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Jack Bruce has gone nuts!

#224
fenderhutz said:
Not Led Zeppelin.

Jack Bruce doing whatever he is doing now, not Cream.
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I haven't been keeping up much lately. I know he released an album with Robin Trower called "Seven Moons" a few months ago. It seems to have received good reviews from what I've read. I plan to buy it soon. I also plan to buy the 6 CD set which has just been released. As far as public appearances, he seems to be doing those all the time. I'm mostly interested in Cream, but I've kept up with Jack's solo career off and on since 2001 when there was an outstanding article about him in "Bass Player" magazine. It discussed his solo career extensively and also had him on the cover. Of course, that was before he had his health problems and 4 years before the reunion concert occurred. The reunion concert was really not that long ago. Certainly, it was something of great significance. It's doubtful, though, that there will be another Cream concert.
 
#225
Wow, no comments on Led Zep's earlier-career writing credit ripoffs of blues artists? Pity, after people here have been flinging around the subject of composition.

Anyway, my fave LZ album is probably the Dread Zeppelin one - though I suspect the same people could gratefully pull off a DEAD ZEP album if they chose. Un-Led-Ed indeed!

Seriously now. I've enjoyed learning lines and vibes from both bass players, and doing songs by both bands. I don't care about their yapping particularly - unless it gives me direct insight into their playing/writing/creative process... Tiger Beat and Creem magazines, ye-hah! Wonder what Bobby Sherman is doing today.
 
#227
From Fish's blog (Invalid Link Removed

>I was down to attend the annual "Classic Rock awards" which I'd been originally approached to possibly compere ... I got a night off drinking wines at a table with Jack Bruce from Cream and Phil Manzanera from Roxy Music.
Jack was picking up an award for "Disraeli Gears" and was in good spirits. We reminisced about Fife Aid in 88 where I saw an irate Jack deck the promoter ... Jack and Phil were entertaining company and Jack's tirade against Led Zeppelin was amusing.
His thoughts at the table were toned down for the Classic Rock interview later but still pretty scathing.
The word "plagiarism" was prevalent in his opinions.
He was a great laugh and I welcomed his cynicism. He reminded me of a mad old uncle at a family dinner that said exactly what he thought while the adults stare at the table or each other and the younger elements titter at the embarrassing honesty. I admire the wee man greatly.

Deluge Of Sound said:
FWIW, the Masters of Reality album that Ginger Baker played on is fantastic.
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AS was PiL's 'Album/Cassette/Compact Disc'.
 
#228
greenboy said:
Wow, no comments on Led Zep's earlier-career writing credit ripoffs of blues artists? Pity, after people here have been flinging around the subject of composition.
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So true. I love a lot of Zep's output, but the wholesale plagiarism has never sat well with me. The fact that Willie Dixon had to go all the way through a court case to get credit and royalties is a disgrace - and as to 'The Lemon Song' ... Zep II, first pressing, it's quite rightly credited as 'Killing Floor' and credited to Chester Burnett. Next pressing, it's still credited to Wolf, but has had the title changed to 'The Lemon Song'. By the third pressing, the band has the songwriting credit (presumably because adding a Robert Johnson verse to a Howlin' wolf song and changing the title is an act of composition greater than the original writer's ... :eyebrow:) and I'm pretty certain that's how it stands to this day. Hell, Page even used Hubert Sumln's classic solo melody as the basis for the solo on the Zep 'version' ... ah well.
 
#231
I agree with Jack in general Page was always a sloppy guitar player. I can only take so much of Plant singing and he gets like nails on a chalkboard. JPJ and Bonham were good, but rather listen to Ginger Baker, more inventive. I dig Bruce's songwriting especially his solo stuff.

Bottom line why care what Bruce or anyone thinks listen to whatever floats your boat.
 
