Terry Reid

[lzzoso]

We all know that Jimmy Page's first choice for the lead singer in his new group was Terry Reid. We also know that Terry Reid passed up the opportunity and recommended Robert Plant. As fate would have it, this became the "Mighty Led Zeppelin" that provided the world with the greatest and best music of all-time.

Having been a Led Zeppelin fan for over 25 years now I think I know almost everything to know about Led Zeppelin. However, I just recently came across the music and singing of Terry Reid (thanks alot to YouTube). Just tonight I listened to at least 10 Terry Reid songs on YouTube. I was very pleasantly surprised. Terry Reid was (is) a very good and talented singer (having never really heard him sing before).

Of course I am grateful and pleased that Mr. Reid turned down the job of lead singer with Jimmy Page's new band, because I don't think the music and "the Song Remains the Same" with any other singer than Robert Plant.

However, with the help of YouTube, I am now a very big fan of Terry Reid. Check out his songs. All it takes is a quick search.

Edited August 30, 2009 by lzzoso

[Reggie29]

Funny how people say "Led Zeppelin would be different IF the original choice of Terry Reid sang instead of Robert".

Very true.

However, there are some other things to consider:

Who would have been the drummer? No Plant, No Bonham.

Would the songs and the music have been the same? The music maybe, but with 90% of Zep's lyrics provided by Robert, probably not.

Would they have used THE NAME? Unlikely.

Terry Reid made his decision and the rest is history, whether he regrets it (recommending Robert!), only he knows.

He hasn't been prolific since he turned Jimmy down but an incredible voice just the same.

[ledded1]

I saw Terry Reid about 10 days ago. Great show.

[ninelives]

Don't even know if the music would have been the same. Some of that inspiration on Jimmy's part I'm sure came from the connections he had to Robert and Bonzo and of course JPJ. It would have been interesting I suppose to wonder what the band would have sounded like but certainly wouldn't have been Zep!

Ledded - glad you enjoyed the show

[Evster2012]

I thought Page's first choice was Steve Marriott. As I recall Page and Grant got a reply from Marriott's management suggesting it would be better for Jimmy to have all his fingers undamaged with another singer than be a crippled guitarist pursuing Marriott.

[ledzepfvr]

I thought Page's first choice was Steve Marriott. As I recall Page and Grant got a reply from Marriott's management suggesting it would be better for Jimmy to have all his fingers undamaged with another singer than be a crippled guitarist pursuing Marriott.

I read that Jimmy asked Marriott on 1966 when the Yardbirds were regouping to no avail, but did he ask again after the Yardbirds final demise and was looking again for band members?

[Hotplant]

So...what's the point?

[Aquamarine]

Don't even know if the music would have been the same. Some of that inspiration on Jimmy's part I'm sure came from the connections he had to Robert and Bonzo and of course JPJ. It would have been interesting I suppose to wonder what the band would have sounded like but certainly wouldn't have been Zep!

Plus Robert was responsible for a lot of the melodies as well as the lyrics.

It would simply have been a completely different band, with different material--pointless to consider it in terms of Bron Yr Aur Stomp with TR on vocals. He IS a great singer, though.

[Tadpole in a Jar]

With either Marriott or Reid it would've been more of a straight-ahead blues-rock band in the vein of Humble Pie.

If you go to Amazon you'll see Terry Reid was quite prolific but he didn't have any huge sellers, I don't think. I saw one of his discs at the used CD store the other day and thought about getting it. Maybe I should.

[I have got a horsey]

Terry Reid turned down Deep Purple as well, with the gig going to Ian Gillan

[Evster2012]

No Plant, no Bron-Yr-Aur trip (that's just one example). Nothing would have gone the same.

[georgio]

Reid has a nice voice...Steve Marriott too has a powerful voice. They could have taken over Zep or Purple incarnation II...like many British blues belters, they remain in relative obscurity now - they had their moments of fame, but none of them are in the echelon. What Plant doesn't get enough credit for is pushing the boundaries. Even though he was the singer, he wasn't "just the singer." He genuinely wanted to push for new sounds which he never gets enough credit for. He was consciously expanding Zep's repertoire with Page. With the other guys I agree that they remain more blues and folk based......

