Jack Bruce slates Led Zep!

[the queen without a king]

Man, this story is everywhere....I just posted a response on the local classic rock station website. I'll just recycle what I posted there:

I've always been fascinated by all the negative comments regarding Zeppelin. Even more so when those comments come from their fellow musicians who achieved their success during the same era as LZ. Pete Townsend has slagged LZ off, Mick Jagger made some off hand remark that he thought LZ was overrated plus many others that I can't think of at the moment.

Now we can add Jack Bruce to the list. And I have one question for all of them. Jealous much? Yeah, it must really suck if you are Pete Townsend still touring under the name The Who (even though 2 out of the 4 original members are dead) and like the Stones touring and releasing album after album yet still can't catch up to LZ whose career lasted a mere 12 years. Now it's Jack Bruce's turn.

Of course it got a lot of attention...it's Led F*ckin Zeppelin!! Their career ended far too early and people are still hungry for more. It really is as simple as that. Cream 10 times better? LZ is crap!!? Are you kidding me!? I heard the clip above where he was trying to put out the fire. Maybe he was joking, or maybe he was being an ass and is doing damage control.

Don't get me wrong the man is entitled to have an opinion but his comments are juvenile and he just sounds bitter. Jack, get yourself a pacifier and get ready for more Zeppelin cause soon they'll be touring and playing at a venue near you. Don't hate, appreciate... and revel in the magic that was, is and forever will be....Led Zeppelin.

[Humbucker]

I've watched this thread develop over the last week or so, and add this; it's refreshing for someone of Jack Bruce's stature to make such unguarded remarks to the media about such an established act. I'm not saying I agree with what he said, just the way he said it. He is, after all, entitled to his opinion, and he didn't make the original post on this forum.

RB

[nirvana]

I've watched this thread develop over the last week or so, and add this; it's refreshing for someone of Jack Bruce's stature to make such unguarded remarks to the media about such an established act. I'm not saying I agree with what he said, just the way he said it. He is, after all, entitled to his opinion, and he didn't make the original post on this forum.

RB

Can't say the dude doesn't have big balls....he's right however, when it comes to a "technical" guitarist, Clapton was technically much better than Jimmy. But for excitement, creativity, drama, and magic - Jimmy was miles better than Eric.

To me, a great guitarist has to be more than a perfect note night in and night out. In my opinion.

Jack, get some rest...carrying that weight around for 40 some odd years must have been brutal. Glad to see yourself rid of it.

[Babs]

Oh no - we'd have to have encore after encore of "Let It Be" and all that thumbs up stuff - I can't think of a worse choice, sorry!

[jimmie ray]

Refreshing???

[caroselambra~]

Really? I'd be interested to read any quotes from Jimmy about Pink Floyd. I'd have said that Floyd were one of the few major early 70s bands that weren't in any kind of musical competition with Zep as they were entirely outside of the blues rock or prog rock style and were very original and pushed music forward. I would have thought Jimmy would respect that and appreciate it, as he has done with other bands since (e.g. Radiohead or Trans-Global Underground).

Unless some interviewer landed him with a leading question like, "Do you think Pink Floyd are better than Led Zeppelin?" which might have got some minor put-down in return?

really? I couldn't imagine Jimmy being even slightly interested in the mediocrity of Pink Floyd

[caroselambra~]

He's entitled to his opinion. I've got nothing against him, he's a damn good musician. He's just a dick. Look at Ginger Baker quotes on why the Cream reunion ended.

Bruce is nothing but a burnt out has been... fuck his stupid comments, serious or not!

My kids have never heard of Cream but they damn well know of Zeppelin.

...hang on, maybe that's thanks to me

Clapton? yawn... pass me the TV guide

[Humbucker]

Refreshing???

Yes, that's the word I used.

RB

[SuperDave]

All that Jack Bruce did was make himself look like a big arse! What a moron and get a grip.

[danelectro]

Yeah I don't know, it doesn't matter to me if someone doesn't like LZ.

