DragonTelecaster Posted March 30, 2009 Share Posted March 30, 2009 Okay, we've all read how Led Zeppelin's music was so influential in so many musicains, artists, groups, or whatever in their careers. VH1 I believe did a series on "Top Rock Bands" and Led Zeppelin came in numero uno. No doubt, to me, most of the music in the 70's all comes back to Led Zeppelin's roots. But have you ever noticed how many musicians or groups have had their careers cut short BECAUSE of Led Zeppelin? Or at least, their "sound"? A few cases in point... Fleetwood Mac. Bob Welch left FM because he wanted their sound to resemble that of Led Zeppelin. When the other members disagreed, he quit. Bob Welch went on to have minor success in his career, but had he stayed with FM, who knows? Granted, that may have meant FM would have never brought in Lindsay Buckingham and Stevie Nicks, so....? Leif Garrett. Now this may not have been a bad thing! No disrespect towards Leif Garrett, as his promoters and agents insisted he continue to sing and play "bubblegum" music geared towards the teen population. When Garrett got sick of singing puppy love songs, he approached management telling them he wanted to "mature" and play rock music..."Like Led Zeppelin". This disagreed. Leif Garrett's career soon ended and never recovered. I'm sure there are plenty others out there. Name a few if you know of some. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ninelives Posted March 30, 2009 Share Posted March 30, 2009 I personally don't see the correlation. I would suspect Welch leaving FM was more about creative differences in general. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reggie29 Posted March 30, 2009 Share Posted March 30, 2009 Sounds more like bad advice and career choices than anything else. Try as they might no-one does or could sound like Zeppelin...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
croquet'n'cocaine Posted March 30, 2009 Share Posted March 30, 2009 The Stone Roses second album was supposed to be hugely influenced by Led Zeppelin (there are hints here and there, but that's about it). Anyway, they never made another album! QED. On the other hand, both Oasis and U2 have made albums which they claimed had a big Led Zep influence, and they're both still going, so the theory doesn't always have a positive outcome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patrycja Posted March 30, 2009 Share Posted March 30, 2009 The Tea Party says hello Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cabal200 Posted March 30, 2009 Share Posted March 30, 2009 Wow... I am amazed no one brought up what was widely considered the most blatant attempt to recreate Zeppelin with VERY little overall commercial success... The mighty Kingdom Come (or Kingdom Clone if you prefer) hold that honor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cabal200 Posted March 30, 2009 Share Posted March 30, 2009 While acting as an opening band, Led Zeppelin's humiliation of groups such as The Vanilla Fudge and Iron Butterfly coincided with their demise or career slide. Coincidence or not? That didn't happen when Eric Clapton and Pete Townshend witnessed the early Jimi Hendrix Experience live and were greatly humbled. Matter of fact, it seemed to lead to their advancement and creativity as guitarists. The stakes were raised and they met the challenge. I'd be curious to read some accounts of other musician's humility and subsequent inspiration or defeat when confronted with such excellent musicianship. Who threw in the towel and who "practiced, practiced, practiced" their chops? Are you insinuating that some bands/musicians quit because they couldn't compare to Zep? That's a bit of a stretch... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wolfman Posted March 30, 2009 Share Posted March 30, 2009 Billy Joel stated in an interview I read that his original band wanted to be like Led Zeppelin. He said he realized they never could so he went solo. Kinda cool to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aquamarine Posted March 30, 2009 Share Posted March 30, 2009 While acting as an opening band, Led Zeppelin's humiliation of groups such as The Vanilla Fudge and Iron Butterfly coincided with their demise or career slide. I don't like the use of humiliation in this context, as if the other bands had something to be ashamed of. Zep were better and more popular--that's it. No reason to consider that the other bands were humiliated--music isn't a contest. There's room for everybody, with different degrees of success. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danelectro Posted March 30, 2009 Share Posted March 30, 2009 Fleetwood Mac. Bob Welch left FM because he wanted their sound to resemble that of Led Zeppelin. When the other members disagreed, he quit. Bob Welch went on to have minor success in his career, but had he stayed with FM, who knows? Granted, that may have meant FM would have never brought in Lindsay Buckingham and Stevie Nicks, so....? I'm pretty sure Bob was the anti Led Zeppelin at any time in his career. If anything he was the man responsible for taking Fleetwood Mac into the soft rock territory they would perfect after his departure. As far back as Bare Trees his contributions were always more mainstream and pop than any other members. If he had a desire to sound more like LZ he never made an effort to show it, his solo work is the epitome of slick 70's soft rock. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
longdistancewinner Posted March 30, 2009 Share Posted March 30, 2009 I'm pretty sure Bob was the anti Led Zeppelin at any time in his career. If anything he was the man responsible for taking Fleetwood Mac into the soft rock territory they would perfect after his departure. As far back as Bare Trees his contributions were always more mainstream and pop than any other members. If he had a desire to sound more like LZ he never made an effort to show it, his solo work is the epitome of slick 70's soft rock. I think Welch is a Zeppelin fan (to a degree) - apparently on his website he states that his solo band performed Black Dog (...'best hard-rock thing ever recorded') regularly in rehearsals. He also says that the band modelled themselves on Zeppelin. I personally can't see that being the reason he left FM. 'Exhaustion' is cited as the reason for his departure from FM, and I don't think he left on particularly bad terms, either - he's performed with various members over the years. linkage Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Posted April 2, 2009 Share Posted April 2, 2009 I saw a video of Billy Joel doing Communication Breakdown during a sound check once. As far as the Vanilla Fudge thing they had already decided to break up and did one last tour co-headlining with Zep. The two bands were friends and rotated opening for each other. There was no competition between the two on that tour. Members of one band would occasionally jam with the other. They did destroy Iron Butterfly at the Fillmore East, though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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