Taking sides : Zeppelin or Sabbath

The IDEA of the Sabs - four working class beer swillin' brummies laying down the devil's heaviest riffs - is better than their actual music IMHO. Points for the line "I finished with my woman, 'cos she couldn't help me with my mind", though

(Dunno if it's burnout or just, y'know, bad taste, but I'm in that rare bracket of prefering solo Ozzy - Randy Rhodes/Jake E. Lee eras - to his time w/ Sabbath.)

My parents came very close to buying a house from Sabbath in 1981. It was on the top of the hill in Herefordshire and it had the musical notation for "Paranoia" spelt out in wrought iron on the front gates. Inside most of it was surprisingly ordinary but I do remember a bedroom with an airbrushed satanic mural. I wanted this room so badly that I immediately rushed down to the local heavy metal shop to get a copy of ‘Paranoia’. This record shop in Worcester was for me the key metal experience… the sickly smell of patchouli oil, black letter forms, matt black paint, black leather. I peered around in the gloom and eventually found a copy (I didn’t dare ask the assistant for help). I bought it on tape because I didn’t have a record player I my room and for two weeks I went to sleep listening to Sabbath on headphones, and tuning in to Tommy Vance on Fridays. When my parents didn’t buy the house I sold the album to the heavy metal secondhand stall and a month or two later I started listening to Peel as I fell asleep and that was the end of my Heavy Metal phase.

Zeppelin was sui generis and fine as far as they go, but the early stuff's got too much hippie wank. Though the first record of Physical Graffiti is one of the greatest funk albums ever recorded, and Presence and In Through the Out Door would do studio hobbits like Brian Wilson, Kevin Shields, and Dr. Dre proud.

led zep = layered stuido-pop written played by bubblegum session musicians, sung by a hobbit muthafucka; sabbath = rewrite of laws of music hurrah (with silliness thinly smeared on top to confuse fools)

I'm not sure what everyone has against Zeppelin's acoustic songs. "That's the Way" has some of the most beautiful guitar melodies ever. And anyone who says the last couple LZ albums are their best is being perverse.

All of Black Sabbath vs. "Rock And Roll"
winner: Led Zeppelin

the winner still has enough energy to run through "Gallows Pole" while Sabbath does a 0:28 acousti-jingle and fires Ozzy.

This is not to say I don't enjoy Black Sabbath but picking them over Zep for me would be like choosing a steak over a steak with french fries and an ice cream sundae for desert (don't eat the parsley though, that's just for show).

Sabbath -- best steakhouse in five states
Zeppelin -- Sizzler

;-)

And why isn't anybody acknowledging that Sab's Steakhouse went under several different managment teams?

I only have Paranoid. It's good in its way but I dunno. All these reasons people give against Zeppelin - the acoustic tracks, the voice, 'hippie wank' - are a big part of why I'd give it to them. (I actually don't know that Ozzy's voice added all that much while Plant was great. And the lyrics suck.) Layered studio guitar pop = greatest music ever anyway. If it was just "Dancing Days" vs all the Sabbath I've listened to, I think I'd still hand it to Zeppelin. The versatility thing goes a long way. And influencing "More Than a Feeling" honestly means more to me than influencing every thrash and death metal band ever.

Though I wonder if Purple would actually deserve this if I knew them better. They were probably the best musicians of the bunch.

(LZ's faults: their jams sucked, the first two albums are stupidly sloppy, the third and PG are hit-and-miss, Houses actually feels bloated and excessive and campy and all the things prog is supposed to be, I couldn't be bothered with Presence beyond "Achilles' Last Stand", the chest-thumping machismo and misogyny esp in earlier stuff which is probably better anyway can get in the way if I'm not in the mood, why did it seem logical to mix boozy blues-rock with medieval prog tracks?, now that I've seen a LOTR movie some of those songs seem a little less mysterious and evil.)

"Changes" is not "War Pigs" is not most of the second side of Sabotage -- the underrating of early Sabbath's versatility is getting frustrating here.

Don't forget Technical Ecstacy.

Most of Sab's diverse moments I've heard were either rather trivial, extremely short or straight out sucked. Led on the other hand...

Kashmir vs. Supertzar.

Let's just put it that way.

and i'm beginning to reconsider my vote fer sabbath b/c THEY DID NOT HAVE THE FUNK ... while zeppelin DID.

i still think that mistah sinkah said it best ... "led zep = layered stuido-pop written played by bubblegum session musicians, sung by a hobbit muthafucka; sabbath = rewrite of laws of music hurrah (with silliness thinly smeared on top to confuse fools)."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThU9BOWcmjM&

That's pretty damn great. Thanks!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

Is that Led Sabbath or Black Zeppelin?

Bled Sablin

Karmik guy making an utter fool of himself earlier in the thread.

I don't give a shit about values and representation, Zeppelin are just better. I don't care if they worship trees, what difference does that make?

Sabbath, easy

I COULD TALK SHIT ABOUT LED ZAPPELIN THAT AINT GANA GET NO WERE...........

