Black Sabbath vs. Led Zeppelin

     Oh no, here it comes again :) I decided to give my two cents on the dreaded Sabbath v. Zep debate and both bands place in my collection. Full disclosure: I'm on a Black Sabbath jag right now and I'm listening to Heaven and Hell as I type. This post won't actually be a debate. I think it's beyond debate now that Black Sabbath were the fathers of Heavy Metal and Zeppelin were the Gods of hard rock. I don't intend to tear down one of these amazing bands to elevate the other, though it might seem that I am. Much like the contrived Oasis/Blur debate, these bands were doing two completely different things musically.
     Led Zeppelin came from the Yardbirds school of making American blues music electric and created the template for all hard rock bands to come. Robert Plant was the "Golden God', long-haired lead singer with tight pants. Jimmy Page was the undisputed riff master who dabbled in the occult. And Bonham and Jones were one of the greatest rhythm sections of all-time. On any list of the best bands in the history of rock they'd easily be in the top ten. Black Sabbath came from the Cream school where the rhythm section was more jazz influenced. When you listen to those early Sabbath albums, Bill Ward's drumming was very loose, much like Ginger Baker. Add some menacing bass, a guitar virtuoso with missing fingers and the Prince of Darkness screaming about Satan and you have Heavy Metal. Black Sabbath will never go down as one of the top ten bands in rock history, but they are the greatest metal band of all-time. Plus Ozzy bit the head off a bat! One other difference between these bands was the integrity of their lineup. When John Bonham died, Led Zeppelin died. They could have replaced him and pretended to still be Led Zeppelin, but they knew that it would be preposterous. John Bonham's drumming was integral to Led Zeppelin. On the other hand, Black Sabbath replaced Ozzy with Ronnie James Dio and they were still awesome. Heaven and Hell and Mob Rules stack up favorably to those early Sabbath albums.
     30 years ago, I was all about Heavy Metal. I even grew my hair out like Robert Plant. I still have some metal in my collection, but other than Sabbath I don't really listen to it anymore. My collection is pretty much down to Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Blackout by the Scorpions and Def Leppard's first couple albums. I wouldn't really recommend any of it to my kids, but if they want to check it out that's cool too. I would recommend the first three Sabbath albums as well as Heaven and Hell. Led Zeppelin is a little trickier. I have all their albums on cassette still, but not on cd. My friend Mike sold me his boxed sets that have all the songs, but not in proper album form. So, I recommend those, but I'd also recommend they buy the actual albums in whatever format emerges when they care. My personal favorites are Physical Grafitti and Houses of the Holy.
     Finally, here's an update on my car listening. I'm currently playing Master of Reality, It's a Shame About Ray by the Lemonheads and Still Feel Gone by Uncle Tupelo. Also, after my post about Uncle Tupelo, I watched Son Volt's 1996 appearance on Austin City Limits on Youtube. It was awesome, so I'll probably buy some Son Volt now. Peace.