November, 1983
The White Built A Career Throuhg
Impersonation
by G .Brown
Six years ago, 'The White' was
just another heavy-metal band trying to make it big in Los Angeles.
They played various gigs around town, but there was one listener
who wasn't impressed--Robert Hilburn, the rock critic for the
Los Angeles Times. He panned The White in print for sounding like
"just another Led Zeppelin clone," and the record companies
never warmed back up to the band.
Michael White, the group's lead singer, then made a fateful decision. "I figured that if we sounded so much like Led Zeppelin, we should just go ahead and do it all the way. The industry people wanted to sign bands like The Knack back then, but we wanted to do the music we liked."
Thus The White began a career as Led Zeppelin impersonators, and they've managed to build up a national following in recent years. They'll show up at the Rainbow Music Hall tonight to bang out their versions of "Whole Lotta Love," "Ramble On" and other Zep classics.
White thinks that his band has the proper attitude about their craft. "We don't go out of our way to look like Led Zeppelin or physically approximate them," he explained prior to a recent Kansas City show. "We're into presenting a tribute to them, sure, but what was important about Led Zeppelin was their attitude. In their concerts, Zeppelin never played their songs the way they had recorded them, and we don't do that, either. They tried to create something special each night, so we also play a 30-minute version of 'Dazed And Confused' and try to take the song somewhere different just as they would."
Although The White can't match the metaphysical bonding that occurred between Led Zeppelin and it's audience, there are plenty of fans willing to accept their version of the real thing.
White thinks there are valid reasons for their popularity besides the material. "I heard Robert Plant on a radio interview once, and he said his influences were Marvin Gaye, The Temptations, people like that--and those are mine, too! I grew up in a poor section of Los Angeles, and that's what I always listened to, that R&B stuff."
The White has more than 60 Led Zeppelin songs in their repertoire, which allows them to change their set list every night. "It just goes back to what I said about attitude," White summed up. "The kids that really understand what Zeppelin was doing in their concerts really appreciate us. It's only people who expect us to be a copy band in the strictest sense that we see heading for the doors."