After a quick retro read of Lester Bangs’ Led Zeppelin III review (dated 1970), two thoughts sprang to mind: A) if Bangs lived, he’d be a blogger and B) the Zep’s place in rock’s canon is much more debatable than commonly thought. We could riff on those thoughts night and day, but, frankly, there is no Led Zeppelin without John Bonham, IMO, and Jimmy Page disagrees… I guess.
“You’d better ask Robert Plant what the future of Led Zeppelin is,” said the legendary guitarist (via Starpulse). “Musicians can always play together but I don’t think you can go out with a band called Led Zeppelin if you haven’t got the original vocalist.”
To read between the lines, Plant and his armful of Grammys just aren’t down with Page and his Oscar-snubbed documentaries. No, it’s more complicated than that, of course, but this quote only provides more fodder for Bangs and my “nursing [of] this love-hate attitude toward Led Zeppelin.”
Don’t get me wrong: I love Led Zeppelin (I think). These guys have cast some of the biggest hooks to date, but sometimes we all get tired of feeling like bait.