1 It's nobody's fault but mine that the levee broke as the song remained the same. You know, cause it's been a long time since I personally rock and rolled while going to California with an aching, in my heart. It's like, Crunge tim, and I just can't find that bridge. I also got knocked backassward going in through the out door to the house of the holy. And it was all Mr Roboto's fault.

2 "Led Zeppelin, not disco, are the agents of stagnation." - Joe Strummer Queen, on the other hand, was one of those quasi-glam groups like Sparks that managed to bridge Old School & New Wave

3 Related: Robert Plant vs Ann Wilson. Discuss

4 Something tells me you're NOT TAKING THIS SERIOUSLY, JEFF! J'accuse!

5 Yes. Wait...what was the question again?

6 SERIOUSLY, if I never hear Stairway to Heaven again, it will be TOO SOON. I was a pup during those awful mid 70s when KLOS ruled by playing Layla & Stairway every hour on the hour, in between tired old Beatles & Stones. Zzzzzzz

7 "Another One Bites The Dust" was my debate team theme song my senior year. So...I'm a little biased toward Queen, yeah. "Don't try suicide, You're just gonna hate it. Nobody gives Nobody gives Nobody gives a damn." We played that album to death, back in the team room that year.

8 For their album, "Magazine," Heart edited "You Shook Me" to cut out a part at the end of the song where Ann Wilson immitated Robert Plant's vocal improvisation from the end of Led Zeppelin's version. So I think it would be Ann Wilson in three rounds tops. Always go with size and mass.

9 That better not be a fat joke, Buddy . . . But now I have to hear the original version of that. Plant's range was impressive, but he never really exploited it like Freddie Mercury did his own. And just as most Tull fans don't want to hear "Bungle in the Jungle," I have no need to hear "Bohemian Rhapsody." I like the more obscure songs, like "Keep Yourself Alive." Or "The March of the Black Queen," which is really (along with "An Die Freude") my song.

10 It was a size and mass joke, actually. It's all relative. If you want to hear the original version of "You Shook Me," Mushroom Records pressed 5000 LPs of "Magazine" during the contractual dispute, They were sold in LA and Hollywood, Florida. Look for the disclaimer on the album cover back-- "Mushroom Records regrets that a contractual dispute has made it necessary to complete this record without the cooperation or endorsement of the group Heart, who have expressly disclaimed artistic involvement in completing this record." Make sure you check to see that the song order, sides A and B, varies from the version you can buy at Amazon. Look at the record: Someone can always insert a common record in a collectable sleeve. Maybe one of your readers can help you. Or someone named "k" in Florida who may visit little record shops and flea markets.

11 Freddy had a distinctive voice and excellent range. Plant was the Sinatra of Heavy Metal, the original type. Queen's best song was Tie Your Mother Down. Queen had nowhere near the significance that Led Zed had and still has. Jimmy Page owns the best classic rock guitar licks, and the most. Achiles Last Stand, nothing better. Queen was great. Zepelin was on another, higher plane. I can only stand to listen to Queen's Greatest Hits, and in small doses. Even the worst of the Zepelin albums is still damn good.

12 Unfortunately, when I was in high school any group had a lot of baggage. The problem with Led Zepp was that it was associated with the "stoner" crowd, and a lot of my friends considered themselves too intellectual for that music. (And my Westwood Village friends were pretty far in the other direction: more toward Black Sabbath, but we had nowhere to go to play music anyway--since we couldn't go home--so we were largely stuck with the radio.) The fact that a lot of Zeppelin songs got saturation airplay didn't help with this at all. "Stairway," in particular, was the butt of a lot of jokes. I can just barely stand to listen to it now, after three decades or whatever. Both groups featured incredible musicianship; both groups experimented with different musical styles. Queen had the advantage/disadvangage of comprising guys with Real Jobs in Other Fields, so they could be more playful on their first five albums (Queen, Queen II, Sheer Heart Attack, A Night at the Opera, A Day at the Races). Brian May is, in my opinion, greatly underrated as a guitarist: after all, Queen didn't use any synthesizers at all on those first five albums--and this was at a time when it was standard procedure to do so. Furthermore, May actually built his own guitar in his father's garage as a teenager. I can admire Plant's ability to screech on-pitch, but it doesn't thrill me the way Queen's harmonies do--or the way Mercury did when he threw his soul into hitting those bizarre high notes without lapsing into self-parody. I listen to both, but my heart is with Queen (preferably early Queen).

