Led Zeppelin: Classic Or Dud?

i like how he somehow bends all of led zep to his will. like, this is your song, but you're going to play it my way.

Bowie's always played guitar! Keyboards and sax too.

In a mid-70s interview, Townshend talked about how much he hated the light-gauge/easy-bending sound of Page. He said something like, "You've gotta work for that string bend!" (and Townshend always used the heaviest-gauge strings available).

Roger Daltrey was the Detours' lead guitarist in 1961 when he let Townshend join. Daltrey didn't play guitar in public again until 1982.

Daltrey's hands got messed up in the sheet metal factory so he couldn't play guitar anymore-Tony Iommi had yet to invent the necessary prosthetics and drop tuning.

Bowie's always played guitar! Keyboards and sax too.

But he's always played on his albums (Let's Dance and Tonight are notable for being the only albums on which he doesn't play note), and the best ones -- STS excepted -- show him playing a helluva lot.

*he doesn't play a note

Yeah, you are right, I was probably being too harsh.

Iggy Pop on the Letterman show, 1988 or thereabouts:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmxAuAdx8_Q

Some of us play light guage strings because fingers. I suddenly got a lot better, or suddenly some better, when I finally tried a Lady Yamaha. Now I want a Mary Ford; never mind your big ol' Les Paul. Mandolins, ukes are cool too, except the former can be a b to tune.

Good choice. This is 1990, I think.

Gauge, too.

Ha, though it was going to be David playing guitar in that video, not Jim.

Guess maybe I should finally read that Bowie bio I bought last year.

That's the first album on which solo songwriting credits dominate too.

Only thing I remember about that Fairport jam is that Jimmy picked up Richard Thompson's guitar and panicked a little because RT used such heavier gauge strings than he was used to - he said they were like railroad tracks or railroad ties or something.

Tom Verlaine also uses the heaviest gauge obtainable. Most of my favorite guitarists seem to. I should try it sometime; I've always used medium.

Bowie's guitar on the Diamond Dogs record is amazing. Weird and "untutored" but amazing

His best guitar work is on The Idiot.

I don't particularly remember the guitars on that--will have to check out--thanks!

the most vocal "I only play the heaviest gauge strings" guitarist I know is also the guy who knows the least about guitars and just assumes that heavy = harder than you

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSkPKGrgVnY

About the extent of Roger on guitar:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NV5-DaI5ULg&feature=kp

he just needs the workout imo xp

The ultimate who's-he-fooling?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuuObGsB0No&feature=kp

xpost

One of Rodgers’ earliest solo production projects came in 1983, when he helped craft chart-topping David Bowie’s comeback album Let’s Dance. In so doing, Rodgers also introduced Austin, Texas, blues guitar virtuoso Stevie Ray Vaughan to the world by enlisting him to play on the album. Years later, Rodgers produced 1990 Stevie Ray and Jimmie Vaughan album Family Style, which was released shortly after Stevie Ray Vaughan’s untimely death.

“The very first time I met S.R.V. it was the most charming thing ever,” said Rodgers. “He played my guitar and he used to use much heavier-gauge strings. So he was playing my Strat and he broke a string. I didn’t know because I was off in another room doing something else. When I got back to my guitar there was a sweet handwritten note that I still have. It said, ‘Dear Nile, so sorry. I didn’t mean to break no strangs.’ And he spelled it with an A!”

Q : How would you define Frank Sampedro's playing.

NEIL : Frank uses the biggest guitar strings I've ever seen a guitarist use. He's probably the most violent guitar player I know -- much more than I am, because he doesn't really do solos. His strings are so huge! 012 to 055, with a wound G string! When he plays a note, it's like a hurricane! In the midst of all that, I play and I don't really know where I'm going. Without them, my sound would be ordinary. The biggest part of it is theirs.

omg that 'strangs' story. SRV.

the most vocal "I only play the heaviest gauge strings" guitarist I know is also the guy who knows the least about guitars and just assumes that heavy = harder than you

― Now I Am Become Dracula (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Sunday, June 29, 2014 8:08 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Tell me if I'm wrong , but doesn't the inventor of "heavy"-tony Iommi- play the lightest gauge strings possible? Warning: I am non-musician

plus: trading cards, with art which looks like R.Crumb's...

This art doesn't look anything like Crumb's. The header is obv stolen from Crumb and vandalised with Comic Sans, showing even less respect to Crumb than Page did to his sources but the painted cards are ripped off from Wm. Stout

Dunno about Iommi, but Billy Gibbons uses .007s (about the lightest gauge there is) and, according to his tech, has never once broken a string during a show.

xp

Tell me if I'm wrong , but doesn't the inventor of "heavy"-tony Iommi- play the lightest gauge strings possible?

