I really have only a vague awareness of Deep Purple. On the other hand, pretty much every Led Zep song is instantly recognizable to me as Led Zep. So, I'm going to say no, for me personally, they are not in the same league. Yes, I'm an American.
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Is Deep Purple in the same league with Led Zeppelin?
- Thread starter MidnightRunner
- Start date
I'd agree with your list but you put The Police and Nirvana among top-tier rock bands? They were prominent, but not close to top-tier. You put them but you omitted The Doors, Black Sabbath (who invented a genre), Pink Floyd, Queen, Rush, Yes, Iron Maiden?
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100 American critics and rock fans? Probably.
But European? No way. In Europe Deep Purple are in "the top 10 greatest rock bands" for sure.
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Because so many great bands come out of the UK I guess through the years I assumed we had a common knowledge of who was great and who wasn’t. Even though I’ve heard English bands saying they had to come to America to get respect I guess it didn’t really register.
I mean in the 70s the “supergroups” were The Beatles, The Stones, The Who, Pink Floyd and yes, Led Zeppelin. Period. Any one of those bands would sell out an 80,000 seat stadium in a day. Deep Purple was not even close. They would play arenas with 10-20,000 people and take weeks maybe never to sell that out. But that’s about popularity not about who was “better.”
This thread has once again highlighted that difference of opinion between the UK and the US. And apparently a good portion of the rest of the world too. Queen is a great example of a band that was huge in the rest of the world but not so much in the States.
As far as which of these two bands is bigger, in the US it’s really not even close. Zep is one of the all time record sales bands in America, in the world actually, Deep Purple is not even close. But those are just two narrow indicators. That doesn’t mean that Zeppelin is “better.” It’s all good. I loved Machine Head and Made In Japan! Great records! Great players! If you like Purple better than Zep that’s your prerogative. It’s all good. They are a very talented band. I love a lot of their stuff. But I love ALL of Zeps stuff. The people that I don’t understand are the people who don’t have music in their lives like all of us.
I think it would be a great thread to find out about our differences of opinion. With respect. Maybe I’ll find a new band or learn something from the rest of the world and the UK. Which bands from the US were/are big in the UK/rest of the world and not so much here and vice versa? Did the rest of the world love The Allman Brothers, or Lynyrd Skynyrd or Tom Petty or other US bands as much as we did here in the states? Me personally. I don’t listen to my beloved classic rock as much these days. I love what some of the young kids are doing. I love what Tedeschi/Trucks and Marcus King and others are doing. It’s all good.
Keep on Keepin’ On…..
I mean in the 70s the “supergroups” were The Beatles, The Stones, The Who, Pink Floyd and yes, Led Zeppelin. Period. Any one of those bands would sell out an 80,000 seat stadium in a day. Deep Purple was not even close. They would play arenas with 10-20,000 people and take weeks maybe never to sell that out. But that’s about popularity not about who was “better.”
This thread has once again highlighted that difference of opinion between the UK and the US. And apparently a good portion of the rest of the world too. Queen is a great example of a band that was huge in the rest of the world but not so much in the States.
As far as which of these two bands is bigger, in the US it’s really not even close. Zep is one of the all time record sales bands in America, in the world actually, Deep Purple is not even close. But those are just two narrow indicators. That doesn’t mean that Zeppelin is “better.” It’s all good. I loved Machine Head and Made In Japan! Great records! Great players! If you like Purple better than Zep that’s your prerogative. It’s all good. They are a very talented band. I love a lot of their stuff. But I love ALL of Zeps stuff. The people that I don’t understand are the people who don’t have music in their lives like all of us.
I think it would be a great thread to find out about our differences of opinion. With respect. Maybe I’ll find a new band or learn something from the rest of the world and the UK. Which bands from the US were/are big in the UK/rest of the world and not so much here and vice versa? Did the rest of the world love The Allman Brothers, or Lynyrd Skynyrd or Tom Petty or other US bands as much as we did here in the states? Me personally. I don’t listen to my beloved classic rock as much these days. I love what some of the young kids are doing. I love what Tedeschi/Trucks and Marcus King and others are doing. It’s all good.
