"Stairway to Hell"

["Gary M. Gillman" <garyg@inforamp.net>]

Anyone who presumes to write about the Who and rank their albums who writes
that Pete Townshend sang the famous, screamed YEAHHHHHH... at the end of
WGFA obviously disqualifies himself as a serious critic of the Who (and
possibly of rock music in general), ipso facto. But even had this author not
made that telling error, anyone who thinks the LAL Generation jam is even
remotely connected to Led Zeppelin shows a total ignorance of both bands and
the music which influenced them. To wit, most of Zep`s work was derived
straight from various, classic blues players, especially the guitarists. The
Who were much less reliant on that tradition, having built their sound on
the rock tradition itself as developed by Eddy Cochran, Presley, Vincent,
Scotty Moore, Johnny Kidd, Joe Brown, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck
Berry, Bo Diddley (the latter two more rockers, in the modern sense, than
bluesmen) and others.  The Who also reflect a jazz influence absent in the
Zep men. I will allow that Creem magazine had great pictures......Gary M.