[SuperDave]

I don't really care either if he doesn't like the band. What was his point? He's just making a big fool of himself for no apparent reason without any sense of logic.

[danelectro]

I can see where he is coming from. Jack is for all practical purposes a jazzer and he has the same cocky attitude most jazzer's do, he's a musician's musician. I don't like every single band out there either, many that the classic rock crowd cherishes. So I don't get all heated up if someone doesn't see eye to eye with me. If everyone was the same it'd be a real drag.

[SuperDave]

Very good point. I agree with you on this, but don't like the way he acted.

[mstork]

I can see where he is coming from. Jack is for all practical purposes a jazzer and he has the same cocky attitude most jazzer's do, he's a musician's musician. I don't like every single band out there either, many that the classic rock crowd cherishes. So I don't get all heated up if someone doesn't see eye to eye with me. If everyone was the same it'd be a real drag.

Well said. But still ironic because Clapton is no 'jazzer"; he's a blues purist and that's his vocabulary. I rate Page far ahead of him and I do like Clapton by the way...

[danelectro]

Well said. But still ironic because Clapton is no 'jazzer"; he's a blues purist and that's his vocabulary. I rate Page far ahead of him and I do like Clapton by the way...

Clapton may claim to be a blues purist now but his playing betrays him, as far back as Cream he was starting to get jazzy, specifically with Cream live. However I think he may be taken out of context when he mentions that, I think that he means he has great respect and admiration for blues and the original artists not that he fancys himself some sort of blues guardian. Lots of his playing is very jazzy, stuff like Reptile is straight up jazz.

As far as rating them I can't do it, completely different players. Clapton's playing covers more ground and he changes up his style more than Jimmy. Jimmy always sounds like Jimmy, to my ears his influences are more obvious. Page's strength is great riffs and EC is more of a technical player, though EC came up with some amazing riffs too. I appreciate both for what they are. Both are very important players, I can't imagine music being the same without either of them.

This is pretty jazzy, great playing from EC.

EC-Reptile

[bigstickbonzo]

As far as rating them I can't do it, completely different players. Clapton's playing covers more ground and he changes up his style more than Jimmy. Jimmy always sounds like Jimmy, to my ears his influences are more obvious. Page's strength is great riffs and EC is more of a technical player, though EC came up with some amazing riffs too. I appreciate both for what they are. Both are very important players, I can't imagine music being the same without either of them.

Well said.

[leddy]

Clapton may claim to be a blues purist now but his playing betrays him, as far back as Cream he was starting to get jazzy, specifically with Cream live. However I think he may be taken out of context when he mentions that, I think that he means he has great respect and admiration for blues and the original artists not that he fancys himself some sort of blues guardian. Lots of his playing is very jazzy, stuff like Reptile is straight up jazz.

As far as rating them I can't do it, completely different players. Clapton's playing covers more ground and he changes up his style more than Jimmy. Jimmy always sounds like Jimmy, to my ears his influences are more obvious. Page's strength is great riffs and EC is more of a technical player, though EC came up with some amazing riffs too. I appreciate both for what they are. Both are very important players, I can't imagine music being the same without either of them.

This is pretty jazzy, great playing from EC.

EC-Reptile

Never thought of Claptout as a technical player myself, Jims strength in my mind is his writing ability, orchestration and using the guitar come up with intresting ideas, for me EC is a standard blues guitarist and very overrated ( but thats my opinion )

[mos6507]

Clapton now waffles back and forth between blues purist (BB King clone to be precise, right down to the singing style) and adult contemporary top 40 (Tears in Heaven et. al.). He's pretty far removed from the guy he was in Cream. Using a Strat during the Cream reunion was evidence of that. Jimmy on the other hand has stuck pretty close to hard rock. In the 80s he did develop a tinnier Telecaster tone, but he never gave up his signature Les Paul or the use of healthy doses of distortion.

