Hands up if you don't 'get' Led Zep?

G

Gabba Flamenco Crossover

High Sierra Skullfuck
Compared to the Stooges, Black Sabbath or Funkadelic... ain't nothing special goin' on here IMO.

Alright so John Bonham is a great drummer, and all thier records have very sample-able chunks of him pounding away. But the band as a whole are just *meh*.

I read something recently where Bobby Gillespie was banging on about them and saying 'I never got into Sabbath..' - which makes sense, because aren't Led Zep a bit like the Primal Scream of the 70s? An english fanboy take on the real thing that gets it slightly too right to be credible?
 
Dusty

Dusty

Tone deaf
Before my time. My experience of Led Zep has been their entire catalog on loop as office background music for my boss. Gets a bit tired after the 20th loop. Dad rock.
 
Mr. Tea

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
I would have thought it more charitable to call Primal Scream a 'Led Zep of the '90s', and not just for reasons of historical precedence. :)

I dunno, I reckon Zeppelin were/are pretty great, but I'm past the stage where I feel the need to go "How can you possibly NOT like [band/artist that I like]]?!?!?". As for being an "English fanboy take on the real thing", it's worth remembering that they went far beyond the blues; yes, they wore their influences on their sleeves, but they were immensely innovative, too.
 
C

crackerjack

Well-known member
Gabba Flamenco Crossover said:
Compared to the Stooges, Black Sabbath or Funkadelic... ain't nothing special goin' on here IMO.

Alright so John Bonham is a great drummer, and all thier records have very sample-able chunks of him pounding away. But the band as a whole are just *meh*.

I read something recently where Bobby Gillespie was banging on about them and saying 'I never got into Sabbath..' - which makes sense, because aren't Led Zep a bit like the Primal Scream of the 70s? An english fanboy take on the real thing that gets it slightly too right to be credible?
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Not my bag at all, but I think the complete opposite is true. Having spent ages working in record shops, Led Zep were always reliable sellers. Sabbath worship never really kicked in until that time round the turn of the millennium when metal became the cartoon genre of choice for professional ironists.
 
L

Lichen

Well-known member
"Absolutely. How anyone could rate them above, eg, the Stooges, God only knows."

Apples and pears, surely?
 
Benny Bunter

Benny Bunter

Well-known member
Concur with virtually all of the above. The only thing of Led Zeps that ever got to me was the riff on 'black dog', thats pretty hot I suppose. And their legacy of influence is pretty terrible too. All the best metal-orientated stuff has been influenced by Sabbath, not Led Zep (I'm thinking of the whole Melvins-Earth-Sunn O))) continuum). As soon as the White Stripes started being more influenced by Led Zep rather than the Stooges, they went shite...(scoff if you like, but the first Stripes album is pretty great). Black Sabbath introduced a new sound, Led Zep showed off their technical mastery of old styles. Someone mentioned Primal Scream upthread, and I can see the comparison. Its 'record collection rock' innit? The only thing Zep brought to the table was smug virtuosity, yawn...
 
Leo

Leo

Well-known member
"led zep II" is one of the greatest rock lps ever, "whole lotta love" one of the greatest rock tracks ever. beyond the music, they also epitomized the zenith of rock excess/hedonism. they're kinda like the beatles in the sense that they became so engrained that we're really no longer able step back objectively and fully appreciate them or the magnitude of their influence.

and no comparison to the stooges: two entirely different areas of greatness.
 
Benny Bunter

Benny Bunter

Well-known member
Leo said:
beyond the music, they also epitomized the zenith of rock excess/hedonism. they're kinda like the beatles in the sense that they became so engrained that we're really no longer able step back objectively and fully appreciate them or the magnitude of their influence.

and no comparison to the stooges: two entirely different areas of greatness.
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All those rock n roll stories about them just put me off 'em even more. I mean that whole 'red snapper' incident. Its just vile, and its so tiresome to hear all these stories over and over again. Hate that term 'Rock Gods' too, just makes me wanna puke...

At least with the Stooges there was a sense of genuine desperation about their excess. And please, no Beatles comparisons. As big as Zeppelin were, they could never be said to be as influential or innovative as the Beatles, surely?
 
N

noel emits

a wonderful wooden reason
This thread is weird. Led Zeppelin are practically the definition of rock music, to claim anything else is revisionism.

In all honesty I hardly ever listen to Zep now but I loved them when I was 12. Right through to the end they were knocking out fantastic riffs and Bonham could be pretty funky at times. They did have that 'mystical' vibe and they truly believed in the power of rock and their own monster egos and it's churlish to argue with that level of belief.

But really Led Zeppelin is so simple and fundamental that if you don't 'get' it you just don't like rock music so don't bother trying.
 
Benny Bunter

Benny Bunter

Well-known member
noel emits said:
This thread is weird. Led Zeppelin are practically the definition of rock music, to claim anything else is revisionism.

But really Led Zeppelin is so simple and fundamental that if you don't 'get' it you just don't like rock music so don't bother trying.
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This is a ridiculous statement really. I mean you could get away with saying that about the Stones maybe, but never Led Zeppelin. If you're talking about some sort of simplistic 'essence' of rock music, well, its all the twiddly over-complex pretentiousness in Led Zep that puts me off em.
 
N

noel emits

a wonderful wooden reason
Benny B said:
This is a ridiculous statement really. I mean you could get away with saying that about the Stones maybe, but never Led Zeppelin. If you're talking about some sort of simplistic 'essence' of rock music, well, its all the twiddly over-complex pretentiousness in Led Zep that puts me off em.
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Yes it's a bit hyperbolic. ;) I'm trying to counteract the odd anti-Zep sentiment here that I think is (mis)informed by subsequent punk trashing of 'rock excess'.

I get the feeling that some people here are looking at Zeppelin through the lens of music and attitudes that came after. It's just much simpler than that. As for twiddlyness, apart from Stairway To Heaven they don't really indulge in much of that. They have their riffing songs, their blues knock-offs, their folk pastorals and later on the epic Melotron work outs.

As Leo said above their influence and presence (;)) are so pervasive that if you haven't grown up with them you could miss how crucial and unashamedly huge they were.

Sabbath and The Stooges are much more specialist prospects. The Stones are too pop, Zeppelin are definitive heavy rock.
 
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hint

hint

party record with a siren
woooshwoooshwoooshwooosh
dung-dugga-dugga
dung-dugga-dugga
dung-dugga-dugga
dung-dugga-dugga
aaaah-ah-aaaaaaaaaah-aaaaaaaaaaah!
aaaah-ah-aaaaaaaaaah-aaaaaaaaaaah!

Led Zeppelin's legacy / influence is comparable to that of The Beatles as far as the production / engineering world is concerned (albeit in a limited "guitars and drums" sense).

Songwriting... nah.
 
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P

petergunn

plywood violin
i don't like zep, but i "get" them... they set a template for hard rock that will live on in the suburbs forever...
 
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