Jimmy Page is Better Than Brian May is Better Than Jimmy Page

Rob and Rich argue, but what's the point?   04-Oct-12

Rob's letter in support of Jimmy Page

Dear Officer of the Law,

Sorry about that time at Glastonbury last year, as I said at the time, I have no idea how that stuff ended up in my pocket.

Anyway, I'm going to argue the case for Jimmy Page, because he's better than Brian May.

They are both unique and can’t truly be compared, really, but that won't get me out of this tricky situation, so I’ll give it a go anyway.

For a start Page pioneered the roots of heavy metal. The solo from 'Heartbreaker' was unique and raw; it gave people like Eddie Van Halen the idea for an entire musical style. Granted, what he was playing was heavily based on old-school blues guitarists but everyone has to get their inspiration from somewhere.

Jimmy Page brought it to the masses in a way that no one had done before. Let’s also not forget that he produced every one of Zeppelin’s records right from the start. His abilities on guitar might be limited, however, his musical knowledge and ability to write an unforgettable are unmatched by the likes of May.

I’ll bet more of you rand your cop friends reading this can hum or (in many cases) play more Jimmy Page riffs than you can Brian May. That’s not to say that May couldn’t play guitar, no one believes that and if you do, you’re on the wrong website, but Page is more accessible.

As a 15-year-old learning to play the guitar I found myself gravitating towards riffs like 'Whole Lotta Love' or 'Moby Dick', for no other reason other than they were simple but had great rhythm. In terms of musical prowess, Page’s inventiveness is clearly demonstrated by songs like 'Kashmir' which uses DADGAD tuning and creates one of the most memorable guitar riffs in history. 

I get the impression that Brian May was always somewhat in the shadow of Freddie Mercury (let’s face it that’s not hard when you have Freddie as your front man) but Page was clearly the driving force behind one of the biggest bands in the world. I know of few musicians that can say that Led Zeppelin didn’t influence their playing.

I always had a Zeppelin album in the car or on my MP3 player but I still to this day (and I’m sure that many of you will discount my argument at this point) do not own a Queen record. I think I’ve always been a guitarist at heart, and dumb as that sounds, Queen songs (to me) were always about the vocals or the intricacies on the songs. Led Zeppelin were a balls out guitarist's band and the reason for that is Jimmy Page.

Signed,

Rob

Click here to go to next page: Rich argues in favour of Brian May