MightyZep Posted April 29, 2008 Share Posted April 29, 2008 I recently read a reply (Juliet wrote) in this forum about wanting to see Robert and Alison singing 'With a Little Help From My Friends'- you know that Beatles tune... It made me wonder. Led Zeppelin and the Beatles are two popular music GIANTS and have often been put in that "untouchable" catagory. Although the two musical styles are completely different it is interesting to see how the Beatles disbanded and unintentionally passed the golden crown to Led Zeppelin. Now, I know that neither band influenced the other and that clearly shows in the music. But, after reading that post that Juliet made it made me think about how I wish there was more involvement with Zeppelin and the Beatles musically. I would be curious to know how Led Zep sounds playing a Beatles tune here and there. If Led ever gets together again officially (it won't happen but, hey) I would want to see a Beatles tune in there (that won't happen either). It doesn't get bigger or better than Led Zeppelin and The Beatles and I think it would be cool to experiment with that. Opinions? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NickZepp Posted April 29, 2008 Share Posted April 29, 2008 (edited) This is probably the wrong forum for this post. It should be in the main forum probably. But I think some of the later Beatles album influenced the psychedelic feel Page was going for in the late 60s. And Led Zeppelin did play some Beatles songs live a few times. Someone else can give exact dates. But I know of one in Japan in 71. And a few other times throughout the first 5 years when they did covers. Other connections. George Harrison showed up to a Zeppelin show wanting to play with the band once. Asked if there was an intermission so he could go on. But I guess he never went on stage. It's been said or written that Tangerine was put on Zeppelin III because George asked why Zepp didn't have a ballad(I guess he didn't count Thank You?) Tangerine's beginnings were in the Yardbirds though Paul McCartney referenced Jimmy Page in the song Rock Show "Who's that moving on the stage...A relic from a different age...looks just like Jimmy Page" something like that. Edited April 29, 2008 by NickZepp Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reggie29 Posted April 29, 2008 Share Posted April 29, 2008 The closest comparison of L Z doing Beatles songs is Cocker Happy. Jimmy played on With A Little Help From My Friends and She Came In Through The Bathroom Window. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SilverVishnu Posted April 29, 2008 Share Posted April 29, 2008 (edited) From memory, Zepp have played both Roll over Beethoven (1969) and Please Please Me. (I think 1971-09-28). I don't know if they ever played any other Beatles songs. Edit: Doesn't Robert sing a bit of "I Saw Her Standing There" in the For What It's Worth part of Communication Breakdown 1970-09-04? It's been said or written that Tangerine was put on Zeppelin III because George asked why Zepp didn't have a ballad(I guess he didn't count Thank You?) Tangerine's beginnings were in the Yardbirds though. I think that was the Rain Song, and the Rain Song's opening two notes are the same as one of Harrison's songs (I don't know which, sorry). Also, that comment was apparently made towards Bonzo. Edited April 29, 2008 by SilverVishnu Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reggie29 Posted April 29, 2008 Share Posted April 29, 2008 From memory, Zepp have played both Roll over Beethoven (1969) and Please Please Me. (I think 1971-09-28). I don't know if they ever played any other Beatles songs. Edit: Doesn't Robert sing a bit of "I Saw Her Standing There" in the For What It's Worth part of Communication Breakdown 1970-09-04? I think that was the Rain Song, and the Rain Song's opening two notes are the same as one of Harrison's songs (I don't know which, sorry). Also, that comment was apparently made towards Bonzo. Please Please Me would have been interesting. I seem to recall Zep doing Money at some point, can anyone elaborate? Roll Over Beethoven was covered by The Beatles, it was written and recorded by Chuck Berry. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xtazy Posted April 29, 2008 Share Posted April 29, 2008 Imagine Paul McCartney singing Whole lotta love... sweeeeet !! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Audacity Posted April 29, 2008 Share Posted April 29, 2008 Imagine Paul McCartney singing Whole lotta love... sweeeeet !! Let's don't. