Led Zeppelin Family Tree
Metal Family Tree
This is a project aimed at making it easy to see who inspired the bands you love or even hate. For this I try not to use any influences that the band don’t claim themselves. There will be a focus on predecessors but successors will be added as they site the band. These trees become more and more interactive as new bands are added, allowing you to click any band that has a tree and jump to it.
We want our lists to be better. If you know something that belongs on this list, let us know. When in doubt we will leave it out, so we need reliable sources.
Easily one of the most important bands in rock history. Led Zeppelin may not be a metal band but they are as important as any band when it comes to influencing early metal bands. If Black Sabbath are the fathers of Heavy Metal, Led Zeppelin is like the cool uncle or something. Zeppelin had a consistent line up of members who all contributed to the writing so we will look into all of their influences. For the late John Bonham I will use non primary sources because of his early death. I feel like there are probably things missing from this list if anyone has good sources to share please do. With LZ being in trouble for not giving proper credits I can image why they may be less than forth coming about some influences whom they might have “borrowed” from.
Big Joe Williams
Son House
Bukka White
Robert Johnson
Muddy Waters
Umm Kulthum
Charles Mingus
Ray Brown
John Coltrane
Gene Krupa
Art Blakey
Elmore James
Miles Davis
Buddy Rich
Max Roach
Scotty Moore
Lonnie Donegan
Chuck Berry
Gene Vincent
Bill Evans
James Burton
Scott LaFaro
Gil Evans
Marvin Gaye
Smokey Robinson
Otis Redding
Donald "Duck" Dunn
Ginger Baker
Jimmy was learned guitar by playing along with records. He eventually learned how to read music. He pretty much took influence from any guitar playing he heard at the time but a bit more from the blues.
Jimmy mentions some guitar players the he likely had great respect for but didn’t specifically name them as influences: Classical player Segovia and Julian Bream, flamenco player Manitas de Plata, and gypsy jazz player Django Reinhardt.
Jimmy is often said to have “borrowed” things from other guitar players… some might call it stealing. Among the guitarists he is accused of ripping off are folk/jazz guitarist Bert Jansch for “Black Mountain Slide”. Over the years writing credits have been changed in order to reflect many of these songs.
John Paul Jones grew up with his dad who was a pianist and trumpeter who was into blues, jazz, and Latin music and was exposed to all of that. He like Page, was interested in many different styles of playing and not afraid to mix things up.
Plant in one interview talks about wanting his voice to be a tenor sax. He says he wanted to be Coleman Hawkins and Dexter Gordon.
Bonham was said to have favorite bands including Johnny Kidd & The Pirates, The Hollies and The Graham Bond Organisation.
Bands influenced by Led Zeppelin!
As this project advances, bands will be added here… there are many!
Sources:
https://cosmicmagazine.com.au/news/led-zeppelins-jimmy-page-reveals-his-greatest-musical-influence-in-unearthed-1977-interview/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9AAEdFlRkc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2DmA6etwpQ
http://ledzepnews.com/2018/05/06/heres-everything-that-jimmy-page-said-about-his-extraordinary-friend-jeff-beck-in-a-new-documentary/
http://www.oldbuckeye.com/prox/jazz.html
https://ultimateclassicrock.com/bert-jansch-rememered-neil-young-jimmy-page-tales/
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/led-zeppelins-10-boldest-rip-offs-223419/
https://www.vintageguitar.com/2898/john-paul-jones/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-pDYq2VpOQ
https://cosmicmagazine.com.au/news/robert-plant-discusses-little-known-led-zeppelin-influence-in-new-podcast/
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/rockandpopfeatures/10400729/Robert-Plant-interview-Everyone-feels-the-blues-from-time-to-time.html
https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129993435
http://johnbonham.co.uk/biography/biography.html