#29: Led Zeppelin- Led Zeppelin

Nick Young:

Listened to: CD

It’s hard to do a better job summing up the appeal of Led Zeppelin’s torpedo of a debut album than visionary rock journalist Greg Kot did in a 2001 recap for Rolling Stone. “The cover of “Led Zeppelin,” the British quartet’s seismic 1969 debut,” the author of “Ripped” wrote with the kind of shameless adolescent enthusiasm that used to make Rolling Stone great, “…shows the Hindenburg airship, in all its phallic glory, going down in flames. The image did a pretty good job of encapsulating the music inside: sex, catastrophe and things blowing up.” Basically, what Kot was trying to say was that the best way to explain the appeal of “Led Zeppelin’s” libidinous fury was to accept that their music was formed around the image of a massive exploding dick. If you’re willing to embrace them in all of their unapologetically sensual glory, then you’re going to have the time of your life listening to this album.

I’ll admit it.. I still love Led Zeppelin. That’s not going to change until the day I die. I still enjoy feeling the pulse-quickening opening note rush of time bomb one-two punch album lead-off “Good Times Bad Times.” The lyric, “In the days of my youth I was told what it means to be a man,” accompanied by a pulverizing guitar riff from Jimmy Page, sounds like the secret of manhood (if that makes any sense). During the chorus Robert Plant openly discloses, “Good times, bad times you know I’ve had my share / well my woman left home for a brown eyed man and I still don’t seem to care,” with a heart as cold as an assassin’s ( and this was way before Big Pimpin’)..

When Plant screeches that he knows what it means to be alone, I believe him. I believe him the way I believe Otis Redding when he howls “That’s how strong my love is,” on his rendition of a song that goes by that very name. Here Plant is more detached than Redding , but then again he has to be. Redding in his song is trying to sell his lover the idea that he really will be the moon when the sun goes down, but Plant is just a guy with a hard-on and no where to put it. Jump ahead a couple decades to listen to the Moldy Peaches’ “Steak for Chicken” and you get an idea of his pain. “Who am I going to stick my dick in,” indeed..

It’s the impassioned longings that truly make this album feel grandiose. On every track of their debut album Led Zeppelin seems to possess supernatural secrets we can only hope to understand. Immediately following “Good Times Bad Times” is the Ennio Morricone-esque epic ballad “Babe, I’m Gonna Leave You.” I think the only reason Quentin Tarantino hasn’t used this in a movie yet is because it’s too obvious (and maybe a little too perfect). It’s that untouchable lengthy masterwork that you can’t stick in a movie because it’s already cinematic enough by itself. With the exception of “Communications Breakdown,” which unfortunately is used quite a lot in today’s movies, most Led Zeppelin songs provide you with such vivid visuals already that they can stand alone as great individual works of art (case and point: stairway to heaven; purple rain before there was purple rain). In addition to being one of the most licentious rock bands of all time this side of Montreal, they were also the most mythically obsessed (each member adopted their own symbols for Christ sakes).

On “Dazed and Confused,” Plant oozed woeful sexuality with impassioned lyrics when he moaned, “Wanted a woman never bargained for you,” essentially mapping his own wet nightmare for us to get lost in. It’s the most sludge-soaked, LCD-laced song on the album, which is why it’s a relief when we’re pulled from the darkness by the uplifting finger-picked gospel anthem “Your Time Is Gonna Come”. The dichotomy between light and darkness on “Led Zeppelin” is absolutely perfect. For every steamy, smutty orgy like “You Shook Me” there is an enlightening, mystical counterpoint like “Black Mountainside.” Sometimes they even happen at once, bringing a sense of lucid confusion that recalls the ecstatic ramblings of Timothy “Speed” Levitch.When I’m listening to “Led Zeppelin,” I’m in constant Heaven. If that doesn't guarantee a sure entry into the 500 greatest albums of all time list then I don’t know what will.

-Nick
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Mike Natale:

Listened to: CD

Like a brilliant phoenix rising from the ashes of the Yardbirds, Led Zeppelin’s debut album rips through every track like a malevolent hell beast. Next to, in my opinion, The Doors, Grace, and Appetite For Destruction, Led Zeppelin is the greatest debut album of all time. Every song on this album is an absolute classic, and like all great geniuses, it was panned by critics. Who can forget that great line in Cameron Crowe’s Almost Famous when Jason Lee describes Rolling Stone as the magazine that hated every Led Zeppelin album?

But Rolling Stone slightly made-up for being anti-Zeppelin by ranking the debut album at #29 on their list, and it’s obvious why it ranks so highly. Opening on Good Times, Bad Times, an instant classic, Page seemed to admit the band didn’t fit with any music out there today, by playing the solo through a Leslie Speaker, which is meant for an organ. Normally, any other band would go from a hard-rocking track like Good Times, Bad Times to even heavier fair, but Robert Plant drops us into a mystic vibe on Anne Bredon’s Babe, I’m Gonna Leave You, which by the end packs as much force as Good Times. This is the first time anyone got to hear those real, true Robert Plant vocal wails on record, wailings who have influenced everyone from Freddie Mercury to Axl Rose to Jeff Buckley. Fun little anecdote, towards the end of my relationship with one of my exes, she made me a mix CD, and this was one of the tracks. And yet I still didn’t know she was cheating on me. But moving on.