13 oh! k would like to help with a point in the right direction, Darrell, if nothing else. But, unfortunately, k is a hermit and doesn't get out to the stores much these days. Complicated mobility and health issues, for about the last 15 years. So I wouldn't even know where to start. That may improve some in the next year or so. We'll see. Meanwhile, there is one interesting thrift store I visit with Walter when he's home, and I'll definitely keep my eyes open there. They have all sorts of interesting stuff, and often enough, they don't know it. Now: Can you tell me, why in the world did they pick Hollywood, FL?!?

14 Oh, I'm sure I could find that album if I could figure out how to play it (along with my all my other vinyl dustcatchers).

15 You can still buy turntables, you know...Quite a few of them around, because of professional disk jockeys--the kind that lug vinyl to parties/clubs. Or you can have a pro copy your LPs into digital music files, then to CD...Ignore the "boos and hisses" from the purists. It'll cost you around $14/album. If you go the turntable route, expect to pay somewhere between $200-$400 for a good unit with a quality stylus and cartridge. I did find a $79 deal online that looks interesting(four out of five stars, 24 reviewers at NexTag)... see http://www.onlinecarstereo.com/CarAudio/ProductDetail.aspx?ProductID=15998 But i suspect you would like to have the fun of finding one...

16 MAGAZINE-Mushroom Records-1977(unauthorized release) Original vinyl pressing contained the inner groove inscription "At Last" on Side 2. # MRS-5008 LP Tracklist: Side One "Heartless"*,"Without You"*,"Just The Wine"*,"Magazine"* Side Two:"Here Song","Devil Delight"*,"Blues Medley-Mother Earth/You Shook Me","I've Got The Music in Me". The asterisk indicates a different version of the song from the standard available through Amazon, and may include rough lead vocals; different, longer running times; and some different instrumental solos. Mnay of these were live recordings from a 1975 performance at the Aquarius Tavern in North Seattle. Towards the end of the song "Magazine" you can hear a radio playing a eulogy for Elvis in the background. Also in the background you can hear an intro to "Magic Man" played backwards. Heart sued over the album and won the right to re-mix the contents to their satisfaction. That was a first. Why Hollywood, Florida? I think it is just an East Coast stopping off point. Mushroom(not the Aussie firm with the name now) was in Vancouver, BC. I think they just hit both coasts. If you want to know more, check out the Wikipedia entry for "Charlie Richmond." I'm sure you'll just swoon when they talk about the Universal Audio vacuum tube mixing console and the 40 pre-amps! I know what sets women's hearts fluttering! Or maybe how to put them in a coma? Don't know which--sort of a problem. I think that gives you enough to search on the Web... We're talking something like $20 for a clean copy here. If you'd like me to check, I have one of the best sources(for vinyl) in the country within 5 minutes of me--Beverly Records.

17 At the moment, my budget for musical upgrades is zero. With a little luck, though, in six months or so I'll be on the market for a turntable and the Heart album. (Just need another client--or to sell my stupid book--and we'll be off the super-skinny budget.) Thanks for the info!

18 Actually, I was never much of a Heart fan. But the Hollywood, FL bit threw me. The Ft. Lauderdale airport's actually called the Ft. Lauderdale/Hollywood International Airport. I get this impression they hopped on a plane, dropped off a bunch of records at Peaches', hit the beach and the bars - no SoBe scene, back in the day - then hopped back aboard and headed home.

19 Both are great in their own way. Queen were heavily influenced by the early Led Zep (see Queen I and II for evidence), but quickly found their own sound. Both bands were never afraid to experiment with a variety of musical styles - sometimes more successful than others - and like Bowie, that to me is a sign of real musicians. It takes a lot of guts for super-popular bands like them to risk falling on their faces, but I applaud their efforts. Having seen Zep in 75, and Queen once in 76 and twice in 77. I give the live nod to Mr. Mercury and co. IMHO, Freddie was the greatest frontman rock has ever seen (yup, above Elvis, Jagger, Planty, etc), and he was an entertainer as well as top-notch vocalist and musician. Plus, he was funny and lovable as hell, camping it up to the Nth degree. If you ever get the chance to see or hear bootleg CDs or DVDs of them from 74-77, you'll be stunned at how great they were. I'm saddened that we will probably never see the likes of either band again.

20 I'm afraid I didn't see Queen live until 1980 (circa The Game), after Freddie had cut his hair and gone all macho on us. At the time I saw it as a sort of "sellout"; you know how humorless teenagers can be. But since then I've seen DVDs of the "macho" Freddie in concert, and it looks like he's really having fun.