Is Rock and Roll dead. Part 2.

[N80]

Robert Plant talks about Greta Van Fleet.... pretty humerous.
Robert Plant talks about Greta Van Fleet - YouTube

That interview is funny. I've seen Robert Plant in concert twice and that man puts on an incredible show. One of the best live performers I've ever seen. However, he always seems to disappoint me when it comes to interviews. He seems to overthink his replies too much and never seems very candid or very genuine. This brief interview seemed just the opposite. I'll see if I can find that whole interview.

The clip from Greta Van Fleet seems like a direct copy of Led Zep....but I'm sure that is why it was selected. I have no problem with that, especially in a band so young.

 

[N80]

Saw a good "straight ahead rock-n-roll" band warm up Gov't Mule (also a great rock-n-roll ban) a few months back.
Warm up was called: Black Stone Cherry.

I've heard of them and seen some clips. That's another one I need to spend more time researching. Thanks!

 

[N80]

Rock is merely not mainstream anymore so dont expect to be spoonfed by the medias but it will always be around

Well, we can debate what 'dead' and 'mostly dead' mean but as a genre it is a pale shadow of its former self. And while I do not expect to be spoon fed, I also am not inclined to do the legwork required to overcome the signal-to-noise ratio that the indie movement has created. Not knocking the indie movement but finding that one needle in a haystack is not work how much hay you have to sort through.

Also, I understand the evils of the music media as it was then and as it is now. But the surprise and pleasure of unexpectedly hearing a great new song on the radio for the first time, even when you weren't looking for one, is as pleasing or more so than digging up an indie band after listening to an hour of garbage. Just the old man in me I guess. And I don't think rock and roll being popular enough to get picked up by the media machine is a bad thing either. That sort of popularity breeds more new bands...or in the case of grunge, alt rock, breeds a counter culture. All good.

Thanks for the links. Will look them up. I have gotten less into heavy rock than I used to be but still appreciate it.

 

[N80]

He wasn't run over by a peach truck. He was crushed by his own motorcycle after clipping the back of a flatbed hauling a crane that had stopped in front of him.

But either way, the poor guy died, and it was a tragic loss of life.

I don't think Duane was ever destined to grow old.

 

[N80]

IMO when it comes to legendary rock icons...Led Zeplin is somewhat overrated...(Just ask Ian Anderson)...!

I can't imagine why Ian Anderson would be in a position to pronounce Led Zep as being overrated. Love Tull, but please....

I would suggest that folks who think Zep is overrated simply haven't spent the time to go deeper. Most of the stuff they are most famous for constitute outliers compared to the rest of the stuff on the album. In fact, Plant and Page have been dismissive of Stairway to Heaven for years and neither of them like it very much.

And the reason soooo many bands after them cite their influence is in part because of the deeper, unusual and unique 'experimental' sorts of songs that are on almost every album. But the primary reason is their interpretation of the blues which is simply unparalleled. They weren't the first band to do it by any stretch...although the Yard Birds were among the earliest.

I get how someone might not like Led Zep. But I can hardly see how they might be called overrated unless you include the Beatles and the Stones in that category, especially since they continue to influence new bands....you should see the concert footage of the Foo Fighters with Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones. Not that the two Zep alum are anything great but the respect and admiration Grohl and band members show to them is unmistakeable.

If you like blues at all, and you have not delved deep into Zep's albums, download a copy of "In My Time of Dying" or "When the Levee Breaks". If those don't get your motor running, well.........

 

[Steppenwolfe]

Of course it is all a matter of taste, but I consider bands like U2 and REM to be 'real' rock bands that broke new ground with their own creativity. I also felt like the alternative rock movement was amazing but I do not own much of their music. Rush bridged the 70s through the 90s but I did not care for their work after about 1986. The roots rock movement was great too. The Black Crowes. Son Volt. Uncle Tupelo. Wilco. But that didn't last.

U2's The Joshua tree was the first album to have been voted (in polls) above the Beatles White album.