Track three brings us to the apparently inescapable Muddy Waters/Willie Dixon duo, with the powerful You Shook Me. I have to admit, the first version I ever heard of this song was by Jimmy Page and The Black Crowes off of Live At The Greek, which was almost like hearing it performed by Jimmy and a love child of Mick Jagger and Robert Plant. I’d hate to infer that this is a weak track, because it isn’t at all, but it is one of the weaker tracks on the album, which oughta say something about the sheer greatness of this album as a whole. But You Shook Me does slide seamlessly into one of the album’s finest tracks, Dazed And Confused. Originally by Jake Holmes, there is not a person alive who doesn’t think of the Led Zeppelin version, without it’s psychedelic beginning. Mystical vibe, mind-blowing bass line, and tear-yer-ass-up breakdown and solo. Dazed And Confused must have been one of those tracks that first time listeners heard and thought “What the fuck just happened?”. I often wish I was luck enough to have that same experience.

Flip over to side two of the album, and you get one of my favorite tracks, the often underrated Your Time Is Gonna Come. With the organ, the uplifting, heaven-ward, optimistic, almost hippie sound, side two begins with an almost throwback track, or it would be a throwback if that style of music weren’t what was going on right then. With the beginning of side two, Led Zeppelin fulfills my criteria for a classic album. It must show where we were/are, and where we’re going to be. Tracks like Your Time Is Gonna Come and the follow-up Black Mountain Side could have been heavier Beatles tracks, and is Plant and Page saying “Ok, so this is how it was. Now get ready for how it’s gonna be.” and with that they burst into Communications Breakdown, a track unlike anything before, and still a little bit unlike anything since. The powerhouse, punk-rock, wail, whine, and wild-riffing track is like a breath of fresh air, the kind that knocks you on your ass and leaves you with the most satisfying headache ever. To imagine somebody going from Black Mountain Side to Communications Breakdown reminds me of that scene in Back To The Future, you know the one, where Marty goes into Johnny B. Goode at the dance, and looks out and says “Well, your kids will love it”. And I’d imagine Plant thought the same thing after playing that track the first few times live. And he was right.

I Can’t Quit You Baby is one of those Zeppelin tracks that really shows how Page/Plant dynamic is very much like the Richards/Jagger one, in that the guitarist is the real gifted musician in the band, but the singer makes it unique. This track would’ve just been a blues throw-away with some bithcing solos, but Plant’s vocal yawps make it an absolute classic in it’s own right.

Notice how I’ve declared every track a classic thus far? Well, the final track, How Mnay More Times is no different. If you think that this makes Zeppelin overrated, then what the fuck do you listen to? Take your obscure indie rock and shove it up your ass, because this, man, is the music the forces of nature intended us to make. Listen to the drums, the guitar solo, every inch of How Many More Times is oozing with sex, brutality, and brilliance.

So, in conclusion, I’m sure anyone reading this has listened to this album, but if you haven’t, stop reading, right now, James won’t mind, and go buy, listen to, and love Led Zeppelin. Seriously, fucking do it now.
　
　
　
What the hell are you still reading for? Go get Zeppelin!
　
　
Fine, be that dick. Your loss.
　

-Mike
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Every once and a while on this blog, Nick and I will invite guests to post some pieces where we feel there is a need for further insight. While Nick and I know a fair amount about most genres, I at least speak for myself when I say I know shit about shit whe it comes to the “metal” scene today, nor am I a fan, as if you couldn’t tell from my intro to Marquee Moon on Sunday. So, I called in my resident metal expert, James Kleisler, who is also the bassist in my band (which mystifies me, since the only thing metal about our band are the material the instruments are made of). I enlisted him to come and give an idea of how Led Zeppelin (the album) had an impact on what has become metal today. Take it away, James:

James Kleisler:

Led Zeppelin has to be one of the most influential bands out there, aiding in the birth of metal. From their blues riffs to their kick ass 8 minute drum solos ,there is not one metal band out there today that you cannot find any characteristics of Zeppelin in there, whether it’s from the guitar solos or even just the drumming patterns or their style of playing. At the time they were considered heavy metal for their powerful vocals, heavy blues riffs , crushing guitar, bass, and drum solos. They were honestly ahead of their time. I feel that metal would not be what it is today if we didn’t have Led Zeppelin pave the route for us.

Guest Info:　

James Kleisler is attending R.E.I. for music producing and sound engineering , and is the bass play for the rock band WOTEF and also for the death core band A CALL FOR CONQUEST (who have just released their long awaited EP named DESOLATE). Both bands can be viewed on Myspace and Facebook. Also, Wotef will be broadcasted over the radio this Sunday on 94.3 and will be playing there CD release show on Saturday at Massapequa lanes at 10:30pm so be sure to come out and see them.

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Well, everybody, thanks for reading. See you tomorrow for #339: The Heart Of Saturday Night by Tom Waits.