Led Zeppelin

OK, enough with the cracks…  “EVERYONE loves Led Zeppelin, so OF COURSE they are in your Top Five!”  My friends that I grew up with loved Led Zeppelin, they were in heavy rotation on the radio, most everyone I knew owned an album or two, and our hack garage bands often goofed on their more famous material.  But to be honest, it wasn’t until I went to college and really immersed myself in the catalog that I became a big fan.  And part of that was due to a relatively new device released only a few short years before my first semester of college…

Ahhh, I’m getting ahead of myself.  Maybe NOT everyone loves Led Zeppelin, but everyone’s heard of them and knows who they are.  Maybe some of you out there hate the band due to overexposure (I get it) and maybe some of you out there hate the band because they “stole” from classic blues artists (I understand it), but if you’re only basing your opinions on those classic rock radio staples you are missing out on a lot of great music.  If you take the time to dig into all of the albums you would find plenty of hidden gems that rarely get the attention they deserve.  Taking the “Zep experience” out of my original contexts and actually taking the time to sit down and listen as a whole was huge in my overall acceptance and eventual love for the band.

 Funny tho, I’m one of those people that kind of shies away from what’s popular or what my friends like.  Not necessarily shying away, but I’m the one that’s going to make my own decision and follow my own path (yes Mom, just because everyone else is jumping off a cliff doesn’t mean I should do it too 🙂 ).  With Zep, we’ve all been pounded with the “hits” that someone deemed that we should like:  “Whole Lotta Love”, “Heartbreaker”, “Kashmir”, “Rock And Roll”, and the grandest of them all, the one that at one time was the #1 song requested on the radio:  “Stairway To Heaven”.  Great songs, one and all, but NOT fully what Led Zeppelin is all about.  There is much, much more to this band than those hoary old chestnuts and once I figured that out and listened to the whole kit and caboodle I uncovered even more greatness than I realized.

Oh yeah, that device…  the first disc I ever heard on a CD player (still fairly new in 1985) was Zeppelin’s Houses Of The Holy, which was an absolute mesmerizing experience.  I was already familiar with some of the cuts but listening to the thing as a whole with repeated plays was a revelation.  At this point in time for the band, they’d grown immensely from a hard charging, heavy blues based band with the occasional folkish tendencies into a different beast entirely.  As a lyricist Robert Plant had been coming into his own, becoming less likely to quote a phrase from his blues heroes and instead weaving unique, literary references into the material or otherwise creating fresh new tales of his own.  By this time, guitarist Jimmy Page had certainly mastered the “light and shade” and “tight but loose” approach, layering riff upon riff but then able to step back and let the space build tension and speak for itself.  And that rhythm section…  unsung hero John Paul Jones, creating even more washes of sound on Mellotron or keys outside of his already stellar work on the bass; and John Henry Bonham…  what can I say?  Incredibly solid, a master sticksman that knew how to push and pull the tempo even as the band was pushing the boundaries of creativity.

While Houses isn’t my favorite album, it does rank very high.  Matter of fact, that mid period of Zeppelin is actually my favorite era as it shows the most creativity as a whole and they were forging new territory.  The band was less likely to bash you over the head with a hard charging riff than it was to balance that heavy and interweave such pristine beauty awash with many colors and layers-  just listen to something like “The Rain Song” or “Over The Hills And Far Away”, two songs with acoustic flourishes mixed in with the occasional solid thump.  How about the haunting “No Quarter”?  Yes, when that come on I literally “closed the door” and “put out the light” and just immersed myself.  Jonesy’s sublime mastery is at the forefront here on the keys, which mixes well with Page’s snaky guitar work and Plant’s trippy vocal.  So finally soaking all of this in in one sitting without getting the heavy does of standard Zep hits was a huge turning point.

The de facto number one Zep album for me is Physical Graffiti.  Fairly light on the radio standards, Graffiti still offers up something new to me in each listen.  It has a bit of everything that makes Zep a favorite:  fantastic songs, excellent musicianship, fabulous singing, and such broad variety across all four sides.  “Ten Years Gone” has long been one of my favorite songs and a great introduction to people who think Zep is nothing more than screeching singing, loud guitars, and pounding drums-  just regal guitar touches, perfectly restrained singing, and perfect rhythmic counterpoint with its subtle melodies.  And then to counter that with a bit of thumping funk in “Trampled Underfoot”, a Bonham master class in keeping a steady beat yet providing epic propulsion at various key points.  Throw in the monolith that is “Kashmir” on top of the remaining “light and shade” material and you have one solid album.

But I digress…  don’t let me tell you about the greatness that is Led Zeppelin; do as I did, buy an album or two, and uncover the wonder within…

Favorite albums:  Physical Graffiti, Houses Of The Holy, IV

Favorite songs:  Ten Years Gone, Ramble On, Trampled Underfoot, Gallows Pole, Rock And Roll, Achilles Last Stand, Kashmir, The Ocean, For Your Life, That’s The Way