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Do you consider Led Zeppelin a METAL band?
- Thread starter MAJOR METAL
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- band led led zeppelin metal
However, since this Jethro Tull scandal was brought up earlier, did ANYONE (but one of the Grammy jury members) ever considered them Heavy Metal?
You old geezers around here, across the world? Did anyone of your parents went out and bought any heavy metal album for you to christmas gifts, and came home with "A Crest Of A Knave"? Or was into Metallica, and heavy metal and went out to buy this "new" band you've never ever heard of called "Jethro Tull" and came home severely let down and disappointed?
As late as 1988? Fans, journalists, other musicians? That was a scandal even before the grammies, it was heavily ridiculed when it was announced they were nominees. I don't know anyone labeling them any metal at all, even light metal. I dug them and saw them live several times. They did have some GOTH flavor at the time of Aqualung (especially the cover and logotypes use) but moved forward in the subsequent albums.
Maybe some of the subsequent bands and styles formed, as the young kids turned furious and angry about that the big time companies had grossed them out and calling Tull heavy metal? Then Sepultura formed, all those death metal acts to really hammer it down or throat, singing lyrics about bitterness, depression, and whatever downers there is.
My question is: Is there ANYONE - really - calling Jethro Tull a heavy metal band in 1988 ?
You old geezers around here, across the world? Did anyone of your parents went out and bought any heavy metal album for you to christmas gifts, and came home with "A Crest Of A Knave"? Or was into Metallica, and heavy metal and went out to buy this "new" band you've never ever heard of called "Jethro Tull" and came home severely let down and disappointed?
As late as 1988? Fans, journalists, other musicians? That was a scandal even before the grammies, it was heavily ridiculed when it was announced they were nominees. I don't know anyone labeling them any metal at all, even light metal. I dug them and saw them live several times. They did have some GOTH flavor at the time of Aqualung (especially the cover and logotypes use) but moved forward in the subsequent albums.
Maybe some of the subsequent bands and styles formed, as the young kids turned furious and angry about that the big time companies had grossed them out and calling Tull heavy metal? Then Sepultura formed, all those death metal acts to really hammer it down or throat, singing lyrics about bitterness, depression, and whatever downers there is.
My question is: Is there ANYONE - really - calling Jethro Tull a heavy metal band in 1988 ?
They were about as Heavy Metal as they were ever going to get when Tony Iommi played for them:
Tull was progressive rock. They had some heavy guitar riffs but the flute as a prominent instrument and joyously accentuated singing of Ian Anderson. It wasn't a heavy band. They had heavy sections. Never considered them Heavy Metal. But there are folks here that never considered LZ that either. Focus had tunes that were heavy AF too. They weren't metal either.
As I said, the heavy metal tag wasn't bestowed upon them until way into the 70s when they were actually NOT HEAVY at all (in any way, regardless of hard rock, or any metal). The heaviness from the first two albums were long gone. The third album had more acoustic songs than electric ones. Same with the other front cover of a magazine (people) showed earlier in 76. By then they released albums every fourth leap year or something... and neither "Prescence" or "In Through The Out Door" is held in high regard by the fans. Not anything "metal" even close on those albums.
Actually I remember Zeppelin IV released without ANY fanfare in the press, or to no good reviews at all. It just was there in the record bins one day, and the record store personell sort of "huh huh...yeah, those ones...yeah I think they're somewhere...here... in the new bin...it's this one, isn't it (having no name one the cover)". It took ages back then for any band that was underground to catch on, especially since they didn't release any singles at all.
No, that's not what I wanted. Then we have posts that will last until hell freezes over. I wanted to know if ANYONE bought their albums on the same premises as they bought METALLICA, because it was before their BLACK ALBUM and their fans called them heavy metal. When Metallica came around I did not like them at all, but I went "hey, if you're going to label anything Heavy Metal, I thought that "hey, now you're talking". I knew they were going to be big, in heavy metal genre.
I know even interviews and articles about them from their first album that said : "Metallica the new Led Zeppelin" ? mind you, the question mark...