#232
Hughsie said:
So true. I love a lot of Zep's output, but the wholesale plagiarism has never sat well with me. The fact that Willie Dixon had to go all the way through a court case to get credit and royalties is a disgrace - and as to 'The Lemon Song' ... Zep II, first pressing, it's quite rightly credited as 'Killing Floor' and credited to Chester Burnett. Next pressing, it's still credited to Wolf, but has had the title changed to 'The Lemon Song'. By the third pressing, the band has the songwriting credit (presumably because adding a Robert Johnson verse to a Howlin' wolf song and changing the title is an act of composition greater than the original writer's ... :eyebrow:) and I'm pretty certain that's how it stands to this day. Hell, Page even used Hubert Sumln's classic solo melody as the basis for the solo on the Zep 'version' ... ah well.
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Not to mention Memphis Minnie's "When The Levee Breaks" from around 1930 or thereabouts - which incidentally was covered by more recent short-lived voodoo blues guitarist John Campbell. His version just smokes the Zep version for eerie intensity.
 
#233
greenboy said:
Wow, no comments on Led Zep's earlier-career writing credit ripoffs of blues artists? Pity, after people here have been flinging around the subject of composition.
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I did say that Page is not so much a great songwriter as a great plagiarist.

He was also an equal opportunity rip-off artist; not just old black blues masters but also singer-songwriter Jake Holmes (Dazed and Confused. If you haven't heard his original version, it's well worth it).
 
#235
Mr_Sore_Fingerz said:
Led Zeppelin (as most all of us probably know) got their name because people said whatever band that Jimmy Page was in would be "like a lead balloon" because of his awful studio work.
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Actually, that quote comes from Keith Moon. Page told Moon he was thinking about putting a new band together and Moon responded that a "new Yardbirds" would probably go over like a lead balloon.

Whatever else can be said about Page, his studio work is beyond impressive. I'd have to find the exact article again but he played on something close to half of all the albums cut in England with studio musicians between the years of 1964-66. Not to mention that JPJ was arranging strings for up to 40 tracks per month before joining LZ. They were in huge demand for their studio work.

Jack Bruce said:
"On the other hand, let’s face it: Jimmy Page ain’t no Eric Clapton…no matter what anybody thinks.”

He also added, jokingly “The only decent guy…the one good guy in that band is dead…so what are you gonna do?...The trouble is if you say anything about the establishment…In Britain you mustn’t criticize the Queen or Led Zeppelin”
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Jimmy Page isn't Eric Clapton. Clapton is a guy with encyclopedic knowledge of blues licks, impeccable technique and can claim to be one of the (if not THE) godfathers of blues rock. But for all his faults (sloppy technique, plagiarism etc) Page had much bigger ears than Clapton. The range of music that Zeppelin created cuts a wider swath. And really, while both are rightfully respected as guitarists, that's the reason (IMO) why LZ influenced a great number more bands than Cream did.

But hopefully Pete Townshend will come out and take a jab at the Jimi Hendrix experience so we can take the opportunity to go back and forth trashing two other amazing bands. :rollno:
 
#239
sflajimmy said:
I'm referring to fact that you can say that most blues licks had already been done by the "old" Mississippi Delta blues men and anything after that it could be said was plagiarized. This is another whole debate that's been beat to death over the years and I'm not trying to start it again. Nothing personal meant by it.
Peace.
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The problem is that Zep lifted chunks of lyrics, not just licks; also while people like Clapton, the Stones and Mike Bloomfield went out of their way to acknowledge the sources (and when said sources were still living, actually try to raise the public's consciousness of them), Zep just took it to the bank.
 
#240
sflajimmy said:
I'm referring to fact that you can say that most blues licks had already been done by the "old" Mississippi Delta blues men and anything after that it could be said was plagiarized. This is another whole debate that's been beat to death over the years and I'm not trying to start it again. Nothing personal meant by it.
Peace.
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Well, I didn't see why you quoted my post, there were others more relevant to that point, since mine also referred to there wholesale pilfering of Dazed and Confused by a non-blues artist.

They lifted whole songs: riffs, melodies, lyrics, solos (Lemon Song = Killing Floor), not just licks.
 

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