Would you rank the band that had the hit song smoke in the water compared to the band that brought us stairway to heaven?
No contest. Not on tour, not in the studio, not even in the commission of excesses. Led Zeppelin is better in every way, unless Deep Purple is better for you.
Seriously, Zeppelin were much better musicians.
Deep Purple is not as good, though I love some of their songs. Jon Lord was awesome, Ian Gillan was likewise, and Ritchie Blackmore did a good job, coming up with some iconic riffs. As a whole, though, I think Zeppelin’s body of work is more varied and of an overall higher quality.
Laugh away until you realize that they stole probably millions from poor blues artists in lost royalties. I wouldnt want to follow your rules.
I never paid much attention to DP. They did a song about Frank Zappa’s band gear catching fire, init?
Some years back, a UK music site polled their audience on which individuals their fantasy rock supergroup would contain. Who would be the best singer, lead and bass guitarists, and drummer, from anywhere and anywhen? The vote results:
Best singer: Robert Plant
Best guitarist: Jimmy Page
Best bassist: John Paul Jones
Best drummer: John Bonham
Sound familiar?
Heh. It’s early and you had me totally confused for a minute. I thought you knew who my friend was, and couldn’t figure out how you figured it out. 
This is about where I am. Jon Lord is incomparable. Bonzo is incomparable. Jimmy Page had a vision for Led Zeppelin while still in the Yardbirds. And seconding everything Loach says about Steve Morse.
Still trying to get my head around that one.
/atmb/ uuuuuuhhhhhh why am I able to quote only posts 1 - 13, yet, from post 14 onwards, I can’t? What in the bleep is that kind of a glitch all about? Huh. /atmb/
And so:
Madsircool (post 20): “Led Zep blatantly plagiarized some of their most famous songs. That disqualifies them from any conversation of the alltime best rock groups.”
So other than the Stairway/Randy California thing, there were other numbers?
Led Zeppelin’s 10 Boldest Rip-Offs (Rolling Stone magazine 6/22/2016)
I still dig Zeppelin all the same. But the beefs against them are legit.
Zeppelin. It is not even close really.
I like Deep Purple but if stranded on a desert island with only one or the other music catalog it is no contest. Zeppelin all the way.
Since the number of really good songs is far more important to me than guitar licks or similar measures of musicianship, I’d have to rate Led Zep considerably ahead of Deep Purple, though I like both.
Interesting, thanks. Indeed legit. (except for maybe the “Shake em On Down” / “Hats off to (Roy) Harper” comparison, which struck me as a stretch)
Warning. Heresy coming.
Blackmore’s solo on Child in Time is better than anything Page did.
This, basically. I’m not a Zeppelin fanatic by any means - I liked( but didn’t love )them as a teen, but don’t seek them out much anymore. If some tune that isn’t fucking Stairway to Heaven* comes on an oldies station or something I will still listen and appreciate it. They were a great band in their heyday, blatant royalty theft and personal peccadilloes aside. And great songs really do beat great licks for me, which is why I’ve never been a huge Rush fan despite respecting them enormously - Peart’s lyrics mostly didn’t do much for me.
I see an awful lot of love for Deep Purple, so I suppose I can be the heretic there as well without feeling like I’m piling on. Never much cared for them :). They’re okay. I guess.
- Can’t change the station away from StH fast enough. One of the unholy trinity of insanely overplayed rock songs from my youth, right there with Freebird and Hotel California. I liked all three once upon a time. Never again.
A couple of my favorite Deep Purple moments:
On the 1985 Mk II reunion tour, they had laser light effects. During the “Difficult To Cure” jam they went off into Ode To Joy, with an animated Beethoven “conducting” above the stage.
And then, there’s the finale of their California Jam set, with a really angry* Blackmore torturing several guitars and setting fire to his amps.
*Ritchie had only agreed to play the festival on the condition that they go on after dark…it was part of their contract. When the organizers tried to get them up on stage 2 hours before sunset, Blackmore would have none of it. He refused to take the stage and finally came out, angry as hell…and it showed.