Both bands are considered in the top 5 (definitely top 10) bands of all-time. Which band (in their prime) do you think was better? Going by a "head to head" matchup, this is what I think (my opinion of course): Guitar - Jimmy Page (Zeppelin) vs. Pete Townshend (Who) Based off technical ability, Page has the significant edge here. Townshend was always, IMO, the 3rd best player in his group. However, Pete sang a lot of Who songs (something that Page did not do) and he wasn't that bad on the synthesizer, either. Add the fact that Pete was the creative vision for The Who (without him, there would have been no "Tommy" no "Quadrophenia") and this makes it a little bit closer. Page did more than just play the guitar, producing all of Zeppelin albums so he wasn't a one dimensional musician. And one can make the argument that by the time Zeppelin released "In Through the Out Door", Page was done but this is at their peak, so the edge goes to Zeppelin here. Bass - John Paul Jones (Zeppelin) vs. John Entwistle (Who) Another that should seem lopsided as Entwistle has been praised by many magazines, critics, and other musicians as one of the greatest, maybe greatest bassists of all-time. He truly played the bass as it was a lead instrument. He was also a master arranger of brass instruments and played the french horn as well. He also wasn't a bad songwriter that was stifled by Townshend and Daltrey from releasing more of his stuff on Who albums. JPJ cannot compare to him with playing the bass but he was a gifted musician as he was an above average keyboard player and had versatility in other areas (such as production and working with string orchestras - both showed after his time in Zeppelin), so it is a little bit closer but the edge goes to the Who here. Vocals/Frontman - Robert Plant (Zeppelin) vs. Roger Daltrey (Who) Extremely tough and too close to call, IMO as both of these guys are great singers and what you picture in a frontman for a group. Plant also played harmonica and actually got session work for his harmonica playing by Primal Scream, of all bands. Daltrey started out as a guitar player and would still occasionally play guitar on some Who songs (most noticeably he plays rhythm guitar on "Eminence Front"). Plant's voice started to give out on him around the "Presence" album and by the time, "In Through the Out Door" came out, you couldn't understand a damn thing he was saying. Daltrey's voice has stayed around the same, pretty much his whole career. But we are going by prime, so I can't penalize Plant for his performance on their last studio album. In the end, I am going to call this one a tie. Drums - John Bonham (Zeppelin) vs. Keith Moon (Who) Zeppelin's secret weapon versus The Who's secret weapon - both guys were incredibly innovative players that died far too young. You look at a list of greatest drummers of all-time and you'll see Bonham with Moon right behind him or vice versa. It is really too hard to call this one. Yet another tie. So, one for Zeppelin, and one for The Who with two ties. I'll go to the tiebreaker which is the 5 greatest albums by each and see which were the 5 better overall albums: Zeppelin 1 - Led Zeppelin II 2 - Physical Graffitti 3 - Houses of the Holy 4 - IV 5 - Led Zeppelin I The Who 1 - Who's Next 2 - Quadrophenia 3 - Tommy 4 - The Who Sell Out 5 - Who Are You It is interesting to note that both bands released 8 studio albums apiece (The last 3 Who studio albums don't count as they don't contain the "classic" lineup). The top 3 for both groups are very damn close, again, but Zeppelin's IV, despite being severely overplayed, easily outclasses "The Who Sell Out" (which is a great underrated album in its own right). Gotta to give this to Zeppelin as my personal favorite Zeppelin album that didn't make the top 5 in "Presence" barely beats out my favorite non-top 5 Who album, "By Numbers". So, in the end, I am going to vote for Zeppelin. I don't expect the discussion to get this in-depth, lol, but who do you think was the greater band - notice I said "greater" and not who you liked more.
This is the Who and its not even close. Zeppelin is not an elite band. Flame away geeks, but I am telling you, they are dorks. Jimmy Page was a machine of cool guitar licks. John Bonham was a fine drummer. Great. The 'meta' of Led Zeppelin is preposterous, their pseudo-eastern medieval self indulgent drug fueled mystical Kabbalah-flavored bullcrap. The Who was *about* something human and interesting - force v. finesse, frailty v. power, anger v. gentleness, etc. They wrote songs, and their music was bigger than just loud jams. They carried a legitimate load deserving of reverence. Zeppelin sang about Lord of the Freaking Rings. May their legacy be everything it deserves. How they survived Spinal Tap's bludgeoning I will never know.
