the worst zep album is the album art and songs they gave as the playlist for the new games (all models)

You're right...I'd much rather listen to the music on the Wonka machine.

you got me there. I suppose i can always just jam out to my spotify on some random station while playing wonka. that music is not really good on wonka, you're right.

Presence I thought was the worst.

In thru the out door had “In the evening” still one of all time fav intros of all time.

Damn I forgot about that! The reissues have this too, which is amazing

.....uh you serious you got a effects pedal for a icon I assume a rat (love the rat distortion).I play both sabbath and LZ on guitar.To be fair give me Black Sabbath because my fingers want a break.A sober Page is a prodigy but for some reason only Hendrix was allowed to get sloppy without a critic not Page.IMO maybe it's just me.Love Sabbath but find them pretty easy to play.Heartbreaker solo is still pretty much the first shred I can think of.

If you really pay attention to Iommi's technique and feel, it definitely gets tougher to play. Since Page was sloppier, you can get away with a lot. Iommi has a few stand-by blues licks he breaks out quite often in the early albums, but try playing some of the stuff from the 80s! If you really want to get crazy, pay attention to how little his fingers move - he's the master of economy of motion!

Hard to say which is the worst Zep album. The hardest part to admit is studio magic is what made Zep so good. I am sure younger Plant had much better chops but overdubs and good editing make him sound amazing. While Page is credited for writing some great riffs/tunes he is not a guitar god in the technical sense. Watching live performances is painful...poor sloppy playing/missed notes/cues etc. Page is great at making a studio masterpiece. It’s easy to see how drugs/alcohol affected him playing live. I get that bands like to mix it up live as it would get old playing the studio version note for note every night but there are some solos/ parts you don’t mess with as they are too perfect/iconic. But when you do and do it poorly it’s pathetic. It’s almost sad in a way to know that Zep really could not duplicate live what they could in a studio.

What about Fool in the rain and All of my love?It’s tough by I changed my vote to Presence being the worse!

I think we can agree Page is sloppy but wrote great riffs/tunes. Hendrix doesn’t get a pass but his career was short. He had a unique style and it was hard to tell if he was just experimenting or completely whacked out of his mind sometimes. I think of Hendrix as an innovator. Good music is good music even if it is studio magic. Many bands are guilty of this. We could have a different thread/discussion about what musicians/bands on a technical level are the best.

As a Teenager in the 70's, I voted with my wallet. When you make 1.85 per hour ya gotta be committed to an album to make a purchase. Not just one/two songs, but the album. I bought every Zep album that came out till Presence. I did not buy them in order as Zep 2 was my first. "Whole Lotta Love" Baby . My last was Presence. I was so excited when Presence was released (and I was making a little better money), I bought it without hearing a single song. Ouch! I admit after that , Zep made a couple of great songs (Yes, I will pay homage to Achilles ), but for me anyway, the magic was over. I think I was on my way to Southern Rock by then as I recall.

Yeah...by 1999 it was cool to be sober and equipment had gotten much better and almost every band sounds good live which is a good thing. How would Ozzy/Sabbath sound if live shows were still using 30 plus year old technology?

I first heard "Whole Lotta Love" on KAAY AM's late night Beaker Street radio show in '69 or '70 and was blown away. Zep III was kinda weird, but still Ok. IV was good, but I got sick of hearing Stairway, etc. on the radio every hour. Houses was great, and Physical Graffiti is one of my all time top 5 Albums.

I had mixed feelings about Presence and had pretty much jumped ship by the time their last album came out due to broadening of my musical "taste".

But I've gotta vote IV, due to being pounded into my head on the Radio for years on end. If I never hear some of those songs again, that's OK by me.

There was also 5 or 7 different photos of the bar scene on the inner cover. Each angle from the view from the people in the scene.

(Ugh, this wasnt meant to be a rant but I'm laying here about to start the day with a bowl and my guitar. Sorry in advance for this word (rat) salad.)

I'll take Sabbath over Zeppelin for originality alone.

While Zeppelin was telling everyone they need "coolin", Geezer was writing lyrics from another planet, about a variety of subjects. Their music has always been more interesting to me than Zeppelin ever was. I still dig Zeppelin and mostly kid around on these forums, but i think the radio-tuning simpletons have always got it wrong if they think Sabbath is just only about the "Paranoid" album (not even their best!) while Zeppelin is so genius with their "oh darlin' darlin" radio hits.

Try seeking out Sabbath's live material/bootlegs if you really wanna hear the height of Tony's power in the 70s. Not bad for a guy missing two finger tips. Many mortals would have given up after that accident.