Keep on Keepin’ On…..
The Who could sell out stadiums? I'm really surprised since their best selling album (Who's Next) is only 3 Platinum in the US.
I always had the impression that The Doors are easily the most popular (and most appreciated) American classic rock band in Europe. They might have been bigger in Europe than USA. Maybe I'm wrong. The Allman Brothers or Lynyrd Skynyrd barely registered (and I think they were really good bands), it seems they just didn't make it big in Europe because they didn't put much effort to achieve that, they were only oriented to their homeland. I think Tom Petty has a few well-known songs in Europe and that's it.
Another US band, Aerosmith, were nobodies in Europe until 1987, but I see they were very big in their homeland during the 70's. That's surprising to me.
Absolutely The Who would sell out a stadium. I understand what your saying. But that’s a fact. They were known to have a great energetic show. Let’s put it this way. Back in the day a stadium concert would generally have a few bands in the lineup. Good bands. Pink Floyd did not hav ripening bands. But those openers were big bands and would help to sell out a stadium. But The Who we’re the headliners. It’s weird the 70s. Was a long time ago and there were a lot of drugs around. But. Clearly The Who were huge in my town. Among my friends. For me not so much. Entwistle yes but for me the rest ehh. But they would sell out 5 straight days a Madison Square Garden (100,000) then do an arena the next day. Do a stadium the following day then do another arena. So maybe the size of shows they did were dependent on the market. I don’t know. Stop bogarting that joint…..
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@MidnightRunner you see now that surprises me. That would be a great thread. Different view points between Europe and the US on which bands were great and which were not. I’m surprised the Doors were so big there.
Sad but true. They came to my town in Buffalo the following day.
The Who concert disaster - Wikipedia
I purposefully made my list incomplete so others can fill in their favorites (had I added more bands I would have included Black Sabbath and Yes). As for the Police and Nirvana, both spoke to their generation of listeners. The police were a talented group that cleverly brought raggae and punk elements into a pop-rock setting. The argument is probably less strong for Nirvana, but for my money they were THE grunge rock band and their lyrics were uniquely dark.
That was an arena, not a stadium but The Who were massive in the States and did a few stadium tours.
I don't think Yes ever did a stadium tour here. Mainly arenas at their peak and then theaters after.
YES did not do a solo stadium tour as far as I know but they did headline one I went to at Rich Stadium in Buffalo on August 20th, 1977. Donavan opened the show and they booed him off the stage. I felt really bad for him. Wrong audience. Then the J. Geils Band who were good then Bob Seger who was great and then YES to close the show who were very good. But they went on when it was still daylight and I think to fully experience YES or say Genesis it has to be in the dark with a full light show.
Yep, the first time I saw the Who, in '83, was my first and only stadium concert. They were good, but we were so far back.
Yeah, there were stadium dates on tours. Maybe one stadium for every 10 arenas. Purple did headline California Jam with 400k in attendance and televised on network TV and that was MkIII.
Many people are bringing in mention of other bands which just diverts the thread:
How anyone except a major fan of DP could consider them even near LZ I find amazing.
Coming from a UK source here, who got to know their albums backwards via Plant's solo material!
LZ have a massive amount of highly recognisable, classic tracks. Globally recognised.
DP have a few really good songs, that's it.
And comparing musicianship over their whole careers? One would have to ignore the
status and work on LZ1 through to 4.
How anyone except a major fan of DP could consider them even near LZ I find amazing.
Coming from a UK source here, who got to know their albums backwards via Plant's solo material!
LZ have a massive amount of highly recognisable, classic tracks. Globally recognised.
DP have a few really good songs, that's it.
And comparing musicianship over their whole careers? One would have to ignore the
status and work on LZ1 through to 4.