Remember a studio engineer friend of mine just starting out in the National Broadcast company, and had a work visit, to visit the most modern studio in Denmark in Copnehagen (Sweet Silence) early 1984. They were allowed to visit while some band recorded their second album there. Later that night he called me back and said "You know what, I've heard the next big thing, they're called Metallica!" and he wasn't into that at all, he just was into big band jazz and arrangements. He couldn't care less about any rock band at all. But when he heard them "live" in the studio he just went on inside himself "this is ... like...it!" He never had heard of them, no wonder, since it was their second album. The first was on a very independent and low budget label. I hadn't heard of them either when he mentioned it to me over the phone. But when HE was "woved" by them, I thought they must be something really special. And when I heard that album I just went "Now THAT is what heavy metal's supposed to be all about".
Still never ever labeled Led Zeppelin as any heavy metal at all. Not even proto-metal.
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Robert Plant: Led Zeppelin is Not Heavy Metal
J.D. Considine: You're undoubtedly aware that Led Zeppelin is seen by many as the godparents of heavy metal -- do you think that what you do, or did then, could accurately be called "heavy metal"?
Robert Plant: No! Take the first album -- Babe I'm Gonna Leave You, Your Time is Gonna Come, How Many More Times -- that was not heavy metal. There was nothing heavy about that at all. You listen to How Many More Times, which is really borrowed from the blues, anyway. The kind of dynamics in the middle of that, or Jimmy [Page] using the wah-wah pedal on some of the parts, or Bonzo aping him with the cymbals, or stuff like that -- it was neat. Bonzo was twenty years old when he did that and it was neat. And it wasn't an insult to people's integrity and sophistication. It was ethereal in places. Dazed And Confused too. The musicianship was such that people could go off on tangents and create passages that were compelling. They were skull-crashing in a way. But it wasn't through sheer, brute volume. It was the way it was played. It's a distinct difference.
Click Here to Listen to Dazed and Confused
Source: Robert Plant: Life in a Lighter Led Zeppelin, by J.D. Considine, Musician December 1983
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Well, that settles it for good. Now, close thread, not being open to further posts, please.
Right. And that's why I had so many albums. It was a period of AOR (album oriented rock). I'd go into a record store and buy an album based on how the cover looked (the LZIV album was/is cool looking). Based on that I'd determine whether or not to collect a bands catalog. On a side note - I do like a lot of new music but purchase mainly mp3's now.
Led Zeppelin 1:
"Although the album was not critically well-received when first released, it was commercially successful..:"
"...the band offered "little that its twin, the Jeff Beck Group, didn't say as well or better three months ago … It would seem that if they are to fill the void created by the demise of Cream, they will have to find a producer, editor and some material worthy of their collective talents." It also called Plant "as foppish as Rod Stewart, but nowhere near so exciting"
Led Zeppelin 2:
"...Critical reaction to Led Zeppelin II was not positive originally."
"...until you've listened to the album eight hundred times, as I have, it seems as if it's just one especially heavy song extended over the space of two whole sides..."
"...the best of the wah-wah mannerist groups, so dirty they drool on demand, but all the songs sound alike"
Led Zeppelin 3:
"... others criticised the acoustic material for merely imitating the music of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young..."
Led Zeppelin 4:
"Led Zeppelin IV received overwhelming praise from critics"
So not until the 4th album they started to align with the audience and critic alike. "houses of the holy" mixed reviews as well, from mid to very low, "Physical graffitti", so so reviews, "Presence" lukewarm reviews, "In through..." received a rough ride from some critics, with Zep's veteran status in the music business now used as a stick with which to beat them.
And I don't agree with ANY of them. No one of the rewiews mentioned heavy metal at all.
"Although the album was not critically well-received when first released, it was commercially successful..:"
"...the band offered "little that its twin, the Jeff Beck Group, didn't say as well or better three months ago … It would seem that if they are to fill the void created by the demise of Cream, they will have to find a producer, editor and some material worthy of their collective talents." It also called Plant "as foppish as Rod Stewart, but nowhere near so exciting"
Led Zeppelin 2:
"...Critical reaction to Led Zeppelin II was not positive originally."
"...until you've listened to the album eight hundred times, as I have, it seems as if it's just one especially heavy song extended over the space of two whole sides..."
