JIMMY PAGE: Why LED ZEPPELIN Was The Best Band In The World

Blabbermouth ^ | September 19, 2019 | N/A

[DoodleBob]

Jimmy Page was interviewed for a cover story in the latest issue of Uncut, where he talks about the potential of a LED ZEPPELIN film, career regrets (or not), and carrying on the legacy of ZEPPELIN as the best band in the world.

Speaking to writer Michael Bonner about why he feels no other bands could come close to LED ZEPPELIN, Page said: "It's really hard to say something like that and not sound conceited, but over the years, a lot of other musicians have told me they thought we were the best. I'm not talking about record sales or concert attendance, although I think we can hold our own with anyone. What I mean is: when you talk about a band as a collaborative musical unit, we were the best. I am not talking about one or two genius songwriters, and everyone else tagging along. I am talking about a collection of musicians who are each at the top of their craft in their own right. In LED ZEPPELIN, we were exactly that."

Elaborating on why he previously told interviewer Charlie Rose in 2012 that LED ZEPPELIN was the best band in the world while Robert Plant demurred, Page said: "If you are a young musician and you want to hear how a band works well together, then we're a pretty good blueprint. John [Paul Jones] and me. Robert and me. John Paul Jones and John Bonham. Every combination of the quartet could bring something special. Robert probably said, 'Oh, well, there were a lot of great bands,' to that interviewer because that is the gentlemanly reply. And I agree with him...But when you are talking about rock 'n' roll alchemy, I had to say what I thought. We were the best."

[Fiji Hill]

The best band? A tie between The Coon-Sanders Nighthawks and Waring's Pennsylvanians.

[DoodleBob]

I love your take on things.

Frank didn't listen to the radio and had little interest in contemporary music aside from Varese and Stravinsky. One of Frank's bandmates told me he had no idea that the guitar solo in Stairway was iconic. However, FZ did like Warren DiMartini from Ratt - he picked up his work via Dweezil. But Frank was certainly rock - throw Rat Tomago, I'm So Cute, Packard Goose, The Illinois Enema Bandit, and all of the Shut Up 'N Play Yer Guitar albums into a blender, and pour yourself a tall cool glass of rock that rivals anything in the genre.

I am not a Zeppelin hater - I like them more than the Stones - but aside from Zeppelin II and Presence their output is uneven and their live act went downhill after 1970 (per bootlegs and footage).

Journey without Ansley Dunbar is just another SF band.

Pink Floyd is in a class all by itself, though I find myself losing interest in Roger's tunes and preferring David's tunes over time. Same with Skynyrd - Royalty.

The Beatles never played live with monitors, so they couldn't hear themselves on stage through the screaming. As such, Ringo undoubtedly kept them together live and gets my vote as perhaps the hardest hitting live drummer ever thought I may be the only guy who thinks so.

[CodeToad]

LZ was kinda of boring. OK, some good stuff, but not overall the best by any means.

[wardaddy]

Which band does your wife want to hear when she’s horny.......

Stones or Zep?

Or as one girl I knew she could listen to Roxy Music Avalon and want to take her clothes off

My wife likes Depeche Mode too for “ hanging out”

When you’re young and strong as a buck and stamina as sex want ads say....can’t beat Whole Lotta Love and those hard shuddering chords in the main riff

Nails scratching

Sweat

Loud moaning

Toes crunched

Arched back undulating ...

Babambabambamp.....hell yeah....loud.....those riffs just ooze serious sexual congress

Hell thats what Willie Dixon was talking about

So like Dennis (R.I.P.) Hopper in True Romance.......”Am I lying?”

[Free in Texas]

Impetus!

[wardaddy]

They are beat up for no good reason....imho

[mrsmith]

Of all the “White” aaptations of Negro music, the best is QMS’s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bWdv9oTUbg.
Another world than the oirginal.

LZ didn’t do this because they were derivative. They played Negro blues, electrically.

[Mr. Mojo]

Saw Zep in ‘77 at the LA Forum. 17th row center. Page was at the height of his heroin period and looked to be on the verge of death, and his playing was a bit sloppier than usual, and the songs dragged on longer than usual, and Plant’s voice had lost an octave by that point as well. But Bonzo and JPJ were on top of their games, so it was worthwhile.

Best rock band in the world? At the top of their game (the early ‘70s), they were certainly in the conversation.

[setter]

Never understood the LZ craze.

[Tallguy]

Love Cream, but their time was too short to make any HoF vote (Baseball analogy).

[DoodleBob]

I’m literally reading your reply while listening to Highway Star off that album. It is easily not only the greatest car song ever, but that performance is next level rock playing. Someone said Blackmore’s guitar sounds like he’s playing with razor blades at the beginning of the Highway Star guitar solo on Made in Japan. Absolutely epic...and Ian Paice is under appreciated and a monster drummmer.

[wardaddy]

I agree their live work was not as good as some peers

A band much picked on as eccentric but most flawless show I ever saw was Jethro Tull Aqualung tour and some 20 minutes of Brick too but mostly Benefit and Lung

Some Stand Up

Ian Anderson perfectionist as ever had a stereo speaker setup in a large coliseum, 10,000 max seating floor and stands

That’s a tall order but he did it and it sounded excellent for that limited acoustics venue

[Tallguy]

Beatles lack the “Live Show” dimension. Better writers? Better in the studio (given the limitations of technology)? But their time on stage was short.

[Fiji Hill]

One of the greatest rock bands is arguably the Wrecking Crew, the Hollywood-based studio band that backed dozens of successful vocal groups and soloists in the 1960’s and 1970’s.

[Kenny Bania]

Yep. I remember when I watched The Song Remains The Same doc, I actually dozed off in parts of it.

[mmichaels1970]

Why Led Zeppelin IS the Best Band in the World

Amen. In college I could sit and listen to every album start to finish chronologically. If I got the time, I’d love to do it again sometime. I’m always torn whether to include The Song Remains the Same in the lineup with it being a live album.

I think I Can’t Quit You Baby might be my favorite.

I frequently listen to Led Zeppelin I and am in awe that this was their debut. Their friggin DEBUT. By standards of pure musicianship, it’s just incredible. I think they were mostly barely older than 20.

Zeppelin rocks!

[gswilder]

I was not a big Zep fan growing up in the 70’s. (Stairway not withstanding) But I appreciate their music a lot more now, and appreciate what they did. And Jimmy Page is one of the top 5 greats as a guitarist and producer.

[basalt]

agreed..i saw em twice live and was not impressed. The first album is just awesome...changed the direction of music. Hard, album oriented rock took over the next 20 years...

[Skooz]

Negro musicians did not do a good job of adapting to electric, in general.

Say what?

[af_vet_1981]

Bill Graham booked Led Zeppelin at both the Fillmore West and East. Perhaps Bill Graham booked every significant band of that era and heard them all.

They did not fit their music to an established category such as pop rock, blues, folk rock, or country & western. Individual tunes within their repertoire could be identified under one of these stylistic labels, but overall their music drew on all of these genres and, more frequently, melded several of them. Bill Graham said of the Grateful Dead, "They're not the best at what they do, they're the only ones that do what they do."[82] Often (both in performance and on recording) the Dead left room for exploratory, spacey soundscapes.

Their live shows, fed by an improvisational approach to music, were different from most touring bands. While rock and roll bands often rehearse a standard set, played with minor variations, the Grateful Dead did not prepare in this way. Garcia stated in a 1966 interview, "We don't make up our sets beforehand. We'd rather work off the tops of our heads than off a piece of paper."[83] They maintained this approach throughout their career. For each performance, the band drew material from an active list of a hundred or so songs.[83]