to have plundered the old black bluesmen's songs on their earlier albums and occasionally 'borrowed' certain bits from them and also being a bit of a fan of Randy California of the band Spirit you can't tell me that Randy California tune Taurus wasn't lifted wholesale to form the opening to Stairway To Heaven where Jimmy plays it note for note!. Apparently Randy was annoyed about it all his life until the day he died and 2 or 3 years ago Randy's estate took Led Zeppelin to court in the USA to get it finally recognized and to have a writing credit appear along side Jimmy Page & Robert Plant on the Stairway To Heaven song but Randy's estate lost the case.

Everything's 'borrowed' from somewhere - there's very few really original ideas (in music, or otherwise). I suppose it depends what they do with the borrowed bits and how much they make it their own. I expect Led Zep could afford better lawyers!
Speaking of borrowing and of 'more than the sum of the parts'; Bowie....

Led Zeppelin had Peter Grant behind them along with his right hand man Richard Coles so nobody was gonna rip them off or screw them unless they wanted to spend a couple of months in a hospital bed!. Ha ha ha...

Hey Zepheads I'm gonna buy Robert's Now and Zen, Manic Nirvana & Band of Joy cds.

Also dudes I picked up a Jimmy Page radio broadcast from Cleveland Ohio from 1988 plus a David Coverdale & Jimmy Page live broadcast from a London recording studio from 1991.

"It's Rock & Roll man."

Led Zeppelin debut album celebrates its 55th birthday January 2024.



Full Album