Quotes of Great Bands/Artists Who Liked/Disliked Led Zeppelin?

[MortSahlFan]

Eric Clapton is just sad because Jimmy is 100x better than him in EVERY way.

[No Quota]

39 minutes ago, MortSahlFan said:

Eric Clapton is just sad because Jimmy is 100x better than him in EVERY way.

I always thought of Clapton as being like a beautiful girl who only gives you a handshake at the end of the date.

Disapointingly lacking because you know it could be so much better.

[bluecongo]

Clapton is great, truly. Saw him a few years back he's a Master, no question.

But Jimmy is just on a whole other level talent and imagination wise.  

Clapton has played essentially the same style on the same guitar for oh 40 years now.

Jimmy on the other hand.......producer, composer, guitarist, visual artist, theremins, guitar bowing, electronic abstract music, lasers,  trans performance guitars, alternate tunings, guitar orchestras, guitar synthesizers, double neck guitars, world music, folk music, invented heavy metal, I mean it just goes on and on

 

jealous bitches, the lot of them

[MortSahlFan]

I saw Clapton, but I don't even like any of his solos. Same scale over and over.. The best songs he did weren't even his own!

The guitar on "Achilles Last Stand" is better than everything Clapton has done combined.

[Daniel]

But, Clapton is God, I've never really been sure which one. In all seriousness, I think Eric Clapton is a great musician. Though I readily admit that I've always had a bias for Jimmy Page, considering my love for him and his baby/band.

[blindwillie127]

On November 10, 2016 at 3:19 PM, bluecongo said:

Clapton is great, truly. Saw him a few years back he's a Master, no question.

But Jimmy is just on a whole other level talent and imagination wise.  

Clapton has played essentially the same style on the same guitar for oh 40 years now.

Jimmy on the other hand.......producer, composer, guitarist, visual artist, theremins, guitar bowing, electronic abstract music, lasers,  trans performance guitars, alternate tunings, guitar orchestras, guitar synthesizers, double neck guitars, world music, folk music, invented heavy metal, I mean it just goes on and on

 

jealous bitches, the lot of them

^ This. You left out the B-Bender, echoplex, gizmotron, tape speed manipulation, backwards echo..... and the occult.  Jimmy was about as adventurous as you could get, no doubt about it.

[JohnOsbourne]

On ‎11‎/‎10‎/‎2016 at 5:32 PM, MortSahlFan said:

I saw Clapton, but I don't even like any of his solos. Same scale over and over.. The best songs he did weren't even his own!

The guitar on "Achilles Last Stand" is better than everything Clapton has done combined.

Cream was a truly great band, but there's probably a reason Clapton hasn't really done anything interesting since then.

[MortSahlFan]

4 hours ago, JohnOsbourne said:

Cream was a truly great band, but there's probably a reason Clapton hasn't really done anything interesting since then.

A great example of how Clapton was the weak link in that band... Jack Bruce is a better singer, wrote the stuff (with the other guy), Baker is a better drummer than Clapton is a guitarist..

Take the song "Layla" - the riff is Allman's, the lyrics were written by multiple guys, the coda isn't even Bradley Whitlock's! Jim Gordon played it to the band, but Rita Coolidge say it was hers.

[FL6]

11 hours ago, blindwillie127 said:

^ This. You left out the B-Bender, echoplex, gizmotron, tape speed manipulation, backwards echo..... and the occult.  Jimmy was about as adventurous as you could get, no doubt about it.

Jeff Beck was similar, no surprise they were very good friends, but didn't I read that both Clapton and Beck were equally offended that Page was getting all the attention during the ARMS tour? Not sure if I'm remembering that correctly. 

[MortSahlFan]

Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck unfortunately are limited because they don't sing, so they have to rely on others, and some of their choices haven't been very good.

I was hoping for some sort of super-group. I remember hearing Henley and Billy Joel possibly playing together, then I also heard Sting.. They all sing, and the only thing left is a guitarist - Jimmy Page..

[the chase]

10 hours ago, MortSahlFan said:

 

I was hoping for some sort of super-group. I remember hearing Henley and Billy Joel possibly playing together, then I also heard Sting.. They all sing, and the only thing left is a guitarist - Jimmy Page..

Good God.. I hope not. Let Joe Walsh have it. 

[Xolo1974]

On 13/11/2016 at 0:32 AM, JohnOsbourne said:

Cream was a truly great band, but there's probably a reason Clapton hasn't really done anything interesting since then.

Yeah I reckon you're right. I have zero post Cream albums of Clapton in my collection. I just don't think his songwriting is any good. 

