PJ and Zeppelin

Page isn't that great a technical player (as he's said himself), but he's a fantastic writer.

Jam10 wrote:

I was just thinking.......it's not very often you hear Pearl Jam talk much about Led Zeppelin. When you ask them their influences it's The Who, Neil Young, but I never hear Zeppelin. I know Stone is a big Led Zeppelin fan but I'm not sure about the rest of the guys. Zeppelin is amazing and I'm sure PJ does like them. What are your thoughts?

There's no doubt that they have great respect for each other as musicians. When PJ headlined in Chicago in 05 for the Hurricane Katrina benefit, they invited Robert Plant and the Strange Sensation along for support.
The set was so awesome and in the second encore they played "Given to Fly", and Eddie dedicated the song to Plant.

Oh, and during RITFW, Plant was on guitar - yep - guitar, and you could see Mike teaching him the chord changes while the anthem rolled on. So freakin cool.

Jam10 wrote:

What are your thoughts?

Zeppelin = very cool, but Jimmy Page is more than just cool. He is arguably the greatest song writing guitarist that's ever lived.

The band obviously respect Zeppelin. At the Astoria 06 show Mike tagged Nobody's Fault But Mine onto Yellow Ledbetter and then when he was finished bowed to Robert Plant (who was in the audience). But on the other hand I do think Young and The Who were a much bigger influence, particularly to Eddie, which is why Led Zepp aren't mentioned much in interviews and so forth. Pearl Jam must like a billion different bands, not all of them can be namechecked. If anything, Led Zepp are one of the bands that have had so much of an influence that they don't even need to be mentioned, the music speaks for itself.

fowls wrote:

The band obviously respect Zeppelin. At the Astoria 06 show Mike tagged Nobody's Fault But Mine onto Yellow Ledbetter and then when he was finished bowed to Robert Plant (who was in the audience). But on the other hand I do think Young and The Who were a much bigger influence, particularly to Eddie, which is why Led Zepp aren't mentioned much in interviews and so forth. Pearl Jam must like a billion different bands, not all of them can be namechecked. If anything, Led Zepp are one of the bands that have had so much of an influence that they don't even need to be mentioned, the music speaks for itself.

yeah I totally agree with this. In the since of zeppelin if you own a radio... you're influenced. It just sneaks in your head.... I'm not sure if they popularized the guitar solo at length in recording... but Led Zeppelin 4 is almost universally known by every guitar player at least and then some in the US by the time they are 25 no matter what music they like. Even if they don't know the names or the songs... they know the riffs.

The thefts of blues greats by most of the great 60's and 70's bands brought a lot of them into prominance, it didn't preclude them from writing thier own great stuff, but they certainly put some spice on an old but great simple music idea. So many people talk about Pearl Jam ripping off this or that. Immitation is the greatest form of flattery. There will be inspirations from all the music you hear in your own music and certainly almost anyone with ears in ear shot of a radio at least in the modern world has heard zeppelin.

MLC2006 wrote:

Ed dedicated "Given to Fly" to Robert Plant?? lmao. I guess he damn well should since "Given to Fly" is a complete rip-off of Zep's "Going to California".

but hey, Zep has ripped off quite a few people in their day too, so what are ya gonna do?

Well there was that show they played with Plant a few years ago. Plant sang Going to California with the band and then they played Given to Fly. Zep's joked about it before.

BTW, if anyone has that boot I'd love to hear those cuts..

MLC2006 wrote:

Ed dedicated "Given to Fly" to Robert Plant?? lmao. I guess he damn well should since "Given to Fly" is a complete rip-off of Zep's "Going to California".
.

He said "he wrote it" when he dedicated it to him

I was just thinking about this the other day.
I could see them doing a cover of a zeppelin song.
Could you imagine a Dazed and Confused jam??