WAS TOLKIEN ALL THAT POPULAR BEFORE LED ZEPPELIN?

I have several "Chicken Or The Egg" style questions in my head lately, mostly pop-culture quandaries regarding which came first. I feel kind of ignorant not knowing the answers to these things, figure maybe if I just own up to them on The Internet maybe somebody could come along and school me on them?


Trying to guage the popularity of The Hobbit and The Lord Of The Rings... was the Middle Earth series revered as a "Classic" before Led Zeppelin released "Ramble On" in 1969? Today, The Hobbit is REQUIRED reading in most schools - is that because it's an incredible book, or because all the English teachers grew up listening to Zeppelin and then found the book and then went "Dude, this is EPIC, why didn't my teachers ever show me this?" I know that the book had a degree of popularity before the song, but how much popularity? Enough to have become a literary classic without the rock-n-roll boost?

Where you lead, I WILL NOT FOLLOW :(

Reading an article about Famous Hollywood Co-Stars Who Hated Each Other, I was CRUSHED to read this one:

CO-STARS: Lauren Graham and Scott Patterson, Gilmore Girls
Sometimes off-screen disdain can make for incredible on-screen chemistry (hello, Cybill Shephard and Bruce Willis on Moonlighting). Such was the case for the actors who played on-and-off couple Lorelei and Luke. There were rumors during the run of the show that, the second the cameras clicked off, the two sunk into icy silences (or brawls). In an interview with TV Guide, Graham kept her nose clean, saying, "We're not intimates. But I'm here an average of fifty hours a week, so there isn't a lot of socializing for any of us."

khristle is, of course, in denial. Because in HER world, they're still sitting at the counter in Luke's Diner, flirting at a speed of 487 words-per-minute, drinking giant cups of coffee and waiting for Rory to come in the door to tell them about her latest escapades at College.