Stairway to Heaven

[PhilT]

I have quite an ambivalent feeling about Led Zep. I can live with the mining of blues heritage, that's always gone on, just LZ made more money from it than most. The songs can be overlong and pretentious, and they'd take a reasonably catchy riff like Kashmir and then bludgeon it to death. It often sounds to me like Plant is making the lyrics up as he goes along, and the Lord of the Rings stuff is awful. In the end, though, the performance overcomes all that.

[Barklessdog]

Thats how Barney makes a living- changing the words to familiar songs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsKO_r76kfQ&feature=related

[uwe]

+1 on Plant's lyrics! They have always left me utterly cold. I don't find them sexy no matter how much lemon juice runs down his legs, I think they're po-faced and humorless, never witty and not relevant social commentaries either. Just words he sings with that admittedly remarkable and unique voice. He could be singing Chinese throughout and it wouldn't sound more non-connective to me. Even the sword and scorcery stuff is below par, Dio at least creates worlds with his lyrics even though it's the same world "on and on and on, it's heaven and hell". Frankly, Plant to me is as poor/rotten a lyricist as he is excellent a singer.

But then I've never even heard from the most devout of Zep fans that his lyrics are in any way relevant to them. Let's wait for what Ter will have to contribute to this ...     I'm sure he'll admit that (bar singing) chest hair and girlie kimonos are Herr Plant's most redeeming traits!  

[Rhythm N. Bliss]

The Beatnix are cute & even mildly badass but Dread Zeppelin's Stairway is 10 times funnier!!! ha haaa haaaaa

C'mon~ Zep's lyrics have always grabbed you, if you can only remember back to Zep I my dear ol' curmudgeons: From the first song--Good Times, Bad Times--you know I've had MY share! to the last song about Rosie stealing away...then on to Zep II for a Whole Lotta Love...Love is what it's all about, right? All You Neeed & all that.
I'll defend Plant to the end, I've always LOVED his lyrics, like many, many other Americans who set attendance records for the largest crowds to go see ONE band (An Evening With Led Zeppelin) & according to radio reports they were & probly still are The Band Most Rockers Are Blasting While Having Sex!!!
Zep is all about SEX--- from Your Time Is Conna CUM to Every Inch of My Love to All of My Love to....Bonzo's Montreux heh

[Muzikman7]

The only thing I liked about Led Zeppelin was John Paul Jones.

[gweimer]

The only thing I liked about Led Zeppelin was John Paul Jones.

Not even Bonzo?  And regardless of what you think of their material, I've always thought Page was an outstanding producer.

[Muzikman7]

Not even Bonzo?  And regardless of what you think of their material, I've always thought Page was an outstanding producer.

Ok I'll give you those two things, but as a band I think they're overrated.

[Dave W]

I listened to Led Zeppelin I and II, never a big fan. Couldn't stand III and IV, never listened again except when I can't get away from it.

[sniper]

i was a big fan up through lV. after that it seemed they were making good rock in search of a beat and i felt they lost me when they got away from what i realized was, as it has been named earlier "blues mining".

their earlier blues influences are a particular hobbit of mine but not too fruitful lately. i did a little collaboration work with Tommie B. but didn't like where she went with my lyrics or the melody it was written for (the original 4/4 beat was abandoned) so we parted for good. maybe i should have left the song in its released format but as i am on the copyright, i made her pull it for good. so all in all i can relate to being "mined" myself. yeah i am prolly a prick when it comes to situations like trying to co-write over the net and abuse of power but she did not have the authority to call it finished and put my name on the copyright without my consent. the fact of Zep's "mining" has left a bad taste so i am not a fan of their later work to even more extent now as i am reverting to a "blues root" and some 60's to 70's rock themes and a little classical jazz.

maybe i am a curmudgeon ... so what ... i don't bite! deep anyways, at least i don't sever arteries. in my old age i decided i would "rather write for no audience with myself rather than write for an audience without myself". thats a paraphrase of something i read somewhere but i can't remember where.

[uwe]

Not even Bonzo?  And regardless of what you think of their material, I've always thought Page was an outstanding producer.

I think Page is one of the most brilliant rhythm guitarists, alternative tuners and chord inventors in the genre of rock, but I always hated the way Bonzo dragged behind the beat though everybody and his brother loved him for it. And Led Zep albums always sounded weird to me (for instance I never found you could hear well what Jones played), I think Page's much lauded production abilities are an acquired taste (he never did much production outside of Led Zep for other people). Zep production always lacked directness and separation to me plus sounded strangely middish and muddled in the presence frequencies. I either like orchestral producers like George Martin, Tony Visconti (Bowie and Bolan) or Bob Ezrin (Alice Cooper, Pink Floyd, Hanoi Rocks) or the more sound engineer types that give you a direct sound such as Martin Birch (Deep Purple, early Rainbow, MSG, B.Ö.C, Iron Maiden) or Tom Allom (Judas Priest). Or someone who deconstructs an artist to then build something fresh from his most profound characteristics like Rick Rubin, but he's in a league of his own.

My pet theory is that I prefer a European sound which the above producers (most of them Europeans) represent whereas Page - though a European himself - found something that you yanks seem to immediately latch onto though it leaves me scatching my head. Perhaps Zep sounds especially good through FM radio.

Uwe

[Denis]

...and the Lord of the Rings stuff is awful...

...their earlier blues influences are a particular hobbit of mine but not too fruitful lately...

I want to go read "Bored of the Rings" now.  

I always liked Led Zep but always thought Page was overrated as a guitarist.

[uwe]

Well, let's put it that way, he was no doubt the worst lead guitarist of the Yardbirds, but that is a burden most of us would have to live with!!!  

He's a very sloppy bastard when playing lead and his sound is so-so. Not Clapton's tastefulness, not Beck's uncanny phrasing, not Hendrix' drama and innovation, not Gallagher's grittiness and attack, not Gilmour's depth of tone and not Blackmore's moody precision and elegance. A lot of Zep solos on studio tracks sound like afterthoughts to me - the dramatic effect Whole Lotta Love ejaculation after the breaks (when the bee swarm has left the speakers) is an exception. That didn't keep him from conquering the US of A (and not really very many other parts of the world, Zep hardly toured anywhere else) with Led Zep though.

[uwe]

While we're writing this so unabashedly a thought flickers across my mind: Does Ter keep guns at home?  

There you have it again: German angst.  

[Denis]

Why the angst? French to the left of you, Russians to the right...
I agree with you when comparing Page to the other guitarists you mention. With a few exceptions, I don't think his style brings up all that much emotion or feeling.

[Rhythm N. Bliss]

While we're writing this so unabashedly a thought flickers across my mind: Does Ter keep guns at home?  

There you have it again: German angst.  

Yeah Guns N' Roses. heh
...swords n' a baseball bat.

JPJ is my fav bassplayer & he & Bonzo are the Most Powerful Rhythm Section Ever!!
Page is a genius & Plant is a phenomonen!! Utterly AMAZING MAGIC BAND!!!!

I don't care what anyone says, they LOVEd to play & it showed!!!!
I haven't seen anyone else play a 3&ahalf hour show.