Battle of the Bands: The Who vs. Led Zeppelin -- who wins?
 

Simple enough -- who of the two do you like better, and why?

Re: Battle of the Bands: The Who vs. Led Zeppelin -- who wins?
 

This isn't even worth a debate. The Who by a country mile. Pete Townshend was a much better songwriter than Page. Daltrey was a more charismatic frontman and a better singer than Plant. John Entwistle was an iconic bassist, far more so than John Paul Jones, and if anyone could top Bonzo on drums, it was Keith Moon. The group also had more of an evolution, going from cheeky mods to huge arena rockers, and always had more interesting concepts, even on albums that weren't concept albums.

Quadrophenia alone is better than anything in Zeppelin's catalog. The Who all the way.

Re: Battle of the Bands: The Who vs. Led Zeppelin -- who wins?
 

As much as I think "Tommy", "Who's Next", and "Quadrophenia" are all masterpieces, I'd have to say Zep is the better band here. Besides their somewhat lame last album, Zep never had a misstep. The Who's first 3 or 4 albums have not aged well, and after Moon's death, they pretty much mailed it in with the rest of their output.

Re: Battle of the Bands: The Who vs. Led Zeppelin -- who wins?
 

Well, The Who's 1st few albums were My Generation, A Quick One and The Who Sell Out. MG was a nice chunk of mid-sixties British blues-rock with some early power-pop mixed in (Not to mention the title song became a rock and roll standard), Quick One (Released as Happy Jack in the US) is a much more developed version of the power-pop with their very first mini-rock opera, the title track, and The Who Sell Out was an all-out quirky (and at times, edgy) concept album about pirate radio complete with radio jingles and wrap-arounds, plus it featured their greatest single ever, at the time, and yet another mini-rock opera.
You really think those records haven't aged well? Meaning they lost some kind of edge along the way, or that they just sound old? Yeah, records from the 60's tend to sound old, but that even goes for The Beatles, so, why is that a deterrent?

Plus their real 4th album is Tommy. Unless you're saying Magic Bus: The Who on Tour is their 4th LP, and I can see why you'd say that record didn't age well as it was just a cheesily-dashed-together comp by the record company and was never regarded by the band as an actual album.

Re: Battle of the Bands: The Who vs. Led Zeppelin -- who wins?
 

My opinion of The Who has actually decreased over the years. I used to be a huge fan, and I really never listen to them anymore.

So I'll go with Zep.

Re: Battle of the Bands: The Who vs. Led Zeppelin -- who wins?
 

I think Zep has a better discography, and I went through a heavy Zep phase, but I rarely listen to them anymore. Meanwhile my appreciation for the Who has grown and I listen to them fairly frequently.

So, Zep is the better band but I like the Who more.

Re: Battle of the Bands: The Who vs. Led Zeppelin -- who wins?
 

The Who. The first I ever saw them was Pete jumping over an amp windmilling and going right into Summertime Blues. Keith was a maniac on drums. Daltry using the mic like a lasso and John just thumping away on the side until it was time for Boris or My Wife. Great Great Band.

Re: Battle of the Bands: The Who vs. Led Zeppelin -- who wins?
 

The Who didn't build their careers on plagiarism. So they win by default.

Re: Battle of the Bands: The Who vs. Led Zeppelin -- who wins?
 

The Who, although I'm not much of a fan of their work beyond Tommy so much

Re: Battle of the Bands: The Who vs. Led Zeppelin -- who wins?
 

Not giving writing credit until you get sued for it -- funny way of showing homage.

Re: Battle of the Bands: The Who vs. Led Zeppelin -- who wins?
 

Never liked The Who - LOVE Led Zeppelin.

Re: Battle of the Bands: The Who vs. Led Zeppelin -- who wins?
 

I love Zep, but I've got to go with The Who.

Re: Battle of the Bands: The Who vs. Led Zeppelin -- who wins?
 

-ohbfrank-

Re: Battle of the Bands: The Who vs. Led Zeppelin -- who wins?
 

The other thing that I always loved about The Who is that they were never hell-bent on belonging to a scene or a genre. Yes, they were the very-cheesily mod The High Numbers, but only because their then-manager Pete Meaden wanted them do that as he was convinced that they'd be the first real band for the mods. Personally, I think they still could have done that as The Who.
They did do the pop-art fashion thing during the mid to late 60's, but from Tommy on, they settled on more individual presence, and it worked for them. During the seventies, to be current, they could have pushed more for a hard-rock image (Lord knows they were probably louder than Zeppelin on-stage), but they never did. It always made them seem a bit oddball in a genre where everybody either was a sex symbol or a guitar god, but it doesn't seem to have had any negative effects on their stage presence whatsoever. For all the personal issues they've had through their career, they've succeeded at being themselves the whole time.

Led Zeppelin was always a great hard-rock band and perhaps the very best. They ended up inspiring so many heavy-metal bands that after a while, they almost looked like followers of their own trend! I love the records, though.

I really like both, but I always felt like The Who were speaking my language more.

Re: Battle of the Bands: The Who vs. Led Zeppelin -- who wins?
 

I didn't want to post my response at the start of the thread as I began it, but yeah, I went with the Who. I appreciate Led Zed, but the hobbity airy fairy stuff doesn't do it for me, and I think the Who were far stronger as innovators rather than appropriators, which I feel Zep were a little more. And in a battle of the bands between Pete and Jimmy, I gotta go with the windmill master every time.

Re: Battle of the Bands: The Who vs. Led Zeppelin -- who wins?
 

The Who. Along with everything that Suprmallet said in his post, Townshend's use of synthesizers in his compositions was very innovative at the time.

Plus, the Who had a great sense of humor reflected in many of their songs and artwork.

Re: Battle of the Bands: The Who vs. Led Zeppelin -- who wins?
 

Led Zeppelin

Bigger partiers

Re: Battle of the Bands: The Who vs. Led Zeppelin -- who wins?
 

Yeah Who's Next and Quadrophenia were crap :lol:

Re: Battle of the Bands: The Who vs. Led Zeppelin -- who wins?
 

The Who,by a nose ;)

Re: Battle of the Bands: The Who vs. Led Zeppelin -- who wins?
 

yeah in my opinion overplayed radio crap that I can't stand. I like the early who not that "mega classic rockband" bullshit. Even Tommy doesn't appeal to me all that much but some of it is OK. The album it pretty much ripped off, SF Sorrow is superior.

I know I'm in a very small minority on this.

Re: Battle of the Bands: The Who vs. Led Zeppelin -- who wins?
 

Zep.

Re: Battle of the Bands: The Who vs. Led Zeppelin -- who wins?
 

Comparing Zeppelin to the Who is like comparing Brett Michaels to Springsteen.

Re: Battle of the Bands: The Who vs. Led Zeppelin -- who wins?
 

I have to admit I posted this out of curiousity listening to "The Who Live At Leeds" the other night and really thought Zeppelin would stomp The Who as they always seem to be the popular fave. Glad to be proven wrong!

Re: Battle of the Bands: The Who vs. Led Zeppelin -- who wins?
 

Well, just compare Live at Leeds, often cited as the greatest live album of all time, to The Song Remains The Same, which is sloppy and dated. Even Zep's BBC sessions, which are better than TSRTS, isn't nearly as good as Live at Leeds or Live at the Isle of Wight.

Re: Battle of the Bands: The Who vs. Led Zeppelin -- who wins?
 

For me it's The Who. Not even close, actually, as I still listen to a lot their music to this day as LZ is barely played.