Dang, I've gone this far without any Zeppelin? That's hard to believe.
So, when was your Zeppelin phase? I think any of us that are big music fans went through a period in which you believed that, truly, this might have been the greast band ever created and there wasn't much point in listening to anything else for a year or two.
For me, I suppose you could say my Zeppelin years were from 1987 - 1989, approximately my Sophomore through Senior years of high school (I'm willing to bet your Zeppelin years were in high school also). In many ways, they remain the epitome of what a Rock & Roll band should be; all the archetypes are represented within the band in some fashion, and unconsciously, that appeals to us (to go a little Jungian on you here): Robert Plant - the King, Jimmy Page - the Poet, John Bonham - the Soldier, and John Paul Jones - the Wise Man.
Back on point, though, I believe it was their 1987 performance at Live Aid that triggered the interest of me and my friends. The first band we all started loving was Van Halen, but when everyone was making a big deal about Zeppelin reforming for that show, we decided to investigate. My buddy Trey bought IV (on vinyl!), someone else got a tape of Zeppelin I, and it was all over. Not to mention, this was a time when 96 Rock absolutely RULED if you were a teenage white boy. I think they were contractually obligated to play something from Zeppelin hourly.
And there's the rub. Too much of a good thing became, well, too much of a good thing. Especially when that good thing isn't putting out any new music, and there are only eight albums worth of material to listen to. I received the first Led Zeppelin box set for Christmas in the early 90's, and that was about when I became burned out on them. For a pretty good while.
But now, as one might expect, I'm beginning to listen again with fresh ears. When I have the 'ol itunes or ipod on random and I'm hit with Zep tune when I'm not expecting it, it usually knocks me out. It's still good stuff, brilliant in some cases, and I often wish I could listen to them all over again for the first time.
Which leads us to this song. I'm glad this one popped up, as lately I'm ranking it as my favorite Zeppelin song. Back in the day, I was impatient with this song, because I knew "Stairway" was next (dude!). But now, I really dig it. It's very mellow, beginning with Page's picking on the mandolin in the intro, and the absense of a drum or bass part adds t othe stark nature of the song. The minor key it's in helps set the mood too. Plant's vocals are clear and articulate (the more I look back on them, the more I realize I don't understand much of what he's singing, actually).
One strange thing about this song is the alternate vocals after Plant's verses, which is a tactic they rarely employed. I'm not sure who's singing it, but it helps keep that eerie vibe up.I love the melody of the chorus, and I really love the "jam" at the end, for lack of a better term. If you'll notice, too, this song doesn't have many, if any, key changes. It starts in the one key and keeps chugging along, unchanging, almost as if it's a chant or dirge. It builds up the tension in the song that really never gets released!
Of course, the elephant in the room is the lyrics. Yes, they are post Lord of the Rings fantasy nonsense, but what can you do? It's not as embarrassing as their other LOR song, Ramble On, which I've never liked at all. Plus, the opening line, "The Queen of light took her bow, and then she turned to go", while corny, is one of my favoites of any song.
Want to geek out? I found a video of the song set to scenes of the battle of Minias Tirith from The Return of the King, on which the song is based. Break out the 20 sided die! Who's holdin'?
And I know you really wanted to see Heart rock the fuck out of this song. And I'm not even close to kidding.
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Ahh, Zepplin. This is yet another band that I wouldn't listen to when I was younger because my brother loved them. I do agree 100%, my Zepplin phase came my senior year of high school and carried into freshman year of college. I've never owned a complete album, but have a few of their songs in my itunes library, and enjoy when they pop up randomly. I urge ya'll to check out "Crossroads", its a tv show that VH1 does mixing two different genres of music. I caught one with Allison Krauss (blugrass/county) singing with Robert plant. They would do some of her songs together and some of his together. Seems like a very unusual combination, but some of the versions of the songs they did were pretty good, I'm sure they are on you tube somewhere.
Big D, I've heard great things about that Krauss / Plant CD. I should probably go ahead and pick it up.
Just because I liked LZ you didn't? Think about all the cool stuff you may have missed out on by not doing exactly what I did. Plus, giant LZ posters can come in quite handy at times :)
Yeah, it gave me something else to argue with you about, you know keep things interesting.
I can't believe I didn't mention the "poster incident." That has to be my favorite LZ moment of all times. To fill the rest of the readers in: Me and my parents had come home from our summer vacation, I think Bryan went with us, but had to come back earlier than the rest of us. We had just recently had the basement finished in, and Bryan decided to have a party before me and the parents returned home. I think he and I got a dart board for Christmas, so we hung it up in the basement. Apparently the dart game was a huge success at the party. I remember walking down the stairs to the basement behind dad, to find that the dart board was no longer on the wall, and a huge Led Zepplin (IV I believe it was) poster was in its place. Dad curiously looked at the wall and noticed a few little pin size holes peeking out around the giant poster. He then grabbed the poster and ripped it off the wall while shouting loud obscenites to reveal more dart holes than you can imagine. Needless to say pops was none to happy with the elder of the Moore sons. I think he was so pissed I got sent to my room while he dealt with Bryan. Good times at the Moore Household. I do remember Bryan later sayint the party was worth it.
