Zeppelin Visions: The artist Angus Young called the 1950s Led Zeppelin
It’s almost impossible to call yourself a fan of rock music and not at least have a passing awareness of Led Zeppelin. While it’s not necessary to enjoy every song they’ve put out, their approach to rock music is a good reason why half of rock and roll sounds the way it does to this day, either through Jimmy Page’s guitar licks or the thunderous drum sound of John Bonham. Although Angus Young could certainly appreciate the hustle that Zeppelin put into their craft, he thought that Robert Plant was pulling from what Elvis Presley had done 20 years earlier.
It’s not like Plant would necessarily disagree with that. At the beginning of their career, Zeppelin were known to play many covers to fill out their setlist, including more than a few callbacks to ‘The King of Rock and Roll’. Then again, what is it about Presley’s demeanour that made him a fixture for hard rock frontmen?
After all, he wasn’t really known for being as heavy as Sabbath or anything, and half the time, he seemed to be using his guitar as more or less a prop in between his pelvic gyrations onstage. What he lacked in any musical ability he made up for with charisma, and that kind of talent can’t really be taught.
From the minute a song like ‘Hound Dog’ or ‘Baby Let’s Play House’ comes on, Presley commands the room in seconds. You don’t have to agree with everything he talks about in the song, but for those few minutes, you believe it because it’s coming from deep within Presley’s soul.
According to Young, this was practically the same approach Zeppelin took, telling VH1, “I guess I’d just say if you want somebody looking for a Led Zeppelin type, plug in to Elvis Presley. A lot of the early Presley, there’s a bit of Led Zeppelin, you know? I mean, in Presley, you’re definitely hearing Robert Plant”.
Presley always worked better in the lower register, but with Plant, it sounded like you were hearing a disembodied spirit half the time. He could bring it down and even had his own tender ballads to his name like ‘Going to California’, but every time that Plant toyed with the melody or went for a high note, there was always that same approach to commanding the stage whenever he stepped out from behind the curtain.
But to call Zeppelin a Presley pastiche would be selling them drastically short. Sure, Plant had Presley’s mannerisms and could cop his style if he wanted to, but Presley would never have dared to come out with a track like ‘Stairway to Heaven,’ which single-handedly warped everyone’s view of what rock and roll was supposed to be.
Whereas AC/DC were more concerned with doing what it said on the tin in terms of pure rock and roll, Zeppelin was always looking to reach a bit farther to get the sounds they wanted. Their influences were a bit easier to spot at some points, but if Presley influenced them to dream bigger, Zeppelin took those dreams and turned them into a reality every time they put out a record.
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