AC/DC Back in Black or Led Zep II

[Zuljin]

I vote AC/DC. Overallin this vote, I prefer AC/DC because they're more visceral and tend to be more fun for partying, kicking a$$ and taking names.
Although nobody asks, my favorite 10 bands of the 70s list is:
1. Pink Floyd
2. Queen
3. Yes
4. Rush
5. AC/DC
6. Jethro Tull
7. Led Zeppelin
8. Aerosmith
9. The Who
10. ELP; Emerson, Lake and Palmer

1. Led Zeppelin
2. Black Sabbath
3. Queen
4. Rush
5. Aerosmith
6. David Bowie
7. Judas Priest
8. Pink Floyd
9. Ramones
10. Santana

 

[bzwyatt]

All good bands have better music than the commonly played stuff. Back in Black is the most commercially successful AC/DC album, but it isn't their best, and the songs on the radio aren't the only great ones on that album. Have a Drink on Me is awesome, and I love Shake a Leg. Noise Pollution is awesome too. Powerage is an amazing album, and Highway to Hell is right up there with BiB. AC/DC has released about 17 albums, and yeah some of them after Razor's Edge weren't amazing, but they are a band that defines a sound and nobody can copy it. They are the best at what they do.

 

[LabRatBrewer]

Mm... Yeah, stairway toheaven sucks balls. I didn't know that song is on that album, hehe, but yeah, that makes the choice an absolute no brianer.

No, it was on Zeplin IV, I believe. But its over playedness has skewed my feeling of Zep in general.

 

[hoppyhoppyhippo]

I vote AC/DC. Overallin this vote, I prefer AC/DC because they're more visceral and tend to be more fun for partying, kicking a$$ and taking names.
Although nobody asks, my favorite 10 bands of the 70s list is:
1. Pink Floyd
2. Queen
3. Yes
4. Rush
5. AC/DC
6. Jethro Tull
7. Led Zeppelin
8. Aerosmith
9. The Who
10. ELP; Emerson, Lake and Palmer

70s bands for me goes

1. Zeppelin
2. Floyd
3. The Boss
4. Rush
5. Queen
6. The Who
7. Sabbath
8. Deep Purple
10. Jethro Tull

 

[Homercidal]

70s bands for me goes

1. Zeppelin
2. Floyd
3. The Boss
4. Rush
5. Queen
6. The Who
7. Sabbath
8. Deep Purple
10. Jethro Tull

And the mystery #9 band is????

 

[Shakybones]

And the mystery #9 band is????

The Beatles? Number nine. Number nine. Number nine. Number nine. Number nine. Number nine. Number nine. Number nine. Number nine. Number nine...

Okay, so maybe not 70's...

 

[hoppyhoppyhippo]

And the mystery #9 band is????

Well my editing failed.

That was supposed to be Yes.

 

[Tinhorn]

No love for thin lizzy?

 

[fenderbass]

Personally. I think we're doing an apple and oranges comparison here. While the two bands may have shared an era, they are different styles of music.

If forced to make a choice though, I gotta go with Zeppelin. AC/DC, while a good time band, was a bit simplistic and meaningless; lyrically not much better than the ghetto gangster rappers of today.

Zeppelin was far more complex with their composition and arrangements.

I could take or leave Plant, but I don't think any band could ever match the Page/ Bonham combination and creativity.

Unfortunately, as mentioned above, Stairway saturated the airwaves and kind of burned-out many people on Zeppelin, as well as detracted from some far superior but less-played songs (Kashmir, Babe I'm gonna Leave You, Over the Hills and Far Away, The Immigrant Song, Thank You, Travelling Riverside Blues, Four Sticks, Tangerine, Gallows Pole, No Quarter, The Battle of Evermore, When the Levee Breaks, and Going to California).

Even Plant hated Stairwat to Heaven and didn't want to do it live.

 

[hoppyhoppyhippo]

No love for thin lizzy?

Love thin lizzy, just didn't quite make the cut.

 

[roastquake]

#1-10: Black Sabbath

 

[TxBrew]

Why is this even a poll? Led Zeppelin and anyone who disagrees is wrong.

 

[chawagi]

Even Plant hated Stairwat to Heaven and didn't want to do it live.

Yeah. It's unfortunate that this one song has turned so many people away from Zeppelin over the years because there are so many little known treasures that Zeppelin produced. Kind of like Freebird with Skynyrd. It's funny, I was reading an article the other day about songs that should be retired and never played again because their over-saturation is actually damaging the ability for people to recognize the true talent of the bands that created these over played songs. Stairway and Freebird were on the list, as well as Hotel California. Dream On by Aerosmith made the list also, in addition to Light My Fire from the Doors.

There were about twenty songs on the list. I can't remember them all or where I read it at, but they were mostly the power ballads that get played over and over and over and over ad nauseum for the party girls at the bars.

No one should ever be able to talk against Zeppelin until they've been blasted out of their mind in a black-lit room while listening to No Quarter (Houses of the Holy).

 

[chawagi]

This thread is actually an excellent example of the Stairway phenomenon. Stairway has actually nothing to do with Zepp II, which along with Physical Graffiti is some of the best music ever made IMO, but it's overshadowed by this weak a$$ power ballad which is the only piece of work that 90% of people base their Zeppelin knowledge on.

 

[bob1852]

Why is this even a poll? Led Zeppelin and anyone who disagrees is wrong.

The poll isn't about Led Zep v. AC/DC.

It's about Led Zep II v. Back in Black.

 

[Homercidal]

Even Plant hated Stairwat to Heaven and didn't want to do it live.

