Led Zeppelin Vs. The Beatles - Who Is The True Rock G.O.A.T.?

[Feeding Crows]

Best Zep song vs best Beatle song... Let's do it!

 

[Feeding Crows]

In my personal opinion, In My Life is the greatest Beatle song. Stairway to Heaven is Zep's greatest song, again in my humble opinion. These are both arguable. But which one is better? How do we compare the two groups? Different styles.

 

[Feeding Crows]

Zep is the greatest hard rock band ever. No question, period.

The Beatles are the greatest rock & roll band ever. I got to leave it at that.

Floyd is the greatest psychedelic band ever. And the Stones are overall great. But the Kinks is a band that people underestimate. I love the Kinks!

 

[Feeding Crows]

 

[Feeding Crows]

 

[the other mike]

Marco Sfogli.

 

[Wickerthing]

My list is Beatles, Zep, Stones, Floyd, Kinks, and then we can go from there.

Floyd was #3 for me, but I've really gotten into the Stones lately, and i gotta say, wow! They moved up a spot.

The sixties thru the eighties were so jam-packed with talent that it's pretty much impossible to stop at a top 5 or top 10. Top 100? Maybe. If you overlook the hundreds of others. LOL

 

[Wickerthing]

Moody Blues are in my top 10. Anyone else? Did anyone see the show with Gary Brooker and the Dutch Nat'l symphony that was done in the 2000's? His voice is better than ever and the whole thing is magical. Especially, "A Whiter Shade of Pale." It's on facebook. Check it out to be awed.

 

[Snouter]

In all honesty Paul McCartney and George Martin were the minds who came up with most respectable Beatle content. Zeppelin consisted of two top studio musicians who hired a Joe Morello inspired drummer who could keep a groove live and one of the best bluesy multi-octave vocalists before the medical issues in '72 or so which prevented him from singing like he did before.

 

[Feeding Crows]

Snout! Long time no see!! How you doing bro? You know me from a different board.

This guy knows his music. He plays a mean guitar.

 

[Feeding Crows]

Paul did come up with most of the greatest hits of the Beatles. But John and George made great songs too. They were at their best when they were collaborating. But truly the best songs came out when they were doing things by themselves, and the rest of the band was a backup.

 

[Wickerthing]

Paul did come up with most of the greatest hits of the Beatles. But John and George made great songs too. They were at their best when they were collaborating. But truly the best songs came out when they were doing things by themselves, and the rest of the band was a backup.

Yeah, people talk about the Beatles, "How could they have been any better?" Well, by allowing George to play a bigger role in the writing and performing. Maybe it's just my opinion but my fave stuff came from him.

 

[Feeding Crows]

He had his chance afterwards. He made some great songs during and after! But the Beatles were Paul and John. George was allowed one or two songs per album. And he made the best of it!!!

 

[Ringo]

Well, by allowing George to play a bigger role in the writing and performing.

The record contains 14 songs. If more, then the sound quality will suffer.
According to the contract, the Beatles had to release 2 LРs a year, so in order to insert more George songs, it was necessary to throw out some Lennon-McCartney songs. Which of their songs would you sacrifice? Considering that we know these songs, but George's songs are unknown to us...
Harrison's talent was especially evident towards the end of the Beatles' existence and these songs did not disappear, we can hear them in the first albums of Harrison

 

[Wickerthing]

The record contains 14 songs. If more, then the sound quality will suffer.
According to the contract, the Beatles had to release 2 LРs a year, so in order to insert more George songs, it was necessary to throw out some Lennon-McCartney songs. Which of their songs would you sacrifice? Considering that we know these songs, but George's songs are unknown to us...
Harrison's talent was especially evident towards the end of the Beatles' existence and these songs did not disappear, we can hear them in the first albums of Harrison

Sounds like someone who just needs to be right about something. What don't you get about opinion?

 

[Harpy Eagle]

My list is Beatles, Zep, Stones, Floyd, Kinks, and then we can go from there.

Floyd was #3 for me, but I've really gotten into the Stones lately, and i gotta say, wow! They moved up a spot.

The Kinks, not many put them in their top 5. Nice.

My list would be Rush, Floyd, Yes, Moody Blues, Van Morrison. The last is a very late addition to my list, I seem to have mellowed as age.

 

[Ringo]

What don't you get about opinion?

Оpinion? What I have said is Truth and Fact, not opinion.
I repeat - in order to release more George songs on Beatles records, it was necessary to throw out Lennon-McCartney songs.

 

[Wickerthing]

Оpinion? What I have said is Truth and Fact, not opinion.
I repeat - in order to release more George songs on Beatles records, it was necessary to throw out Lennon-McCartney songs.

Feel better now? I was talking about MY opinion, not yours. Learn to read and comprehend before you go off on a tangent. LOL

 

[Wickerthing]

The Kinks, not many put them in their top 5. Nice.

