Spirit sues Led Zep

[4stringer77]

Blackmore's favorite bands were Mountain and Vanilla Fudge? That's cool if he's being serious but you never know with that guy.

[Highlander]

California was a genuinely nice person; met him when he toured with Gillan and was briefly based in London... I think he was only interested in the music and his family and as for the business side of things he just let that be someone else's issues...
Andes, I presume, may not be so altruistic...

[uwe]

Blackmore's favorite bands were Mountain and Vanilla Fudge? That's cool if he's being serious but you never know with that guy.

He's dead serious about that. He also likes Abba, Asia, Blondie, pre-Disco Bee Gees, Hendrix, Wishbone Ash, The Scorpions, Jethro Tull, Carmen and Neil Diamond! Anyhing with strong melodies or expression really. Vanilla Fudge were Deep Purple's role model early on and you can hear it on those first three Mk 1 albums very well.

And then Led Zeppelin II was released in October 69 and that changed DP's outlook on their music forever. About a year later - September 70 - they released In Rock which was totally removed from their Mk 1 output. In Rock was a conscious attempt to "outrock" Led Zep II, Blackmore wanted an album without any let-up, an aural onslaught from the beginning to the end. Of course, Led Zep refused the competition game and recorded the acoustic-laden Led Zep III as their next album. Had Zep III been another hard album, I doubt whether DP would have relaxed to be as experimental on Fireball (their album after In Rock) as they were. And after the experiments of Zep III and Fireball, both bands returned a bit to their roots and cut the experimentalism, crafting their respective commercial high points, namely Zep IV and Machine Head. The following albums, Houses of the Holy and Who Do We Think Are had them both branching out again.

[Highlander]

It's not uncommon for musicians to like music at odds with what they are known for, like the singer of this song, before he became more well known, Stateside, being a 60's R&B fan, to such a degree, his next band had a hit or two covering some items...

www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xUSYUaLMAA www.youtube.com/watch?v=BeHom0rZHGM

My fave cover of theirs, unfortunately, was not a hit...

[gweimer]

It's not uncommon for musicians to like music at odds with what they are known for, like the singer of this song, before he became more well known, Stateside, being a 60's R&B fan, to such a degree, his next band had a hit or two covering some items...

If you dig back far enough, you can find that bands we know started on a different path.

[uwe]

It's not uncommon for musicians to like music at odds with what they are known for, like the singer of this song, before he became more well known, Stateside, being a 60's R&B fan, to such a degree, his next band had a hit or two covering some items...

www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xUSYUaLMAA www.youtube.com/watch?v=BeHom0rZHGM

My fave cover of theirs, unfortunately, was not a hit...

I always liked Mark Farner's voice and even in the early stoner rock excesses of Grand Funk Railroad you could hear the RnB influence of the Detroit/Flint white boy. His voice had soul. As Grand Funk progressed, those early influences became more overt, Bad Time - a lovely song - is essentially a Motown number, I could always imagine Diana Ross sing it.

[4stringer77]

I don't see why these guys thought they needed to get Bonzo and Plant. They should have kept playing this stuff and maybe then that god awful stairway song would have never been written, saving us all the aggravation of trying to assign meaning to those senseless lyrics. The song doesn't mean anything. It sold records and that's what mattered.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5c1xdqfDKPk&list=PL2A18632F81325A9F&index=13

[gearHed289]

Two of my favorite singers when I was growing up were Jon Anderson and Robert Plant. The often cryptic lyrics never mattered that much to me. I listened to the voice as another instrument, and it was all about the melody and emotion. But believe me, I can see how either or both those guys could be annoying if you weren't feeling it!

[4stringer77]

I was weaned on Zep and Yes too. Stairway is more of a smash hit run into the ground by fm radio. I know what you mean about insufferable vocals. Care for "Child in Time" anyone?

[uwe]

Two of my favorite singers when I was growing up were Jon Anderson and Robert Plant. The often cryptic lyrics never mattered that much to me. I listened to the voice as another instrument, and it was all about the melody and emotion. But believe me, I can see how either or both those guys could be annoying if you weren't feeling it!

Anderson and Plant?!!!  You darn old hippie.  I know where you are coming from and the "voice as another instrument" is spot on. I never really liked either, Anderson was way too sweet for me, Plant too esoteric, I like storytellers like Ian Hunter, a man with at best 1/10th of the vocal ability of the other two, but that doesn't mean that I cannot repect them as great singers which they no doubt were and continue to be (I like the old Plant better than the young one). With Anderson my comment always was: Does this guy ever sing anything in a minor key?  Even when he sang to minor chords, his skillfully crafted and ambitious vocal lines sounded jubilantly major. Ok, Owner of a Lonely Heart sounded a bit minorish in places, but that vocal line was most likely written by Trevor Rabin and to most Yes fans it doesn't even qualify as "real Yes".

I recently bought the remaster of Olias of Sunhillow, so I guess I've made my peace with Anderson, his vocal style is certainly intricate.

[uwe]

I was weaned on Zep and Yes too. Stairway is more of a smash hit run into the ground by fm radio. I know what you mean about insufferable vocals. Care for "Child in Time" anyone?

It was of course an Mk II signature tune, but if truth be told it was never among my favorite DP tracks. The ballad part was nice, but an unabashed rip-off from It's A Beautiful Day, Gillan's lyrics were allegory-drenched, but without the word wit he developed later in his career and the fast shuffle part in the middle always sounded a bit grafted on to the rest plus that it didn't have any chord changes. Gillan's screaming part did elicit the following comment though from my father when I was listening to Child in Time in our living room in Kinshasa sometime in the mid-seventies: "Well, for once you are playing something, where someone can at least sing." I was gobsmacked. The only other time he ever made a positive comment about the rock music I listened to was when I played Rainbow's live version of the Yardbirds chestnut "Still I'm Sad" - after some silent approving foot-tapping he rose from the couch and said: "That wasn't bad, one could actually listen to it." 

[4stringer77]

Your dad liked the screaming part of that song? That seems strange, maybe it's because the melody to that part is almost an inverted version of the Ride of the Valkyries.

[uwe]

I was surprised too - I was expecting to be kicked out of the living room! In a way it was anti-climatic - which 14 year old wants the music he listens to to to be appreciated by his dad? I bet he did that on purpose. 

[4stringer77]

This begs the question, how does your son feel about the way you appreciate the music that he plays and likes?

[Pilgrim]

This begs the question, how does your son feel about the way you appreciate the music that he plays and likes?

Uwe may never be forgiven!