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What Makes Led Zeppelin So Great?


MHD

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Apologies if this has already been posted, but I have only recently come across this. This is just a segment of a Danny Goldberg interview conducted by Brad Tolinski of Guitar World Magazine, issue Jan 2008. When asked what he thought makes the band so great and why do we still care, I thought Dannys response summed it up perfectly...

Danny Goldberg: The main reason is that all four members of the band are incredibly talented. You could've built an entire band around any of the four of them. John Paul Jones for example, had the lowest profile, and he was an incredible genius. Jonesy was the least well known, and any band would've killed to have him. There's no question that John Bonham was the greatest rock drummer who ever lived. And Robert turned out to be an amazing frontman, lyricist and singer.

But the real key is Jimmy, who masterminded the band. He had so much confidence in his own abilities that he had no problem surrounding himself with these incredible players. Jimmy also had a vision of what was going on in rock and roll at that time and how to take it to the next level. After the sixties, Zeppelin were the beginning of the next chapter.

It's also harder to imitate them than you would think. There are a lot of bands that try to replicate the heavy element of their music, but they miss the light and shade - the sexuality, the brutality and the sensitivity. It turns out to be a very difficult thing to copy. There are only a handful of artists that are so unique that they endure for decades, and Led Zeppelin are on that short list.

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Apologies if this has already been posted, but I have only recently come across this. This is just a segment of a Danny Goldberg interview conducted by Brad Tolinski of Guitar World Magazine, issue Jan 2008. When asked what he thought makes the band so great and why do we still care, I thought Dannys response summed it up perfectly...

Danny Goldberg: The main reason is that all four members of the band are incredibly talented. You could've built an entire band around any of the four of them. John Paul Jones for example, had the lowest profile, and he was an incredible genius. Jonesy was the least well known, and any band would've killed to have him. There's no question that John Bonham was the greatest rock drummer who ever lived. And Robert turned out to be an amazing frontman, lyricist and singer.

But the real key is Jimmy, who masterminded the band. He had so much confidence in his own abilities that he had no problem surrounding himself with these incredible players. Jimmy also had a vision of what was going on in rock and roll at that time and how to take it to the next level. After the sixties, Zeppelin were the beginning of the next chapter.

It's also harder to imitate them than you would think. There are a lot of bands that try to replicate the heavy element of their music, but they miss the light and shade - the sexuality, the brutality and the sensitivity. It turns out to be a very difficult thing to copy. There are only a handful of artists that are so unique that they endure for decades, and Led Zeppelin are on that short list.

Lovely post. Thanks! :)

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