RUSH! I LOVE RUSH! - I consider either Led zep and Sabbath to be possibly the best band ever, but RUSH is my favorite. Xanadu, here again, 2112, two double necks, orgasmic guitar solos, who needs women!
For sure Led Zeppelin was the greatest hard rock band of all times. Why? First of all, they simply conceived that whole genre. Deep Purple, for instance, another great hard rock outfit, radically discarded their psychedelic style after hearing the LZ debut album. Then no other hard rock band was and is heavy and light weight simultaneously in the way LZ sounds. Many other hard rock bands weren't/aren't that elaborate as LZ. Black Sabbath and AC/DC, for instance, are rather simple, for not to say primitive, compared to LZ. LZ's influence even jumped over the borders and encouraged progrock bands to include literary and philosphical themes within their lyrics (see Ramble On from LZ II).
LZ was four extraordinary musicians: A guitar hero who previously, as a session musician, had helped many other artists into their career, a classicaly trained multi instrumentalist and brilliant arranger, and two lads who were unknown 'till then, but evolved to leaders in their specific roles. Note that their music was much more than just the sum of all four members.
After all, any other contemporary and following hard rock band can be considered as LZ imitators.
OTOH, LZ also clearly prototyped the decadent rock star parvenu. But we're talking about music here, aren't we?
Best regards!
LZ was four extraordinary musicians: A guitar hero who previously, as a session musician, had helped many other artists into their career, a classicaly trained multi instrumentalist and brilliant arranger, and two lads who were unknown 'till then, but evolved to leaders in their specific roles. Note that their music was much more than just the sum of all four members.
After all, any other contemporary and following hard rock band can be considered as LZ imitators.
OTOH, LZ also clearly prototyped the decadent rock star parvenu. But we're talking about music here, aren't we?
Best regards!
LZ, Deep Purple and Black Sabbath.
Black Sabbath opened the way to the darkest style after ( from Doom to Death to...). DP introduced keys into the style even more so than LZ imho ( even if John Paul Jones wasn't bad at keys too).
I would include The Who too but they were more 'tangential' ( played many style and lasted much longer than other bands ...so difficult to give them an 'etiquette' in my view).
AC/DC always sounded like hard blues for me. They are in their own league imho ( like the 4 others bands too in a sense)
Black Sabbath opened the way to the darkest style after ( from Doom to Death to...). DP introduced keys into the style even more so than LZ imho ( even if John Paul Jones wasn't bad at keys too).
I would include The Who too but they were more 'tangential' ( played many style and lasted much longer than other bands ...so difficult to give them an 'etiquette' in my view).
AC/DC always sounded like hard blues for me. They are in their own league imho ( like the 4 others bands too in a sense)
If you like classic rock check out Ningen Isu! These guys pumps out heavy riffs like noone else today! Been around for a while too.
The mid period Sweet wrote some great rock songs.
They started off as a pop band but were frustrated rockers.
Give us a wink album:
S̰w̰ḛḛt̰-Giv̰ḛ Us a W̰ḭn̰k̰ 1976 Full Album - YouTube
Sweet Fanny Adams:
S̰w̰ḛḛt̰-Fanny Ad̰a̰m̰s̰ 1974 Full Album HQ - YouTube
They started off as a pop band but were frustrated rockers.
Give us a wink album:
S̰w̰ḛḛt̰-Giv̰ḛ Us a W̰ḭn̰k̰ 1976 Full Album - YouTube
Sweet Fanny Adams:
S̰w̰ḛḛt̰-Fanny Ad̰a̰m̰s̰ 1974 Full Album HQ - YouTube
As a very young boy, aged 11, I really bought both Funny Funny and Co Co singles by them. But I soon realized that they weren't anything else than just the culmination of that awful, blatant, hollow glam rock scene. I've abandoned them in favour of real rock bands (LZ, as yet said, Yes, Gentle Giant etc.).
Best regards!
Best regards!
Thats their earlier period with Chinn and Chapman writing their songs which the band hated.
Their heavier stuff is very good and for the time (1970's) leading edge.
Saw Andy Scott Sweet in 2006 and he is just magic on a guitar.
Saw Brian Conolly Sweet in early 1990's and Brian still had a great voice.
Silly chap drank himself to death and died in around 96.
Their heavier stuff is very good and for the time (1970's) leading edge.
Saw Andy Scott Sweet in 2006 and he is just magic on a guitar.
Saw Brian Conolly Sweet in early 1990's and Brian still had a great voice.
Silly chap drank himself to death and died in around 96.
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When I lived in a large apartment complex (400 units arranged in a rectangle with a courtyard in the middle) and worked the evening shift in a factory getting home between 1 AM and 3 AM, I usually slept until mid to late morning.
Unfortunately the disco queen next door started thumping the walls with Donna Summer or polluting the air with ABBA at 8 or 9 AM. Peaceful negotiations to stop this behavior brought cease fire treaties that lasted for a few days to a couple weeks. I needed to establish "peace through superior firepower."
I had a pair of 4 X 12 inch guitar cabinets and a DIY amp capable of a couple hundred watts, but that wasn't enough for the nuclear blast that I really wanted to unleash, so I borrowed whatever additional musical weaponry I could find including a big Ampeg bass amp. I pushed all of the speaker cabinets up against the wall in my apartment that adjoined her bedroom, and wired all of the amp inputs together. They were connected to the outputs of a cassette player (it was 1975 or 1976). All windows and the patio door to the courtyard were opened to create echoes making it hard to pinpoint the location.
