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30 years of playing guitar Feb 15
Is Pete Townshend correct to say that Led Zeppelin copied The Who?
Hmm, bare chested vocalist with tight trousers and flowing locks?
Frenetic tub thumper with a giant drum kit?
Crushingly loud guitar through giant amp stacks?
Anonymous but brilliant bass player?
Plus there’s the small fact that shortly before Zep formed, Jimmy Page recorded with Moon on Beck’s Bolero, and had plans to form a supergroup with him, Beck and Entwistle.
The Who were always falling out with each other, and seemed on the verge of breaking up on several occasions. Page was in a band that seemed to be falling apart. They all knew each other, and there was a real possibility of Moon and the Ox forming a band with Page. It was either Moon or Entwistle who came up with the name Led Zeppelin according to rock and roll legend.
Pete had every reason to feel threatened by this new group.
But was he right?
Well, he’s got a point about the line up. Before the Who, most rock and roll bands had 2 guitarists and often a keyboard player. The Who were one of the first successful bands to strip it down to guitar, bass drums and vocals, and to fil in the musical space with louder guitar and busier drums and bass.
Cream and the Jimi Hendrix Experience followed in a similar vein, but having singers who also played instruments, they kept to a trio format. But the Who have a reasonable claim to pioneering the power trio idea, just with a non playing vocalist. Sonically it was a similar concept.
But rock band line ups aren’t exactly patents; there are only so many configurations of instruments and guitar, bass, drums and vocals isn’t really groundbreaking or unexpected.
Musically they were worlds apart
The Who may have covered a few blues and R and B tunes, but Cream, The Experience and later Zeppelin were much more rooted in blues than the Who, and this is most apparent in the style of guitar playing. Pete is a good musician and a decent guitarist. He was an early adopter of feedback and extreme volume, as well as bringing power chords to the fore. But he isn’t rooted in the blues, and despite the occasional cover, The Who never sounded like a wannabe blues band, or a rock blues band, or even a progressive blues band.
Alongside the blues, Zep had a strong folk side to their game, and again, this isn’t something anyone ever accuses the Who of.
Is Pete just a bitter old man?
Pete’s always been a grumpy bugger, but he’s also a brilliant songwriter and mythmaker. Half of the legends of the Who were made up, and they were usually made up by the band themselves. They all knew the power of publicity and storytelling.
Take guitar smashing. Most accounts now agree that the first incident of Pete smashing a guitar was an accident. He banged it on a low ceiling at a club gig and liked the noise, so he did a few more times until he broke the headstock clean off. The audience started to laugh, so he smashed the guitar bits. At least, that’s what he says. Maybe it’s true, or maybe he’s embellished the story. Within weeks he was famous for it, and talking in earnest tones to the press about “auto destruction”, a concept he knew from art school, as if smashing guitars wasn’t an accident or bit of cheap theatre, but a serious artistic statement.
Or Moon’s famous “diving a Rolls Royce into a hotel swimming pool”. Keith told the story several times, with the make and model of the car changing with each telling. Entwistle says it never happened, Daltrey thinks it did, and at least one biography says it wasn’t a pool it was a ditch, it wasn’t a hotel but outside Keith’s house, and it wasn’t on purpose but an accident that occurred because Keith couldn’t drive.
So, bearing all that in mind, claiming that the biggest Rock band of the 70’s “stole” your act could be simply bitterness, or it could be yet more self-promotion.
Nothing is completely original, everyone borrows and steals
Musicians build on what came before and are inspired by what’s happening around them. I’m sure that Page was inspired by the freedom that the Who, and then Cream and Jimi, found in a simple instrumental line up. And I’m sure he was excited by the excitement and power of playing at high volume with a busy drummer gave them. I’ve no doubt that seeing the way that Daltrey commanded the stage towards the second half of the 60’s gave him ideas about what he wanted from a frontman for his new group, and I’m sure that Plant was looking at all the bands of that era for inspiration. But that’s not the same as “copying”.
Conclusion
Pete has an inkling of a point, but not enough to make a serious one. Most of the big acts of the first half of the 60’s started out copying Elvis or Buddy Holly, but what really matters is what they became. Same goes for Zep. They may have taken inspiration from the Who, Cream, the Experience and whoever, but what they did with it was their own.
