Stairway to Heaven (Led Zep) vs. Comfortably Numb (PF) vs. Baba O' Reilly (The Who)

Cafe Society
21

I have no musical knowledge, talent, or possibly taste.

  1. Comfortably Numb

  2. Stairway

  3. Oh fine. Baba O’Reilly.

22

It depends on how much time I’m willing to invest. Stairway to Heaven is a work of absolute genius, but the point is for your enjoyment to build along with the song from the beginning until the fantastic climax at the end. If you just listen to part of it, it just isn’t very good.

Baba O’Reilly is a bit like that, only more accessible - you can turn on the radio halfway though and still enjoy the part that’s left.

I never cared for CN; I liked the more bizarre Pink Floyd stuff like Welcome to the Machine.

23

‘Stairway to Heaven’ is still a classic, even though I first heard it decades ago.

Although ‘Baba O’Reilly’ is great, I treasure ‘Won’t get fooled again’ even more.

I am mildly embarrassed to admit I have never heard of ‘Comfortably Numb’ :eek: . (Mind you, I stopped buying records in the late 70’s…).
I’d prefer to pick a track from Dark Side of the Moon’, but I always listen to the whole record as an experience. :cool:

24

:eek:

Well, you can make up for precious lost time, right here:

25

Don’t know if it’s the “best”, but “Baba O’Reily” is definitely the most musically important of the three songs, in in intention and effect. The “synthesizer”* part of the song took the minimalist techniques of Terry Reilly and introduced them to a rock audience. Zep may have tried something like that with Kashmir, but “Stairway” - while an epic rock song - is still just rock. “Comfortably Numb” is, in essence, a ballad. Not knocking either of the two songs, they just didn’t have the same reach. If you can hear “Baba O’Reilly” and just think of it as another rock song…that is a testimony to the success of Townshend’s vision.

Disclaimer: My brother and me traveled from Kansas City to London to see one of the two orchestral performances of “Lifehouse” at Sadler’s Well’s. The opening was a piece by Terry Reilly.
*(actually tones from an organ, run through the filters of an ARP 2500 being controlled by the ARP analog sequencer - near as I can tell from a documentary about “Who’s Next”)

26

This is a pretty good point. Baba O’Reilly sounds like it could have been written and recorded last week. That’s a pretty impressive testament to how far ahead of its time it was, especially when you consider that most 70s, 80s and even 90s synth-rock sounds horribly dated.

Van Halen’s Jump, for example.

27

If I had never heard these songs before I would be duly impressed by all 3. The problem is that I’ve heard all 3 about 3.14 million times before.

I remember hearing Stairway when it first came out and absolutely loved it. Now, what some 35 years later (?) and after hearing it to death, I can barely tolerate it any more and will frequently change radio stations if it comes on. (At the end you can almost feel the gym lights come on and still smell the perfume of your date.)

Comfortably Numb is OK. It’s not epic. It lacks the kind of anguish that Waters is known for. ('Cause it’s Gilmour, I know.) It really does leave me just, well, comfortably numb.

And then there’s Baba O’Riley. It is epic. It still sounds fresh. You can play windmill air-guitar to it. It ends not in a whimper but on a climactic violin frenzy of excitement.

  1. BOR
  2. STH
  3. CN
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  1. Baba O’Reilly

Tie 2 & 3 to an anvil and throw them off a high bridge.

29

My brother is so tired of it, he does a very amusing dead codfish impression that lasts the whole song. (Well, it slays me).

30

Not only do I like all three songs, I can also play the rhythm and solo guitar parts in them. I’ve even tried to play the ARP synth parts in in Baba O’Riley, but my hands can’t keep up.

  1. ‘Baba O’Riley’ - This one is hard rockin’ all the way through from the ARP synth intro to the violin outro solo. There are no soft spots to keep me waiting for the good stuff.

  2. ‘Comfortable Numb’- My favorite lead guitar tone among the three. I hate that the solo and song fade out at the end. Fade outs are cheap endings in my personal taste. This one is a very close second.

  3. ‘Stairway to Heaven’ - I hate Plant’s vocals, but Page’s solo makes up for it. The fake flute sound (an organ I think) near the beginnning is annoying as well. As others have said, I prefer other Zep songs: ‘Ten Years Gone’, ‘What Is And What Should Never Be’, ‘Ramble On’, ‘How Many More Times’, and ‘Over The Hills and Far Away’ are some examples.

I’ll take Jimi’s version of ‘All Along the Watchtower’ over all three, however.

31

Of course, here is the real interpretation of the lyrics to STH. Scroll down to The Lyrics Interpreted to save time. :wink:

32

Zep is my favorite band of the bunch, but I really don’t much like Stairway. Baba O’Reilly gets my vote.

33

I think “Money” is a far superior Gilmour solo in terms of energy and technique to “Comf Numb”, although admittedly the “Money” solo is simultaneously layered with wild bass and drum fills that elevate the whole song.

34

The solo in ‘Money’ is also double tracked (i.e. Gilmour recorded the solo twice and then put both takes in the final mix) while the solos in ‘Comf’y Numb’ are not, which makes some difference.

35

Whew, thanks for actually spelling it correctly.

It’s my #1 also, but David Cook’s version from Americal Idol season 7.

just kidding

36

This thread gave me an idea for a madness tournament.

37

I’m also a Floyd freak, so I’m in no way impartial:

  1. Comfortably Numb (and I’m going for greatest guitar solo ever)

  2. Baba O’Riley

  3. Stairway to Heaven

38

You can imagine the threads on Who forums when we saw that!

(inserts link for 1994 performance at Earl’s Court: ) Finale of PULSE

Even though Roger wrote it, the song is Dave’s.

39

Not exactly…David wrote most of the music to ‘Comfortably Numb’ except for (I think) the chord progression in the verse. Roger wrote all the lyrics in ‘CN’ as was typical with Pink Floyd songs written after Syd went crazy.

Funny! Of course, no cover version of ‘Baba O’Riley’ is better than the original in my opinion, but I do have a favorite among covers: Blue Man Group’s performance of ‘Baba O’Riley’

40

I love Stairway, but it was basically ripped off, see about 40 seconds into this video: http://youtube.com/watch?v=HjPAEPFaxoM&feature=related

So, all else being equal it’s between Numb and Baba. I’m gonna have to go with Comfortably Numb because it’s so smooth and badass and unlike most everything else.