Shocking: One of The Led Zeppelin Legendary Singer passes away at 50 years after suffering a cardiac arrhythmia in…

 

The Yardbirds are arguably one of the most influential bands in rock music, especially when analysing how much the guitarist became an intrinsic part of how rock was made. Two of the lead guitarists who were present in that band prior to going on to bigger and better pastures were Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page, both of whom are considered godfathers of the electric guitar these days.

Their ability to play in an exciting, sweet, melodic way and carry an energetic on-stage persona has paved the way for a million other rock guitarists to do the same thing. You wouldn’t have fire-breathing Gods of Thunder like Gene Simmons were it not for the likes of Jeff Beck, and the Kiss bassist is well aware of that, too.

“Before Led Zeppelin, there was a band called the Jeff Beck Group, and then Jimmy Page heard what Jeff was doing and said, ‘I got to put a band together,’ and he formed Led Zeppelin,” said Simmons, “For me, if I had my druthers, playing the first two Led Zeppelin records or the first two Jeff Beck Group records, it’s the Jeff Beck Group, hands down.”

Simmons is clearly a big fan of both artists, and as such, it’s hard to believe that there are other musicians out there who he would compare to those who were so intrinsic in shaping his career, yet that’s precisely what he does. Even more surprising is the fact that this comparison comes in favour of country singer Patsy Cline.

Simmons’ love for Cline was purely on a songwriting level, as she stood out to him as someone special the moment he heard the track ‘Crazy’. “Her music hit me like a truck running you over, and the more I read about her, the more fascinated I became,” he said, “She had a song called ‘Crazy’, and in country and western culture, you couldn’t say the word crazy. It was supposed to be vulgar…”

The bassist continued to talk about how excellent songwriters can start a track with the name of the piece, “By the way, the classic songs, like ‘Yesterday’ or ‘Michelle’ or even the Charlie Chaplin-written song ‘Smile’, start off with the name of the song,” he explained. “Same thing with ‘Crazy’, and that is the sign of great, not just good, but great songwriting. And when I first heard the words in ‘Crazy’ and the fact that it came out of country and western blew me away. And then I heard all her other tracks.”

Finally, the Kiss icon went on to make a comparison that a lot of rock fans wouldn’t have thought possible; however, when you consider great music and even better songwriting, you can’t deny that Cline has impacted them in the same way Beck and Page did the guitar. “

You can’t appreciate music without really appreciating music,” he concluded, “Yes, Jeff Beck’s riffs and guitar playing, the bombast of Led Zeppelin, but you can’t leave Patsy Cline over on the side.”