Led Zeppelin: Classic Or Dud?

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.

My in-laws got me the zep 2cd reissues for my birthday. Only listened to the companion audio of II so far and, La La aside, these are the least revelatory extras I think I've ever heard. Like, Disk 2 is, essentially, a CD of a shitty cassette dub your mate made of the album in the 80s. The brass balls of you, Jimmy Page.

Are the remasters of the albums themselves worth swapping onto my ipod? Hoping the extras for III are better - at this rate, I have no interest in any of the further rereleases.

the remasters sound fantastic and the new vinyl pressings are great IMO, you're buying for the remasters not the extras on all of this stuff

the live disc on LZ I is the only thing really intruiging

Yeah, the live disc on I is the shit.

Page really needs something non-Zeppelin to do.

Take up golf, or get a fantasy football team together for christs sake

Page will begin inundating Plant with Farmville requests.

Yeah, the live disc with I is really great. As soon as I saw that I was all, "fuck, I really am going to buy this again, aren't I?".

i can't find the LZ1 reissue anywhere, i mean just the straight up single LP as opposed to the double LP. is the double worth the extra $$$?

Like, Disk 2 is, essentially, a CD of a shitty cassette dub your mate made of the album in the 80s.

Correction: a CD of a shitty cassette dub your mate made of the album in the 80s that hasn't (to Page's knowledge) been bootlegged, and is therefore fair game for the reissues.

you know, i think that live show on the first album reissue is actually not all that great - pretty sure I've heard better bootlegs from that era.

really enjoyed the bonus stuff on III, though.

the remasters sound fantastic and the new vinyl pressings are great IMO, you're buying for the remasters not the extras on all of this stuff

oh no, I'm definitely buying these for the extras - I've already had all these albums twice on CD!

WOW! This rare version of "Black Dog" sounds exactly like..."Black Dog."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPGfDx6mB8w#t=52

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaOgZwk9rN8

lol

Plant is very wary of being drawn into a war of words with Page. “He should get on and do something, he’s a superb talent. That’s the sad thing for Jimmy, he knows that I’m his guy, I’m his pal, but the warmth that he needs to actually enjoy the world, it’s all there. Come on and give it to us.”

Led Zeppelin loses first round in Stairway To Heaven lawsuit