"...the best of the wah-wah mannerist groups, so dirty they drool on demand, but all the songs sound alike"
Led Zeppelin 3:
"... others criticised the acoustic material for merely imitating the music of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young..."
Led Zeppelin 4:
"Led Zeppelin IV received overwhelming praise from critics"
So not until the 4th album they started to align with the audience and critic alike. "houses of the holy" mixed reviews as well, from mid to very low, "Physical graffitti", so so reviews, "Presence" lukewarm reviews, "In through..." received a rough ride from some critics, with Zep's veteran status in the music business now used as a stick with which to beat them.
And I don't agree with ANY of them. No one of the rewiews mentioned heavy metal at all.
I remember being completely stupefied when I heard that at the time, makes you rethink best new band (or anything) of the year. There is an interview with Bob Dylan on 60 minutes that has a priceless answer to the question what he thought of Rolling Stone Mag declaring 'Like a Rolling Stone' the #1 song of all time and he said, "Maybe this week".
Don't know about 1988. I stopped listening to Jethro Tull after War Child. No they were never considered heavy metal.
So much for critics. The drums and bass on "Good Times...Bad Times" was revolutionary and possibly the best and most technical ever at that point in time. It was truly a masterpiece by Jones and Bonham. I don't know how critics couldn't recognize that.
C'mon, the flute was metal af!
...which opens up another can of worms, or as I like to call them, CRITICS. The only critics I ever really liked were Siskel and Ebert, and when Siskel died, that was the end of that (I preferred his picks).
Anyway, who gives these mongrels the authority to classify or determine anything? Do they enroll in a$$h0Le university and receive a doctorate in IAMB (I'mAMiserableButthole) behind their name? (pun intended). I'm sure the majority of them never smoked a joint in their life. They just come up with this stuff.
Scenario...
Dork #1 - Hey man. That Led Zeppelin is really cool, huh?
Dork #2 - Yeah man. I really dig them a lot. They're groovy!
Dork #1 - Hey, since we get beat up everyday after school just because we wear thick glasses, our pants up to our ankles, and white tube socks, let's start our own club!
Dork #2 - Yeah! It'll be outta sight! We'll call ourselves The Critics!
Dork #1 - Alrighty! Led Zeppelin is HEAVY METAL!!!
Dork #2 - Which one is Led?
LZ did sing about "Heavy Metal underneath the hood" in one song:
but Steppenwolf mentioned Heavy Metal Thunder in Born to be Wild
but Steppenwolf mentioned Heavy Metal Thunder in Born to be Wild
The Heavy Metal Thunder that Steppenwolf were referring to was the sound of Harley Davidson Motorcycles.
There is lots of reference to automotive parts in Trampled Underfoot.
I'm not sure how the term Heavy Metal got assigned to music but I do believe it was a gear-head thing before a music thing.
In the 60's when I was a kid, lots of things got referred to as "heavy" by your basic hippie...meaning powerful, cool, strong, overwhelming...like the term badda$$ later.
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I've never heard that.
Everything I've ever read about all four of them was that they all liked each other and thought the others were great musicians and bandmates.
If you ever see any video of them together (not onstage playing) they look comfortable with each other.
It's usually pretty easy to see when bandmates are together (off stage) and they don't like each other, the camera seems to always give them away.
In the beginning there was Rock and Roll. Music fans would pack houses to hear Rock and Roll. Now, according to Wiki, there are over 230 sub-genres of Rock and Roll including my new fave GothaBilly. These day it seems as if the size of the crowd has been diluted with the appearance of a new style. Tens of people, including parents, roll in to hear their favorite new genre.
Led Zep, along with the other pioneers of Rock and Roll, were simply that, a Rock Band. One of the greats. You went to see them, had a good time, bought the LP and T-Shirt. We did not question whether it was Hard Rock, Heavy Metal or Classic Rock. It was all just Rock and Roll.
Led Zep, along with the other pioneers of Rock and Roll, were simply that, a Rock Band. One of the greats. You went to see them, had a good time, bought the LP and T-Shirt. We did not question whether it was Hard Rock, Heavy Metal or Classic Rock. It was all just Rock and Roll.
Agree, totally facepalm...
Dylan had his acerbic arrow available at all times though.
