Taking sides : Zeppelin or Sabbath

Without warning
A wizard walks by

Is it normal for there to be a warning when a wizard walks by? Perhaps someone comes along ringing a bell and shouts, 'He ye! Hear ye! A wizard will soon be walking by!' But in this case, it didn't happen: there was no warning. The wizard just walked by and took everyone by surprise.

"heavy boots of lead
fills his victims full of dread
running as fast as they can
iron man lives again!"

-- which are either the SILLIEST lyrics evah AND/OR the GREATEST lyrics evah!

Well, maybe he was a crafty wizard, UNBELIEVER.

my heart says sabbath, but my head says zeppelin. if zeppelin were hippy-romanticists deep down -- content to smoke their pot and bang hippie chicks while grooving to joni mitchell songs -- then sabbath were their acid-licking evil cousins. except that they really weren't -- it's just that the studio boffins (page and jones) called the shots for zeppelin, whilst sabbath all were bar-band beer-guzzlers. (i know that this leaves plant as the odd man out, that bonham by himself could outdrink ALL of sabbath [except maybe ozzy], and that iommi later became something of a studio hobbit himself, but allow me to indulge anyway).

-- sabbath hired rick wakeman for an album. does that change yer mind a little bit wr2 them, ned?

-- for a band that many rather lazily assume to have been "stupid," sabbath actually seem in retrospect to be a helluva lot smarter than given credit for. it may've been inevitable that someone would have taken the heavy 60s rock-blues of cream or blue cheer (or zeppelin) to their logical ends, but it's also true that the band that did that WAS sabbath -- and that doing so showed both musical sophistication AND commercial savvy. a better adjective for sabbath, instead of "stupid," would probably be "crass" -- clapton and jones were clearly too constrained by "good taste" and notions of how to "properly" play the blues to go whole-hog into the ultra-heavy riffage or proto-gothy lyrics/image of classic sabbath. (blue cheer, on the other hand, now THEY were truly just a bunch of dumb-asses who got lucky -- which is why we are talking here about sabbath and not them).

-- wakeman and crassness notwithstanding, sabbath never did -- and probably couldn't -- go full-out prog. while zeppelin could've easily out-yessed yes if they were ever so inclined. (goodly portions of, say, tales from topographic oceans sound to my ears VERY similar to certain musical tropes used by zeppelin from time to time). on the other hand, genesis-era peter gabriel probably out-gothed ozzy -- as could've jimmy "i love aleister crowley, smack, and barely-pubescent teens" page if he wasn't so full of himself (and into said barely-pubescent teens).

Eisbar's right - Sabb weren't stupid, they were unconstrained by musicianly ideas of how to play the blues properly, and therefore were more free to push into more extreme territory. After all, what has Gothic horror got to do with good manners and paying one's dues?

Hey, so did Bowie. Sometimes all that's needed is the right context.

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