I question the sanity of Rolling Stone readers

Bonham's been dead for - what? - 30 years? Hell, Watts hasn't had a pulse in 35 years in he's still dragging his carcass out on tour. Shit. Keith's been dead for about 40, he just has yet to have fallen over and nobody else wants to break the news to him. What the hell is Bonham's problem? Slacker.

 

Boston is better than Led Zeppelin? OK, now I know you're posts are nothing but performance art.

 

I love rock music, but let's keep some perspective:

1. It's a popular music genre, and a nebulously defined one at best. Let's stop taking it so seriously.

2. It has been the dominant popular music genre for about 60 years, but it will not be forever.
Sixty years is a drop in the bucket.

3. The only reason it has been the dominant genre of popular music for this long is people keep expanding the definition to include all popular music, so that virtually everything that is produced can fall under the 'rock' umbrella.

 

It's an interesting debate and let me say that The Stones are my all time favorite group but Stairway to Heaven might tip the scales to Led Zep as far as influence.

 

No love for The Boss and E Street band?

 

As for that list: If the Stones' prime era matched that of the Beatles and Dylan, then how many bands were more influenced by the Stones' prime era material than by the Beatles and Dylan's?

Zeppelin has the advantage of influencing a completely different set of genres than those others.

The Stones' fingerprints are all over bands like Aerosmith and the Black Crowes. Their influence can be found in bands that play simple, "good time" rock and roll music.

Zeppelin's are all over bands like Black Sabbath and Metallica. With Sabbath (and I suppose a bit of The Who), they are widely seen as the inventors of heavy metal.

For me, that's a major point in favor of Zeppelin. It just depends on what you like.

At the same time, you bet I would say they're more influential than the Stones. Having listened to most of both the Stones and Zeppelin's respective catalogs, I think Zeppelin took a lot more chances in the studio. Live, they weren't everyone's cup of tea, but neither are the Stones' drugged-out, half-speed renderings of their classics.

Waylon's list of better bands is apocryphal, at best. At worst, it reads like "He obviously once broke up with a really awesome girl who ended up marrying a Led Zeppelin fan."

 

I counted him as a solo artist. Same with Prince and the NPG, who would have been ahead of Led Zeppelin, as well. I didn't include Motown acts, either.

I forgot The Band. But, like I said, partial list.

 

That is list is awesome. And not in a good way. Look, the bands are separated by 7 percent, and the reason why I'm giving Zep the nod is because of the old cliche: "Live fast, die young and leave a good-looking corpse."

I know Page, Plant and Jones still perform, and they're far from good looking, but they no longer perform together or under the name Led Zeppelin. They haven't had 15 farewell tours, either. I think when people think of Zeppelin, they think of Custard Pie, the Lemon Song and Going to California, not the Bridges to Babylon Tour.

As a guitar player, I'd say Page was better, but man, Keith Richards could write some awesome riffs (see Can't You Hear Me Knocking?)

 

Take the Rolling Stones catalog and match it up with Zeppelin and Zeppelin will pretty much destroy it.

Both are great bands, don't get me wrong, but list the Rolling Stones best 25 songs and Zeppelin's best 25 songs and tell me what has the better list.

As far as Elvis goes, most people under 30 are barely familiar with his work. I know it seems crazy, but it's true.

Zeppelin has stayed amazingly relevant even 30 or so years after their last album.

 

And who do you think influenced Zeppelin?

Without the Stones, there is no Led Zeppelin, who were the Jonas Brothers compared to "Exile on Main Street"-era Stones, for example.

Zeppelin's a gateway drug when it comes to rock 'n' roll. The Stones are what you grow into when it's time to see how it was really done. Led Zeppelin never struck a single chord that can hold a candle to anything the Stones did from 1967-1971 or so.

 

The Stones and it's not even close.

 

Zeppelin was blues based, influenced by guys like Mississippi John Hurt. Listen to the first two records, and much of it is blues.