Ricky Roma
The Catch
I was going to leave this alone because Zep is one of my favorite groups. But I just can't. It would be like me equating Richards' and Page's guitar skills and saying they're just different styles.
The Stones.. Jagger primarily, wrote about real things in a smart, rude often wickedly funny way. It's a large part of what separated the from The Beatles early on. Their lyrics can stand alone. Some of them have become part of the cultural language.
Zep's lyrics, Plant's primarily, are mostly a lot of spacey nonsense with some Tolkien and mythological references tossed in at times to make them appear more than they are... and those are the more interesting ones.
The Stones lyrics often raised their songs to another level. The only purpose for Zep's were that they needed some words.
Fair enough. I don't think I would just chalk up Zep's lyrics as 'nonsense' IMO, and besides....when it came to lyrics period, I wouldn't put either LZ or RS on a Dylan/Lennon/Waters level anyways.