[Mook]

The Blind Faith album is brilliant.

I'm not a fan of Clapton's solo stuff at all though.

[Canadianzepper]

Cream has some great tunes, they are better than an average band without question.  Clapton has some nice solo work that is pleasant to listen to, surrounded by a nice House Band.

I don't have to compare everything to Zeppelin because it's unfair, I've already made my decision of which musicians are the superior, but my tastes are broad and eclectic enough to appreciate numerous bands, sounds and approaches to the guitar.

[IpMan]

13 hours ago, Mook said:

The Blind Faith album is brilliant.

I'm not a fan of Clapton's solo stuff at all though.

What, you did not like his updated arrangement of After Midnight for the beer commercial? Say it ain't so. 

[Balthazor]

On 11/6/2016 at 0:08 PM, Sathington Willoughby said:

This from 'Jimmy Page: Magus, Musician, Man' by George Case:

Around the same time Page was producing him in the studio, Clapton visited his house in Epson to have some private jams, which Page also recorded. "The Bluesbreakers were playing over in Putney and Eric came to stay at my house. I had a Simon tape recorder that you could DI into [directly inject electric instruments without first playing through an amp], so the two guitars went into the machine and I just did these tapes of Eric and myself playing." The DI trick enabled a huge amount of distortion while the two musicians played around with different twelve-bar I-IV-V progressions. But Page let Andrew Oldham's Immediate label know about the tapes ("I was really championing Eric, as you would"), and they were confiscated as part of both Page's and Clapton's contractual obligations. "I argued that they couldn't put them out, because they were just variations of blues structures, and in the end we dubbed some other instruments over some of them and they came out, with liner notes attributed to me... though I didn't have anything to do with writing them. I didn't get a penny out of it, anyway." This rather exploitative move on the label's part-they were released when given rhythm tracks by Rolling Stones Charlie Watts, Bill Wyman and Mick Jagger playing harmonica-led to some mistrust of Clapton toward Page, and Page's own frustrations at not owning music he had made. It was a bitter lesson. 

This recording that they're talking about, it sure sounds as if it was released at some point. Does anyone know what this is, and if it's available somewhere? I recently read this same quote elsewhere, I believe in the book Trampled Under Foot, and it's got me curious.

[blindwillie127]

On November 12, 2016 at 4:24 PM, MortSahlFan said:

 

 

On November 12, 2016 at 4:24 PM, MortSahlFan said:

Take the song "Layla" - the riff is Allman's, the lyrics were written by multiple guys, the coda isn't even Bradley Whitlock's! Jim Gordon played it to the band, but Rita Coolidge say it was hers.

Or, how about the song Badge? One of Clapton's best imo, but it was co-written by George Harrison. Ever notice how this song sounded nothing at all like Cream? Harrison wrote most of the lyrics (with a little help from Ringo) and also wrote that iconic bridge. Listen to Ringo's 'It Don't Come Easy' which Harrison wrote, and then listen to the bridge from Badge and you'll here the similarities....George Harrison. 

[Sathington Willoughby]

On 11/15/2016 at 1:21 PM, Balthazor said:

This recording that they're talking about, it sure sounds as if it was released at some point. Does anyone know what this is, and if it's available somewhere? I recently read this same quote elsewhere, I believe in the book Trampled Under Foot, and it's got me curious.

Indeed it is. I got a copy on cassette on Ebay a few years back.  Looks like there's currently about 30 for sale there, some vinyls, 8-tracks (lol) and cassettes. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guitar_Boogie_(album)

Full playlist on Youtube:

 

[Balthazor]

20 hours ago, Sathington Willoughby said:

Indeed it is. I got a copy on cassette on Ebay a few years back.  Looks like there's currently about 30 for sale there, some vinyls, 8-tracks (lol) and cassettes. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guitar_Boogie_(album)

 

Thanks! I'm listening to it right now. Cool stuff!

[greenman]

I think Clapton reached a level similar to Page briefly with the Derek and the Dominos debut but sadly never fully recovered from the layoff after there breakup dropping back to a comfortable MOR blues/rock style for the rest of his career.

[Crimson Avenger]

I can't resist chipping in a bit here. Clapton is a supremely gifted guitarist, although his health hasn't allowed him to play so well in the past couple of years. Anyone who comes out with the 'same scales, same lines' critique simply doesn't understand what Clapton does with a guitar. All his peers rate him, Beck, Page, Allman/Hendrix back in the day, Buddy Guy, and with good reason. Try telling any of them he can't play, and they would simply laugh at you. The weak link in Cream? I suppose you could argue that if forced to pick a name, but it's like asking who is the weak link in Zeppelin. There isn't one. Each member brings something unique to the mix.

