Pink Floyd vs Led Zeppelin

[pcqgod]

69 -- Floyd sounds tentative and unsure, with no clear musical direction following Syd's departure. Zep stomps out of the gate, cocksure and unapologetic. Zep, easily.
70 -- Zep gets more reflective and acoustic on side 2, while on their side 2 Floyd is still searching for a clear musical direction despite the ambitious title track on side 1. Zep still in the lead.
71 - Two bands at or close to the top of their game. Slight nod to Zep because Meddle has some throwaway stuff.
73 - Floyd consolidates its new sound, while Zep goes exploring. Floyd eclipses Zep.
75 - More eclecticism from Zep, but this time it really works, while Floyd gets more and more...Floydy, and threaten to disappear in a drone of synthesizers. Zep wins again!
77 Zep treads water, Floyd goes off in a darker direction, the power of the performances making up for the middle school conceit. Floyd by a mile.
79 Zep is DOA. While Floyd...holy cow, what was it like to hear this album for the first time for long time fans? Nothing they had recorded before could have prepared them for this. I don't care what anyone says, I think it's a masterpiece.

I'm actually surprised I picked Zep in so many of these.

[Diamond Dog]

Two of three of my favourite Floyd albums




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Carlsson, Matt Wilson and Rorschach all going for Pink Floyd.

It's a shoo in for the mighty Zep!

I noticed as soon as you posted Floyd took the lead.

(not factually correct, it was 8 v 4 but funny nonetheless).

[Brickyard Jack]

Pink Floyd had higher highs but lower lows, if you ask me. I largely agree with TCE that zep were more consistent. I have never aspired to own everything by either band.

[Minnie the Minx]

Pink Floyd are a band that I have "admired" for want of a better word, but don't feel their thing inside my guts. I feel the same way about the Beatles. It sounds good to the ears but it isn't flicking an inner switch. LZ for me all the way, for that reason.

On a sort of related subject, although I like DSOTM well enough, I always wonder if it would have been as popular if it had been called "The Light Side of The Sun" and had a glowing orange sleeve- or- even better- was called "Mr. Rabbit Goes To Market" and had some walking-upright rabbit striding into town in a jacket with a wicker basket, checking himself out in the reflection of the post office window. The cover certainly stirred many, I think.

[Brickyard Jack]

... was called "Mr. Rabbit Goes To Market" and had some walking-upright rabbit striding into town in a jacket with a wicker basket, checking himself out in the reflection of the post office window. .

I would definitely buy it.

[Minnie the Minx]

Well, naturally! So would I!
In fact I’ve been thinking non stop about that potential record cover ever since I wrote it! I even doodled what it would look like on a notepad.

[Matt Wilson]

I would 'admire' that doodle.

[toomanyhatz]

Voted LZ, but had to think about it, because Syd's Pink Floyd is better than any Zep, and I like the period after reasonably well too. It's kind of a Zep sandwich for me, with Floyd at the extreme ends. Something like:

Syd's Floyd







Classic Zep


"Democratic" (pre-Dark Side) Floyd
Later Zep










Waters' Floyd

[toomanyhatz]

For the head-to-head, it's probably something like:

1969 - Zep, but close. I like More and don't mind Ummagumma, and the first two Zep albums are my least favorite of the 'classic' period.
1970 - Zep easily. Love III. AHM is decent but pretty scattershot.
1971 - Probably Zep on balance, but Meddle is my favorite mid-period Floyd for sure. Very close.

The rest - Zep easily, even 1979. Inconsistent maybe, but I just don't like Waters' whole vision, even if there are some individual songs I like on the Floyd albums and some bad tracks on the later Zep.

Nick Mason's Fictitious Sports easily over Coda, though.

[Matt Wilson]

But, but Dave, remember you once told me....

[soundchaser]

On a sort of related subject, although I like DSOTM well enough, I always wonder if it would have been as popular if it had been called "The Light Side of The Sun" and had a glowing orange sleeve- or- even better- was called "Mr. Rabbit Goes To Market" and had some walking-upright rabbit striding into town in a jacket with a wicker basket, checking himself out in the reflection of the post office window. The cover certainly stirred many, I think.

I was a big Pink Floyd fan by 1973, so I’d have bought the album on day of release, regardless: Mr. Rabbit Goes To Market sounds quite psychedelic, in any case. Funnily enough, Pink Floyd almost didn’t title the album DSOTM anyway. It was the intended title, but then Medicine Head released an album of the same name. They almost switched to Eclipse, but the Medicine Head album bombed, allowing them to revert. When I saw Pink Floyd perform an early version in January, 1972, the tour was called Eclipse: A Piece For Assorted Lunatics.

[Diamond Dog]

Strange how the more posters come on here and declaring their vote for Zep, Floyd are moving further ahead in the poll.

Weird that.

[C]

Who would I prefer to see live....?

Well, I attended:

1968: Led Zeppelin Chalk Farm Roundhouse - Pete, have I ever told you I was there?
1969: Pink Floyd - Royal Albert
1970: Led Zeppelin January, Royal Albert; Pink Floyd BBC/John Peel - tie
1971(?) - Led Zeppelin CD2 from BBC Sessions

I never saw Floyd again but did see Zeppelin once more

Led Zeppelin by a whisker!

[non-scientific]






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