[Swan_Song]

MUY BIEN JACK JODIDO BRUCE, PUEDES PUDRIRTE EN LA MIERDA, MALDITO ENVIDIOSO

^{VERY WELL JACK FUCKING BRUCE, YOU CAN ROT IN THE SHIT, DAMNED ENVIOUSLY}

jajaja... i's ok, i think that, ammm Cream is not the best band, Not at least a good super band, im really don't care, Also it applies what Bruce says.

Bye

[Mercurious]

Never thought of Claptout as a technical player myself, Jims strength in my mind is his writing ability, orchestration and using the guitar come up with intresting ideas, for me EC is a standard blues guitarist and very overrated ( but thats my opinion )

Agreed. Clapton goes for that BB King feel - the one note, the conversation feel. "Slowhand." Yet he's really derivitive in general and then didactic when playing through his back pages. Somebody wrote above that "Clapton wrote great riffs too". I was wondering which ones those were - the one's that Jack Bruce, Duane Allman and Jeff Terry wrote? Jimmy's most messed up playing from 1977 seems to me more what it's supposed to be about - more interesting guitar "conversation" too.

Cream in 1966-67 was quite a statement. But then Hendrix came along, and then Led Zeppelin. Cream's jams just sounded like aimless noise next to those bands, and Becky and Carlos. I don't get why Bruce is so specifically bitter about Led Zeppelin and Jimmy - Cream was eclipsed by quite a few bands. I mean, is he angry about Jimi Hendrix and Carlos Santana, too?

[Swan_Song]

Cream was eclipsed by quite a few bands. I mean, is he angry about Jimi Hendrix and Carlos Santana, too?

you mean Santana too??... well i don't think that Santana to upstage cream.. Jimmy Hendrix was the best guitarrist in the world between 19667-1970, when he died, leaving his place to Page who made the best ! LED ZEPP

[MisterMcLov1n]

Who the hell let Jack Bruce out of the nursing home?

[Mercurious]

you mean Santana too??... well i don't think that Santana to upstage cream.. Jimmy Hendrix was the best guitarrist in the world between 19667-1970, when he died, leaving his place to Page who made the best ! LED ZEPP

Oh, just meaning that Santana, who was influenced by what Cream was doing, as were Hendrix and Page and Beck, took the high volume blues rock jam thing in the late '60s someplace beyond and different than Cream. Carlos has actually been quoted saying what you just said Swan Song!!!! - that Jimmy Page took what Hendrix was doing and brought it to the next step.

[ally]

you mean Santana too??... well i don't think that Santana to upstage cream.. Jimmy Hendrix was the best guitarrist in the world between 19667-1970, when he died, leaving his place to Page who made the best ! LED ZEPP

The Santana Blues Band certainly took the theme in a different yet similar direction. Maybe they didn't upstage Cream but certainly, they continued the journey. Their first two albums are still amoungst my favorites

[mstork]

Clapton may claim to be a blues purist now but his playing betrays him, as far back as Cream he was starting to get jazzy, specifically with Cream live. However I think he may be taken out of context when he mentions that, I think that he means he has great respect and admiration for blues and the original artists not that he fancys himself some sort of blues guardian. Lots of his playing is very jazzy, stuff like Reptile is straight up jazz.

As far as rating them I can't do it, completely different players. Clapton's playing covers more ground and he changes up his style more than Jimmy. Jimmy always sounds like Jimmy, to my ears his influences are more obvious. Page's strength is great riffs and EC is more of a technical player, though EC came up with some amazing riffs too. I appreciate both for what they are. Both are very important players, I can't imagine music being the same without either of them.

This is pretty jazzy, great playing from EC.

EC-Reptile

As I said, I like Clapton but this sounds like elevator music to me. More like the kind of jazz you'd hear on one of those horrible "smooth jazz" stations than anything from the Miles or Coltrane school. I still think he's really a blues player, and that's my point about Bruce's comments.

By the way, what do you mean by Clapton's playing "covers more ground"? Between Page's session career and Zeppelin I don't think Clapton has shown nearly as much range in styles personally.