Was Led Zeppelin better than The Beatles? The question is loaded, and the answer is subjective. Yet there are immutable facts. John Lennon liked the upstart band’s sound, and Led Zeppelin copied The Beatles’ playbook with several albums in quick succession early in their career. Speaking of early careers, Jimmy Page said Led Zeppelin was better than The Beatles when it came to one aspect of their music — improvisation.
Jimmy Page said Led Zeppelin’s BBC recordings were better than The Beatles’ because his band ‘Moved the music’
The Beatles and Led Zeppelin were regulars on BBC Radio in the 1960s. England’s programming giant often included performances from major bands on its airwaves. Those could be live on air or taped live and broadcast later.
The Beatles frequently appeared on the BBC’s airwaves in 1963 and early 1964, playing several Elvis covers, their original songs, and doing interviews. There was so much material that two massive volumes of their shows appeared years later.
Led Zeppelin made several recordings for the BBC, too. Their appearances in 1969 and 1971 eventually saw the light of day with The Complete BBC Sessions compilation. Their eight studio albums remain the starting point for would-be fans. Still, Page said Led Zeppelin was better than The Beatles in a major way that manifested itself in their BBC appearances (per Light & Shade: Conversations With Jimmy Page author Brad Tolinski):
“I mean, compare our sessions to, say, the BBC recordings of The Beatles. I bet you a cent to a dollar, if they have two or three versions of ‘Love Me Do’ or whatever, they’ll all be identical. That was the difference between our contemporaries and us: Led Zeppelin was really moving the music all the time.”
Jimmy Page
Page isn’t necessarily wrong.
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Led Zeppelin songs took on new life when the band hit the stage. Like all the band’s albums, Page oversaw the production and mixing of the BBC sessions album. Led Zeppelin’s founding member included three versions of “Dazed and Confused,” two cuts of “Whole Lotta Love,” and pair of takes of “You Shook Me” on Zep’s The Complete BBC Sessions release. Not only was each version vastly different from the others included on the compilation, but they were also significantly different from the album versions. For Led Zeppelin, the recorded version of a song wasn’t the end-all, be-all; it was more of a template that informed live performances.
Contrast that to The Beatles’ BBC recordings, where songs such as “Please Please Me,” “Misery,” “Please Mister Postman,” and “Anna” (from the Fab Four’s second compilation) are faithful yet static recreations of the album versions.
Page isn’t wrong that Led Zeppelin was better than The Beatles at shape-shifting their own songs each time they played them live. In the Fab Four’s defense, they came from a place where fans expected the live versions of songs to be carbon copies of what was on the record. Live experimentation with the music became more commonplace in the late 1960s, but The Beatles had long since stopped touring by then.
Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham said there was a big difference between his band and The Beatles. In his estimation, fans came to Zep shows for the music. Music lovers went to Beatles shows to see the product; the tunes were secondary. That could be why Led Zeppelin bumped The Beatles from the top of the charts in 1969.
A few years later, Led Zeppelin proved they were better than The Beatles as a live act when they broke a concert attendance record set by the Fab Four. Jimmy Page said Led Zeppelin’s BBC recordings were better than The Beatles’ because they moved the music forward in new directions. The guitarist’s observation was just an early indication of the shift in music.
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