![\"\"](\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/greta_van_fleet.jpg\")
<\/p>\nGreta Van Fleet can\u2019t seem to catch a break. The young foursome from the faux-Bavarian town of Frankenmuth, Michigan, has sustained criticism for copping its sound from 1970s rock giants Led Zeppelin. The group’s debut track, “Highway Tune” is characterized by Josh Kiszka’s Robert Plant doppelganger wail and Jacob Kiszka’s Jimmy Page-style guitar licks; the track sounds like a Led Zeppelin IV<\/i> outtake.<\/p>\n
If that weren\u2019t enough, when pressed on the issue during an interview with Dutch music journalists FaceCulture, lead guitarist Jake Kiszka went so far as assert that \u201cLed Zeppelin wasn\u2019t an overwhelming influence of ours.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
In that June 2018 YouTube interview, Jake claimed with a straight face that until online chatter began, the band \u201cdidn\u2019t realize the similarities and commonalities that we share with \u2026 that group<\/i>.\u201d<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a deep irony here: Not to take away from Led Zeppelin\u2019s greatness, but Robert Plant and Jimmy Page themselves earned a reputation\u2014backed up in court cases won against them\u2014for lifting music from others without giving credit. Rightly or not, at its core, rock & roll has always<\/i> been about borrowing ideas.<\/p>\n
The fact remains that when taking Greta Van Fleet\u2019s music and act on their own merits\u2014something that those intimately familiar with Led Zeppelin’s catalog may find difficult to do\u2014one can readily admit that it\u2019s pretty good. There\u2019s an energy within the songs on the group\u2019s pair of EPs that evokes the best of arena rock from the 1970s and \u201980s.<\/p>\n
The three Kiszka brothers (Josh, Jake and Sam) and drummer Danny Wagner were all born some two decades or more after Led Zeppelin\u2019s swansong, In Through the Out Door<\/i>, was released. And it\u2019s likely that a stack of Zep albums figured prominently in the the collection of the Kiszkas\u2019 parents. To some extent, all artists are the product of their influences. And it\u2019s reasonable to allow young musicians\u2014albeit ones growing up in public\u2014to develop their own style as they mature.<\/p>\n
Still, \u201cWhen the Curtain Falls,\u201d the first single from Anthem of the Peaceful Army<\/i> sounds a whole lot like Led Zeppelin II<\/i>\u2019s \u201cHeartbreaker.\u201d Changing it up just a little, Josh\u2019s vocals on the advance track \u201cWatching Over\u201d sound more like Guns ‘N’ Roses\u2019 Axl Rose. And the instrumentation has faint echoes of ’70 Southern rock.<\/p>\n
The trick to making a lasting impression, and to becoming more than the musical flavor of the month, is to assimilate influences and recast them in a way that adds something new. It remains to be seen if the band will reach that goal. But regardless, and in the meantime, Greta Van Fleet is sure to entertain a legion of fans who never had the opportunity to see or hear Led Zeppelin live on stage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Greta Van Fleet can\u2019t seem to catch a break. The young foursome from the faux-Bavarian town of Frankenmuth, Michigan, has sustained criticism for copping its sound from 1970s rock giants […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15902,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,49,62],"tags":[3704,1299],"class_list":["post-15901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-essay","category-new-release","category-rawk","tag-greta-van-fleet","tag-led-zeppelin","cat-27-id","cat-49-id","cat-62-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15901"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15901\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15903,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15901\/revisions\/15903"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}