What's Led Zeppelin's best album?

[N*E*R*D*]

Let me know...

[BreakCanon]

Most would probably disagree with me, but I think it's their first one, "Led Zeppelin 1". It's the album with You Shook Me (great slide guitar work), Communication Breakdown, Good Times Bad Times, and Your Time is Gonna Come.

[BareKnuckle]

1 might be my favorite too...but most people typically think IV is the best

[Copper Scroll]

I'm one of the many who think that IV is the best... but only by a hair. I, II, III, and Houses of the Holy are all close behind.

[Tetris v2.0]

IV

Black Dog, Stairway, Battle of Evermore, When The Levee Breaks

Top 10 any genre

[Da_Eggman]

the albums of the artists they stole all there songs from

[N*E*R*D*]

the albums of the artists they stole all there songs from


Care to explain more? I've heard some about this but not all the facts about it.

[Ca$$ius Clay]

Iv. . .

[Copper Scroll]

Care to explain more? I've heard some about this but not all the facts about it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Led_Zeppelin#Allegations_of_plagiarism

When Led Zeppelin's debut album was released, it received generally positive reviews. However, John Mendelsohn of Rolling Stone magazine criticised the band for plagiarising music, notably "Black Mountain Side" from Bert Jansch's "Blackwaterside" (though Jansch himself acknowledges the song as being traditional) and the riff from "Your Time Is Gonna Come" from Traffic's "Dear Mr. Fantasy". He also accused the band of mimicking black artists, and showing off. This marked the beginning of a long rift between the band and the magazine, with Led Zeppelin rejecting later requests for interviews and cover stories as their level of success escalated.

The credits for Led Zeppelin II were also the subject of debate after the album's release. The prelude to "Bring It on Home" is a cover of Sonny Boy Williamson's "Bring it on Home" and drew comparisons with Willie Dixon's "Bring It on Back". "Whole Lotta Love" (sample (info)) shared some lyrics with Dixon's "You Need Love/Woman You Need Love", though the riff from the song was an original Jimmy Page composition. In the 1970s, Arc Music, the publishing arm of Chess Records, brought a lawsuit against Led Zeppelin for copyright infringement over "Bring It on Home" and won an out-of-court settlement. Dixon himself did not benefit until he sued Arc Music to recover his royalties and copyrights. Years later, Dixon filed suit against Led Zeppelin over "Whole Lotta Love" and an out-of-court settlement was reached. Later pressings of Led Zeppelin II credit Dixon. Similarly, the "Lemon Song", from the same album, included a cover of Howlin' Wolf's "Killing Floor". The band were successfully sued for copyright infringement and forced to give credit to the original author of the song.

In an interview he gave to Guitar World magazine in 1993, Page commented on the band's use of classic blues songs:

[A]s far as my end of it goes, I always tried to bring some thing fresh to anything that I used. I always made sure to come up with some variation. In fact, I think in most cases, you would never know what the original source could be. Maybe not in every case -- but in most cases. So most of the comparisons rest on the lyrics. And Robert was supposed to change the lyrics, and he didn't always do that -- which is what brought on most of the grief. They couldn't get us on the guitar parts of the music, but they nailed us on the lyrics. We did, however, take some liberties, I must say [laughs]. But never mind; we did try to do the right thing.

[N*E*R*D*]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Led_Zeppelin#Allegations_of_plagiarism
When Led Zeppelin's debut album was released, it received generally positive reviews. However, John Mendelsohn of Rolling Stone magazine criticised the band for plagiarising music, notably "Black Mountain Side" from Bert Jansch's "Blackwaterside" (though Jansch himself acknowledges the song as being traditional) and the riff from "Your Time Is Gonna Come" from Traffic's "Dear Mr. Fantasy". He also accused the band of mimicking black artists, and showing off. This marked the beginning of a long rift between the band and the magazine, with Led Zeppelin rejecting later requests for interviews and cover stories as their level of success escalated.
The credits for Led Zeppelin II were also the subject of debate after the album's release. The prelude to "Bring It on Home" is a cover of Sonny Boy Williamson's "Bring it on Home" and drew comparisons with Willie Dixon's "Bring It on Back". "Whole Lotta Love" (sample (info)) shared some lyrics with Dixon's "You Need Love/Woman You Need Love", though the riff from the song was an original Jimmy Page composition. In the 1970s, Arc Music, the publishing arm of Chess Records, brought a lawsuit against Led Zeppelin for copyright infringement over "Bring It on Home" and won an out-of-court settlement. Dixon himself did not benefit until he sued Arc Music to recover his royalties and copyrights. Years later, Dixon filed suit against Led Zeppelin over "Whole Lotta Love" and an out-of-court settlement was reached. Later pressings of Led Zeppelin II credit Dixon. Similarly, the "Lemon Song", from the same album, included a cover of Howlin' Wolf's "Killing Floor". The band were successfully sued for copyright infringement and forced to give credit to the original author of the song.
In an interview he gave to Guitar World magazine in 1993, Page commented on the band's use of classic blues songs:

interesting...

[SouthernHipHopHead]

So led Zep are the Kanye Wests of rock?

[heavy_mental]

check out physical graffiti my fav zep album

[Copper Scroll]

So led Zep are the Kanye Wests of rock?
Yeah. What they were doing was basically sampling/quoting--not previously recorded material but previously written songs.

[BareKnuckle]

So led Zep are the Kanye Wests of rock?

to say that would be pushing it..zep certainly got inspiration from some of these other groups mentioned but for the most part they came up with their own stuff...if u check the original songs u can tell that for the guitar parts atleast that it sounds a little different/better

[Kutmaster_Koch]

Zep were 2 (some might say 3) different bands during their career; to rate an album 'best' you really need to hear them all. Starting with IV isn't a bad idea, but I like Houses of the Holy and III best.

[NOTaFreeEmailAccount]

Personally, I'd say II overall, even though that has none of my most favorite songs from them.

Props on posting the plagiarism stuff. Generally I think the band put a new spin on those blues riffs and pretty much improved them in a way, but they should have acknowledged the originals more, then this wouldn't be an issue. And no, none of the original artists' ALBUMS were as good a collection of songs as Zeppelin's albums were. If so, post one of them and we'll see how it compares. Hardly anyone wants to listen to those old blues songs; but Zeppelin's albums endure. (Like I say, though, they still did wrong and should have paid/aided the older artists.)

[Copper Scroll]

^ I don't know. "Whole Lotta Love" and the original "You Need Love" is pretty much an even match for me. Willie Dixon was a great songwriter and those old blues cats had a certain vibe to them that I think Zep tapped into but couldn't duplicate. It's okay, though, because they had plenty of their own flavor... but I don't think it's fair to even try comparing them to, say, Howlin' Wolf or Albert King or whoever else.