rockandrollgarage.com
Angus Young’s opinion on Led Zeppelin
Led for most of their career by brothers Malcolm and Angus Young, AC/DC became one of the most influential Hard Rock bands of all time and one of the few that never changed their style. Formed in Sydney, Australia in 1973, they were part of the second generation of Heavy Rock music, which reached its peak in the late 70s and early 80s.
Although he was mainly influenced by Blues artists and early Rock musicians, Angus Young has given his opinion on many other Hard Rock bands over the years, including Led Zeppelin.
What is Angus Young's opinion on Led Zeppelin
Although Angus Young was influenced by Jimmy Page and Led Zeppelin, he didn't have many good things to say about everything they have done. He said once that the first time he heard them play real Rock music was on their fourth album, in the track "Rock and Roll". “I’ve seen that band live and they were on for three hours. For two-and-a-half hours, they bored the audience. Then at the end they pull out old rock’n’roll numbers to get the crowd movin’. That’s sick. They’re supposed to be the most excitin’ rock’n’roll band in the world, them and the Stones, and they’re not playin’ it."
“(...) Well, they musta progressed the wrong way. I’ll tell you when it stopped getting’ good. (It was) when the Rolling Stones put out 'Jumpin’ Jack Flash' and 'Street Fightin’ Man'. Past that, there’s nuthin’. Led Zeppelin and all that have just been poor imitators of The Who and bands like that. That’s when I reckon it stopped. The rest I wouldn’t even call progressive, ”Angus Young told Classic Rock magazine in 1977.
A couple of years later, in 1984, talking to Classic Rock, the guitarist talked more about seeing Led Zeppelin playing live. “I remember once when we were here touring, the guy from Led Zeppelin, Robert Plant, walks onstage in Tampa. They do twenty minutes and it rains and they go off and they come back and they get to the last song of the evening. He says: 'You don't like it? We've progressed. I hope you've progressed.' Tough shit to you - that was his attitude,” Angus Young said.
His late brother Malcolm chimed in, saying:
“Their first couple of albums, they were a good band. After that, man, phew. If you want to get laid back, put on the headphones and smoke a joint, okay. But as far as getting things happening and having a party, that's boring shit. We try to keep it exciting all the time. We've never put anything different on a record, just guitars and drums. We've never expanded. Other bands are playing disco or synthesizers, or that Bowie stuff, which is disco with a little blues. We could do that, but it's got nothing to do with rock 'n' roll," Malcolm Young said.
Angus Young compared Led Zeppelin's music with Elvis Presley
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FeJkDewhTEw&list=RDFeJkDewhTEw&start_radio=1&pp=ygUfbGVkIHplcHBlbGluIHJvY2sgYW5kIHJvbGwgbGl2ZaAHAQ%3D%3D
Curiously, when AC/DC was promoting the album "Rock Or Bust" in 2014, their first album without Malcolm Young, Angus talked with VH1 about which artists every young Rock musician should hear. He mentioned Elvis Presley, saying that if someone was looking for something like the band, they should hear Elvis. “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. And in our case you could probably plug into something like Little Richard, ‘cause he always just went for it. He just had power-packed vocals and power-packed songs. If I still hear those early Little Richard tracks. It’s like a hurricane, my hair goes up, you know?” Angus Young said.
During his career, when asked about his favorite bands and artists, Angus always mentioned first the 50s and early 60s Rock and Roll acts. Some of them are Elvis, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis and Chuck Berry, his favorite one.
When AC/DC was formed in Australia back in 1973, Led Zeppelin already was one of the biggest bands in the world and had released their most praised albums. Which were the first four ones and "Houses of The Holy".
He and Malcolm saw Jimmy Page playing with The Yardbirds
The first time Angus and Malcolm Young saw Jimmy Page perform live was not with Led Zeppelin. In the 1960s, they went to see The Yardbirds in Australia, expecting Jeff Beck to be the guitarist. However, by the time the band toured the country, Jimmy Page had become the group’s lead guitarist. "I could play guitar a little bit. But I really got focused on it around the years when I was about 12 into my teenage years, I started to focus more on it. And around when I was about 13 (or) 14, that's when Jimi Hendrix appeared on the horizon."
"And when I first heard the song 'Purple Haze', I was totally enthralled. 'How's he doing that?' I was just so impressed with it. Plus, Malcolm, my brother, there was a few shows we had also seen. We had gone, the two of us together, and we had seen people like the band The Yardbirds; they had come to Australia. And at the time, the lineup had just changed. I think they originally used to have Jeff Beck."
He continued:
"But then, later on, when we saw them, they didn't have Jeff Beck; they had Jimmy Page on guitar. So that was good, because at that time, that kind of sound, especially for guitar, it jumped out at you, the sound of it. So that was really good. But then when along came Hendrix, you kind of went, 'Woah! This is another level on guitar.' So I was very much a fan of that;" he said in an interview with Germany's Guitar magazine in 2021.
Like Led Zeppelin, AC/DC also became one of the most successful and influential Hard Rock bands of all time. They have sold more than 200 million records worldwide, about 100 million fewer than the British group. Led Zeppelin was active from 1968 until 1980, when they decided to split after John Bonham’s tragic death at the age of 32.
Earlier that same year, AC/DC had faced a similar tragedy when their vocalist Bon Scott died in comparable circumstances at the age of 33. However, the band chose to carry on and recruited Brian Johnson, who went on to become the voice of their most successful album, "Back in Black" (1980).The post Angus Young’s opinion on Led Zeppelin appeared first on Rock and Roll Garage.