I know this will piss off plenty of aging boomers, but here goes: I heard Led Zeppelin live three times back in the 70's. I went through my youthful guitar god worship phase as did many other baby boomers who got hooked for awhile on white redo's of black blues. IMO the original Blues Breakers LP got about as close to black blues by melanin-challenged Caucasians as I can remember. If I wanted to listen to blues since the mid-eighties on, I just spun Howling Wolf, Muddy Waters, T-Bone Walker, etc. etc. The heavily doctored studio "magic" that Peter Grant poured into Led Zeppelin's LP's was more than apparent to me when I saw them live. They couldn't replicate the "magic" live, for what I heard (even zonked) was a pale imitation of their records. I have seen several aging black blues "legends" in my life, and they all did a much better job of replicating the "magic" that was on their studio recordings. Don't get me wrong, on there own terms I still listen to Led Zeppelin's "Black Mountain Side" & "Bron-Ar-Aur." - and those are instrumentals.
Wither Jimmy Page?
In listening to the Old Zep classics I can't help but wonder why this guy's talent (which is immense) never accompanied him in his later years (look at Jeff Beck or Jorma Kaukonen for examples). Is it me or does it seem like he just dropped off a cliff? I know he's still making music but does any of his more recent stuff shine like his early stuff?