Im actually not a zep fan boy at all. I just know enough to know that they are a cut above Deep Purple. Im actually a Sabbath head.. original, of course. And they hammer both zeppelin and purple every day of the week and twice on sunday...
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Is Deep Purple in the same league with Led Zeppelin?
- Thread starter MidnightRunner
- Start date
I think there are many bands that do not do well in the US but are huge all over the world
My go to example is Thin Lizzy
Very popular around the world, not so much in the US
Bad promotion unfortunately
With DP vs LZ I would say they are on the same level song and musically but maybe not on the business side of things
My go to example is Thin Lizzy
Very popular around the world, not so much in the US
Bad promotion unfortunately
With DP vs LZ I would say they are on the same level song and musically but maybe not on the business side of things
I'm not doing numbers or 1-10. The Beatles are alone. I don't know what "classic rock era" you're looking at that doesn't have the Stones or The Who in the top 5, or whatever comes after the Beatles, so we're obviously coming from different places. I prefer Purple to every band that has been mentioned here so I see them in the same league as Zeppelin in every way except one. Place in public consciousness, particularly in America. I don't put much into that. Plenty of people still like Skynyrd too.
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I heard Plant said Zepplin without Bonham was just a garage band.I had read somewhere, that Plant referred to them as Black Purple, or something on that order.
Personally, I consider Sabbath and DP in the same league, but Zepp, without a doubt in my mind,
is, our grandfathers of heaviness, plus some variety
Zeppelin had a much wider palette
Listen to Page play live anywhere, he was pathetic.
I'd take Blackmore ahead of Page any day.
Hey, Lizzy is my favorite band of all time but I'm a realist. They made a lot of mistakes brought on by drugs and, like you said, bad promotion and business decisions. I've yet to see a crowd like the one at the Sydney Opera House steps though.
Yeah Lizzy were a great band saw them back in 79 a great live act but they changed their line up too much which became a problem for them. But they are definitely worth a mention.
Saw Zep also in 79 at Knebworth and they were terrible, they didn't impress me at all. I think they were finished long before Bonzo died.
I'll come clean and say I don't know nearly enough of Deep Purples catalog. But maybe that is a result in and of itself? I can only submit that I think Zep comprised 4 musical genius' in one band. Each member has a calling card in a song of theirs that has, and continues, to stand the test of time. As far as I can remember ( I'm sure I'll be corrected if I'm wrong as DP fans are ... passionate 
) they were a lightning in a bottle band. Kinda like GnR ( Oh boy NOW I've done it!! ) . 70-72 they were the shiz. Then they had an occasional song, but nothing that really took. Smoke on the Water and Highway Star are their calling cards, yeah? If that was all I had to my bands name I would be thrilled. I just don't think I could rank myself, musically, with Led Zep.
In the end it's subjective. I will say I think DP had a wider area of effect. Led Zep was mostly an American phenom. DP were pretty much world wide.
) they were a lightning in a bottle band. Kinda like GnR ( Oh boy NOW I've done it!! ) . 70-72 they were the shiz. Then they had an occasional song, but nothing that really took. Smoke on the Water and Highway Star are their calling cards, yeah? If that was all I had to my bands name I would be thrilled. I just don't think I could rank myself, musically, with Led Zep.In the end it's subjective. I will say I think DP had a wider area of effect. Led Zep was mostly an American phenom. DP were pretty much world wide.
I'll come clean and say I don't know nearly enough of Deep Purples catalog. But maybe that is a result in and of itself? I can only submit that I think Zep comprised 4 musical genius' in one band. Each member has a calling card in a song of theirs that has, and continues, to stand the test of time. As far as I can remember ( I'm sure I'll be corrected if I'm wrong as DP fans are ... passionate
In the end it's subjective. I will say I think DP had a wider area of effect. Led Zep was mostly an American phenom. DP were pretty much world wide.
Mmm.....Well if you don't really know any of Purples songs how can you comment. I cannot get my head around that one buddy. To compare you obviously must have a good understanding of both
I came clean, and gave a reasoned response that spoke to the potential absence of knowledge, buddy, What part was hard to fathom?
Lets make it simple.
What part was "wrong" in your estimation? We can have a lovely conversation from there
To be fair, DP had more hits than just those two. But, nowhere near as many as zeppelin. You can probably run out of fingers and toes counting zeppelin's hits. And zep must'v been popular in the UK, bcs all 8 of their records went to number one there and their first 6 records went to number one in the US. and they sold close to 300,000,000 records worldwide. Deep Purple couldn't come close to that in a wet dream.. It should be obvious that zeppelin is among the most elite handful of rock bands. Purple's 8 to 10-ish hits isn't enough to make the elite bands club.. It is what it is...I'll come clean and say I don't know nearly enough of Deep Purples catalog. But maybe that is a result in and of itself? I can only submit that I think Zep comprised 4 musical genius' in one band. Each member has a calling card in a song of theirs that has, and continues, to stand the test of time. As far as I can remember ( I'm sure I'll be corrected if I'm wrong as DP fans are ... passionate
In the end it's subjective. I will say I think DP had a wider area of effect. Led Zep was mostly an American phenom. DP were pretty much world wide.
Basically the biggest difference between the two and what a lot of people seem to avoid or are unaware of is that Purple actually wrote their own material unlike Zep who stole the majority of theirs. It is what it is peeps!
Naah, that's not the biggest difference.. 8 #1 records, about 20more iconic songs, 200M more records sold and sold out tours every time they went on the road are bigger differences.
What constitutes “hits” in this discussion? I think they charted quite similarly with their singles. Neither actually did very well, IIRC. Album sales? Is that what we’re going by? Classic Rock radio airplay? Outside of fans I don’t think either is in the public consciousness anymore. Signature songs? Most recent “hit” would probably be Perfect Strangers from DP. Like I said in an earlier post, I’m strictly going by Purple MKII. MKIII had moments but lost steam. So what’s a hit?
Oh that is an enormous difference, based on fact!. If you can't see that then you are just as blinkered as all the other Zep fan boys. Plagiarism is rife in the world of Led Zeppelin, and they will go down in Rock history as the biggest cover band ever!
This interests me. Did someone write Zeps parts? JPJ copied another bass players riffs? Bonham was just bashing out what some other fella created for him? I mean, pro talk, that's kinda the session players life but I'm curious how they supplied no creative input into their own music. I'm not trying to incite you, I am genuinely interested in how you came about that notion. Let me say I know they have plagiarized some tunes. Overwhelming evidence clearly supports that. Still, they were counted among the best players of their time, IN their time, it was widely acknowledged by other players. Super truth, when I was a young man in the 70's I was more of a Who and Stones guy. I was late to the Zep party and it didn't last long before Floyd and King Crimson showed me the wonders of Prog. I was done for by then.
I liked DP, but I'm fairly certain my exposure to them was limited by both a) American radio and b) regional radio. In point of fact I think I heard far more Rainbow than I did DP from our local radio stations here in California. Blackmore is a beast.
Generally, I would say a hit is any song that garnered significant play on the radio and especially if it prompted people to go buy the record.. And 50 years later, if it is still getting significant radio play, that would be a big hit. Songs that have become part of the soundtrack of rock and roll, ones that are immediately and unmistakeabley recognizable, even by some people who might not even know the band's name, would be a mega hit or an iconic song. From memory, without going thru the discography, I would say Purple MKII had about 10 or so hits, maybe 4 or 5 are still getting "significant" radio play here in NY with Smoke on the water being their only "unmistakeable" song. And without going thru their discography, Zeppelin has significantly more of each of those.
