Macca’ s bass playing may have been influential, but give Entwistle a little credit. After all, he was voted Bassist of the Millenium in Guitar Player magazine and Best Bass Player of All Time in Rolling Stone.
Which is a smack in the face to Les Claypool and Flea. And also to that guy that used to play a little bass and also magnificently quarterbacked for the Houston Oilers back in the day, Jaco Pastorini.
Yes, Entwistle was influential in his approach to the instrument, too. While we’re at it, I’d say Led Zeppelin has one of the great bassists in John Paul Jones, too.
Dude can play a little mandolin too!
See, for me, the lyrics are about the last thing I like about Led Zeppelin. Others may disagree, perhaps, but I’m just not into the words of their music.
I’m not exactly certain what you’re trying to pinpoint with “overload of rock,” but their ability to rock is exactly what draws me to them. They have one of the best rhythm sections in all of rock history with John Paul Jones and John Bonham. I’m a sucker for a great rhythm section and Zep just have it. And, of course, Jimmy Page, but my ear is more drawn to Jones and Bonham. Plant I can take or leave. I think his voice worked well within Led Zeppelin, but he’s not one of my favorite rock vocalists.
Led Zeppelin I, song 1, track 1, “Good Times, Bad Times.” Perhaps my favorite “introduction to the world” tracks from a band. That track just sums up the band right there. Powerful, percussive intro "BAM BAM! tick. tick. tick. BAM! BAM! tick tick tick tick tick tick. BAM BAM ticktick tick tick a-tick tick. BAM! BAM! ticktick tick tick a-tick tick. BAM! BAM! tick tom hit, rolls down the snare and toms “In the days of my youth I was told what it means to be a man…” (which is actually a Led Zeppelin lyric I like, to boot.) That leads into some great bluesy, Jimmy Page riffs on the guitar, along with some fantastic Bonham triplet fills. Listen to the footwork on “Now I’ve reached that age I’ve tried to do…” part. There’s some beautiful, original drumming going on right there, with a bluesy rock swing to it. Then the build with “Good Times Bad Times, you know I’ve had my share…” and when the instruments drop at the end of that refrain, you have John Paul Jones throwing in a tasty bass lick to bring us to the bridge. Wonderful orchestration and tonal contrast. Then Jimmy takes over with some good ol’ hard rock riffage with his bluesy power chords in the bridge or whatever you want to call it, bringing it to the refrain, and then kicking into a kick-ass guitar solo (one of my favorite Led Zeppelin and rock guitar solos in general.)
Re-reading it, my description still sounds a bit lacking, but “Good Times, Bad Times” is, for me, one of the defining songs of rock history.
And for the bass aspect, listen to “Ramble On.” One of my favorite rock bass performances.
so some of us live in the same state, I see radio stations metioned 95.5 home of New Yorks best rock, 102.7 wnew.
like 1 poster metioned the Beatles have the deepest catalogue , for example, you could have a Fm station play Beatles music just like satelite has elvis and Sinatra stations, but Led Zeppelin has the better musicans , as with the Stones and the Who musican wise their pretty good, songs wise their not as deep as the Beatles musican ship Zeppelin is much better than those 2 bands.
I would vote for Led Zeppelin , based on they have great albums and the best all around players.
Which just leaves poor Bill Wyman —the least-essential Stone.
Damn, that is definitely some drum part. And bass. And guitar. I think you described it very well. I guess by “overload of rock,” I’m talking about how the sheer relentless power in all of their work can kind of desensitize you to it after a few minutes. It’s similar to what happens lyrically with some (but not all) Bob Dylan songs - for the first few stanzas of poetry, you’re with him, but eventually you drift away. It takes a lot of repeated playings of a single song to fully understand what he’s saying. When a band or songwriter really “specializes” like that, it can make the music less accessible (but still, of course, very valuable).
Yeah, I may have been . . . looking for a positive there. 
I agree with you on the musicianship of the various players, but I’m not sure that having better players would have made The Beatles a better band - in fact, there’s a very good chance that it would have ruined their songs. For example, when George Harrison temporarily quit, they (very briefly) considered bringing Eric Clapton in - but the problem with having a legendary lead guitarist is that they come with an ego and are going to want long, winding solos. One of the great things about The Beatles was that their instruments always served their melodies, not the other way around. Ringo was really a rarity - a very talented drummer technically speaking who had absolutely no desire to be in the spotlight with solos.
Eight Miles High was a massive hit for The Byrds before Tomorrow Never Knows was recorded, and both the 13th Floor Elevators and the Holy Modal Rounders had recorded psychedelic music before the Beatles. Not to mention Ken Kesey’s Acid Tests and their “Psychedelic Symphonies” from 1964.
By 1966, the idea of psychedelicism was well known in the counter culture generally, and it was inevitable IMHO that it would become a musical movement.
Led Zepp. I didn’t need to think hard about it.
That’s a great Zep track. One of the things I really like about it that’s not overtly apparent is the vocal harmony bits Plant does (with I think himself) during the opening lines of “…told what it means to be a man” and “…do all those things the best I can”.
There’s also Page’s snarling tone which is a kind of dark beauty all on it’s own.
Speaking of dark, I was reading Plant’s bio recently and the author was citing examples debunking that there’s some huge rift between Page and Plant when apparently there isn’t much of one, just a lack of desire on Plant’s part to rehash or reunite the remaining Zeppelin members for much of anything.
He was having a conversation with someone and when randomly informed that the numbers on a roulette wheel added up to 666, he immediately became animated, whipped out his cell phone and said “I’ve got to call the dark lord!”, referring of course to Jimi Page. I thought it was hysterical.
This four band rotation-for-the-day took place before 1982, when WPLJ and WNEW were competitors.
WNEW’s DJs included the late Scott Muni, Dave Fornatelle, Dave Herman (recently arrested in a child sex sting), Dennis Elsas, Dan Neer, and Meg Griffin. WPLJ had Jim Kerr, Pat St. John, Carol Miller, Jimmy Fink, and Mark Coppola. Lots of these DJs can still be heard on Sirius XM or around the NY area.
Around this time, WPLJ tended to play the harder rock stuff, but WNEW may have done this as a means of pulling listeners over to them.
The Who.
…(By the way, you can listen to those bands and and many more groups and soloists on The Whale 99.1 FM radio plays the best classic rock in Binghamton, New York.
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