Sorry to shit on everyone's Zeppelin love fest, but something needs to be said.

I used to consider Led Zeppelin to be (or pretty darn close to) my favourite band. I don't need to explain to you fellas how I felt, you know perfectly well.

Sadly over the last year or so the once mighty Zep has fallen from mythical status to, in my eyes, one of the silliest bands ever to exist.

Virtuosic muscianship became masturbatory indulgence. Giant, powerful riffs became macho posturing. Mystique became silliness. They just became hard to take seriously with their bigger than life persona.

This isn't to say I plan to piss on all my Zeppelin records. Every musician is a singular talent with the resume to prove it, and together they could pull off a breezy, tasteful tune with as much conviction as their bombastic rocking counterparts. Too bad they're not recognized for this.

Perhaps I'm bitter that a bunch of meat-headed, ham-fisted macho men run around promoting Zeppelin's bravura as the soundtrack for manliness. Maybe if I was Zeppelin's only fan I would feel differently.

I've lost my love for Zeppelin. Do you think you will as well, or will Zeppelin live on as the best band ever? Defend them as you may.

I like a few songs, but I've never been a big fan.

i see it as a phase. i still have my led zep discs from my late teens. i actually cracked out IV about 2 months ago, it was the first time i listened to more than a single random LZ tune in years. it'll probably be years before i do it again. it's not that i think their music has lost quality over the years but that i got bored of hearing it.

i still consider them to be THE quintessential hard rock band, it doesn't mean they're my favorites though.

I'm a rational music listener, and their songwriting will probably always remain one of my favourites. They touched a lot of different ground, writing music that ranges from tough and destructive to soft and relaxing, sometimes even in the same song.
One thing that I can't listen to anymore that easily is the live indulgencies of Page & Plant, but that's a small problem.
It's never fun to listen to a band that's recognized as "the best in the world"

So....if they were not as popular or an underground group, you would still be enjoying them?

Difficult to say, but maybe.

Led Zeppelin is NOT hip and therefore people who evolve in "coolness" lose a taste for them over time which, to me, is sad. There is no better rock band on the planet. Never has been and probably never will be. Jimmy Page is the greatest songwriter of the 20th Century, in my book, and I KNOW that is laughable to the average music expert. I could care less how much music anyone has listened to, or how many books they've read on music, or how many music classes they've taken, or how many instruments they play. ANYONE who discounts the brilliance of one Jimmy Page loses much credibility with me.

That being said, live Led Zeppelin usually annoys the living shit out of me. And on stage Page is a wanker's wanker. He's a showoff. The whole band are a buncha wankers, in the strict sense of the word. But in the studio, Zeppelin are the perfect definition of rock and roll. Laugh if you will, but Zeppelin's power, passion, and magic mops the floor with any other band there ever was (with the exception, IMO, of Floyd and U2).

Yeah, I've kinda noticed this with myself. Like panbient, it's pretty rare that I actually listen to a full album of theirs. Like I was saying in the "favorite LZ album" thread, I hear enough of them on the radio to not need to listen to them on the stereo. Still a great band, but I don't listen to them nearly as much as I used to.

The Beatles kicks their asses all the way to china town. <--- what a extremely mature statement

I respect the view of the Beatles' musical superiority. Always have. They have taken my soul places that most band haven't. But Zeppelin encompasses more feeling, whether it be intense or mellow. For me, anyway.