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sunray782 Posted April 29, 2008 Share Posted April 29, 2008 (edited) Please Please Me would have been interesting. I seem to recall Zep doing Money at some point, can anyone elaborate? Roll Over Beethoven was covered by The Beatles, it was written and recorded by Chuck Berry. They did. In Franfurt in 1980 with Phil Carson. Didn't Zeppelin also do Some Other Guy? They also did From Me To You. Edited April 29, 2008 by Sunray782 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Otto Masson Posted April 29, 2008 Share Posted April 29, 2008 (edited) I think that was the Rain Song, and the Rain Song's opening two notes are the same as one of Harrison's songs (I don't know which, sorry). Also, that comment was apparently made towards Bonzo. The first three chords of 'The Rain Song' are the same as George Harrison's 'Something' from Abbey Road. That was indeed intentional, it was meant as a tribute to The Beatles and to Harrison in particular, as he was friends with them. In '73 Harrison attended Bonzo's birthday party at a house in Laurel Canyon. He took the top part of the birthday cake and smeared it Bonzo's face, who returned the favor by throwing another portion of it after Harrison, hitting him right between the shoulder blades, as Peter Grant later described. Bonzo then threw Harrison and Patti Boyd into the pool, and nearly everybody else present. Not Grant though. Edited to fix an album reference. Edited April 29, 2008 by Otto Masson Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Absolutentonic Posted April 29, 2008 Share Posted April 29, 2008 The first three chords of 'The Rain Song' are the same as George Harrison's 'Something' from the white album. That was indeed intentional, it was meant as a tribute to The Beatles and to Harrison in particular, as he was friends with them. In '73 Harrison attended Bonzo's birthday party at a house in Laurel Canyon. He took the top part of the birthday cake and smeared it Bonzo's face, who returned the favor by throwing another portion of it after Harrison, hitting him right between the shoulder blades, as Peter Grant later described. Bonzo then threw Harrison and Patti Boyd into the pool, and nearly everybody else present. Not Grant though. I remember the news saying that on the night of Keith Moons death, members of Led zeppelin, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and the Who were at McCartneys place in honor of Buddy Holly's birthday. does anyone remember this. Wish I could have been at that party. Tragically, it was it for Moony. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Otto Masson Posted April 29, 2008 Share Posted April 29, 2008 I have to make a correction to my earlier post - 'Something' of course wasn't on the white album, but on Abbey Road. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bong-Man Posted April 29, 2008 Share Posted April 29, 2008 I seem to recall Zep doing Money at some point, can anyone elaborate? That's a Motown song by Barret Strong. It was the first Motown record to chart. Since JPJ & Bonzo were big Motown fans, I doubt the Beatles had anything to do with it. The Beatles released a cover of it on "With the Beatles", thus the confusion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NickZepp Posted April 29, 2008 Share Posted April 29, 2008 Led Zeppelin did play some Beatles songs in Boston in 1969. But that portion of the show wasn't recorded as far as we know. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MightyZep Posted April 29, 2008 Author Share Posted April 29, 2008 Led Zeppelin did play some Beatles songs in Boston in 1969. But that portion of the show wasn't recorded as far as we know. I would like to hear that recording from Boston. I bet that Led Zeppelin playing the Beatles is pretty awesome and I bet that goes vis versa for the Beatles doing Zeppelin. (By the way, I bet Robert could do an amazing version of John Lennon's Imagine). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pinky Posted April 29, 2008 Share Posted April 29, 2008 The first three chords of 'The Rain Song' are the same as George Harrison's 'Something' from Abbey Road. Ok no it definatley wasn't The Rain Song is not even the same tuning I hope you dont play guitar. Anyways Led Zeppelin can be heard playing The Beatles I Saw Her Standing There on the bootleg album Blueberry Hill. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lp_zep Posted April 29, 2008 Share Posted April 29, 2008 The first three chords of 'The Rain Song' are the same as George Harrison's 'Something' from Abbey Road. That was indeed intentional, it was meant as a tribute to The Beatles and to Harrison in particular, as he was friends with them. Ok no it definatley wasn't The Rain Song is not even the same tuning I hope you dont play guitar. It's a different tuning but those three chords definitely sounds very close on both songs. The songs both The Beatles and Ledzep played : -Long Tall Sally at some 69-70 gigs -Some Other Guy in many meldeys -Roll Over Beethoven (medleys) -Twist And Shout (Osaka 71/9/29 WLL medley) -Please Please Me (very short version 71/9/28 Osaka) -From Me To You (very short version 71/9/28 Osaka) -I Saw Her Standing There (LA 70/09/04, lyrics only) -Money in Seattle (72, with Bonzo's backing vocals) and Frankfurt (80) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Otto Masson Posted April 29, 2008 Share Posted April 29, 2008 (edited) Yeah, well, I was careless in saying it's