38.9K views
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30 years of playing guitar Feb 15
Is Pete Townshend correct to say that Led Zeppelin copied The Who?
Hmm, bare chested vocalist with tight trousers and flowing locks?
Frenetic tub thumper with a giant drum kit?
Crushingly loud guitar through giant amp stacks?
Anonymous but brilliant bass player?
Plus there’s the small fact that shortly before Zep formed, Jimmy Page recorded with Moon on Beck’s Bolero, and had plans to form a supergroup with him, Beck and Entwistle.
The Who were always falling out with each other, and seemed on the verge of breaking up on several occasions. Page was in a band that seemed to be falling apart. They all knew each other, and there was a real possibility of Moon and the Ox forming a band with Page. It was either Moon or Entwistle who came up with the name Led Zeppelin according to rock and roll legend.
Pete had every reason to feel threatened by this new group.
But was he right?
Well, he’s got a point about the line up. Before the Who, most rock and roll bands had 2 guitarists and often a keyboard player. The Who were one of the first successful bands to strip it down to guitar, bass drums and vocals, and to fil in the musical space with louder guitar and busier drums and bass.
Cream and the Jimi Hendrix Experience followed in a similar vein, but having singers who also played instruments, they kept to a trio format. But the Who have a reasonable claim to pioneering the power trio idea, just with a non playing vocalist. Sonically it was a similar concept.
But rock band line ups aren’t exactly patents; there are only so many configurations of instruments and guitar, bass, drums and vocals isn’t really groundbreaking or unexpected.
Musically they were worlds apart
The Who may have covered a few blues and R and B tunes, but Cream, The Experience and later Zeppelin were much more rooted in blues than the Who, and this is most apparent in the style of guitar playing. Pete is a good musician and a decent guitarist. He was an early adopter of feedback and extreme volume, as well as bringing power chords to the fore. But he isn’t rooted in the blues, and despite the occasional cover, The Who never sounded like a wannabe blues band, or a rock blues band, or even a progressive blues band.
Alongside the blues, Zep had a strong folk side to their game, and again, this isn’t something anyone ever accuses the Who of.
Is Pete just a bitter old man?
Pete’s always been a grumpy bugger, but he’s also a brilliant songwriter and mythmaker. Half of the legends of the Who were made up, and they were usually made up by the band themselves. They all knew the power of publicity and storytelling.
Take guitar smashing. Most accounts now agree that the first incident of Pete smashing a guitar was an accident. He banged it on a low ceiling at a club gig and liked the noise, so he did a few more times until he broke the headstock clean off. The audience started to laugh, so he smashed the guitar bits. At least, that’s what he says. Maybe it’s true, or maybe he’s embellished the story. Within weeks he was famous for it, and talking in earnest tones to the press about “auto destruction”, a concept he knew from art school, as if smashing guitars wasn’t an accident or bit of cheap theatre, but a serious artistic statement.
Or Moon’s famous “diving a Rolls Royce into a hotel swimming pool”. Keith told the story several times, with the make and model of the car changing with each telling. Entwistle says it never happened, Daltrey thinks it did, and at least one biography says it wasn’t a pool it was a ditch, it wasn’t a hotel but outside Keith’s house, and it wasn’t on purpose but an accident that occurred because Keith couldn’t drive.
So, bearing all that in mind, claiming that the biggest Rock band of the 70’s “stole” your act could be simply bitterness, or it could be yet more self-promotion.
Nothing is completely original, everyone borrows and steals
Musicians build on what came before and are inspired by what’s happening around them. I’m sure that Page was inspired by the freedom that the Who, and then Cream and Jimi, found in a simple instrumental line up. And I’m sure he was excited by the excitement and power of playing at high volume with a busy drummer gave them. I’ve no doubt that seeing the way that Daltrey commanded the stage towards the second half of the 60’s gave him ideas about what he wanted from a frontman for his new group, and I’m sure that Plant was looking at all the bands of that era for inspiration. But that’s not the same as “copying”.
Conclusion
Pete has an inkling of a point, but not enough to make a serious one. Most of the big acts of the first half of the 60’s started out copying Elvis or Buddy Holly, but what really matters is what they became. Same goes for Zep. They may have taken inspiration from the Who, Cream, the Experience and whoever, but what they did with it was their own.
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