An Unfortunate Lapse of Reason
Well, it happened again. The other night I was out drinking and got into a music argument in which I was feebly defending the minority opinion. This time, not one, but two of my friends claimed that "Pink Floyd sucks," followed by my claim that they are better than Led Zeppelin. Believe me, that did not sit well.
One friend did most of the debating, and the crux of his argument was that Zeppelin had the best frontman, best guitar player, and best drummer in rock history. First of all, I'm not ready to concede that point. Can anyone definitively say that Plant, Page, and Bonham are better than The Who's Waters, Townsend, and Moon? One could even make an argument for Queen's Mercury, May, and Taylor (although I probably wouldn't). But a band is more than the sum of it's parts. The Beatles are the perfect example of this. Nobody would say that any of the Fab Four were the most talented pop musicians of all time, and yet they're consistently labeled the best pop band of all time. It boils down to that special something extra. And the sonic landscapes that Floyd created far exceed the ones that Zeppelin created.
Additionally, Floyd was more influential. While Zeppelin may have perfected a certain type of rock & roll, their blues infusion had already been done by the Rolling Stones and Cream, and Cream, along with Iron Butterfly, hit upon the "heavy metal" aspect first. Pink Floyd practically invented progressive rock before perfecting it.
I have nothing but respect for Led Zeppelin, but they take a backseat to Pink Floyd, at least in my mind. The unfortunate thing is that I wasn't able to make a proper argument the other night (they were too trashed to listen, and I was probably too trashed to make the proper points), and neither friend reads this site. So this is probably a wasted post. But I've got little else to do with my time.