Posted on 08/05/2006 3:55:31 PM PDT by Drew68
Thirty-seven years after Led Zeppelin's debut, their albums continue to sell in the millions, while their music inspires everyone from Aussie metalheads to Nashville punks
BRIAN HIATT
The studded leather bracelets and Napoleon Dynamite merchandise at Hot Topic target customers between the ages of fourteen and twenty-two—kids who weren't born when Led Zeppelin broke up in 1980.
Nonetheless, the all-time top-selling band T-shirt at the chain's 700-plus mall stores is Zep's Swan Song tee—the one bearing the image of a naked, winged Apollo.
"It's not like with the CBGB or Ramones T-shirts, where it was a fashion trend," says Cindy Levitt, vice president of music and marketing for Hot Topic. "Kids appreciate the music."
According to Nielsen Soundscan, Led Zeppelin have sold 20.2 million albums since 1990 alone. In the last four years, thirty-eight percent of all Zep sales were to fans under the age of twenty-five, according to the research firm NPD.
"There's almost a religious thing about Zeppelin—I got obsessed really badly when I was in high school," says Matthew Himes, a twenty-year-old college student from Los Angeles who has the four symbols from Led Zeppelin IV tattooed vertically along his right shoulder.
"By my age, everyone has gone through their Zeppelin phase," adds twenty-one-year-old fan Dan Teicher, who credits the band with helping to lead him to major in music at Brown University.
Thirty-seven years after the release of Led Zeppelin I, the band also continues to inspire generations of musicians.
"Led Zeppelin—I think that's the band we always looked toward," says Pearl Jam's Jeff Ament. The hot Australian trio Wolfmother draw on Seventies sources from Sabbath to the Stooges, but Andrew Stockdale's banshee vocals and the band's chordal riffs clearly pay tribute to Robert Plant and Jimmy Page.
At age thirteen, before Stockdale had even heard of the band, he used to wear a tie-dyed Zep T-shirt to junior-high dances to impress girls. Then, when he was eighteen, Stockdale got into Led Zeppelin III.
"I said, 'If someone started a band now that was just like this, it would f---ing go off,' " says the frontman, now twenty-eight.
Stockdale, who sings about unicorns and carnivals on his band's debut, was especially intrigued by Plant's lyrical approach.
"People go onstage and pour their hearts out and no one wants to hear it—why not sing about 'Gollum and his evil ways' instead?"
Even Nashville punks Be Your Own Pet, whose squawky teenage riot couldn't sound less like Houses of the Holy, credit Zep as a touchstone and titled a song on their debut album "Stairway to Heaven."
"Everyone I know in music is into Zeppelin—they're just such a necessary band to know about," says eighteen-year-old BYOP guitarist Jonas Stein. And while the original punks saw Zeppelin as irrelevant dinosaurs (Clash bassist Paul Simonon once said, "I don't have to hear Led Zeppelin—just looking at their record covers makes me want to throw up"), Stein finds that hard to understand.
"If no one had told me otherwise, I would have thought that some of the punk stuff is sort of influenced by Zeppelin," he says. "They're solid, they're concrete. Zep's music will last forever."
Cuz they rock.
I saw Jeff Beck in the 70s. If you closed your eyes you would swear you were listening to the album.
I saw Frank Zappa 8 times. Each time I saw him I was amazed at the quality of the musicians he assembled to tour with him.
Yes was another fabulous live band. I think I saw them 4 or 5 times and I don't think they ever missed a note.
Emerson, Lake, and Palmer was another band who really shown in a live show. They put in just enough improvisation to let you know it was a live show but they never once were sloppy.
The 80s version of King Crimson was another stunningly proficient live act.
I saw Elton John once when it was just him in a tuxedo and tails with concert grand piano and a guy playing percussion. He played for nearly 4 hours and never once did his voice crack or his fingers miss a key.
Santana, Jethro Tull, ZZ Top, Uriah Heep, The Who IMO were all far better live bands than Zeppelin. I actually turned down an opportunity to see LZ a second time.
Way too loud and way too sloppy for my taste.
Anyone can sound great if they spend enough time in the studio. The god awful 80s band Boston springs to mind.
