Personally I’m not a ‘fan’ of Zep. I respect their stuff musically and don’t ‘hate it’, but it just isn’t my thing. Floyd I like more. That said, when you read up on industry pros/engineer types, Darlside of the Moon is near universal as one of the top two recordings they refer to as ‘the best of all time. The other is Miles Davis/Some Kind of Blue.
Then you have to consider the cultural impact in influence they had on other bands. Which for LZ and PF, it is tremendous. They are namechecked by everyone from Eric Johnson, SRV, Vai, Eddie VanHalen, to a staggering number of outside genre performers.
None of which considers public popularity at all. These are their fellow pros who went on to create all that came later.
I watched a couple of those links and it was good, solid as hell music. None of which I will remember like “Time”, Brathe” Rock and Roll” or Black Dog”. Not because it wasnt worthy of listening because it was. Very much so. But Zep and Floyd are just on another level.
I kid with Windflier about Hendrix. I’m not a big fan there either. But no man alive or dead had the impact he did short of a Bach/Beethoven. He was simply the best there was at what he did. And his influence will be felt by guitarists 300 years from now as he redefined what a guitar was.
To me, there is nothing out there even close to these guys and admittedly, I’m not even really a fan.
You mention Hendrix. A couple of years ago I was considering buying some reissue of his (out of dozens that have been greedily produced) and went to Amazon to read the reviews. I was surprised how many younger listeners dissed him, and dissed him intelligently, using solid, well spoken comparisons with guitarists of presumably their own generation, some of whom I went and checked out later only to nod in agreement. In the end, I never bought that reissue. So I’m no longer sure about Hendrix. I am sure however about Bill Frisell, if we’re talking about guitar players.
I do want to note something else. Rock musicians led me to their sources. a fool mentioned the little known Link Wray (whom I saw perform once). Pete Townsend was inspired by Link, and not by the pop mainstream of his youth. If the Beatles and the Rolling Stones listened to the mainstream of the late 1950s (after Buddy Holly’s, Eddie Cochran’s deaths, Jerry Lee’s and Chuck Berry’s legal troubles with nymphets, and Little Richard’s decision that the money was in religion), they’d be playing “Roses are Red” and “This Time” (Vinton, Shondell respectively - decide yourself which group would cover which singer), and there wouldn’t have been a Pete Townsend.
So what, you say? So, dig beyond what’s out there served to us on silver dishes by the recording industry and their pals in the robot drone operated radio stations. You can bet that your favorite musicians are not listening to each other, if they want their art to progress. A few years ago Van Morrison, an obscure artist of his own, whose first two Warner Bros. LPs now considered classics sold nothing at the time when Led Zep was selling millions, recorded a duet album with Linda Gail Lewis. Who? The sister of Jerry Lee, who recorded with her brother a classic duet album in the mid-60s, that inspired Morrison when he was with Them. Last year (2013 is now ‘last year’, dude!) Billie Joe Armstrong and Nora Jones, mainstream artists, recorded an album covering in its entirety the most obscure album by the Everly Brothers from the late 1950s. (I recommend both albums!) Why didn’t they record a cover album of some contemporary artist that their modern listeners favor? Cover Whitney, Radiohead? Stupid question, isn’t it. Billie Joe spoke of how he found the EB LP in the used vinyl section of Rasputin Records in Berkeley, took it home, listened to it and couldn’t get it out of his head for months. Why aren’t we listening to the best stuff out there, however obscure. Why don’t we seek it out. If Brian Jones could have ‘discovered’ Jimmie Reed, when the radio was playing Helen Shapiro, so could we (if we had been there at the time.)
Eilen Jewell (who plays with a fantastic rockabilly guitarist Jerry Miller - not the Moby Grape guy!) keeps posting on Facebook links to great obscure recordings. Another artist, Jesse Bellamy of Jesse & Noah (Bellamy Brothers next generation), the lead singer below, does the same, and has turned me on to some great music made before he was born (as I have turned him on - we’re ‘friends’.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uOT2ajBEWE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0lONTZBjF0