Led Zeppelin: Classic Or Dud?

Rod Stewart's run of Jeff Beck Group>Faces>early solo is about a flawless a run as any rock artist ever

he was a fucking amazing singer

I find Cream live a fucking snoozefest
but I never find Clapton a compelling soloist, just don't get it

watched a period TV documentary about their last show on Amazon Prime, such fucking wankers in the interview sections jeeezus

Cream were seasoned, arrogant Blues Scholars, and thought they were untouchable, hence the name. Then the Jimi Hendrix Experience showed up.

Always have felt all three members of "The Cream" were massively overrated and mediocre on their respective instruments. Clapton least so of the three I guess. I can't stand Baker's drumming.

I like jack bruce. things we like is a good album

Not bad for a Rangers fan.

Those first few Bruce albums — Things We Like, Songs For A Tailor, and Harmony Row — are very solid. And Songs has my favorite UK response (and there were many) to Music From Big Pink, “Theme From An Imaginary Western.”

Yeah I like Songs for a Tailor

Baker Gurvitz Army is better than Cream

Just went on a walk and tried again with Wheels of Fire, just can't hack it with this band

Though I accept at the time they were a real game changer in rock in a way that I cannot comprehend not having been there

Those first few Bruce albums — /Things We Like/, /Songs For A Tailor/, and /Harmony Row/ — are very solid. And /Songs/ has my favorite UK response (and there were many) to /Music From Big Pink/, “Theme From An Imaginary Western.”

Very good fan band cover of Carouselambra

https://youtu.be/qDlMIa94J9g

Drummer has JB’s tone nailed

Rod Stewart's run of Jeff Beck Group>Faces>early solo is about a flawless a run as any rock artist ever

he was a fucking amazing singer

yeah this. one of the best to ever do it in rock.

A friend bought me a copy of Things We Like recently and both he and I knew nothing about it. I put it on and was like, "this doesn't sound like Cream at all." It's pretty good though.

But yeah, Zep to me smashes all the other bands of that era doing similar things, if for no other reason than the records sound so amazing.

And Rod had a Cooke/Redding thing going on vocally back then that probably was more appealing to some than Plant's wailings.

― "...And the Gods Socially Distanced" (C. Grisso/McCain),

Bowie too. Certain British artists respected a strain of restrained American R&B.

Not bad for a Rangers fan.

i would honestly appreciate a thread about conceivably (but probably not) acceptable rangers fans

i won't understand it, but nevertheless

Trower > Beck imo

XPS I had a 'Eureka' moment when I finally heard Live At The Harlem Square Club (where Cooke was a little hoarse while recording), and realizing that was where (figuratively, as the album didn't come until the '80s) Rod got everything.

Trower > Beck imo

ALL DAY EVERY DAY

...except when he made equine grimaces backing Bryan Ferry in 1993-1994.

bridge of sighs is a really good album

A friend bought me a copy of Things We Like recently and both he and I knew nothing about it. I put it on and was like, "this doesn't sound like Cream at all." It's pretty good though.

i would honestly appreciate a thread about conceivably (but probably not) acceptable rangers fans

i won't understand it, but nevertheless

The only reason I know about Jack Bruce being a Rangers fan is because of a (1969?) documentary on him, which is probably on YouTube, which has him wandering around Glasgow and going to a Rangers v. Celtic game.

@ 17:20 Bonham talking about his time on Black Dog....pretty cool, I've never heard him talk at this length before

http://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1048&v=gYlpaphm4VA&feature=emb_logo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYlpaphm4VA

Nice West Midlands accent.

to me i think... if we're talking about rock music... starting in '69 there starts to be a tremendous amount of bloat. we enter the Drum Solo era, which, yes, Cream were the harbingers of, but there's this sort of stadium-rock tedium to so much of it. there's this, particularly, dead spot in 1971 where american rock produces nothing but posthumous records.

possibly this is a direct outgrowth of the "album era" heralded by sgt. peppers' - certainly there were a lot of great SONGS before then. for me, the kinks, the stones, the who, the pretty things, they did their best work between '65 and '68, and in america you had the byrds, you had half a billion garage bands like the misunderstood and the electric prunes and the music machine.

xp not sure i've ever heard him speak. super interesting

1971 is an insanely good year in rock music

1971 is an insanely good year in rock music

While I respect kate's perspective, I can't ever share it. Even at their most adventurous, bands in 1965-68 were still trying to get songs played on AM radio. By 1969, that was already fading away, and from roughly 1969-74, rock music was at its most creative and experimental. There were high points after that, of course, but that was when the wave really crested, as far as I'm concerned.

In the case of Zeppelin, they were both creative and experimental, and at the same time absolutely codified the indulgent arena rock experience. Further in the band's defense, I don't think any of their records are bloated.

well except maybe the last one

absolutely codified the indulgent arena rock experience

Oh hell yes. I love most of LZ's studio albums, but a 3 1/2 hour concert by them is my idea of hell. Compare Zeppelin bootlegs to that Yes box of live recordings from 1972 (which I own) and it's two entirely different things. Yes were not self-indulgent at all; they rip through those songs, and I'll bet it was crushingly loud.

You have to be pretty indulgent when Yes is more restrained.

well, the indulgence is already baked into the songs — yes didn’t go turning 20-minute suites into 45-minute jams

Did they have solo showcases live?

Hadrian nice find , thanks

1971 is an insanely good year in rock music

― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown)

if we're talking about british bands, totally!

"Did they have solo showcases live?

― Josh in Chicago"

yes

I don't know if I could really choose between 1969 and 1971, if we stick to rock.

I'm not even sure who artists are supposed to be indulging other than themselves. Journalists who write for the music press? They weren't happy with Zep's studio albums either. The audience? Oh wait, they packed stadiums full of paying fans for years on end; doesn't seem like the public was too put off.

They're supposed to be indulging the non-fans, obv.

Well, I suppose a rhetorical question is if anyone was going to the shows *for* the drum/guitar/organ solos.

Just be grateful Robert Plant didn't do vocal solos.

Very much so, yes. No idea what the percentage would be, though.

xp

Yeah, lots of people love those and have bought live albums or collect bootlegs. You can Google people discussing those solos or scroll up in the thread. Doubt people were flocking to see them and skipping half the show bc they hoped for Foreigner-style efficiency and professionalism.xp

Yeah, Yep was never urgent

Goddamn it, ZEP were never urgent. Ruined my own joke with autocorrect

Would totally listen to a bluegrass Yes cover band called Yep.

Sund4r otm

I never got to see either band in their heyday, but I saw Yes on the Union tour and it was some boring, half ass shit. I saw Page/Plant and it was completely badass from start to finish.

Plant was good last summer (and, yeah, his band members took long solos and no one left afaict). I seemed to differ from the crowd, though, in that I liked his own newer material more than most of the versions of Zep songs he played, as he doesn't exactly have the voice he had in his 20s.