I hadn't heard that - I play acoustic, which is a different deal, but I know that when I was a young punk, I thought "these heavy ass strings are what I need because I play REALLY HARD because I LIKE IT LOUD" and then at some point I only had medium lights and needed to restring and guess what, I got a much louder sound out of the medium lights and they seemed to take the beating better than the heavy ones, which rang real nice until they broke, which was often

That tape noise at the start of III was on the cassette I got for Christmas in 1990. Is it really not on some releases?

I imagine you get longer sustain (on an electric) with very heavy gauge strings? Also it seems like you could downtune with less of a flappy string paul Leary effect

But I just think of the pain it would cause my sweet little felders, er I mean fingers

I've seen quite a few clips of Plant strumming acoustic the last twenty years.

Jagger is by far the more accomplished guitarist at this point though.

― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 29 June 2014 22:23 (Yesterday) Permalink

When I saw Plant on the "Manic Nirvana" tour in 1990 (? I think, maybe '91) he played a hot shit solo, at least to my 14 yr old mind, during I want to say "Since I've Been Loving You".

Iommi got in the habit of playing light gauge strings after he lost his fingers, iirc, because it was less painful/uncomfortable. I believe that ultimately played a role in his tuning down, too. If memory serves, the first Sabbath album is pretty much in standard tuning. Things get lower after that.

plus: trading cards, with art which looks like R.Crumb's...

This art doesn't look anything like Crumb's. The header is obv stolen from Crumb and vandalised with Comic Sans, showing even less respect to Crumb than Page did to his sources but the painted cards are ripped off from Wm. Stout

― boney tassel (sic), Monday, 30 June 2014 03:09 (Yesterday) Permalink

I was being ironic, sorry. More actual music:
Plant at Glastonbury '14, (with more this-year performances on this same page, ditto Page & Plant's whole 1995 set, or a big chunk, anyway)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dsy6eAz4a3I

http://m.rollingstone.com/music/news/led-zeppelin-continue-reissues-with-iv-and-houses-of-the-holy-20140729

alternate mixes *yawn*

Looks like some serious barrel-scraping for the bonus material:

"The Rain Song," Mix Minus Piano

Theoretically, they could do whole box sets for each record with unique mixes of all the songs, each mix missing one instrument! "The Rain Song," Mix Minus Bass, "The Rain Song," Mix Minus Drums etc.

I would listen to a Bonham-only mix greatest hits album for sure.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiX5veUCwkY

I guess one holdup has been that Page has specifically been searching for bits and pieces that have *not* been bootlegged before, and seeing as the band really didn't leave much substantial in the vaults, pickings are pretty limited.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZZY4mrm--g

Anyway, y'all should get this:

http://bootlegpedia.com/imagesCache.php?site=bootlegpedia&image=TheGodfatherRecords-Box-18.jpg&directory=products&height=325&width=325&rootDirectory=images

I guess one holdup has been that Page has specifically been searching for bits and pieces that have *not* been bootlegged before, and seeing as the band really didn't leave much substantial in the vaults, pickings are pretty limited.

― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, July 29, 2014 1:10 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Sure, but Page seems to be operating on the assumption that bootlegs are already in the hands of most people who would buy the reissues.

alternate mixes *yawn*

this.

There's got to be something to that (xpost). I mean, there are dozens of pro quality (radio broadcast, etc.) Springsteen bootlegs, but he's never released any of them. But neither has he made an effort to shut the bootleg sites down. I bet Page figures that so many decades down the line, anyone really interested in outtakes has heard a bunch of them. So I think of the extra stuff on these (so far) as bonus discs in the truest sense. The remastered albums are the real selling point, and always will be.

Page seems to be operating on the assumption that bootlegs are already in the hands of most people who would buy the reissues.

this is unfortunate if true, cuz even pseudo-dedicated muso like me is daunted by wading into the black hole of Zep bootlegs

Yeah, I mean, I love most of the studio stuff, love most of HTWWW and the DVD, but I'd rather Page & co. cleaned up and doled out shows than having to dive into that rabbit hole. I suspect many casual-ish Zep fans feel similarly. If I want a show where they play "Fresh Garbage," I'd rather not download 15 torrents of crappy audience recordings before finding a listenable one only to find that Plant mumbles the words "fresh garbage" once during a 20-minute D&C jam.

Haha yes exactly

They're probably trying to keep the lid on any Spirit connections at the moment.

Been disappointed and baffled so long it's not true / Page wants the headlines, I don't know what he's trying to do.