I love The Who, but for me it's no contest: Led Zeppelin is the greatest band that has ever existed. The massive range and extent of their work from blues, heavy blues, rock, heavy rock, British folk, country, and blue grass is simply unsurpassed by anyone before or since. Fast, slow, groovy, simple, complex, they did it all.
Both very similar bands with similar personnel, BUT like the 1995 WC finals it's Led Zeppelin all over The Who. With the exception of Who's Next and Quadrophenia, The Who imho are way too overrated and anyway Led Zeppelin had the good sense to hang it up when Bonham died as opposed to The Who who seem to want to keep pace with Cher when it comes to farewell tours.
Lynus302 - okay, give me something here other than 'they jammed'. Lots - LOTS - of bands can jam, groove, rock, whatever. That part is not that hard. But what were led zeppelin about? Very very simplistically, one could quickly say that the Beatles were about love, the stones were about hedonism, the who were about internal conflict - what was zeppelin about? What is the take home point of listening to their body of work?
And Manny, a tie between Plant and Daltry?!?! A TIE!!!! You've got to be !@#$ing kidding. Plant has/had range, he can harmonize,he could write, he has better hair :grin: . Daltry was a shouter at best. This Olajuwon versus Robinson in 95 like I was talking about. Actually I'm being kind, Daltry is more like Ewing.
I consider The Who to be more primitive, though Zep definitely had their low-life moments. Musically they're both sound, though I'd say Zep appeals to my musical tastes much more. I've listened to far more Who, though, and got into them for a while. I never liked how they could never deviate from their sound. A song like "Bargain" would start out really beautifully and differently compared to their other stuff, and then dive right back in to standard Who. Didn't like that. Never liked Zeppelin too much though, either. Always felt they were vastly overrated, and were the stuff of that same douchebag who wears A Dark Side of the Moon t-shirt and can't name a single song off of it. I came around eventually, but it's still too bluesy for my tastes most of the time. Frankly, I don't really like either band, but Zep wins it for me.
Well duh. But they aren't involved in this discussion. Haha, I knew I would catch some flak on that but I think something should be said that with Daltrey, you could understand what he was singing (word-wise, *ducks for cover) CBrownFanClub with a great post in this thread. Dude's QPC is 100%. I am not surprised at the results of this poll but come on people! This question is a lot harder and closer than you think - really look at all factors here and you will see that.
Are you really trying to sum up Led Zeppelin as a jam band?? Like I said: The massive range and extent of their work from blues, heavy blues, rock, heavy rock, British folk, country, and blue grass is simply unsurpassed by anyone before or since. Fast, slow, groovy, simple, complex, they did it all. How in the world you sum up three of the most legendary and influential bands to ever exist into one word or phrase, I'll never know.
^ Lynus, I don't disagree with you and I am not to the extreme that CBFC is on Zeppelin; however, I really believe that more people are not getting it. The results of this poll should be neck and neck, IMO not as one-sided as it is. The fact that it is so one-sided may give credence to the argument that Zeppelin is overrated. I mean the question was who was the greater band - Led Zeppelin or The Who not Led Zeppelin or Grand Funk Railroad.
One band did a song about a kid who played pinball which, IMO, is possibly the worst rock-n-roll song of all time. The other band is Led-freaking-Zepplin. EDIT: Don't dis GFR.
All I hear from you Manny is :"Look man, you can listen to The Who but you can't hear them. There's a difference man. Just because you're listening to them doesn't mean you're hearing them. I've heard and I've listened and it's still Led Zeppelin by miles and miles and miles.
lots of 'baby baby baby baby baby baby woman you did me wrong' Led Zeppelin is clearly head and shoulders above the who.. This thread might as well be 'rando garage band vs. led zeppelin' or 'lady gaga , right said fred, chumbawumba vs. led zeppelin' and results would be the same. IBTL
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