Both great bands, but Zep never went over-the-top pretentious like Floyd.
I could happily live without ever hearing *The Wall * again–axcept for “Comfortably Numb.”
Yeah, I should have italicized that. That being “1999”, the song. Even the artist says that it’s been played enough and should be retired. I’ve developed an aversion to it. 1999 was actually a very good year. One of the best years before a year ending in 00 ever.
Pink Floyd was the greatest band ever. Their lyrics and their concept of musical structure. It was extraordinary and original. To this day (or at least a few years ago), Roger Waters was putting out great stuff. Not quite the Pink Floyd days of old, but certainly beat the current “Pink Floyd” fakers.
Led Zepplin was known to steal their music. Their lyrics were like that of Rush. They attempted to sound original by stealing poetry or being meaningless droning into cliche. Led Zepplin isn’t even a good head banging band. I’ll take Judas Preist for that any day.
So do I like eating ice cream or do I like eating dirt? I’ll take the ice cream thank you.
Just my opinion of course. 
Floyd went over-the-top pretentious after Rodger Waters left. No doubt about that. Post Rodger Waters, Pink Floyd is wors than Zepplin.
Listening to Floyd makes me want to commit crimes. Horrible crimes.
Zep all the way.
Pink Floyd. Especially when you factor in the experience of their live performances (at least the ones I saw). Zeppelin rocked, to be sure, but Jimmy was just plain sloppy sometimes. LZ had decent enough stage effects, but nothing like the amazing stuff that Floyd put on.
I was about 9, living in England when “The Wall” came out. It was kinda cool and I liked watching the video on “Top Of The Pops”.
A few years later back in the US, when a bunch of my friends were really into the movie all they could talk about was How Incredibly Cool it is, it’s like So Totally Depressing, Isn’t That Awesome?
I saw the movie in college, didn’t impress me. Anyhow all I can think of when I hear PF is “Great, music to commit suicide too”. Whoopee. I change stations when Floyd is on.
I enjoy Led Zepplin. Not a huge fan but it’s good music and it doesn’t have the negative associations for me that Floyd does.
I was trying to articulate why I don’t really like Pick Floyd and this is it: I find them pretentious. Zep’s a tad pretentious too, I know, but nothing like PF. Zep made music that a lot of other people decided was important. PF always made Important Music, self-consciously so.
Oddly, I think The Wall works as road trip music.
Hmmm. I like the Yardbirds…
Here’s the thing: Zep is folk rock, blues, or metal hurlant, depending on the song. Floyd is prog, & like nothing else. I like some folk rock, folk/blues (The Band, yes, please!), but I get tired of all the hurlant. But I’m a sucker for good prog—I’m bored to tears by bad prog, like much of ELP & some of Genesis even—& Floyd is definitive prog.
So, yeah, Floyd. Page was a cool singer though.
Here’s the thing… I definitely agree with the whole “Pink Floyd are pretentious” sentiment. To me, later Pink Floyd is the audio equivalent of Neil from the Young Ones–morose, lethargic, greasy long hair, always eating bland lentils… Personally, I think Dark Side of the Moon is way ponderous and pretentious, The Wall is an overwrought mess, and The Final Cut is a logically depressing conclusion to a depressing band career. (and PF were pretty much the nail in the coffin for prog, which was doomed anyway but which produced some promising bands in the beginning.) But their first album is something else entirely… daring, creative, weird, kinda messed up. It might as well be an entirely different band. Plus, I’ll take Syd Barrett’s guitar playing over Gilmour’s any day…
As far as Zeppelin, they were fun. And at least they didn’t drop off quick after their first record. But to me, nothing they did matches Piper for inventiveness. In fact, the LZ album I find myself coming back to most is Presence, mainly because there’s real pain and anguish behind some of those songs…
Me too, although there’s not a whole lot of it. The best stuff wasn’t played too much on the radio. A few of my favorites are:
Room/Pre-Flight (absolutely killer.)
T2/**It’ll All Work Out In Boomland **(one of my favorite UK albums from 1970. I can’t say enough good things about this one.)
Osage Tribe/Arrow Head (the pinnacle of Italian prog, which is saying a lot. Super heavy at times, with some blazing guitar lines)
Led Zeppelin
After all, guitar stores across the country didn’t put up signs saying “Wish You Were Here free zone!!”
Love Zep.
Love Floyd more.
I think Floyd is the better and more inventive band, but I just have never gotten into Floyd for some reason. So, for me, I definitely far prefer Zeppelin, but I think Floyd are more visionary songwriters.
Floyd, no question at all. I’d be sad if there was no LZ in the world, but I can’t imagine myself without Pink Floyd.
PS. pinkfreud, this may be an odd place to note it, but in some recent thread you thought no one noticed your absence, but I did.
For the uninitiated, it’s worth mentioning that Pink Floyd’s “The Dark Side of the Moon” was on the Billboard Top 200 for over 14 y e a r s.
I’ve always preferred Led Zeppelin because they seem to have a bit more earthy sound than Pink Floyd - and, now that I think about it, this points to Zep’s folk and blues influences. Much of Pink Floyd’s music seems too manufactured to me, not in a Backstreet Boys sort of way, but I can’t picture seeing them live and getting a whole lot out of the experience.
Also, when I was little, I was exposed to a lot of music from two artists who my dad worships - Pink Floyd and Jimi Hendrix. For various reasons, I vastly preferred Hendrix to Floyd, and this I suppose set me on the path to liking Led Zeppelin as well. Pink Floyd is okay, but I need something a little more upbeat.
When I listen to Pink Floyd, I always feel like I have time to head into the kitchen and cook a quick three-course meal before they get to the next chord change. My overall impression is that it’s almost all monotonous depressing epics, interspersed with about one up-tempo song like “Another Brick in the Wall” and “Money” every hour or so.
For anyone who may disagree, claim that I don’t “get” Pink Floyd, have no appreciation for how deep they are, etc. – you’re probably right. But I own Dark Side of the Moon, and have listened to classic rock radio for years, and never once heard anything by Pink Floyd that made me want to go out and buy another one of their albums. Conversely, as soon as I heard Ramble On, I simply had to own it.
Find me a Pink Floyd album that doesn’t put me to sleep in the first three tracks (or make me wish I was listening to Radiohead instead) and I’ll consider keeping them on the same shelf as Zeppelin.
I like some Led Zeppelin. Their first two records are really good, despite being ridiculously overplayed. I dislike a lot of the more pretentious work that they did later on.
I have never once, that I can remember, enjoyed listening to a Pink Floyd song. So Zep wins for me.
Listen to Piper At the Gates of Dawn, and if that doesn’t do it, nothing they did will. Whatever it is, at least it’s not boring.
As far as the other stuff I was yapping about, here’s a couple of sound clips from that T2 album from 1970. The first one is from their song No More White Horses: think of a heavier version of “Wooden Ships,” crossed with High Tide or maybe Sabbath. The second except is just the beginning of their longest (~21min) song Morning, which starts off slowly and low-key but ends up rocking as hard as anything on LZIV.
(I dont know why I bother posting these clips, as no one seems to actually listen to them… I guess I keep hoping I’ll do some small part to get bands like T2 their belated due… 
)
This is a feature, not a bug.
I can go along with this. Love 'em both, but love PF more. I agree they are pretentious, but I don’t care.