I heard of an interview where Al says he’s borrowed riffs from ZZ Top, among others, and that people who take him seriously as a guitarist are idiots.
This is just hearsay though, I’ve never read this interview so I am not claiming this to be factual in the least bit, but if this interview sounds familar to anyone could someone please link it?
Burroughs believed that no one owned words or the arrangement of words, that they existed on their own in some form. I wonder if he felt the same about sounds or musical phrases.
I dunno, it’s all very Jungian to me. Nobody’s ideas are 100% original.
I’ve read that interview myself. I know what you are talking about. I don’t have it around here, but it may be up on the Interviews section of this site actually.
As for the Led/Ministry connection, I A/B’d both tracks this past weekend, and I must say that besides the fact that the intro to the drums on Levee starting earlier (it’s 7 minutes long, Scarecrow is 8), and the harmonica pieces/guitar pieces… they are very very similar. Who knows if it was intentional.
After all, Al did begin practicing guitar doing Zepp tunes in his youth.
As I said the songs are different… different riffs, different mood, etc.
Anyway, how many bands were influenced by Led Zeppelin and how many of their songs were ripped off?
And in particular 'When The Levee Breaks ’ is the song that was the most sampled by hip-hop artists because of the drum pattern.