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.
I make a distinction tween rock and roll and rock and you could almost put southern rock by itself since it was so country influenced
Rock
Zepplin
Pink Floyd
Who
Cream Blind Faith Free Cactus for brief bands
Rush even though they are late for my era and not my taste they are damn good....especially the drummer
Black Sabbath cause nobody else does what they did as well....sorry Lemmy I loved ya
ACDC cause they travel so good through the years....carried on the shoulders of an affable cute midget
Van Halen cause they were fun although late for me as well
Traffic
Rock and Roll
Stones.....second place is way back and they own rock and roll mostly due to one man who refuses to expire
Southern Rock
Allman Brothers cause Duane might have been the best ever....his peers from Eric to Jimi to Jeff sure thought he was
Skynyrd...cause they sang to me
ZZ Top cause they did it well and with fun
Dead like Beatles are a stand alone band
Zappa without Beef ain’t right
And for acid soaked music
Jorma is someone I never tire of
And the Moody Blues for safely shepherding me back to earth on many occasions when I needed that soothing music to ponder as I rearranged the chessboard again
Post late 70s music is another matter
I think Metallica would win that rock mantle,...easily.
I was in the 13th row center in the Forum that tour. The night they added after the first ones sold out. Saw them in ‘75 in San Diego and three times in LA in 77.
I was at Live Aid 1985...what passed as Led Zeppelin that night was absolutely awful. I mean, bad. So bad that Zeppelin wouldn’t authorize their performance to be released on the Live Aid Box Set. But at least I can say I sorta saw Zeppelin. By contrast, seeing The Who do Quadrophenia in 2012 was a borderline religious experience.