I play guitar as well. But I'm not trying to be the fastest player or most technical. I just let it come to me. Mostly drone and riffs for me with the occasional solo and break into ambient.

But maybe one day I'll play like Yngwie!

I think that's what makes Hendrix so good and still interesting to this day. I love that Band of Gypsys record.

80s Sabbath is vastly underrated.

While everyone with a guitar was dancing around the stage in that era, he just stood there and let his playing become the spectacle. Lots of jazz influence in his live playing as well.

Exactly! Being a technical expert is a different discussion. Hendrix was an innovator. He created sounds so unique and different. Page probably wrote/stole more iconic rock riffs than we realize. They all have their place in music history.

It cracks me up to this day that there are still "shredder" guitars dudes all over you tube. Ooooh wow you can play fast.

That shit hasnt been cool since the 80s and not sure it was even all that cool back then.

Its all the same person just wanking endless fast scales and zero ability to write a decent song or riff.

Page is a shitty lead player allot of times but a great writer, producer etc etc

Ill take that over sounding like a human typewriter.

Creativity > technical ability always was always will

Yngwie Malmsteen made it cool. Still does...that guy does it right.

Oh yah..he is awesome

The 25,000 guys that do a bad impression of him are annoying though.

I like most of Cream, and Forever Man, Lay Down Sally and a few others, but his guitar work doesn't do much for me. The acoustic "Layla" is a snoozer.
Maybe it's just taste, or lack thereof.

Yeah and they took from Dixon more than once. Howlin' Wolf also.

Eric "Crapton" has had a way more successful overall career than Jimmy Page. If Clapton is "crap", what does that make Jimmy Paige? Clapton in multiple successful bands, and successful as a solo artist. It probably helps that he can not only play, but sing. He's also the only 3-time Rock Hall inductee.

Jeez, that '85 Live Aid performance was such a fucking mess.

I'll take Stevie Ray Vaughn over Clapton. You could FEEL his music. Clapton, I don't feel a thing.

I still like the song remands the same live album. Is that considered sloppy vocals?

Most 70s "live" albums arent very live and get fixed up in the studio.

There are some bootlegs where you get the real picture and sorry to say that live they were pretty hit or miss.

Yngwie, Vai, Rhodes, Satriani, and maybe Paul Gilbert are really about the only ones still worth listening to; all the rest more or less imitated these guys (and EVH of course) and sound REALLY dated now.

What makes so many of the shredders so boring to listen to is the simple fact that most of them couldn’t write their way out of a paper bag, so their “songs” are little more than a slog through a recording of someone’s woodshedding.

If you want shredding AND fully-baked songs, listen to the 70s Fusion players (applies to drums, bass, and keys too) and you’ll never take the 80s hairspray guys seriously again!

I saw SRV live just a few months prior to his death, and the vibe really was almost spiritual (his gratitude for the “second chance” he had through new-found sobriety was very evident in his playing).

Clapton is best experienced through the Mayall and Cream albums; for the 70s stuff, skip the Clapton cover versions and listen to J.J. Cale play those songs live, so you can hear them with all the original mojo intact (and also hear Cale smoke Clapton on guitar).

There is no worst album. They’re ALL amazing. It’s Led Zeppelin.
Even CODA.
It’s strange but the more I think of it, that’s when I use to listened to whole album sides.
With digital music, I just pick my favorite songs to listen too.
It’s special listening to a whole album at once. I need to do that more.

And Clapton managed to be a much bigger piece of shit than Page as well. #winning

OK, if no one is gonna take the bait I will. I prefer Ginger Baker to Bonham, and probably Mitch Mitchell as well. I like their jazz-based technique and the way they swing rather than the straight on rock style of Bonham.

Django Reinhardt was his idol, not just from a guitar playing standpoint, but from a guitar playing with screwed-up fingers standpoint

That is true. Their sound had a big jazz influence overall, since Bill Ward was/is such a huge Gene Krupa fan.

or pay attention to how his little fingers move

Sheriff John Brown always hated him because he had an illegal grow operation. He'd say kill that seed before it grows. So he shot him. He shot him dead.

It sounds a lot more like Sheriff John Brown was following the law. Having a baby was perfectly legal, but growing pot was not.

But for the record, he didn't shoot the deputy, which I assume is slang for a midwife.

And Presence is a shitty album.

I like Led Zepp 3 (surprised anyone voted for it) but that Roy harper song is a piece of crap

Always got annoyed enough to get up and pull the needle on vinyl when that came on.

Every real Zeppelin fan knows Presence is the worst. CODA doesn’t count since it was a release of old material and Bonham was dead.