If Mercury and Plant...

If freddie fronted LZ, and Plant fronted Q, where would these two great bands be?

Yikes. The universe would have been entirely different.

Zep?
No Plant = No Bonham - basic Zep history. Therefore, for Zep as we know it, it may well have been "as you were" for the Yardbirds and that legacy of Zep albums may never have existed.
Conversely, Plant in Queen = no Roger in Queen, as he'd have brought John Bonham along with him.

PS - I've lived 37 years now in the town where John Bonham was born and grew up.

If Freddie fronted even a school band, he'd make it the most outrageous, fun band ever!

Change any one variable and history would be very different. A couple examples:

Ian McLagan (recently deceased, RIP) played keys in the Small Faces, and later on Rod Stewart's first solo album. The Faces rose from the ashes of The Small Faces, with McLagan being in both bands. Had he not simply been the guy in the right place at the right time, The Faces wouldn't have happened, which means Rod Stewart becoming a superstar wouldn't have happened. It also means Ronnie Wood wouldn't have happened, which means the Stones for the last 40 years as we know it wouldn't have happened.

Another one. In 1971, after playing piano on Bowie's Hunky Dory, Rick Wakeman was faced with the decision of joining either the Spiders From Mars or Yes. Choosing Yes meant progressive rock happened, which led to punk, which was a reaction to progressive rock getting "out of control" as they saw it. This led to new wave, and paved the way for what MTV would become.

Try it some time. Tracing these paths is fun.

it's a fun game ^^ to play. I've looked at loads of these "ponderables" in the past - using the "Rock Family Trees" site - not sure if it exists anymore.

However, - as with almost every rule there's an exception:
Rainbow - Blacker's Revolving Door woulda maintained the existence of the band until HE got bored with it.

[QUOTE] [b]noorie wrote:[/b]

If Freddie fronted even a school band, he'd make it the most outrageous, fun band ever![/QUOTE]

I honestly don't think so. In 1970 Freddie was timid and, as Roger put it, "sounded like a powerful sheep."

From what we've read and heard, I don't think he was at all interesting in the 60s. If the demos with Wreckage are of any indication..

Aye. The Purple/Rainbow/Sabbath system is a pretty big one.

Blackmore leaving Deep Purple has a huge ripple effect. Metal as we know it probably wouldn't have happened.

especially where there's one person in charge - regardless of what the others think.

Look at Purple now...all that stability, no more revolving door, producing dull auto-tuned crap...yeah Gillan may be "elected" emperor of all he surveys...but it ain't worth having is it? - it's fucking lullaby-worthy at best. Christ on a bike it's sh*te.

At least his "Blackness" made things interesting, gave the music a creative edge (well him and JL).

Yup. The calamity is what the good comes out of. Smooth sailing makes it middle of the road - too safe and predictable.

Reminds me of Orson Welles' brilliant quote from The Third Man:

"In Italy, for thirty years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love, they had five hundred years of democracy and peace – and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock."

(the cuckoo clock technically came from Germany, but the point is made)

what are the songs where Led Zep did vocal harmonies?

[QUOTE] [b]The Real Wizard wrote:[/b]

Aye. The Purple/Rainbow/Sabbath system is a pretty big one.
[/QUOTE]

yeah......a convoluted tree there! I think like every 70s hard rock/metal musician from the UK played in at least one of those bands.......

and Brian May played with about half of em at one point..........

[QUOTE] [b]bobdylan1 wrote:[/b]

what are the songs where Led Zep did vocal harmonies?[/QUOTE]

without wishing to get shot down in flames here....there isn't much scope for vocal harmonies in blues-rock.
Although John Bonham did provide backing vocals on zep songs.
As regards "harmonies" - in that respect Queen & Zep are apples and oranges.
There are some Zep tracks that do include vocal harmonies - but they tend to be the non-blues songs:
The Battle of Evermore
Tangerine
Ramble On (technically does)
The Ocean
Thank You
...there may be more, but you're probably right - there aren't many

Well plant wasn't the vocalist mercury was so Queen would be worse. The type of vocalist Freddie was and the lyricist he was he would've made zeppelin a million times better. He would've been able to change the lyrics to the songs Page wanted to steal and saved the zeppelin machine a lot of law suit money too....that last sentence was one for the real music aficionados lol its some out there amongst the mostly idiots

[QUOTE] [b]kdj2hot wrote:[/b]Well plant wasn't the vocalist mercury was so Queen would be worse.[/QUOTE]Say's who - different styles both the pinnacle of their type. Anyhow, Brian & Roger's previous band Smile, would've been better suited to Plant. Only issue would be that - at that time Plant brought Bonham with him - so Roger woulda been back to being a dentist.

[QUOTE] [b]kdj2hot wrote:[/b]The type of vocalist Freddie was and the lyricist he was he would've made zeppelin a million times better.[/QUOTE]You can't get better. Zep already were the 2nd biggest band of all time - after The Beatles.

[QUOTE] [b]kdj2hot wrote:[/b]He would've been able to change the lyrics to the songs Page wanted to steal and saved the zeppelin machine a lot of law suit money too....that last sentence was one for the real music aficionados lol its some out there amongst the mostly idiots[/QUOTE]you make a statement like that ^^^ and then call others idiots.? Identical lyrics make a song a cover - lyrics are easy to search and identify. Melodies and arrangements are what gets bands into legal issues..
Freddie "changing lyrics" would've save them no legal proceedings at all. You can fuck about with lyrics all you like - but it's cosmetic....as Zep would say: "The Song Remains The Same"