yeah, guilty. here. i dont like zep.
disclaimer: of course i like stairway. I WILL LET YOU KNOW that i watched Wayne's World during the original theatrical run when it still had the original "stairway ? DENIED !" joke in it.
Anyway, i don't like zeppelin.
First off, i think their albums are not recorded well. I dont know why, but the sound is murky. Squashed together. It just doesn't sound clear like it should. It's not just your bootleg cassette tape, on mp3, on the radio ..
Second, they lean far too much on "folk" rock, idk wth that is about but whenever i hear a mandolin or even a 12-string, i tune out.
They don't ... they don't rock. I'm sorry but Good Times Bad Times is not a banger, not like Hocus Pocus, or Easy Livin, or .. i put them in the same category as Don Felder, but worse. Think the music of Heavy Metal (except The Mob Rules), that kind of "wants to be a badass, but is really just a grandpa" music. Blue Oyster Cult, Journey, Boston .. Rush ..
I'm happy to listen to the Eagles, even the slow stuff, like Lyin' Eyes; it doesn't have to be Life In The Fast Lane every day. But it's not stuff that rocks.
for example;
The Cars - Just What I Needed - rocks
Talking Heads - Psycho Killer - does not rock.
Thin Lizzy - Whiskey In The Jar - rocks
Cream - Sunshine Of Your Love - does not rock.
Zep 1 has Babe Im Gonna Leave You that is ok if you are willing to put up with 6 minutes of waiting just to get to the coda; this could have been a great song, in context, if it was your ONE slow piece in an otherwise banging album, like Deep Purple's "Child In Time".
Communication Breakdown is decent if again, really badly recorded. The rest of the album is very forgettable.
I get it that at this time (1968) Beck - who provided the very guitar that Page recorded Zep 1 on - was still releasing Elvis covers, but in the same year you got In The Court Of The Crimson King, Electric Ladyland, Waiting For The Sun, Shades Of Deep Purple.
By next year they were already obsolete. Zep 2 has Wholla Lotta Love which is a pretty darn cool song, but in the same year you got Hot Rats, Abbey Road, Space Oddity, two Creedence records, and the rest of the album is pretty darn weak.
Zeppelin 3 has Tangerine, which is good, and would have been even better if Bonham knew how to play drums, and Immigrant Song, which epitomizes Zeppelin's songwriting - there's a riff, and then the bridge sucks balls.
in 1970 the following albums of note were released: Paranoid. Cosmo's Factory. Bridge Over Troubled Waters. American Beauty. Abraxas. Deep Purple In Rock. Morrison Hotel. The Man Who Sold The World.
I don't know how Zeppelin were even managing any airtime considering the competition; it'sprobably another case of McDonalds effect - they are mediocre, mediocre people like them.
I note that they were most likely entrenched due to Page's previous work in the Yardbirds, who were a big money machine. When you're a consumer, you don't often get to pick what you like, rather, you're *told* what you like, through marketing.
.. i mean, i don't HATE zeppelin, i just don't really want to listen to their songs. Most that i can bear to listen to have weird instrumentations, bad recording choices, weird breaks in the song that a good producer should have written out, and not much else to show for. I would *much* rather listen to the entire People Are Strange album that sit through a single live performance of Black Dog
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