Due to their distinctive sound and musical approach, Led Zeppelin is regarded as one of the best and most influential rock bands of all time. They blended several musical styles, such as blues, folk, and hard rock, to produce their own distinctive sound, which was both powerful and lyrical. With John Paul Jones’ diverse bass playing, Robert Plant’s powerful vocals, Jimmy Page’s legendary guitar riffs, and John Bonham’s thunderous drumming, Led Zeppelin also possessed excellent musicianship. They are a true rock music icon because so many bands who followed in their footsteps can still hear their impact.
However, they were not that great to some of their contemporaries. The Cream is one of them. Two of the most influential bands leading the way as hard rock developed into its own distinct genre at the end of the 1960s were Cream and Led Zeppelin. The two acts briefly overlapped in 1968 over the summer, when Cream disbanded as Led Zeppelin was beginning to take shape. If you ask the members of Cream, the parallels stop there. Both bands had legendary lead guitarists supporting unbelievably great rhythm sections.
The members of Cream have always boasted about Led Zeppelin. Bruce once said, “Fuck off, Zeppelin, you’re crap, You’ve always been crap, and you’ll never be anything else. The worst thing is that people believe the crap that they’re sold. Cream is ten times the band that Led Zeppelin is. You’re gonna compare Eric Clapton with fucking Jimmy Page?”
For the 2012 documentary Beware of Mr. Baker, filmmaker Jay Bulger interviewed Baker, who joyfully dissed several of his rock and roll contemporaries. Although expressing love for longstanding stickman Charlie Watts of The Rolling Stones, Baker laughed at comparisons to John Bonham and Keith Moon. Baker was happy to acknowledge Bonham’s talent, but he had no further praise for him.
He said, “The general public are so f***** dumb that anyone could think [that] Bonham was anywhere near this kind of drummer I am is just extraordinary. Bonham had technique, but he couldn’t swing a sack of shit. Or Mooney, for that manner. I mean, if they were still alive today, ask them!”
Even Eric Clapton had things to say about Led Zeppelin, and it was not good. He said, “We had a really strong foundation in blues and jazz, Led Zeppelin took up our legacy. But then they took it somewhere else that I didn’t really have a great deal of admiration for.” He really thinks that Led Zeppelin did everything wrong cause they shifted their ways on the highway.
2 Comments
Sour grapes anyone . Cream was great for 2 years , all their songs were blues based end of story . So 50 years later a 12 year career Zeppelin covered so much more ground then Cream could dream of . As a musician myself you don’t have to like Zeppelin style or approach to music , by they never stayed in on place , Claptons criticism was maybe valid for one album what about the next 9 . Sour grapes .
Cream was opened the doors for all that followed.
The first band to break the 6 minute song with a 19 minute blast of Spoonful if I remember right was in Sacramento 1967. Just a three piece band, amazing. Some of the cleanest recordings still today. I dont know how they did it.