Re: The Who Vs The Rest

[mleaman@sccoast.net (Mark Leaman)]

>Solo albums are AFTER the fact, not during.  Zep III is entirely Page.  He 
>was trying to diversify the Yardbirds in a folk direction before they 
>disbanded.  Instead they were too much into the psychadelia era.   Listen to 
>Pages's White Summer and you know he had a knack for the songs he wrote on 
>Zep III.

Ian:

We can only use the evidence we have to work with. And yes, I've got White
Summer by The Yardbirds and various versions by Zeppelin as it became Black
Mountain Side. But it still seems to me that the songs on LZ III are more
akin to the ones on LZ 4 and HOUSES OF THE HOLY...and the rest. Besides, LZ
III was one of my two (the other being A QUESTION OF BALANCE by The Moody
Blues) favorite albums to listen to while tripping. It is CERTAINLY psychedelic.

>Yeah Mark. but when did YMB become THE song we now hear on Leeds?  By 
>listening to Pure Rock Theatre, I'd say late '69 during or after Zep II was 
>released.  My point is YMB wasn't perfected until the Who's live peak so you 
>can throw that out the window.  

I'd say it evolved through the years. For that matter, check out Relax on
Fillmore East `68 and tell me that it's not an influence for LZ II. YMB
probably influenced Page and Plant way back in `65, when they heard The Who
doing it in clubs. It isn't that much different, really. Just a bit more
jazzy. And (for the time) as "heavy" as any song could be.

>BTW Jack Bruce played with John Mayall.  

I know that. But his Cream and solo music show little to no influence by
Mayall. 

>Name them, there aren't many...Paul Weller is the only one who comes to 
>mind.  

Jimi Hendrix, if you must have one. That's too easy. It's my contention that
all songwriters were influenced by Townshend's breaking down the limits of
RnR with My Generation.

>>Again, I didn't say it was the only influence! 
>>Here's a quote for you from Stephen Kaplan and Arthur Marko of Performance
>>Records: "Ten years after the Bubble Gum scene, new wave artists like The
>>Talking Heads (who for years included 1,2,3 Red Light in their live set),
>>Blondie, The Cars, and The Ramones all affectionately acknowledge The Ohio
>>Players and The 1910 Fruitgum Company." If you want a direct quote from
>>David Byrne, you'll have to give me a little time to find one.

>Well at least my quotes come from the actual members of the band, and not a 
>group of writers who are trying to hype a story to make money.  You don't 
>need a direct quote from David Byrne,  just listen to Blind and you hear his 
>version of James Brown soul.

If it comes to that, I can hear the influence of Bubble Gum in The Talking
Heads music, too. So can you, if you listen for it. The first four albums,
for instance.
And my quote wasn't from "writers trying to make money," but from two record
execs who were being interviewed because they were on the scene at the time.

                        Cheers                   ML

NP: Byrds, "He Was A Friend Of Mine" Boston `69