Led Zeppelin

Every week, I have all intentions on writing about a certain band, and then I get here, and I just don’t feel it. Sometimes it’s a journey back through my music library to see who is singing loudest in my head, or sometimes its been staring me in the face all week…so this week, we take our third repeat trip back [there really won’t be many] because the first time I posted these guys, it was week three [we are currently at week #89] and at that stage I wasn’t writing or posting a favourite album…and it’s goddam Led Zeppelin…I said, “IT’S GODDAM LED ZEPPEL…” oh, you get the jist.

These guys are my number one band of all time. [that’s a fucken ballsy call Mykie!??!] I know, I know. But they clearly dominate my music preference teledex system in two very distinct ways.

Firstly, I grew up listening to these guys. When the world was dishing up the likes of Bros, Morris Minor and the Majors or even a splash of Debbie Gibson [that one’s for you Stephen O’Neil], I found myself gravitating toward music from a decade or two earlier. Thanks to a very dear High School friend of mine Luc Hewatt, I was introduced via a live performance at Madison Square Garden during absentee lunchtime visits to his his house that just happened to be across the road from school [how convenient Mykel…]. So from a mid teens era, I was digesting the likes of ‘Kashmir’, ‘Rain Song’ or even better, the 28 minute version of ‘Dazed and Confused’…Epic.

Secondly, and probably more impactful to the following..um…25 years or so of my musical schooling, was the very clear distinction that this group of four boys from London had very possibly influenced most musicians in someway or another ever since they rocketed to being the ‘Biggest Band in the World’ as they were called in the mid 70’s. This is no small feat. They were the first band in the world to have their own Jet Plane that would take them from country to country. They were massive. Broke every audience record that the Beatles had. These guys were the definition of being a true stadium rock band.

Aside from ‘Stairway to Heaven’ which really is in a class of its own, I am a huge fan of their ethereal, acoustic material that they created quite early on. I personally think that this more gentle side of an out and out rock band was the key to their success. Blues, folk, rock…they hit the enormously awaiting nail of 70’s youth angst fair and square on the head. Killed it. Even backed it up with the lifestyle that they have been so synonymous with, all the while holding it together….just.

There are so many facets to this band that I think that they should be on Page one [see what i did there..] of the text book you’re given during your first lecture in Rock n’ Roll 101.

‘That’s the Way’, ‘Gallow’s Pole’, ‘Ramble On’ and ‘Over The Hills And Far Away’ are all regular tracks on my playlist, but then you hear the sheer size of ‘Achilles Last Stand’ and they are two ends of a very long scale.

Without trying to come across like Captain Obvious, I think they will go down in history as the true ‘Grandfathers of Rock n’ Roll’. Once you delve into their whole catalogue, they were all musical geniuses in their own right.

Robert Plant couldn’t have exuded more sexuality if he’d been naked. I wasn’t exactly there, but I get the impression that his voice was literally in tune with the sound you make when you orgasm. (Oh Mykie…how crude) No dude, for realsies. Cut to 2:12 in ‘Whole Lotta Love’ and he is making his trademark singing/moaning sound that up until then (I don’t recall the Beatles ever crossing that bridge) was something so sexually overt that I kind of imagine the stories about them to be true.

John Paul Jones was a smart man who knew exactly what his role was. Probably the most underrated member of the band, he was kind of like the straight man of the group. I always wonder what he got up to during the shenanigans. He seemed like such a level headed dude. But props to the guy who is still playing with the likes of Josh Homme and Dave Grohl. No matter how big those other boys get, I don’t think they’ll even pierce the shadow of Zeppelin.

Jimmy Page will go down as maybe only second to Jimi Hendrix in the freedom and things he could do with his guitar. Watching him play is like watching a true master at work. Even if you were to practice every day for three decades, I don’t think you’d come close. There are some people who just surpass everyone in their innate understanding of an instrument.

And then there is John Bonham. Oh…John Fucking Bonham. Never again will there be one like him. So incredibly rough around the alcohol infused edges, but never before have I seen a drummer play with such precision and ferocity. I only realised a few years back why there was something different about Bonham. And please, before I mention this, understand that these dudes were kicking out through the late 60’s and 70’s.

What I learned was that Bonham would play his drums in tandem with Page’s guitar. Most drummers set the beat and the rest of the band follows with the melody. But John Bonham was so in tune with his craft that he was able to do that while simultaneously mimicking Jimmy Page’s guitar riffs at very many stages throughout their songs. Once I understood this, I began to better grasp the back and forth between the two and how they would shape a lot of their songs around the musical conversation these two had with each other. Add to that Robert Plants’ voice and the solid nature of Jones and we start to glimpse the beginnings of why they worked so well together.

Bottom line, they saved me from a youth of empty pop music factory bullshit and gave me an audio based education in what it is like to rock the fucken bejesus out of a crowd with epic songs that make you squint your eyes, pull out your air guitar and pretend you’re in front of 100,000 fans….welcome to the quiet times of my teenage bedroom.

M/

~ Article updated September 2018