[Mr.Pibber]

I thought this was going to be a thread about Tara Reid.

[lzzoso]

I thought this was going to be a thread about Tara Reid.

That is actually pretty funny. Terry Reid. Tara Reid. Whatever DID happen to them? Just Kidding. Although, I really do think that Terry Reid was (is) a great singer, I always thought that Tara Reid was just a mediocore actress. However, I give her some credit for showing her tits in a couple of average movies. Not too bad. I do think that Terry Reid is a better singer than Tara Reid is an actresss.

Edited September 6, 2009 by lzzoso

[SteveAJones]

I thought Page's first choice was Steve Marriott. As I recall Page and Grant got a reply from Marriott's management suggesting it would be better for Jimmy to have all his fingers undamaged with another singer than be a crippled guitarist pursuing Marriott.

Did Beck play bass on “Over Under Sideways Down”?

JP: No. In fact for that LP they just got him in to do the solos because they’d had a lot of trouble with him. But then when I joined the band, he supposedly wasn’t going to walk off anymore. Well, he did a couple of times. It’s strange; if he’d had a bad day, he’d take it out on the audience. I don’t know whether he’s the same now; his playing sounds far more consistent on records. You see on the “Beck’s Bolero” (Truth) thing I was working with that, the track was done and then the producer just disappeared.

He was never seen again; he simply didn’t come back. (Simon) Napier-Bell just sort of left me and Jeff to it. Jeff was playing, and I was in the box (recording booth). And even though it says he wrote it, I wrote it. I’m playing the electric 12-string on it. Beck’s doing the slide bits, and I’m basically playing around the chords. The idea was built around (classical composer) Maurice Ravel’s’ “Bolero.” It’s got a lot of drama to it; it came off right. It was a good lineup too, with (the Who’s drummer) Keith Moon and everything.

Wasn’t that band going to be Led Zeppelin?

JP: It was, yeah. Not Led Zeppelin as a name; the name came afterwards. But it was said afterwards that that’s what it could have been called. Because Moonie wanted to get out of the Who, and so did (Who bass player) John Entwistle, but when it came down to getting hold of a singer, it was either going to be (guitarist/organist/singer with English pop group Traffic) Steve Winwood or (guitarist/vocalist with Small Faces) Steve Marriott. Finally it came down to Marriott. He was contacted, and the reply came back from his manager’s office: “How would you like to have a group with no fingers, boys?” Or words to that effect. So the group was dropped because of Marriott’s other commitment, to the Small Faces. But I think it would have been the first of all those bands sort of like the Cream and everything. Instead it didn’t happen—apart from the “Bolero.” That’s the closest it got. John Paul (Jones) is on that too; so is Nicky Hopkins (studio keyboard player with various British rock groups).

[georgio]

Steve Marriott was a big influence on Robert Plant...as was a young Steve Winwood...the white blues invasion

[harp0]

Terry Reid is a great vocalist maybe my second favorite to Plant, listen to his version of Season of the Witch. It's my favorite version of that song, and there are ton's of versions! Some of his vocals remind me of Plant in some ways. I recommend getting the CD: Superlungs the complete studio recordings. <------------Amazon Link for the CD. It's got lots of music, and some really great tunes.

Reid's reason for turning down Jimmy Page on joining Led Zeppelin:

"Jimmy asked me to be the singer in Led Zeppelin but I'd just done a deal to support the Stones on their first US tour in three years.” Being confronted with the seemingly insurmountable legal ramifications of trying to pull out of both Mickie Most's contract and the touring deal with the Stones, Reid had to bow out.

Hope that helps

[achillestand]

The same thing happened to me. I had never known about Terry reid since a couple of months ago. He IS a very talented singer and guitar player. Of course, had he joined Page, things would have been dofferent, but surely awesome too. Can you imagine two guitars plus terry´s voice? That woulkd have been great!-

Listen to Seed of memory...it has a very dark sound and terry sings beautifuly.