My list would be Rush, Floyd, Yes, Moody Blues, Van Morrison. The last is a very late addition to my list, I seem to have mellowed as age.

Van Morrison. Yes! We tend to overlook him. But he was a unique talent. Nobody sounds like him and nobody writes like him. Makes me wanna Moondance!!

 

[Indeependent]

Led Zeppelin Vs. The Beatles
Who Is The Rock-N-Roll G.O.A.T.?
​

First off I have to say that I am an unapologetic Zep head, and get tired of hearing my whole life that the Beatles are the greatest rock band in history. But is this really true?
2nd off I want to say that the Beatles were a great band who were way ahead of their time. Their songs will ALWAYS be remembered as some of the greatest ever written. Someone would be hard pressed to find a greater collaboration as was the case with McCartney and Lennon.
I will state my case for Zeppelin below, and would love to hear yours.

The first thing that has to be looked at between these two great bands is with record sales. The Beatles have far more record sales than do Zeppelin, but their is more to this issue than meets the eye.

1. The Beatles released 19 studio albums. That's 10 more then Led Zeppelins 9 studio albums. It was a common practice in rock for a band to record an albums than go on tour for almost a year to promote it, than come off of the road, again record an album, than back on tour again etc..
The Beatles stopped touring in 1966, and this enabled them to release multiple albums in a year to everyone else's 1.
2. Singles. Who can possible count all of the 45 rpm records that the Beatles sold to millions of love struck teeny bopper girls. Led Zeppelin did not release singles. If you wanted to hear them you had to buy the album. Imo, this is what created what is referred to as album rock.

So, before record sales can be used to say who is the greatest of the two, than you have to remove 10 of the Beatles studio albums to match Zeppelins 9 studio albums. Also, you have to remove the millions and millions of 45 rpm records that the Beatles released because Zeppelin did not release singles.

The next issue I would say would be promotion. The Beatles were the most heavily promoted band in history. To this day I can't think of another band that came close. The Beatles name and images were on just about everything. Their were Beatles dresses, record players, wigs, stamps, key chains, guitars, mirrors, watches, pendants, bowling balls and on and on and on. 6 months before they came to America posters were plastered everywhere proclaiming The Beatles are coming!, The Beatles are coming!. Radio d.j.'s were almost non stop declaring the same thing.
In contrast Led Zeppelin were the complete opposite, and the least commercial band in history. They wanted their music to speak for them, and not some gimmick. They even refused to appear on television. Interviews with Zeppelin were rare. Their is an early interview though were John Bonham the Zep drummer points out that people went to see the Beatles live just to look at them. You couldn't even hear the ban play. But to Zeppelin it was about the music they and not the image.

The last thing would be about musicianship and talent. So, lets compare these bands with that in mind.
1. Singer. I really don't think even die hard Beatles fans would disagree that Robert Plant is a far greater singer than any one of the fab four.

2. Guitar. George Harrison was an awesome player, and much better after the Beatles broke up. However, Jimmy page is legendary. I have never seen a list of the greatest guitar play of all time that didn't have him at 1 or at least top 3.. He was a riff machine. I doubt there is a Harrison tune that page cannot play, and probably many Page pieces that Harrison just could not play.

3. Bass. I think Paul McCartney was a good bass player, even better than he got credit for. But was no match for John Paul Jones.

4. Drums. Do I even really have to point this out. John Bonham is considered the greatest rock drummer in history. He played an 11 piece kit and used every single piece of it. What he was able to do still has most pro drummers in awe of him. If you've never heard "Moby Dick" than I suggest you give it a listen. Ring Starr? I guess you could he took a 3 piece kit as far as you could take it, but he could have easily have been replaced and not have been missed.

Okay, I guess this is the end of my case that Led Zeppelin not the Beatles are indeed the Rock-N-Roll G.O.A.T.. Their 300 million album sales I would venture to say out sales the Beatles if you take what I said above and even the game up the way it should be done for a true measure of who the greatest are.
What do you say?

I do not begrudge anyone of their taste in music.

This is a multi-level issue...
Paul and John could write one song per day (which they did when they spent a few months in India), each song would easily consist of 4 distinct melodies.
LZ songs would play perhaps 2 short melody lines for 7 minutes, so as composers the John and Paul destroy LZ.
Stairway To Heaven was a miracle and one of the greatest songs of all-time but The Beatles have tons of those.

Paul was right up there with RP, as can be seen in the film Get Back, but their music, with a few exceptions, such as Helter Skelter, never called for maniacal singing.

Instrumentally, until digital recording allowed for split second stopping of music, no one on earth could play 90% of George Harrison's guitar licks and solos.
GH spent hours nailing down every freaking note in the studio much to the chagrin of the asshole named George Martin.

I find LZ to be good music in the car or as background music and I admire their musicianship but to sit back and listen, eh.