Power chord music, and why Led Zeppelin hated to be compared to Black Sabbath.
If I may give y'all a bit of a history lesson. Nowadays, we see power chords as just a heavier, alternative way of making music. A fairly typical and expected standard playing style of heavy metal. But we have no idea how that style of playing was viewed by other musicians back in the day, say the mid-60s to early 70s.
A power chord is where a guitarist makes only one chord. And to change the note of the chord, he simply moves the same chord up and down the neck of the guitar as needed, to play along with a given song. Power chords have never been anything new, and all guitarists use them in their repertoire. But to play an entire song with just a power chord, that was seen as an incorrect, very cheap, cop-out way to make music.
But to many less-skilled guitarists, using power chords to play songs was just about all they were capable of doing. They didn't really care how this playing style was regarded, they just wanted to rock. Had they been guitar-virtuosos, like the much sought-after 60s session musician Jimmy Page, they would have certainly played their songs properly using more conventional chords. For songs to be played using mainly power chords, it was something frowned upon and eyeroll-inducing to more skilled guitarists. And what's more, the impact of power chord music was too blunt and in-your-face. It wasn't the style that bands wanted to portray in the mid-60s. Nobody wanted to make music like that. And, it was presumed, certainly nobody wanted to pay money to hear music like that.
However, many musicians had the fire in them and just wanted to rock. They wanted to rock right now, without needing to practice for years first, hoping to someday develop virtuoso guitar skills. All this is the essence and basis of what would later be called punk rock.
Dave Davies of the Kinks was one such less-than-virtuoso guitarist. He just wanted to rock, and by golly he did. The Kinks were the first power chord music band to make it big.
Again, had Dave been more skilled at playing, he would have played these songs using more standard chords. But it wouldn't have worked. These songs wouldn't have had the impact that they did, they wouldn't have rocked like they did, and they wouldn't have stood out against bands like the Beatles and the Stones like they did. Without power chords, the Kinks and their music would have probably been mostly forgotten songs by a nondescript band that had hardly made any impact at all.
https://youtu.be/F4DV-5d6a5g
https://youtu.be/Eq_KQYVPadQ
Soon after, along comes the Who. Being impressed and influenced by what the Kinks were doing, they went that route also, doing their own thing with it. They turned up the power of power chords by turning up the volume. Of course, having an insane lightning-fast drummer certainly helped. Again, Pete Townshend, a bit more accomplished on the guitar but never a virtuoso. He just wanted to rock. And rock he did.
https://youtu.be/TFWxqKYvy-c
Eventually, along comes Sabbath. They took power chord music to a level never even imagined before. Yet, it wasn't due to lack of skills by guitarist Tony Iommi. In fact, he was quite the virtuoso. But what he was able to do musically had been greatly hindered by the loss of the tips of two of his fretting fingers. This led to power chords being more of a necessity to his guitar playing than anything else, due to his condition. Combined with crushing volume, detuned strings (again, a necessity), and usually slow-tempo music, Sabbath's power chord music was in a class by itself. Paul McCartney saw Sabbath's music as being really "off-the-wall," even compared to the Beatles.
And from that point onwards, power chord music became a "thing" unto itself. Blue Oyster Cult was probably the first band to pick up on this "thing," and to try to pattern themselves after Sabbath, notably their song "Cities on Flame with Rock and Roll." But for Buck Dharma, a guitar virtuoso in his own right, strictly power chord-driven music was simply too limiting. BOC branched out into their own style.
Then there were songs like Free "All Right Now", Rush "Working Man", and even Pink Floyd dabbled with power chord music with "The Nile Song." Need i say that David Gilmore is a guitar virtuoso?
So, back to Led Zeppelin. Jimmy Page was a true guitar virtuoso. And as such, felt ashamed that his music would be compared to power chord music like Black Sabbath. Zeppelin liked to rock, and they liked to rock kinda hard. They did dabble with power chord music in some songs, such as "No Quarter". But they dabbled in lots of different styles and approaches to music. And that's the way they wanted to be seen. A band not tied down or limited to any certain style or approach. A band whose songs can stand on their own and soar, no matter which style the band chose to present them to us with.
Thanks for reading.
