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Things Zeppelin Invented.


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Excellent thread. I never saw it before tonight

Don't know if "invented" is the right word.. "Perfected" is probably a better fit.

Page himself would probably credit Les Paul for every recording technique / trick known to man..

I know Backward Echo was already mentioned. Nobody has mentioned Backwards Reverb yet.

Whole Lotta Love has Backwards Reverb on the forward slide guitar track.

"Wanna Whole Lotta Love ====="

That's The Way, The Wanton Song have it as well I believe.

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i reckon they invented having two front men. two very sexy front men..........

The Beatles had two equal front men, surely? But I reckon Led Zeppelin are the first ones where a guitarist who's just a guitarist (i.e. who doesn't sing, or at least very little) is foregrounded so much and the guitarist seems as important when playing live as the singer.

I think they also "invented" the thing of putting a kind of extremely blatant and obvious male sexuality on stage in a way that hadn't been done before. Plant really kind of invited sexual objectification of himself in a way that male performers hadn't before. I mean, I know girls used to wet themselves over Elvis's gyrating hips or whatever, but Elvis wasn't taking his shirt off or wearing trousers so tight you could tell his religion. Whether this was a good thing to "invent" is obviously a different question.

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The Beatles had two equal front men, surely? But I reckon Led Zeppelin are the first ones where a guitarist who's just a guitarist (i.e. who doesn't sing, or at least very little) is foregrounded so much and the guitarist seems as important when playing live as the singer.

Nah. Pete Townshend.
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The Beatles had two equal front men, surely? But I reckon Led Zeppelin are the first ones where a guitarist who's just a guitarist (i.e. who doesn't sing, or at least very little) is foregrounded so much and the guitarist seems as important when playing live as the singer.

I think they also "invented" the thing of putting a kind of extremely blatant and obvious male sexuality on stage in a way that hadn't been done before. Plant really kind of invited sexual objectification of himself in a way that male performers hadn't before. I mean, I know girls used to wet themselves over Elvis's gyrating hips or whatever, but Elvis wasn't taking his shirt off or wearing trousers so tight you could tell his religion. Whether this was a good thing to "invent" is obviously a different question.

Scylla: I personally think it was the greatest invention that was ever made.

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One thing I think Led Zeppelin did invent was on-stage "flirting" between a band's lead singer and guitar player. Lots of rock guitar/lead singer duos had great chemistry and interacted with one another on stage. However, Led Zeppelin took it to a whole other level. The soulful glances Page would shoot Plant's way...the way Plant would sidle up to him so they could share a mike for the Whole Lotta Love refrain. We have Page and Plant to thank for Steve Tyler being all over Joe Perry during Aerosmith concerts and Anthony Kiedis' on-stage antics with his bandmates.

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I'm with the poster who said they only refined what had already been done. They were possibly innovators on the business side of touring. Jimmy innovated in the studio but wether he was the first to do something or just the first to bring it to popular music, I have no idea. The only thing I can think they did that was unique up to that time was the lead break in Heartbreaker and how it is only guitar with no other tracks. I could be wrong here.

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Scylla: I personally think it was the greatest invention that was ever made.

Oh, I don't mind it myself. But I do sort of think that it might have been the beginning of the slippery slope that led (no pun intended) to present-day pop artists whose music is basically aimed at eight-year-olds practically simulating sex onstage, and the eight-year-olds copying the dance moves, and little girls thinking that's what you have to do to be considered attractive and yada yada. They played their little role in the pornification of absolutely bloody everything, which is now contributing to the premature sexualisation of kids.

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One thing I think Led Zeppelin did invent was on-stage "flirting" between a band's lead singer and guitar player. Lots of rock guitar/lead singer duos had great chemistry and interacted with one another on stage. However, Led Zeppelin took it to a whole other level. The soulful glances Page would shoot Plant's way...the way Plant would sidle up to him so they could share a mike for the Whole Lotta Love refrain. We have Page and Plant to thank for Steve Tyler being all over Joe Perry during Aerosmith concerts and Anthony Kiedis' on-stage antics with his bandmates.

I know they weren't a band as such, but does anyone know when Bowie first pretended to fellate Mick Ronson?

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Oh, I don't mind it myself. But I do sort of think that it might have been the beginning of the slippery slope that led (no pun intended) to present-day pop artists whose music is basically aimed at eight-year-olds practically simulating sex onstage, and the eight-year-olds copying the dance moves, and little girls thinking that's what you have to do to be considered attractive and yada yada. They played their little role in the pornification of absolutely bloody everything, which is now contributing to the premature sexualisation of kids.

Really???

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Really???

Mmm, really. They weren't the only 70s act to be so blatantly sexual in their lyrical content and onstage behaviour, obviously. And it's in no way their fault that something that should be for adults and older teenagers ended up getting marketed to pre-pubescents. Or that the nature of modern media makes it a lot harder than it used to be to keep adult-appropriate and child-appropriate forms of artistic expression separate. . . but they were one of the contributing factors, because Plant was the first rock performer to have quite such an overtly sexual onstage persona.

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because Plant was the first rock performer to have quite such an overtly sexual onstage persona.

I would think that would go to Elvis (whether we judge it as tame now or not) in 56' he was wiggling his hips and gyrating in a manner that was sending teenage girls into a sexual frenzy, and parents reeling in terror. It all starts there.

Young rock fans today would doubtless have a hard time understanding what all the scandal was about, as his frenetic swivels and shuffles look chaste compared to the gyrations common on MTV. But Elvis on that night (and his rock star peers in general around the same time) arguably set in motion a trend that continues today.

Historians assert that Elvis’s three nights on the Sullivan show helped bridge the gap between the first rock ’n’ roll generation and their parents. Whether at the same time his behavior on those shows ultimately caused today’s generation gap—that is, whether MTV’s rump-shakers should look to Elvis as their earliest role model and parents can blame him for Britney Spears—is still up for debate.

http://www.elvisinfonet.com/spotlight_edsullivan.html

Jimi Hendrix also had an overtly sexual stage persona before Robert.

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And Jim Morrison whipped his out - or at least made people thought he did. What about Mick prancing around in the late 60's? I think there are many acts who have capitalized on sexuality before Plant and Page.

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While Led Zeppelin did not invent the Echoplex, they sure got more mileage out of it than any other band!

"Us and Them" by Pink Floyd. IMO, the way David Gilmour's voice echoes throughout the song plays a big role in the timeless and haunting atmosphere it evokes. It always made me think of an ancient oracle.

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Led Zep invented the idea of performing 4 hour sets which is generally atributed to Bruce Springsteen.

The Grateful Dead were doing 4 hour sets long before LZ or Springsteen.
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