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No arguments about John Bonham, I bought the Led Zep DVD box set purely for the drumming
Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
No, I'm totally with you, the amount of stick I've got over the years for saying that I've always preferred Lizzy to Zeppelin... That said, Black Dog is ohssum
It's not always just a 'bad tone in isolation but which fits the music in context' either - sometimes it's just unnecessarily poor... ie it could be a lot better but still fit the music as well. I think quite a bit of Page's playing falls into that area - I don't think he should be above criticism either, even if it's the music which wins in the end.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
When Page made his name in the late 60s and early 70s he was one of the best players in London, and had loads of sessions behind him. On the studio albums the tone fits the music and on live bootlegs his soloing is also excellent. Once he got a smack habit he seemed to stop practising and his playing deteriorated massively and noticeably. 77 and 79 bootlegs are generally awful. He was the creative force behind the most important rock band of the 70s. He was also the producer of all of those albums. In 1973 there were not many Rock players on his level.
It is frankly ridiculous trying to compare a player who appears to have given up on practise in 1975 and who spent the ten years after that shooting smack and coke cocktails into his veins. The Firm were terrible, outrier is terrible and Page and Plant is terrible when compared to early and mid era Led Zeppelin.
The reason Clapton and Beck are still watchable is that they both play regularly and never went for very long without projects and gigs. Page has basically done SFA since Zeppelin split and expecting him to be able to just turn it on after the best part of 30 years out of action is a step too far.
They were clearly the peak of the heavy blues genre, and influenced other bands and music, but the other immense rock bands of the day had much greater and longer lasting influence; Sabbath and Purple (maybe Abba too) gave rise to far more depth, creativity and downright musicianship than Zep did.
While I love I, II and IV, there's only a little credible material outside of these albums, a legacy which bares no comparison of the Deep Black's endowment upon modern music.
However, If he puts himself on stage then I buy his CD/DVD of the show, then no, to comment on his dreadful fizzy guitar tone isn't a step too far.
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And to counter the Page is past-it brigade, watch the Unledded DVD - Page was on fire playing in that. I think if he's match fit he's excellent.
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I was at Knebworth in 1979. I was a huge Zeppelin and Page fan at the time and ecstatic I was going to see them live. OK they hadn't played together live since 1977, but they were shockingly bad, particular Page ....what's the line ... "when the band you're in starts playing a different tune" .... it would have been funny if I hadn't spent a significant proportion of my summer job earnings getting there! Even Todd Rundgren wiped the floor with them, at least his band were in tune and kept time with each other!