Led Zep and Unconscious vs self-conscious prog

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   That's the funny thing about Zep.  Ya get out those studio albums and there's always some stretching out, just a bit beyond what your average blues-rock band should be involved in, much less capable of.

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jammun Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Reviewer page Prog Reviewer Joined: July 14 2007 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 3449	Posted: September 13 2008 at 22:33
	That's the funny thing about Zep. Ya get out those studio albums and there's always some stretching out, just a bit beyond what your average blues-rock band should be involved in, much less capable of.

Atavachron Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Reviewer page Special Collaborator Honorary Collaborator Joined: September 30 2006 Location: Pearland Status: Offline Points: 65442	Posted: September 13 2008 at 18:49
	you make a great observation ..I'm a recovering Zeppoholic, had it bad in my early twenties, more bootlegs than I care to count, collectibles, etc, it was ugly.. but I realized how progressive they really were, especially live and by '75 they had become an even more phenomenal live act than shown in SRtS (filmed '73) often turning in much more progressive shows than their Prog contemporaries did ..an amazing balance between spontaneous, visceral heavy blues/jazz and carefully planned expansions of their songs ..even Floyd and Hendrix rarely matched them for range and risk-taking live, only the Dead did it better I think ..the studio albums, too, show a clear progressive arc in material development and studio sound that always was fresh and pushing past their hard rock tag ...in concert and beyond !

TheProgtologist Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Reviewer page Special Collaborator Honorary Collaborator / Retired Admin Joined: May 23 2005 Location: Baltimore,Md US Status: Offline Points: 27802	Posted: September 13 2008 at 18:26
	Moved to the Proto and Prog Related section where it belongs.


MercyfulFatesWarning Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Reviewer page Forum Newbie Joined: September 09 2008 Location: Great Neck, NY Status: Offline Points: 15	Posted: September 13 2008 at 18:17
	I realize that a band like Led Zeppelin are not 'prog rock' in the traditional sense, but to me Zeppelin hella lot more adventurous than a lot of the bands that we distinctly label as 'prog'. In many ways, LZ achieved their progressiveness in an un-conscious manner, and in so doing created much more artistic works than those bands that wore their progginess/artsiness on their sleeves. Take two Zep albums that got relatively low scores on progarchives review forum: Led Zeppelin III: 3.86 Houses of the Holy: 3.69 Compare that to the cumulative review scores for the 2 Transatlantic albums: Transatlantic Stolt Morse Portnoy Trewavas: 4.09 Bridge Across Forever: 4.05 When I saw these scores, I'm thinking C'MON NO WAY Houses of the Holy is more progressive, artsy and eclectic than the 2 TA albums combined. Funk, reggae, folk, the subtle time changes, the sounds that Jimmy gets from his guitars and OOOHH that mellotron! No Quarter and The Rain Song by themselves make a lot of neo-prog bands sound trite and contrived. Not to mention the wonderfully organic structures that we get with The Ocean, The Song Remains the Same, and Over the Hills and Far Away. Musically, Page/ Plant/ Bonham/ Jones were exploratory and progressive in every way imaginable. Well, I can't complain too much.... at least they're down as "prog-related"