Now, of all the possible sounds that could be unleashed in the mid 70's I chose the universal standard of the times that could create an initial blast that shook the complex and launch her from her bed. A co-worker lived about 7 apartments down in the same building. He would report on the long range effectiveness.
That was "Smoke on the Water". I got home, warmed up the amps as some used tubes, and and somewhere around 2 AM the NUKE (play) button was pushed. I let this blast go for about long enough to wake EVERYBODY up, but not long enough for them to figure out where it was coming from, maybe 20 seconds. I then shut all off and turned out the lights. Someone pounded on my door twice, but I did not answer.
I had parked my car in a different spot, so for any who asked, I didn't get home until 4 AM. There was no disco in the morning. I saw her a couple days later and a new peace treaty was negotiated that lasted, with a couple "booster shots" needed when I got awakened with disco. Talk around community pool seemed to be about some kind of loud racket in the courtyard in the middle of the night for a couple of days.
The whole complex failed into bankruptcy about a year later and everybody but the drug dealers and other criminals left.
Yes, "Smoke" got overplayed on the radio, but it remained a good "loud" song when one was needed. Edgar Winter's Frankenstein, Steppenwolf's Born to be Wild and Magic Carpet Ride and anything from DSOTM are also useful along with several more that I can't remember.
For the maximum long term "annoy the neighbors" effect, Iron Butterfly's Inna Gadda Da Vida, or Spirit's Mechanical World work wonders when played through a Carver / Phase Linear system at full tilt into those same guitar cabinets. His teenage kid played in a death metal band called sickness, and liked to sit up in a tree in the front yard with a boom box. I could make so he could not hear that boom box.
Unfortunately the disco queen next door started thumping the walls with Donna Summer or polluting the air with ABBA at 8 or 9 AM. Peaceful negotiations to stop this behavior brought cease fire treaties that lasted for a few days to a couple weeks. I needed to establish "peace through superior firepower."
I had a pair of 4 X 12 inch guitar cabinets and a DIY amp capable of a couple hundred watts, but that wasn't enough for the nuclear blast that I really wanted to unleash, so I borrowed whatever additional musical weaponry I could find including a big Ampeg bass amp. I pushed all of the speaker cabinets up against the wall in my apartment that adjoined her bedroom, and wired all of the amp inputs together. They were connected to the outputs of a cassette player (it was 1975 or 1976). All windows and the patio door to the courtyard were opened to create echoes making it hard to pinpoint the location.
Now, of all the possible sounds that could be unleashed in the mid 70's I chose the universal standard of the times that could create an initial blast that shook the complex and launch her from her bed. A co-worker lived about 7 apartments down in the same building. He would report on the long range effectiveness.
That was "Smoke on the Water". I got home, warmed up the amps as some used tubes, and and somewhere around 2 AM the NUKE (play) button was pushed. I let this blast go for about long enough to wake EVERYBODY up, but not long enough for them to figure out where it was coming from, maybe 20 seconds. I then shut all off and turned out the lights. Someone pounded on my door twice, but I did not answer.
I had parked my car in a different spot, so for any who asked, I didn't get home until 4 AM. There was no disco in the morning. I saw her a couple days later and a new peace treaty was negotiated that lasted, with a couple "booster shots" needed when I got awakened with disco. Talk around community pool seemed to be about some kind of loud racket in the courtyard in the middle of the night for a couple of days.
The whole complex failed into bankruptcy about a year later and everybody but the drug dealers and other criminals left.
Yes, "Smoke" got overplayed on the radio, but it remained a good "loud" song when one was needed. Edgar Winter's Frankenstein, Steppenwolf's Born to be Wild and Magic Carpet Ride and anything from DSOTM are also useful along with several more that I can't remember.
For the maximum long term "annoy the neighbors" effect, Iron Butterfly's Inna Gadda Da Vida, or Spirit's Mechanical World work wonders when played through a Carver / Phase Linear system at full tilt into those same guitar cabinets. His teenage kid played in a death metal band called sickness, and liked to sit up in a tree in the front yard with a boom box. I could make so he could not hear that boom box.
Our favorite nuclear retaliation back in the college dorm days was Rush 2112. Four 18” 3-ways and 1200 watts is barely enough to DJ with seriously, but it’s enough firepower to call for quiet at 2AM Friday night/Saturday morning. “And the meek shall inherit the earth….”
And they had no idea how prophetic that song would end up being. Enter Google, Microsoft, AWS, the cloud… and “data centers” cropping up on every street corner like weeds.
In the summers working on the renovation crew - the paint crew got subjected to 2112 through a home-brew “boominator” on a regular basis. Didn’t they realize just how dorky their reggae music sounded on 3” speakers? Where’s the BASS, mon? It got so annoying with that “dink-chink, dink-chink, dink-chink” sound that we had to do something about it. BOC and AC/DC played prominently, too.
And they had no idea how prophetic that song would end up being. Enter Google, Microsoft, AWS, the cloud… and “data centers” cropping up on every street corner like weeds.
In the summers working on the renovation crew - the paint crew got subjected to 2112 through a home-brew “boominator” on a regular basis. Didn’t they realize just how dorky their reggae music sounded on 3” speakers? Where’s the BASS, mon? It got so annoying with that “dink-chink, dink-chink, dink-chink” sound that we had to do something about it. BOC and AC/DC played prominently, too.
