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Is Deep Purple in the same league with Led Zeppelin?

Is Deep Purple in the same league with Led Zeppelin?

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    706
#42
tangentmusic said:
Back in the ‘70’s, Zeppelin, Purple and Black Sabbath were referred to as the “Unholy Trinity of British Hard Rock”

While each band was distinctly different, they defined that style of music.

I love all three bands for different reasons, and I put them in the same league.
Depending on my mood, I will choose to listen to one over the others.
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I get what you are saying, but where does that place The Who?
 
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#43
Joe Nerve said:
A Zep Tribute will get lots more gigs and make much more money than a Deep Purple tribute.

Zeppelin has more hits than Deep Purple.

There are more books written about Led Zeppelin than about Deep Purple.

And that's just off the top of my head. Love both bands... played in Tributes for both bands, and got to play with actual members of Deep Purple. I'm not seeing that happen any time soon with members of Zeppelin :) .
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That's so funny you would say that. I have been watching these guys and they are really good.
 
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#48
I think Zep were a more versatile band with a wider range of songwriting, more complex arrangements and production. Page's production skills and orchestral layering of guitar parts rewrote the book on hard rock. JP Jones did quite a few innovative synth and keyboard productions that really defined some of those songs and Bonham was certainly the best Bonham style drummer you'll ever come across. Do folks discuss a Paice style drummer, great as he's always been?
Was there an equivalent to the acoustic playing and writing that Zep did on the 3rd album or the odd funky bits like "The Ocean"?
Maybe Deep Purple is a better hard rock band but Zeppelin probably was a better band overall.
 
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#49
Plain Old Barry said:
Purple morphed into Rainbow. Rainbow had some incredible works with different singers.

Led Zep morphed into a few kind of lame solo efforts.
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Hahaha that is hilarious :) Robert Plant has been one of the most consistently successful and high-earning artists worldwide since Zeppelin disbanded. He probably earns more from post-Zeppelin royalties in a month than most on tb will earn in a decade. Page's efforts haven't been quite so high profile, but remind me who was the bass player in The Firm? JPJ of course has been in constant work as a producer and I really don't think I'd describe Them Crooked Vultures as lame :)
 
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#52
Deep Purple were an awesome band and the classic lineup with Blackmore and Gillan produced some superb music. I have a lot of DP albums. But while DP were a great rock band they didn't change much from the "In Rock" style. Zeppelin evolved constantly throughout their ten studio albums and displayed way more musical invention (along with their fair share of lifting from others of course). I am a fan of both bands, but DP were never in the same league as LZ. On the other hand LZ could not Rock in the way DP did. Demon's Eye is hard rock heaven.
 
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#55
micguy said:
Led Zeppelin did a lot of tunes that were...derivative - minor twists of old blue stuff, etc. Deep Purple was more original/creative in their songwriting.

Also, if you’ve seen Deep Purple live, they could flat out play. The guys in Zeppelin were often “not able to perform at their best”.
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I think there’s no question that Page extensively mined the Southern blues tradition for inspiration, even taking original songwriting credit for tunes that they reworked. But I’d personally call that creative reimagining rather than derivative. Just compare “When the Levee Breaks” with the original. Most of the postings in this thread seem to focus on performance, but to my mind, the appeal of Led Zeppelin lies in Page’s genius in arrangement and production, and the enormous breadth of his musical interests and influences.

As for live performance, I think that “The Song Remains the Same” is pretty hard to beat.

Edit: Sorry, @Pauly 4001 and @ficelles beat me to it and expressed the same sentiments while I was typing.
 
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#56
Michedelic said:
Uriah Heep was a bad imitation of DP, as far as I was concerned. The thing is, with your question, there have been plenty of Zep wannabes through the years(including, ironically, Coverdale/Page), so it would appear that they would have more to offer in the first place. Overall, apples and oranges, but keep in mind that while DP was around before Zep, they totally changed their musical direction in the transition between Mk I and Mk II(right after Zeppelin had arrived), especially Gillan’s screamer style vocals.
On the other hand, Yngwie took a lot from the Purps, all that ‘Bach Rock’ heavy organ, and there were other little trickles of DP influences here and there through the years….

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Funny you mentioned Uriah Heep......for all those that use to read Circus magazine, there was an article that referred to them as the "Poor man's Deep Purple"
 
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#60
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