darklands
everything's broken, and my Stacys are soaking wet
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.
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....