the exact same chords. I do play guitar. I'm lazy playing with records, and never use tabs or any other musical notation - can hardly even read it. I just pick up songs and play them on my own. If you use standard tuning and play the A chord in the fifth fret position, without fretting the A string...just let it ring out throughout the first few chords....and next chord is #C minor on the fourth fret, etc. you will spot the similarity right away. That's how I usually play both songs, because I'm a bit lazy messing with the tunings (although I do it occasionally). In actual fact, not only is the tuning different, but it's different keys also. I believe Jimmy uses these tunings: The Rain Song (studio) - DGCGCD The Rain Song (live) - EADADE The opening chord of 'Something' (once the vocals come in, I mean) is actually B, I think. But that's unimportant. It's the harmonic contextuality that counts. The way Jimmy described it at the time was that he used the same two notes, as somebody already said. Obviously that doesn't mean a thing; a couple of notes played in succession is just that - not a quote or anything. It's how they work against the chords that makes it a quote from The Beatles. I think what Pagey actually means is the melodic vocal line of 'Something' (right after that first opening lick) starts out with a couple of notes that harmonically are just about exactly equivalent to the melodic line played on Jonesy's mellotron. Hope this clarifies matters. Edited April 29, 2008 by Otto Masson Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NickZepp Posted April 30, 2008 Share Posted April 30, 2008 (edited) -Long Tall Sally at some 69-70 gigs Little Richard Song first. That's the version they really covered. -Money Barrett Strong. Would be the first Motown hit. Edited April 30, 2008 by NickZepp Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jsj Posted April 30, 2008 Share Posted April 30, 2008 I remember the news saying that on the night of Keith Moons death, members of Led zeppelin, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and the Who were at McCartneys place in honor of Buddy Holly's birthday. does anyone remember this. Wish I could have been at that party. Tragically, it was it for Moony. that's pretty much right. they were at a nightclub somewhere in london, not mcartney's place, though i believe he was the host, in celebration of a buddy holy event. a lot of big names were there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Outrider88 Posted May 16, 2008 Share Posted May 16, 2008 Passed on, they clobbered the Beatles and took the “Thrown” by pure Musical Force… I am not Known for being P.C. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reids Posted May 16, 2008 Share Posted May 16, 2008 (edited) The Intro is: F, Eb, G and C. Then where the lyrics begin, it's: C then Cmaj7, C7 and then F (at the lover lyric in the first line) R Edited May 16, 2008 by reids Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zeptangerine Posted May 18, 2008 Share Posted May 18, 2008 In the tv interview attached to one of theZep DVDs I have, some dumb-ass reporter tried to compare Zeppelin to the Beatles. Jimmy shot back with a run on sentence suggesting he thought it was an insult to Zeppelin, being compared to the Beatles. I agree. As long as I live, or they live, I hope to never hear Zeppelin do a Beatles cover. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NickZepp Posted May 18, 2008 Share Posted May 18, 2008 In the tv interview attached to one of theZep DVDs I have, some dumb-ass reporter tried to compare Zeppelin to the Beatles. Jimmy shot back with a run on sentence suggesting he thought it was an insult to Zeppelin, being compared to the Beatles. I agree. As long as I live, or they live, I hope to never hear Zeppelin do a Beatles cover. They respected the Beatles and did cover them sometimes. I don't see why some fans of a certain band can't respect another band. The Beatles are probably the greatest and most popular band ever. I think Zeppelin's music is better, but the popularity and talent of the Beatles is second to none also. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chef free Posted May 18, 2008 Share Posted May 18, 2008 Another Beatles/Zeppelin connection: They both put up money for the Pythons to make Meaning of Life and Life of Brian. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zeptangerine Posted May 21, 2008 Share Posted May 21, 2008 (edited) Another Beatles/Zeppelin connection: They both put up money for the Pythons to make Meaning of Life and Life of Brian. Where did you hear that? I knew about George Harrison's connection. Never a Zeppelin connection. I never read a Zeppelin connection in any Python material, so where did you? ps- and don't quote me anything from the internet- the world's most reliable news source for fact and information. Edited May 21, 2008 by zeptangerine Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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