I don't hate STH at all, but I can understand how others might be bothered by it's popularity. It's still a great song, as rock songs go.

I remember when my wife and I went to an Extreme Concert after they got back together (The Sowdodges of Rock (It's spelled differently, but it's a foreign word, so that's why the album never sold...)) and they played More Than Words.

They really hated that song, but it got them on the radio and made them money. I like it because I would never have heard the rest of their stuff if I hadn't heard that song on the radio.

BTW when it came time for that song in the concert, Gary Cherone basically told everyone he won't sing it, but everyone else can if they wanted to. So we all did. He just stood there holding out his mike and grinning. Everyone laughed.

 

[jwalker1140]

The poll isn't about Led Zep v. AC/DC.

It's about Led Zep II v. Back in Black.

This.

 

[roastquake]

Yeah. It's unfortunate that this one song has turned so many people away from Zeppelin over the years because there are so many little known treasures that Zeppelin produced. Kind of like Freebird with Skynyrd.

No one should ever be able to talk against Zeppelin until they've been blasted out of their mind in a black-lit room while listening to No Quarter (Houses of the Holy).

Both of these statements are so true

I actually love the guitar solo in freebird, but not committing mass murder while waiting for it is a true feat of my self-control.

Check out TOOL's cover of No Quarter... epic...

 

[chawagi]

Both of these statements are so true

I actually love the guitar solo in freebird, but not committing mass murder while waiting for it is a true feat of my self-control.

Check out TOOL's cover of No Quarter... epic...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNUq-JSXvS4

Well, that was good for a chuckle at the end of a long day at work.

I can't watch the video, but I heard this version of No Quarter Several years ago. Freakin' awesome.

 

[StoutFan]

Back in Black. Period. AC/DC has such a great linear sound, from the Bon Scott days to the smokey blues stuff influencing them today, it's all great blues based rock and roll. If someone was to ask me the 2 greatest bands to influence and produce great rock music, it would be AC/DC and Black Sabbath(the Ozzy years, sorry RJD).

 

[roastquake]

If someone was to ask me the 2 greatest bands to influence and produce great rock music, it would be AC/DC and Black Sabbath(the Ozzy years, sorry RJD).

I love RJD, but only when I want to listen to DIO. But, when It's time for Black Sabbath, only Ozzy speaks to me. Self Titled, Paranoid and Master of Reality prefferably. Oh and Vol.4.

 

[Shakybones]

I love bacon. I like the sound of it sizzling. I like the crunch it makes when I bite into a crispy slice. Bacon is far superior to ham, which never sizzles or crunches satisfactorily.

Oh, wait. I seem to be .

 

[corkybstewart]

I like them both but Zepplin is a whole level above AC/DC. Except for the Beatles and Stones I don't think any band's music has stood the test of time, especially if you ignore Stairway to Heaven(which I almost like again for the first time in 30 years)

 

[bzwyatt]

'You Shook Me All Night Long' is AC/DC's 'over-saturation song'.

 

[hoppyhoppyhippo]

Yeah. It's unfortunate that this one song has turned so many people away from Zeppelin over the years because there are so many little known treasures that Zeppelin produced. Kind of like Freebird with Skynyrd. It's funny, I was reading an article the other day about songs that should be retired and never played again because their over-saturation is actually damaging the ability for people to recognize the true talent of the bands that created these over played songs. Stairway and Freebird were on the list, as well as Hotel California. Dream On by Aerosmith made the list also, in addition to Light My Fire from the Doors.

I can never hate Stairway, it's the song that inspired me to take up the guitar. Personally I think the songs listed are the kinds of songs that are overplayed for a reason. There's a deepness in the musical composition that many people love. but also a simplicity that makes it accessible to the masses. Freebird has that traditional Skynyrd vocals and semifamiliar (Tuesday's Gone uses the same basic strumming) strum pattern, but with a Duane Allman type of slide play over nearly the whole song. Then you have of course the stalled build up at the end of the first chorus (or is that the refrain, damned if I can remember the right terminology) which is pretty ingenious the them. Stairway is basically 3 or 4 different riffs put together in a brilliant package with the most recognizable guitar solo of all time. I think it should be a prerequisite for anyone who's really serious about playing guitar to learn how to play Stairway because it teaches you many tricks from basic finger picking to good chord switching and the solo is great blues 101. song is simplistic, Zeppelin never really intended it to be their masterpiece, but simple can also be brilliant.

Hotel California is another brilliant but simple song. I don't know how many people I know who've tried to learn the song and failed because it uses an odd picking patter and overlays it with another guitar that it's not easy to pickup for most.

 

[Shakybones]

...but bacon. That's a superior pork product!

 

[littletommy]

I had to go with Back in Black. I was fortunate enough to see AC/DC on the Back in Black tour, I wasn't even really a fan of theirs at the time, but as soon as they hit the stage, I was hooked! That album played pretty much continuously on my turn table for maybe 2 years........

That being said, I love Zep, I've loved them since I was a kid and my older brother brought home Zeppelin I. I remember like yesterday when he brought home Zeppelin II and I heard whole lotta love for the first time, it scared the crap outta me!:cross:

 

[Bulls Beers]

I love AC/DC and Back in Black is an amazing album, but C'mon Led Zeppelin is one of THE, if not the most creative, talented hard rock bands ever. Every band was influenced by Zeppelin.

That being said, It's very hard, because I have heard both albums a thousand times. I have to say that I don't listen to either albums as much as I used to, but I would probably listen to AC/DC a little more today.

 

[rjbank]

Led Zeppelin


That's like comparing Bud Light next to Russian River