Posted on 08/15/2010 12:42:22 PM PDT by ConservativeStatement
The Tribute band Led Zepagain is supposed to be pretty good. Never saw them, but they do play around the country at various venues. They only do the intro to The Rover though. Here they are doing Achilles Last Stand.
Along with Spirit, Steve Marriott, and probably many others.
Yeah they are.
You seen any of em lately?
Also, youse guys in Nevada gonna kick Reid to the curb like he deserves?
Then investigate his crooked ass and throw him in jail til he croaks?
A lot of Page’s ideas along with Zep’s songs were carried over from his days with the Yardbirds, especially early on. Like Pink Floyd they play a music genre that’s very distinctive, it’s not really hard rock but more like a cross between blues, progressive, and rock all in one. They did a pretty good though reproducing most of it on stage.
I always thought the early Zep albums, that Plant was basically doing a Janis Joplin imitation.
i would like to see Zep and Dave Gilmour one last time
maybe Steve Winwood too
They always credited the blues numbers they covered, other than a court of law had to find that Zeppelin’s “the Lemon Song” was basically Howlin’ Wolf’s “Killing Floor Blues” with a little of Robert Johnson’s “squeeze my lemon” added in.
When this subject was brought up to ‘da Wolf’ he said ‘that’s just lawyer stuff’. He had no hard feelings either way.
As to why they covered so many blues tunes, Page and the boys were coming up with riffs much faster than Plant could write lyrics... so he said that he would often just sing some old blues lyrics.
Well it would be hard for me not to, seeing as I feel Stevie Ray Vaughan was the greatest guitarist ever, bar none - and he considered Hendrix his musical master.
But I think SRV was better than Hendrix, better than Page, better than anyone. And Double Trouble was spectacular as a band. But they were more traditional blues, and still growing when Stevie died, even though they were filling coloseums at the time.
In contrast, Zepplin was a monster from the beginning, and roared straight through at that level right up until Bonham's death. As a unified band which was not based upon a single star performer, IMO, they were the top of the top.
Oh, and as an aside, a "cover band" is one that generally does not create it's own work. The Blues is based on standard riffs and songs that are repeated forever by each band's version - it's not the same as a cover unless you're actually trying to imitate a specific band's version, rather than the riff or song itself. That's just a fact. And Zepplin's interpretations were so unique, to call them a cover band isn't even an insult - it's ridiculous, and just plain ignorance of the incredible uniqueness and creativity of what they were actually doing.
But I look at it this way, no Hendrix, no SRV. Hendrix created something out of nothing, nobody did what he did before, SRV merely stood on the shoulders on giants. Was he technically a better guitarist, maybe, but not nearly as original as Hendrix.
One of my favs, along with Mark Knopfler.
You can also hear just a wee bit of Celtic in the music. This song seems to have all those aspects. Sounds like they were trying to reproduce bag pipe sounds in sections.
Here is some info from Wikipedia on this song, which they never did perform on stage.
The unique sound of the intro to the song was created by Jimmy Page using a violin bow on an acoustic guitar....."In the Light" was never played live at Led Zeppelin concerts.[1] According to Jones, Robert Plant was emphatic about wanting to play the song onstage, but because Jones could not reproduce the synthesizer sound properly outside of the studio, he vetoed the idea.[citation needed]
Judging Led Zeppelin by Stairway to Heaven is like judging Frank Zappa by Valley Girls.
Metal Ping
You got it, Captain Beyond!
Love to see Zeppelin. But to do it right I would need a time machine and a handful of Purple Microdot.
As for their musical prowess,I don't think they held a candle to Deep Purple.
Plant is still doing pretty well touring with Alison Krauss and singing old classics like "Battle of Evermore". The version from the Tennessee performance was awesome and yes I agree there is a bit of Celtic in some of their music.
>> Meh, an over-rated cover band. Never credited the blues greats they ripped off.
Without question, one of the best R&B bands of the 70s. Don’t agree, check out:
Traveling Riverside Blues
Since I’ve Been Loving You
Ten Years Gone
When the Levee Breaks
The Rain Song
Gallows Pole
Few other bands of that era could hold a candle to LZ up until, and including the Physical Graffiti release. Not much to speak of thereafter.
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