You have never heard Stairway to Heaven, the Led Zep version? Have you been living in a cave for the past 40 years?
Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
Join free Log in
Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.
Would you turn down $800 Million?
- Thread starter fourstringdrums
- Start date
- Status
You have never heard Stairway to Heaven, the Led Zep version? Have you been living in a cave for the past 40 years?
Smooth_bass88
vaxx!
- Oct 31, 2006
- 12,122
- 16,796
- Disclosures
- have been on nationally released albums, charting on the Billboard 200
I think the wicked cool singer from Great White wore a Led Zeppelin tee shirt back in the 80s.
To my ears Plant has been singing better and better in later years, and has been making more interesting music than Led Zeppelin did. He was always a sharp guy as rock stars go, and if not even Richard Branson's money will persuade him to do the old thing warmed over, that increases my respect. He doesn't need the dough (neither do JP or JPJ) and has other, more creative projects.
ED: It's striking, btw, how much this latest album of his is reminiscent of Kaleidoscope - right down to the bluesy lines he sings on the brief final track, Arbaden, which seem to echo Sol Feldthouse's vocal on Beacon From Mars. But it was Jimmy Page who once pronounced Kaleidoscope his "ideal band"...
ED: It's striking, btw, how much this latest album of his is reminiscent of Kaleidoscope - right down to the bluesy lines he sings on the brief final track, Arbaden, which seem to echo Sol Feldthouse's vocal on Beacon From Mars. But it was Jimmy Page who once pronounced Kaleidoscope his "ideal band"...
Last edited:
Bloated egos, borderline trolling, jealousy, questionable ladder of values, lack of respect, deficient musical and historical vision.
This thread isn't something for which to be proud.
It shows a very, very bad picture of today's musicians.
This thread isn't something for which to be proud.
It shows a very, very bad picture of today's musicians.
As if! Saw Rick James several times back in the day, generally on the same bill for festivals. Even on his best days, he couldn't approach Prince by any musical measure, but he was quite good at reading and working a crowd.
Add to that the inability to read or to discern fact from tabloid fiction, and you almost have the perfectly embarrassing thread of failure.
All you need to push it into idiot HOF territory is a random troll post about how bad that band called the uhm Beatles are.
No Zeppelin fan myself but I don't assume anyone gives a crap about how cool I am for not liking them. That's ALL these kinds of threads are about, even though the trolls like to pretend they are legitimate criticism.
Sorry, but that's nonsense. I was both a Prince fan and Rick James fan from their first records. Musically, it's obvious that Prince didn't rip James off. As for Prince's stage show, what exactly do you think he ripped from James? Prince's early outfits revealed lots more skin than James', and Prince had/has dance moves that James only dreamt of. As for MTV, if you're gonna give James credit for getting Prince's videos aired, well then every black artist who subsequently got airplay on MTV "ripped off" James. I just don't see how you arrive at your conclusions.
Who doesn't rip off artists who came before them anyway? Music doesn't spring from a vacuum. Even Paul McCartney said that the Beatles were the best thieves in the business. Who gives a crap?
You can disagree but there are several in the industry that state that when Rick allowed Prince on his tour, that a few shows in, he started copying Rick;'s performance verbatim. It's in Ricks book, Little Richard has talked about it, A&R guys, etc.
Wow. Humor is in the mind of the beholder, I guess. I think most of it is hilarious.
Or maybe it is I who is being dense. Maybe you are making a joke as well. If so your sense of humor is drier than the Texas sand, as the song says.
I admire Robert Plant for doing what ever he has wanted to musically since LZ and not just taking the money. There is something to be said about that. Besides, I doubt any of those guys are hurting for money.
I've seen many bands funnier than this thread. Hell, my band is funnier than this thread. I should start a thread about it.
Despite (or because of) being a James fan, I don't give a lot of credence to his memoir. I know the portion you're talking about; you have to remember that 1) Rick could say whatever he wanted in his memoir, and 2) it was well known that Rick had serious drug issues. It was less known but still known that he had beefs with other artists, too... he admits in his book to being jealous. The guy was a super talented musician who was also a hot mess.
But even if Prince did copy shticks or whatever from James' show, so what? He was and is far beyond being a Rick James clone. Simply google "Prince 1980" to see how different his look was, and the music speaks for itself (other than being under the broad umbrella of funk/soul, their music sounds very different to me) -- Prince was an innovator.
Everyone borrows in some manner from what came before them. The idea that Prince was/is some copycat hack simply does not reflect his music/image/career.
Rick James on his best day was not 1/10th of Prince on his worst. I'm not a big Prince fan. I don't own many of his records. I am from Minneapolis, and have played 1st Avenue, and I bow to the legend. A friend did tech for his keyboard player; I have other Prince connections to, however tenuous.
Prince was/is an amazing talent. Multi-instrumentalist, producer, songwriter, singer, performer; you name it, the guy has it all.
Rick James?
I mean, Rick James?
- Status
