As influential and legendary a band as Led Zeppelin was, there's no denying that early in their career they were nothing more than clones themselves, mainly ripping off blues artists of the 30s and 40s. Their greatness lied in the way they interpreted the material and put their own spin on it. A "Whole Lotta Love" anyone?
In the late 80s, hard rockers began to look at Led Zeppelin for inspiration.
Whitesnake, fresh off their success with the "Slide It In" album, hit the rock world hard with the first single of their massively successful 1987 self titled album, "Still Of The Night." David Coverdale did some of his best Robert Plant-like wailing while the video even featured Adrian Vandenberg pulling off Jimmy Page's bow on guitar trick. Of all the clones on parade at the time, Whitesnake did it the best.
Sensing blood in the proverbial waters, Kingdom Come took their inspiration to almost ridiculous extremes. Ironically, the band was a vastly talented lot but never shook their clone tag and folded almost as quickly as they hit the scene.
Great White never denied that Led Zeppelin was probably their biggest influence. Though they started their career as a pretty awful generic hard rock band, by the early 90s they matured into probably one of the best hard rock bands of the era. This clip showcases them right at the end where they just slay with an amazing cover of "Babe, I'm Gonna Leave You," where singer Jack Russell effortlessly hits all the right notes.
Take one son of a Led Zeppelin member, add a Robert Plant clone, listen to a lot of "Physical Graffiti" and wrap it in a late 80s production and you get pretty much what you would think it would sound like.
For the longest time, Robert Plant distanced himself from any connection to his former band. But, in the light of the sudden resurgence of the Led Zeppelin sound, finally began to embrace his legend status. During his "Now & Zen" tour, he even started to play some old songs like "Black Country Woman." Rappers in the 80s started to sample that big John Bonham drum, and rather than try to beat them, he joned them, sampling some of Zep's best known songs.
Finally, and completely on purpose, Ozzy Osbourne and Gary Moore teamed up with this tongue in cheek single.
No comments:
Post a Comment