In my humble, Page is surrounded by this mythic smoke-screen, and an unseen panel of judges that enshrine him as the quintessential hard-rock guitarist (because someone had to be). People may be right in saying that Zeppelin demonstrate a more diverse range of sounds, giving the impression that Page is a superior guitarist to Iommi, who rarely strays from his formula of muscular riffs and short, concise solos, but does that mean Page is a superior guitarist?
We all know the old saying "a jack of all trades and a master of none." One of the reasons why I don't rate Zeppelin particularly high is because I see them as "not quite a folk band, just about hard rock, edging on prog with blues all mixed in". They waver, and Page's guitar playing (despite producing some great riffs) feels at times like it's trying to be all things to all people. His solos occasionally wander with no direction, and his riffs don't always feel as if they're put to maximum use. 'Heartbreaker' is one of my favourite Zep songs, but it only works because the more understated riff is accompanied by Plant's energetic vocals, the same goes for 'Whole Lotta Love' and 'Black Dog' Is this Iommi vs Page or Iommi vs Zeppelin? Some may call Iommi inflexible, I call him a dominant guitar player, and his playing stands at the forefront of basically every Sabs track recorded, I don't believe Page has that level of dominance, and I think his strength is half-owed to Plant and the band. He lacks the same aggression and can at times be (dare I say it) boring.
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'Well, I'm a common working man,
With a half of bitter, bread and jam,
And if it pleases me, I'll put one on ya man,
When the copper fades away!' - Jethro Tull
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