Having said that my rock and roll epicenter is the 1970's primarily Led Zep, the Stones, etc. Also prog rock like Rush and Yes and Pink Floyd. But, I've never been content with just listening to the 'oldies'.

For me, rock died in the late 1990s. And because I like to hear something 'new', I started getting into older more indie type stuff. A lot of this is roots rock and older country type stuff...before Garth Brooks and Randy Travis. But I do like Dwight Yokum. I really really don't like the current pop-country movement that has pretty much replaced rock and roll. I'm also really into blues. Delta blues primarily, 1940s and 50s. Pretty much every theme and guitar trick you hear in rock was invented by these guys....and stolen in some cases.

So rock is dead. I think we'd all agree. Or "mostly dead" as Miracle Max would say. So when someone like Alabama Shakes or The Struts come along I get pretty excited. The Struts only have one album but it is great. You Tube videos of their performances show them to be serious showmen. Not sure how the glam rock think will sell in the long run....it didn't last all that long the first time around. And some rock fans won't have the stomach for all that glam and showiness....but I like it and liked it back then. I still have the Sweet album with Ballroom Blitz on it.

Used to have the 8 track... blasted that song many times while cruisin in my 48 Chevy in high school...

 

[Steppenwolfe]

I can't imagine why Ian Anderson would be in a position to pronounce Led Zep as being overrated. Love Tull, but please....

I would suggest that folks who think Zep is overrated simply haven't spent the time to go deeper. Most of the stuff they are most famous for constitute outliers compared to the rest of the stuff on the album. In fact, Plant and Page have been dismissive of Stairway to Heaven for years and neither of them like it very much.

And the reason soooo many bands after them cite their influence is in part because of the deeper, unusual and unique 'experimental' sorts of songs that are on almost every album. But the primary reason is their interpretation of the blues which is simply unparalleled. They weren't the first band to do it by any stretch...although the Yard Birds were among the earliest.

I get how someone might not like Led Zep. But I can hardly see how they might be called overrated unless you include the Beatles and the Stones in that category, especially since they continue to influence new bands....you should see the concert footage of the Foo Fighters with Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones. Not that the two Zep alum are anything great but the respect and admiration Grohl and band members show to them is unmistakeable.

If you like blues at all, and you have not delved deep into Zep's albums, download a copy of "In My Time of Dying" or "When the Levee Breaks". If those don't get your motor running, well.........

Houses of the Holy album....one of my top five... I thought my dad was going to lose his mind, I used to play that so much...

 

[MossRoad]

I like how we can watch interviews of people like the Stones or Led Zep and they always, always, talk about the influences the old, old original blues artists influenced them, and now you find what, the 3rd or 4th generation of artists that will cite the same, only it's the 60s bands deep cuts of their more bluesy stuff, not so much the stuff that got air play. What I was a kid, we had a station here WAOR in Niles, Mi. It stood for Album Oriented Rock. They'd play deep cuts. Stuff you'd never hear on other stations. Every day they'd pick an album to play at midnight, and several times a day, they'd tell you which album, how long each side was, and when to set your tape recorder, midnight for side one, how many tracks on that side, and how long the side would last, and when side B would start, how many tracks, and how long. Man, we nabbed tons of complete albums that way on our cassette recorders. Then we'd blast them out on the old Pioneer Supertuner II in the car with a good amp and speakers over and over again! They are long gone now, but man, that was a great station for well over 20 years. Miss it.

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

Rock ain't dead. You just gotta pick your style.

Thunderstruck by Steve'n'Seagulls (LIVE) - YouTube

2CELLOS - Thunderstruck [OFFICIAL VIDEO] - YouTube

 

[Jstpssng]

I'm not a big"Boston" fan, but they apparently got their start on our local college station. According to the program director when I was there whenbKCKasem asked how the band how they got airplay, they said "Some college station up in Maine started playing us and it picked up from there." That station was WMEB out of University of Maine at Orono.