Jimi Hendrix & Led Zeppelin

[westen44]

I try to keep up with Hendrix.  But I've never heard about these comments from Carmen Appice in this article.  Since the Vanilla Fudge toured with the JHE for a while, I'm sure Appice had plenty of opportunities to get to know Hendrix, though.  I wish the article had gone into more depth, but I guess that's all they had.  Most of the time when I see an article like this, I don't even bother with it and consider it clickbait.  But this had a few points which got my attention at least a little. 


https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/why-jimi-hendrix-didnt-like-led-zeppelin/

[uwe]

Jimi has just risen in my estimation a hundredfold. 

If he was still alive, I'd offer him a job with Deep Purple, no less!

Those thieving magpies. All musicians steal, but the Zep guys always pretended not to while bands such as the Stones, Aerosmith or Deep Purple would admit to it. Zep had to be taken to court for every co-credit they reluctantly gave.

So Jimmy Page says he never saw Hendrix. Just like he never heard Spirit though they were Zep's opening act. I have my doubts: Clapton, Beck, Blackmore, Trower, Alvin Lee, they all saw Hendrix and all were floored by him and everyone of them nicked a little bit off him (and admitted it).

But Page's dismissive attitude kind of fits the picture. When the Coverdale Page project was underway, Coverdale wanted to contribute a song in a Hendrix vein (he was a great Hendrix fan, getting into fights at youth clubs in his home Northern England to have Hendrix played by the DJs). Page refused: "Oooh, that is a little too hendrixy for me." Coverdale subsequently released the song on his Into The Light solo album.



So the Hendrix/Zep schism might have been mutual. Zep were always an arrogant bunch, I do not remember that they ever said anything positive about one of their peers. Not about Purple or Sabbath (collectively derided by them as "Deep Sabbath"), not about The Who ("a musical dictatorship under Führer Pete Townshend", a quip by Page that enraged John Entwistle at the time) and not about the Stones or The Faces (who invented sloppiness for them!).

Meanwhile, back in the elderly retirees' home:

[gearHed289]

It's a scientific fact that Carmine Appice can NOT do an interview without mentioning that Zeppelin opened for his band and Bonham got a riff from him. 

[uwe]

Hey, you don't go a-knocking the Fudge, progboy! They were Deep Purple's no 1 inspiration. 

I really like Carmine's very musical drumming (more so than his brother Vinnie's though he has an immediately identifiable style too), but of course he is a real Wop loudmouth.







(Best Ozzy line-up ever! A real good rock band with a less than note-perfect lead vocalist you kinda still had to like.  )

[westen44]

David Coverdale has a great voice and a great taste in music.  "River Song" is outstanding. 

Carmen Appice has been one of my favorite drummers since forever.

In regard to Hendrix, although it has been out a while, I just got the "Live in Maui" set.  The first CD is especially good.  I wouldn't call it the Holy Grail of his concerts as some have, but it's really good, IMO. 

[uwe]

Hendrix was sloppy, but it didn't matter. When you're so far ahead of all others you're allowed to be a little sloppy.

[westen44]

Hendrix's concerts varied widely in quality.  But when one didn't go well you could usually tell at the end with his look of disgust.  But Billy Cox said Hendrix was pleased with Maui.  I've only had a chance to listen to it once.  Now I've got to focus on the remastered Golden Earring 2 CD set which arrived just moments ago. 

[Alanko]

Carmine Appice is a ridiculous looking dude. Sometimes you get a band that inspired great things in other bands but who sort of still stay on the fringes themselves. Numerous people can tell you about the impact the Stooges had on punk rock, but how many can name the drummer? Maybe Carmine is perpetually write himself and Vanilla Fudge a bigger role in classic rock canon?

Saying that, I was thinking about Led Zeppelin a wee bit the other day. There was a brief period around LZ3 where they were trying to semi pass themselves off as part of the folk rock movement in the UK. Somewhere between their appearance at the Bath festival in 1970, their trip to Iceland and their 'return to the clubs' tour. Earlier than that, the central melody of Jimmy Page's White Summer/Black Mountainside piece was a fairly clear lift of the folk tune 'She Moved through the Fair', as covered by everybody. But... LZ didn't really move in folk circles. Jimmy wouldn't really be able to keep up with Davey Graham or Bert Jansch. They hadn't been going to the same clubs as the guys from Fairport Convention since 1965. Danny Thompson didn't contribute upright bass as a guest musician on LZ3. The pieces don't quite fit. Led Zeppelin wore a number of hats (which makes the claim that they simply ripped off blues artists a slight over-simplification). Ultimately they discovered cocaine and large stadia and the folk dabbling was pretty much blown away for ever. They shaved their beards off and everything.

[doombass]

Carmine's playing has always been to my liking. And speaking of The Who above I got to think of this cover which I really dig:

[uwe]

They always had a nice Yank RnB groove, something Brit bands couldn't quite emulate.