Bands Primarily Influenced by Led Zeppelin; The Good, Bad, and WTF?

Cafe Society
1

Yes, there can only be one LZ, although many bands tried to emulate their formula. Most fell miserably short of their mark.

One group who deserved more respect/success was Cactus…if you haven’t heard of them, check this out for starters:

Cactus - “Evil”

Growing up on LI, (although they were originally from NOLA) I remember that this group got an inordinate amount of airplay and hype:

Zebra - “Tell Me What You Want”

Not going to torture anyone with a Def Leppard song link, but could their name be any more blatant?

Some may argue, but in my opinion, Deep Purple and Black Sabbath, although affected by Led Zep, don’t really fit into this grouping - not “primary”.

Please, let’s leave the LZ tribute/cover bands out of this discussion…otherwise, if the influence is obvious, throw it out here…thanks.

2

White Stripes – IMHO, clearly influenced by LZ, in a good way.

3

Back in the late 80s, Kingdom Come came to be known as Kingdom Clone for their resemblance to LZ.

4

So egregious, they inspired the song “Led Clones” by Gary Moore.

5

One vocalist I thought sounded close to Robert Plant was Dave King, an Irish singer who first came to prominence in the band Fastway. (The band was founded by Fat Edie Clarke of Motorhead and Pete Way of UFO).

6

Black Crowes

7

[quote=“astorian, post:5, topic:731673”]

One vocalist I thought sounded close to Robert Plant was Dave King, an Irish singer who first came to prominence in the band Fastway. (The band was founded by Fat Edie Clarke of Motorhead and Pete Way of UFO).

[/QUOTE]

FAST Eddie! Crud…

8

In their early years, Rush was often referred to as the Canadian Led Zeppelin.

9

Growing up in LI … is what? Long Island? Also, it’s hard to tell if you mean they grew up there or you did. Maybe both?

Anyway, most of the the hair bands from the 80s were primarily influenced by “LZ”, right? I’d rank them as mostly bad, with brief flashes of good … in other words, just like popular music in general. :slight_smile:

10

I’ve heard Whitesnake called a LZ clone. Since I only know 2, 3 of their songs I don’t know enough for sure.

11

I know they did shows with Jimmy Page, but I really see them as focused on The Stones and the Faces. Lotta boogie tunes with guitars in Open G tuning and a non-screamy, raspy voice on top.

ETA: I agree with the White Stripes. Jack White wears his LZ influence pretty openly, in a good way.

12

Robert Plant certainly thought so. He’s often referred to David Coverdale as “David Coverband.”

And when he’s asked to name his influences, Plant often chuckles, “David Coverdale. Everything I do, I copied from him.”

13

I saw the Page/Crowes tour. Chris embodied Robert Plant during the LZ songs. It’s probably the closest you could get to a Zeppelin Reunion. He danced like him, he sang like him, he still has the energy to move around the stage like a young Plant. As a huge Led Zeppelin fan, it was one of my favorite concerts ever.

14

I’ve always thought and felt that nothing has epitomized that more than “Finding My Way”. BUT, outside of that song, I can’t say that Rush has ever sounded as straight-up Zeppelin-esque to my ears as they blatantly did on FMW…although there is certainly a lingering influence throughout their 70’s output.

Another band that immediately came to mind upon seeing the thread title, and an ENORMOUS hard rock favorite of mine since my teens, Budgie, are certainly guilty as charged of being Zep knockoffs with their style in spots…which particularly came to a head on “Hammer and Tongs”.

15

Bwahahaha, I was singing that song in the shower this morning! Cactus was a nice spot for that rhythm section between Vanilla Fudge and Beck, Bogert & Appice. They’re one of my favorites.

Certainly Kingdom Come and Whitesnake (esp. the earlier records) are WTF levels of LZ influence. Whitesnake actually had more inane content than LZ, who had lyrics penned by the man voted most likely to sing “Baby” at any given moment.

But I can’t think of lots of bands influenced by LZ who sit between “Damn, that band’s good” and WTF. Is there an uncanny valley here?

16

You’re right…that was unclear. I grew up on Long Island; Zebra was formed in New Orleans, and started out as a Zeppelin cover band. According to this site:

“Someone suggested they check out the thriving Long Island, NY rock club scene. Bands like Twisted Sister, Rat Race Choir, and the Good Rats were cranking out significant rock ‘n’ roll in the late 70s, playing clubs like Speaks, Hammerheads, The Mad Hatter, and Chaucers Ale House”

So, Long Island became their second home.

17

Billy Squier. If the first 2 minutes 37 seconds of “Lonely Is the Night” weren’t obvious enough it’s really obvious right at the bridge there.

18

Huh. I had never made that connection before (probably because they don’t remind me of Zeppelin–then again, pretty much nobody does), but now it looks so obvious.

White Stripes is the one I thought of initially, too, so I third that one.

19

Well, Dread Zeppelin is a reggae band that mostly does LZ covers, so they owe everything to Plant & co. (and I’ve seen them live and they’re actually a lot of fun).

20

I don’t think Cactus was influenced by Zeppelin so much as both bands borrowed from the Jeff Beck Group.