The real test of a band is how they sound on stage in front of a live audience without all that studio crap to cover up the flaws in their skills.
Now John Paul Jones and John Bonham were probably the best rythym section in rock and roll but as far as Page and Plant go I think there was far better to be had even back in 1979.
Gotta go...
L
You're right.....to each his own; no arguing that. I'm just saying, as a longtime musician, that it IS all about the SONGS.
The craftmanship of Led Zeppelin is undeniable. Fantastic songs; fantastic songcraft; fantastic producing. They didn't fabricate the performances of those songs.
They endure for good reason. I never gave a damn if I saw them in concert or not.
Don't ask me how I know this...
I believe I saw them there a few yrs before that. Thought the acoustics were bad. But I still say their 1st album is the best hard rock album ever made.
The best drummer in rock and roll today doesn't even play drums for the band he's in, yet Foo Fighters front man (and former Nirvana drummer), Dave Grohl, is awesome behind the skins. His playing was thunderous when he was the guest drummer for Queens of the Stone Age. He comes close to filling Bonham's shoes --in terms of emulating Bonham's sound and style.
I agree wholeheartedly. He had a sound in his head and Bonham's drumming was they key to that sound.
If you listen to Zep and shut out the other instruments, you'll notice that Page's guitar wasn't really that distorted or loud but once you add Bonham to the mix, the music becomes undeniably heavy.
Yes, he was years ahead of his time. That is why Zeppelin still sounds sounds fresh today whereas other heavy bands from that period like Cream, Sabbath and Deep Purple sound dated and old.
You could listen to a Zeppelin album and not be able to tell what decade it was recoded in because Page pioneered techniques that are still being used today.
Zappa's son Dweezil and Steve Vai are currently putting together a "Zappa Plays Zappa" tour. It has received a lot of press in the guitar magazines I read.
According to Dweezil, the objective is not to be a tribute band but to break down Zappa's compositions instrument by instrument and recreate his unique sound. He talks about what a difficult task this has been because his father's compositions were so complicated and the guitar parts alone are a struggle.
Auditioning competent musicians for the tour has also been difficult. Zappa is looking for younger players and has been dismayed that so many of today's musicians have no interest in mastering the subtleties of their instrument. They only want to learn to "shred."
You're right about Page's guitar sound. He actually used little Fender Princeton amps primarily in the studio.....just little bitty guys. They were made to sound 'huge' by creative and effective mic placement (something Page still harps on others about in music media; how mic placement seems to have become a lost art).
Another famous example, by the way? Listen to Joe Walsh on The James Gang's "Funk 49". That fat sounds....is a Tele being played through a little amp with a single 8" speaker cranked all the way up ("gotta MOVE the air"). Pretty cool.
Same here (as far as studio albums go). PG was Zeppelin at their finest.
The best music survives forever. There was lots of terrible music from the 70s. There is lots of terrible music from today. There was lots of terrible music from the 1700s. Most of it is forgotten, but a few gems will endure for all time.
Don't ask me how I know this...
I'm afraid to ask, but..... are hallucinogens involved?
I will at least give Zep credit. Unlike the later versions of The Who and Floyd, they didn't bring in tons of side men to play live. They played pretty much as a power trio live, which is a much different sound than the studio Zep.
Without studio enhancements Robert Plant sounded awful. Screaming ain't singing. And Jimmy Page is one of the sloppiest lead guitar players it was ever my sorry misfortune to drop waaaaay too much money on tickets to see.
L
Now I will agree with you on Plant's vocals, they definately sped the tape up on Plant's vocals on the early Zep CDs, or he took massive dosages of helium.
He wrote some catchy lyrics, but as a lead singer he wasn't even in the top ten of his day.
L
aw man, I'm two days too late for this thread!
*****The best music survives forever. There was lots of terrible music from the 70s. There is lots of terrible music from today. There was lots of terrible music from the 1700s. Most of it is forgotten, but a few gems will endure for all time.*****
Thank you! Thank you! That's exactly how I feel!
Shockingly, no. It would almost be a relief if they had been, but no, all I can attribute this knowledge to is my fertile imagination.
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