[Gegenschein]

LOL wot? How'd I miss this?

Hello, darlings!

Though as of late I've been listening almost exclusively to Jeff Buckley... I suppose I can call myself somewhat of a Terry Reid fan as well.

These 2 are my favorite songs:

(I heard Superlungs ages ago, and always thought that voice was amazing, but didn't learn that Jimmy wanted him until many years later - and my reaction, based just on that song, was - boy am I not surprised)

for some reason people always get impressed with this one, vocally:

here's also some visuals...

and a pic:

and some folks here might find this interesting: a bio I posted a while back - follow this link

(if any of the links above die in the future... you can listen to the entire Superlungs compilation here)

Edited September 27, 2009 by Gegenschein

[djzoso]

We all know that Jimmy Page's first choice for the lead singer in his new group was Terry Reid. We also know that Terry Reid passed up the opportunity and recommended Robert Plant. As fate would have it, this became the "Mighty Led Zeppelin" that provided the world with the greatest and best music of all-time.

Having been a Led Zeppelin fan for over 25 years now I think I know almost everything to know about Led Zeppelin. However, I just recently came across the music and singing of Terry Reid (thanks alot to YouTube). Just tonight I listened to at least 10 Terry Reid songs on YouTube. I was very pleasantly surprised. Terry Reid was (is) a very good and talented singer (having never really heard him sing before).

Of course I am grateful and pleased that Mr. Reid turned down the job of lead singer with Jimmy Page's new band, because I don't think the music and "the Song Remains the Same" with any other singer than Robert Plant.

However, with the help of YouTube, I am now a very big fan of Terry Reid. Check out his songs. All it takes is a quick search.

any songs you could recommend

[Ady]

any songs you could recommend

Can I recommend you this:

I think it's pure class.

Edited October 2, 2009 by Ady

[lzzoso]

any songs you could recommend

What I would recommend is that you go to Youtube.com and just type in Terry Reid in the search box and just press enter. The first song to pop up should be "Seeds of Memory". Listen to that one. That was the first song that I listened to. Very good song. I was very impressed with Terry's singing and the music and song itself. Check it out. After that, I just listened to other Terry Reid songs that looked like they were studio recordings. I wanted to hear his studio songs first before I checked out his live stuff. I recomend that you do the same. Once you do, let me know what you think.

Lastly, to get back to the main topic of my original post, try and imagine what Led Zeppelin would have been or sounded like if Terry Reid did take up Jimmy's offer for him to join the "New Yardbirds". Just try and imagine. Pretty hard if you ask me.

[Patrycja]

Can I recommend you this:

I think it's pure class.

Beautiful

[Gegenschein]

Terry is turning 60 today.

[Driver8]

There's an interview with Terry Reid on Palm Spring's newspaper The Desert Sun, written by Bruce Fessier. I'll quote a few paragraphs, below is a link to the article. Mr. Reid discusses Zeppelin, Yardbirds and Band of Joy.

Reid, now living in Palm Desert and preparing for two rare local performances this month, was just 15 years old in 1965 when he was plucked out of a London breeding ground for rockers and asked to tour with the Rolling Stones and the Yardbirds, featuring guitarists Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck.

But, three years later, when the next vocal crown prince was being readied for coronation, Reid enigmatically abdicated his royal opportunity and let Robert Plant replace him.

“That's definite,” said Burdon, who still maintains a close friendship with Reid from his Joshua Tree home.

“I saw him on stage when he was a young whippersnapper. He was skinny as a rake and had hair down to his ass, tight blue jeans with holes in them and gypsy shirts. He was just a magnificent singer — a pretty good guitar player, too — and he had a great aura. I thought, ‘This is it, man. I can see why he turned down Zep because he's got his own thing going.' I thought technically he was a far better singer than Robert Plant.”

http://www.mydesert....ext%7CFrontpage