Paradox: the band credited with founding 'heavy metal' made albums that contained a fair bit of folky and Arabic influence. OTOH they spawned imitators who are an abysmal stain on music, such as Whitesnake.
I think LZ's 'Spinal Tap' tendencies were outside the music and were more to do with the crap lyrics, overblown imagery and, most obviously, the rampant misogyny of how they abused groupies who were often very young (Page's main girlfriend was only 14).
Jimmy Page, who turns 70 on January 9th, seems to have been a very fucked up personality, dabbling in Satanism and underage girls, yet he also had a gift for musical arrangement that arguably as good as any British artist of his generation except Bowie.
Robert Plant has arguably made better music solo than he did with LZ.
I think LZ's 'Spinal Tap' tendencies were outside the music and were more to do with the crap lyrics, overblown imagery and, most obviously, the rampant misogyny of how they abused groupies who were often very young (Page's main girlfriend was only 14).
Jimmy Page, who turns 70 on January 9th, seems to have been a very fucked up personality, dabbling in Satanism and underage girls, yet he also had a gift for musical arrangement that arguably as good as any British artist of his generation except Bowie.
Robert Plant has arguably made better music solo than he did with LZ.
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