Defending The Who

Clearly I'm the odd man out when feeling The Who is the better than Led Zeppelin. When doing my little comparisons I didn't give any justification for why I chose The Who for the categories I did. Just a reminder, I don't think I will have a review posted tonight for "Imagine Echoes: The Review" because this post will surely occupy my time. Anyway, lets continue:

Musical Songwriting:
I believe The Who are better song writers because not only were The Who able to crank out hit after hit which was not only catchy, but also very innovative. If I were to list the best songs The Who wrote compared to Led Zeppelin I would have on my list about twenty more songs from The Who than Zeppelin, even when comparing both of their double disc greatest hits albums I come away wanting to listen to every song from The Who opposed to just the first CD of Zeppelin which leads to my consistency argument later on. Pete Townshend is easily one of, if not the most genius song writer the world has ever seen. The Who are were able to construct songs that convey a theme without the lyrics, not to take anything away from Zeppelin but if I were to listen to "Tommy" or "Quadrophenia" without the lyrics I would be able to pick up on the jist of the story by hearing the emotions being conveyed for each song.

Best Album:
This is a tough choice which could go either way depending on who you are asking. "Who's Next" stands as one of those albums that is just larger than life, it pulls and tugs at your emotions, it has songs which urge you to crank the stereo up to full blast with "Babe O'Riley" and "Won't Get Fooled Again" and songs that make you just sit in awe of their beauty like "Getting In Tune" and "Behind Blue Eyes." "Who's Next" doesn't fail for just one second, every song is phenomenal and never gets dull. Led Zeppelin's "IV" or "Zoso" whatever you would prefer to call it feels a bit more repetitious. Especially when putting "Black Dog" and "Rock and Roll" back to back is just a problem within itself. The songs are just too similar to be put back to back, with their extremely uninspired lyrics and un-creative sound they don't offer enough to keep me coming back for more. The first few times hearing those songs they are fun but the more I listen the more I realize they are unable to really give the listener a valuable listening experience. There are classic moments on the album like "Stairway to Heaven" and "The Battle of Evermore" but those songs don't match the best The Who was able to put out on "Who's Next." In the end I feel "Who's Next" was packed with more emotion and character than "IV."

Better Bass Player:
This one was fairly easy for me, John Paul Jones is a great bass player but John Entwistle was one of the best. Entwistle just may be the most important and influential rock bassist of all time, his leads and solos were astonishing. His lack of emotion on stage surely didn't represent his pounding bass leads and solos. Possibly the best bassist out there right now, Les Claypool regards Entwistle as one of his biggest influences.

Consistency:
I mentioned it before, after "IV" Zeppelin hit a slow downward spiral. The Who's catalogue can be summarized as steady and powerful never letting down.

Originality:
Although I labeled this as a Draw originally I really wanted to give it to The Who and I just may go back and change it because the more I think about it the more I realize the innovations of The Who. The Who were the Godfathers of what would eventually be one of the strongest and most powerful musical genres: Punk! Although Punk has somewhat died, in its heyday it's power was undeniable and if any punk band was to say they weren't influenced by The Who they would be lying terribly. "My Generation" was the song which kick started punk music. The Who also went on to create the idea of the Rock Opera. Apparently Townshend wasn't the first to write a Rock Opera he was inspired by a Christian Rocker Larry Norman who wrote a fifteen minute rock opera. What The Who did was they took that innovation and moved it to the next step with "Tommy" and "Quadrophenia." Bands like David Bowie, Jethro Tull, Rush, Dream Theater, Meatloaf, Genesis and so many more owe their dues to The Who. Led Zeppelin did indeed push the boundaries of hard rock and were innovative with long and experimental songs but The Who's originality transcended into so much more.

Lyrics:
This is probably the easiest of all the categories to decide. The Who have some extremely childish lyrics at times but on the contrary they have some of the strongest lyrics of any band. Townshend was able to put together some of the greatest lyrics of all time to create full length operas which not only tell a great story but also leave enough room for the listener to take into consideration their own interpretations. Led Zeppelin's lyrics were decent at best, their lyrics felt very disconnected way too often and often down right cliche. Zeppelin's best lyrics were probably the ones that didn't make any sense.