Pink Floyd v. Led Zeppelin.

[Bob Dole]

Originally Posted by htismaqe

Led Zeppelin 1, the progenitor of heavy metal?

I think not.

Led Zeppelin 1 was mostly rip-offs of old delta blues songs the Zeppelin rearranged and gave the original artists no credit for.

Don't get me wrong, Zeppelin has a solid spot in the genre and are one of the most influential bands of all time. But there were bands experimenting with metal sounds before Zeppelin, including the Kinks and the Who. There were bands in 1966 and 1967 starting the change while Page was playing session with the Yardbirds and Plant was sitting at home. Zeppelin grew out of a small group of blues-rock musicians (the Yardbirds) that spawned all kinds of music from Cream to Hendrix to Mountain.

If you can credit Led Zeppelin for one thing, they paved the way for thousands of (not-so-talented) hair bands in the mid-to-late eighties to copy the formula incessantly.

And just an FYI, Led Zeppelin was formed in early 1968 and released their first album that year. Deep Purple, another candidate for "Fathers of Metal" was born that year as well.

So we at least agree that we can place the "blame" for heavy metal on the British.