Zep was a very, very influential band. If you look at interviews with many current and former heavyweight rock and roll bands, almost all of them speak of Zepplin in a rather reverent tone. Now maybe because I'm a huge blues fan, I've always thought that Zep 2 was their best album. And like someone else said earlier on, yes, they did 'rip other bands off' - heck, they outright stole stuff from some of the Delta blues players and never gave them a nod. 'Stariway to Heaven' was almost a total rip of a Spirit song (which was a weird bastardization of Greensleeves anyway...) But the stuff they 'stole', they made their own. Jimmy Page was, before Zepplin, one of the most sought after and respected session guitarists in London. Robert Plant has a voice like none other, before or since, in rock and roll. Jones and Bonham were, in my opinion, about the only two, at the time, who could have filled out that band. Their CD's still sell thousands upon thousands of copies every year.

Another reason I think that Zep will always live on in the Pantheon of Rock is that we got to watch them mature and change as they went through their career. Presence is a very solid album. It shows where they were as opposed to Zep 1.

Now as far as the Beatles are concerned, I hear that statement ("they sucked") from a lot of people and I've always been confused by that. When you look at a band, you have to look at the times as well. They were the band the moved music from Bill Haley and Comets and Elvis into your Cream, Hendrix, Zep...etc. It's kinda like one of those biblical passages in the old Testament that no one bothers to read. 'Blind Lemon Jefferson begat Robert Johnson who begat Muddy Waters who begat Elvis who begat the Beatles and the Stones....etc...etc"

They were powerfully influential. Amazingly so. And look at their history; they started out as basically a garage band playing skiffle and R&B hits to moving into Rock and Roll covers. Then they were discovered, cleaned, groomed and presented as pop idols. And the world got to watch and listen as rock and roll changed right before their eyes and ears. If you can listen with an open mind and an appreciation for the times and their history (recording on antiquated equipment, cranking out an album every six months - at least for the first few years) and the number of truly inovative material - Sgt. Pepper, Revolver, Rubber Soul, The White Album -I think you'll find them to be an amazing band.

You don't have to like the music, but you can appreciate them for what they did. Hey, I don't like the BeeGee's but I can appreciate the fact that they were huge 'back in the day'.