I may not have been there at the Moore Household, but a lot of the other stuff sounds familiar. In 1984, I bought 1984 and can truly say that my first love was Van Halen. How can you go wrong with little angel babies smoking?
For me, Zeppelin came nearer that time. I started raiding my father's record collection. He had copies of IV and Coda (on vinyl). I listened to Coda a few times and was blown away by the drumming on Bonzo's Montreaux. To this day I still prefer it over Moby Dick. Although I did not understand the power of IV when I first listened to it, I knew it had something.
I remember breaking up with a girl over Zeppelin. I loaned her my tape of III. She said it sounded like a girl. Boy did she miss out on a wild ride. I'm pretty sure I was very cool in high school.
Raising Sand by Plant/Krauss is pretty good. There's a song off of Walking out of Clarksdale. There seems to be more of a Plant influence than Krauss on the disc . . . not much bluegrass.
Dang, J, your father sounds like he was pretty cool. That must skip a generation or something.
You did the right thing breaking up with a girl over LZ III. It's my favorite LZ album for sure. It used to be "Houses of the Holy" for a while, but then I came to my senses.
Wow, I just picked up an album by The Led Zeppelin. I think these lads might just have a future with the proper management. Maybe if they could catch on as an opening act for someone like the Dave Matthews Band they could gain exposure to a larger audience.
1989: My older sister dates a cyclist who keeps a copy of IV in his truck. I listen. Don't think too much. I was 12. He tells me it is the best selling album of all time.
1992: I listen to IV, again. This time it means something. I move from there to I, III, and Houses of the Holy, an album which I am shocked to see missing from previous comments. I loved Houses of the Holy. These albums remained mainstays, although IV was the first to go, for the next few years.
1993: I decide to analyze "Going to California" for a poetry project in my English class.
1994: Some friends and I spend nights during our junior and senior years of high school ushering at the Omni. We'd show up two hours early, stand at the back entrance wearing black pants and a white shirt, and they'd let us in for free as long as we ushered in the top rows for the first hour or so. One such show was the Page and Plant fiasco. Needless to say, it sucked. I was thrilled to see these guys live, but Page was slow and sloppy, no real energy behind his playing. Plant had three backup singers to hit the high notes for him. Rusted Root opened for them.
1997: Latecomer to the indie rock scene. I begin infusing my indie/punk listenings with some I and Physical Graffiti. An acid trip makes me convinced that Physical Graffiti was what most emo/indie bands were striving towards.
2006(?): That live DVD comes out. If you haven't watched it, do it. The concert from 69(?) is fucking awesome. I am not kidding. It is fucking awesome. Others I have spoken with feel the late 70-something show is good, but I think that by that time Bonham's drumming is slow and fat, Plant's not as sexy, and Page has been replaced by Jones as the power behind much of the music. Anyway, that 69(?) show is incredible. It makes one realize that these guys were the epitome of a "tight" band. It really was one really powerful, cohesive sound... each part complementing the others.
Currently: I still love I, Physical Graffiti, parts of In Through the Out Door, and When the Levee Breaks on IV.
RR-
If you read my comments carefully, you would have seen that I mentioned Houses of the Holy. It was my favorite too for the longest, before I got around to III
"1993: I decide to analyze "Going to California" for a poetry project in my English class."
That's hilarious. I can only imagine how great that must have been for your teacher, too.
I'm with you on "Levee". That song, "Evermore" and "The Song Remains the Same" are my favorite LZ songs.
Oh, and "The Crunge". Heh.
The Zepplin box set came out when I was in high school. I thought the Beatles were the shit then, but my friend Chris always wanted to convince me that Zepplin was better.
Having a better favorite band mattered so much more these days.
He puked in my car while we were listening to "The Ocean". He felt so bad about it, he dubbed the box set onto high quality tapes for me.
That is when I started liking Led Zepplin.
Yeah, pretty much all of 9th and 10th grade was devoted to this band. Right before that time, white boys around the country were wearing out their dubbed copies of Licensed to Ill, only to discover there are about a brazillion samples from some band called Led Zeppelin in there (Holy shit, that's rhymin' and stealin'!) I thought that was really cool for some reason.
The krauss/plant thing isn't bad. Not to discourage you Bryan, because I know you dig the chick singers, but Plant for the most part sounds manly on this one. I only remember him going all orgasmic on one song.
I'm glad to hear there's some good Zepplein concert footage out there because the song remains the same sounds like dried up dog poo. I do enjoy the outfits, though. And the vignettes were funny/hokey. Amazing special effects.
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