Led Zeppelin is not Prog, but...

 

I know that Zep was very influential in my listening tastes.  Even though I don't put them on much anymore (the grooves of my LPs have been worn thin), I will always love the band 'cause they helped set me on a path to....hey, wait, I could've used all that time with my head in text books instead of stuck between two headphones....Zep ruined my life!

 

Actually, quite the opposite....just like that first girl/guy that first made our bellies feel funny.  They'll always be with us no matter where we go.  We'll never forget 'em even if we've grown far, far apart.

 

You know, that would be a nice topic for the forums - which was your most influential "gateway band".  I guess mine would be Van the Man....got me into jazz 30-odd years ago.

 

I think that if you go back to their first album, they can easily be considered progressive. It's easy to say that this could be a power blues (Since I've Been Loving You), just as much as any progressive band out there, since a lot of the material was very different and was not always dependent on the beat/style alone at all ... and as Robert has stated many times and Jimmy has agreed, it was a very good mix of individuals that had a good feeling for music and they let the music happen, instead of just doing a blues song, or a rock song ... you can't do "Whole Lotta Love" if all you can think of is ... blues ... or rock ... which is neither ... and in the end, that is what the music was all about ... the expression that it takes to make it work, be original, and special ... the very thing that a lot of "progressive" and "prog" bands do not have, and will never understand!

 

In the end, it is all about how you want to express yourself ... and if you are gonna emulate everyone else except yourself, I usually like to say that the music is no longer worth listening to ... but Zep had good stuff to the very end ... and like all of you, some of it sounds better than the others, but in the end ... look at the quality and the quantity ... and then tell me ... how many progressive bands can you list that have that much?

 

Not many ... not many at all!

 

Do it! Put together what you would consider LZ's Prog Playlist...

Jeff Beck was his understudy. What was going on? His electric lead guitar work was decent on the first Zep album. It was a little like The Yardbirds. During many of his electric lead solo's, he would change positions like a madman. He would supposedly drink Jack Daniels and plus....hold his guitar below his kneecaps....which is not really a good idea because the attack of the right hand on passages that Page wrote when holding the guitar in this position would be like fighting against yourself. And with a bottle of Jack Daniels? You can forget it! He would often slop up his own pre-planned lead work. This was something that I just couldn't figure out. Hundreds of fans would say...."But it's okay because it's Jimmy Page" or "I don't hear what you are making reference to" ..."How can you say that?" Page wrote the most beautiful chord progressions in the world. The chords to "The Rain Song" and "Song Remains The Same" are prime examples of a guitarist that is full of intensity. He was very unique and sometimes un-touchable on acoustic. I have always had the suspicion that since he went to Art School with Sandy Denny, she may have introduced him to the finest traditional folk guitarists in Britian. Page certainly mastered many open tunings for acoustic ranging from traditional Irish folk tunings to Asian tunings. "White Summer" on The Yardbirds album Little Games is intense. He certainly mastered that along with his wonderful right hand picking technique which was applied with finger picks. And he NEVER was sloppy on acoustic! He was so outstanding on acoustic and would often give the audience a 10 to 15 minute acoustic performance of open tuning solo guitar that was dimensional to the max.

Some of the songs he wrote had many triad inversions and long stretched chord voicings. Many of his chord progressions in Zep songs are of a progressive nature. I was not fond of Robert Plant's vocals and that is what killed Zep for me but, I played almost every Zep song there is and in clubs for years. I never understood why he would get sloppy. As he would solo on 3 particular strings, he would allow himself to strike many open strings and never bother to block them. WTF? I used to think it was the kneecap deal but then if it was, what about in the studio? What was going on then? He supposedly wrote a score for a film called "Lucifer Rising" which during my first view of "Song Remains the Same" in the movie theatre, it was pointed out to me that the violin bow usage and entire middle section of the live "Dazed and Confused" was right out of the film score. He was a progressive writer. The stories I used to hear about him owning occult book shops, purchasing Alester Crowley's castle and just having an interest in witchcraft was all connected with Progressive ideas. During this period Page wrote some of the most inspirational songs like "Battle of Evermore", "Friends", which all seemed connected with darkness.  I spoke to someone in The Strawbs many years ago regarding Sandy Denny having an interest in witchcraft and was told that Page and Denny were in Art School together and both shared that common interest. One of his great electric lead guitar solo's that does not sound sloppy whatsoever and is impressive to me is in "Black Dog".   

How is a drum solo with a blues riff at each end prog?