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Re: Who vs. Zep sales




>That's true to a certain degree, but look at long-term album sales.  Both 
>Zep and The Who continue to sell, but "Thriller" sold most of its 24 
>million copies in the '80s (and his most recent albums have been 
>disappointments, sales-wise), and Hootie will be lucky if their 2nd 
>(actually 5th) album sells 1/3 as much as _Cracked Rear View_.

Scott:

Well, there's no way to get any perspective on whether THRILLER will sell
when it's as distant as the work of The Who and Zep...yet, anyway. And I
don't know that any record exec would call the sales of HISTORY "disappointing."

>>I have to judge a band like this: performance (The Who knew no rivals here)
>
>Disagreed.

Well, I can only judge by the boots of both bands that I have, which cover
Zep's best period live and all of the Who's career. Zep were great there for
about four years, maybe five...and then they began to slip. The Who, of
course, had at least 12 years.
And then there is, of course, the opinion of the people who saw them in the
mid to late 60s/early 70s (who named The Who: "The greatest live Rock
band"). I myself saw Zepplin in the Spring of `75 and The Who 11/75, and I
can easily stand by what I've said.

>No, I'd have to disagree here.  A lot of those formula, "hair bands" were 
>Led-Clones (to quote Gary Moore).  They weren't just *influenced* by Zep; 
>they copied Zep (and even then they couldn't get it right). 

Well, then you are actually agreeing with me. Influenced or copying, it's
all cut from the same cloth.

>Besides, you left out some of the other artists who were influenced or
>inspired by Led Zeppelin, including Aerosmith, Rush, Van Halen, Neil Young, 
>Tori Amos, Heart, Dream Theater, Phish, etc.

Well, apart from Neil Young I'm not too impressed by any of these. And
especially Rush (sterile, no depth...they are a great example of music with
no emotion, like REO & Kansas), Aerosmith (more influenced by The Stones,
I'd say), Van Halen (a definite formula band, and a direct Zep clone), and
Heart (yeesh!). I can't say that any of them added to much for Rock history
(except for Eddie Van Halen's guitarwork -only- and I'm equally unimpressed
with what THAT has brought us).
Of course, that is just my humble opinion...
One final word concerning Van Halen. That Zep was influenced by The Who is
fairly easy to see...from the structure of the songs (excepting that Page
was a Blues style guitarist rather than a chord player) down to the
three-musicians-plus-one-blonde-lead-singer. VH was the "next generation" of
this influence...and a little something was lost each time.

              Cheers                       ML