That said, he's his own worst enemy from a reputational point of view, in that for years now he's been uninterested in playing much in the studio, and is happy to reel off the JJ Cale impressions. 1998's Pilgrim is the last one where he really shows you what he can do, but that was a hard album to like. More recently, the live thing with Steve Winwood from 2010 or so is well worth a listen, as is the Sessions for Robert J DVD, where he plays a lot of the Robert Johnson stuff properly, as in the originals. Not easy to do. Or the recent Wynton Marsalis thing, where he has a go at some trad jazz, much to everyone's surprise.

He's also sadly uninterested in solo live albums. So if you want to hear what Clapton can really do, you need to go to the live boots. He's probably a more booted artist than Zep, if that's possible, but try Double Image from Earls Court in 1998, or any of the blues tour stuff from 1994. There's a great AUD of the last night of that tour recorded in a small club in NYC, where he raises the roof.

Don't get me wrong, I love Page, and agree his Zep work shows him to have been a far better songwriter, arranger and producer in that period than EC has ever been. But I look at it like this. I'd contend that a fully fit Clapton could play anything from Page's back catalogue if he wanted, but I don't think that has ever held true the other way round.

 

 

[juxtiphi]

Listening to Clapton is like watching paint dry.

[the-ocean87]

7 hours ago, Crimson Avenger said:

 

Don't get me wrong, I love Page, and agree his Zep work shows him to have been a far better songwriter, arranger and producer in that period than EC has ever been. But I look at it like this. I'd contend that a fully fit Clapton could play anything from Page's back catalogue if he wanted, but I don't think that has ever held true the other way round.

 

 

The electric stuff - yes. There are no really "hard to play"- songs in the Zep repertoire, except some solo's that are tricky.  I don't know if Eric could play the fingerstyle stuff like "White Summer" or "The Song remains the same", even though Jimmy's fingerpicking is rather basic. Eric is not a great fingerpicker. Just enough to play songs like "Tears in Heaven", which are really easy to pick

[the-ocean87]

Don't know if anyone has posted that before. Maybe I myself

Ritchie Blackmore (Deep Purple, Rainbow) on Jimmy:

“I met Jimmy Page in ’62. I was playing with a group called Screamin’ Lord Sutch and the Savages, and we used to dress up as cavemen,” he recalls. “And we played with a band called Neil Christian and the Crusaders, who I played with later. And Jimmy Page was playing his Gretsch guitar with Neil Christian. And I knew he was going to be somebody then. Not only was he a good guitar player, he had that star quality. There was something about him. He was very poised. and confident, but not arrogant.”

 

http://www.guitarplayer.com/artists/1013/ritchie-blackmore-on-meeting-jimmy-page-in-1962-he-had-star-quality/56507

[blindwillie127]

John Frusciante:

 

JIMMY PAGE’S PLAYING IN LED ZEPPELIN WAS THE PERFECT ROCK GUITAR PLAYING AND HE HIMSELF WAS THE PERFECT ROCK GUITAR PLAYER. JIMMY PAGE WAS THE FIRST PERSON THAT MADE ME WANT TO PLAY GUITAR. FOUR YEARS BEFORE I STARTED I WAS TAUGHT THE BEGINNING OF STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN AND STOPPED LEARNING BECAUSE MY TEACHER COULD NOT SHOW ME THE SOLO. OF COURSE, I GOT AROUND TO IT EVENTUALLY… AND NOT ONLY LED ZEP STUFF, BUT I ALSO STUDIED HIS WONDERFUL PLAYING IN THE YARDBIRDS AND ALL THE SESSION’S HE DID IN THE 60’S. THE WAY HIS MUSIC DEVELOPED LEADING UP TO LED ZEP WAS BEAUTIFUL. IT SEEMS LIKE HE HAD AND ENDLESS FLOOD OF GOOD IDEAS AND THEN WHEN HE FOUND THE RIGHT PEOPLE TO PLAY WITH THE FLOOD GATES JUST POURED OPEN. I DON’T BELIEVE THAT A ROCK BAND COULD CARRY AROUND MORE POWER THAN THEY DID. WHEN I WAS 7 YEARS OLD IN 1977 SOMEBODY HAD SOMEHOW SPRAY PAINTED ON THE FREEWAY OVERPASS FOR ALL TO SEE, “LED ZEP RULES”. IT WAS UP THERE FOR A LONG WHILE AND THEN TAKEN AWAY, BUT I BELIEVE IT WILL BE TRUE FOREVER.

John Frusciante on Jimmy Page