― MYER, Saturday, January 1, 2005 10:16 PM Bookmark

OTM

Sabbath for the first four, Zep for the second four. Dio Sabbath better than Jimmy Page's solo career, Plant solo career better than post-Dio Sabbath. Total is a wash as both were excellent.

I don't give a shit about values and representation, Zeppelin are just better. I don't care if they worship trees, what difference does that make?

― Party with Your Poodle (u s steel), Thursday, September 30, 2010 10:19 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

A finely tuned argument-well presented- but completely wrong.

Duh.

Kind of like your display name?

Why choose?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThU9BOWcmjM&feature=player_embedded

Sabbath invented something. Zeppelin was great but not as innovative or influential.

Plus I listen to Sabbath a lot more.

Everyday just comes and goes
Life is one big overdose

This taking sides are playing across on about five threads lol. Giving it all a proper listen. Sabbath (from the first 3 albs) seems like a better band, or attempting stranger things. Zep (from Physical Graffiti on my phone speakers) leave their base player hanging a bit?

Sabbath are a lot better when acoustic or not doing the shit they are known for.

Anyway the answer is Beefheart.

Chiming in from the Sabbath C/D thread.

For me, it comes down to this. Sabbath had an astonishingly good run for five, arguably six albums, inventing an entire style of music in the process. However, most of what they have done since then has been pretty much crap, as the band more or less imploded thanks to their own prodigious drug use and in-fighting.

Zeppelin, meanwhile, has not a single bad or even marginal album in its discography, which stands up as well as any other band's in history. Their range was significantly broader than Sabbath's, and individually each member was more talented than his counterpart in Sabbath. And to their credit, the surviving members knew when to hang it up.

Advantage, Zeppelin.

I like imagining sabbath with bonham

Sabbath had an astonishingly good run for five, arguably six albums

I'd probably take Never Say Die over most of In Through the Out Door. But overall Zeppelin have a much more mythic "presence" for me, possibly because I heard them 20 years before Sabbath.

I can take or leave Never Say Die. Ozzy is only halfway there. The best part of it is the album art. I certainly wouldn't put it anywhere near In Through the Out Door.

IIRC, the tour forNever Say Die was the one where Sabbath invited Van Halen to be the opener--much to their regret.

individually each member was more talented than his counterpart in Sabbath

OK, but Bill Ward sang and wrote songs, which Bonham didn't, and Geezer Butler is arguably a better lyricist than Plant.

I think Bonham and Ward--as drummers--are the closest matchup. Not sure I'd agree about Geezer being a better lyricist than Plant; he surely wasn't a better lyricist than Jones.

_individually each member was more talented than his counterpart in Sabbath_


OK, but Bill Ward sang and wrote songs, which Bonham didn't, and Geezer Butler is arguably a better lyricist than Plant.

_individually each member was more talented than his counterpart in Sabbath_


OK, but Bill Ward sang and wrote songs, which Bonham didn't, and Geezer Butler is arguably a better lyricist than Plant.

If they're as worthy as "Swinging the Chain", why not?

Lol
You don’t play an instrument do you

wait is jimbeaux a much more personable bill magill

. . .

that's cool

calstars just fyi you are being an asshole again

Bill would never ever take Sabbath over Zep

ah shit.

I meant the exactly opposite

Lol sorry 🤔😆

Still curious if halfway has -any experience playing music

I do, even in bands, and I don't understand this insistence that musicians stay in their lane. Like Don Henley is a mediocre drummer who also sings and writes, but the singing and writing doesn't make him a worse drummer than he already is.
I may also be influenced by Martin Popoff's reviews of Bill Ward's solo records (which I haven't heard) to the effect that he is only member of Sabbath still guided by his muse and pushing his artistic frontiers, etc.

But taking a new approach to the thread question:

Funniest Zeppelin tune: "The Crunge"
Funniest Sabbath tune: "Blow On a Jug"

OK, Sabbath wins hands down.

Bill Magill is an OK name.

Don't get me wrong, I love both bands. But, gun to my head, I'll take Zeppelin.

My musician son and I have an ongoing debate: Tony Iommi vs. Dimebag Darrell. I"m on Team Iommi.

Right because drummers are supposed to write songs

Neil Peart to thread

I definitely don't think the Dio albums (aka Geezer and the Italians per Oz) are crap.

I remember buying Heaven and Hell when it came out. I was very pleasantly surprised. It still holds up OK. Mob Rules is forgettable other than the title track. The rest . . . meh. 13 was surprisingly good, if only because it sounds like a Sabbath album, albeit a very tired one.

To his credit, Dio, unlike, say, Sammy Hagar, did not try to overshadow or denigrate his predecessor. He seemed like a solid dude and a really good singer. I saw him with his own band once at the state fairgrounds and it was a decent show. At least they didn't open for a puppet show.

Great Sabbath albums:

s/t
Paranoid
Master of Reality
Vol. 4
Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
Sabotage
Heaven and Hell
Mob Rules
The Devil You Know

Great Led Zeppelin albums:
II
IV
Disc 1 of Physical Graffiti

Good lord

yeah gun to my head it’s prob Zep, even if I kind of overdid it with them in hs & college