- LED ZEPPELIN I Oleg's review / Federico's review
- LED ZEPPELIN II Federico's review / Oleg's review
I HATE LED ZEPPELIN!!!Oh, this is what I call a good beginning! Led Zeppelin are the most overrated band in rock history and.......wait a moment and let' me proceed with order.Led Zeppelin are the true first hard-rock band in all senses : powerful, highly energetic, rough, fast and extremely professional ; only a ears-damaged person can deny this objective fact.This band contains peraphs the best musicians of the '60 and maybe of the early '70 : Jimmy Page is an amazing guitarist with a very strong blues background, able to create hard riffs ( someone may say he ripped off most of them from old blues songs, but it' s clear that the way he transformed them, makes all those old riffs something new and unheard ) and fantastic solos ; Plant has a very good voice but you have to be a fan in order to appreciate all his screams and his falsetto ( for example he results obnoxious, very obnoxious, to G. Starostin.....I hope those guys never meet themselves! ).Just put apart John "Bonzo" Bonham, one of the best rock drummer, always powerful, precise ( a perfect incarnation of the ideal classic rock drums, I may say, but I' m not a musician so I can' t notice the news he did in playing his instruments ), to focus your attention on John Paul Jones, the bassist : multiplayer and strings arranger, maybe the most musically sensible in the band.What did Led Zeppelin give to the music?Well, to be honest, for me it' s hard to answer ; with the first two albums they provided to an indipendent and raw sound, they created the true hard rock music, with a strong influence of blues : none band of that time can compare with them on this ground ( maybe the Who can, but in songwriting Townshend is more pop-ish ), their power and strenght is evident ; maybe they are the first band that completely put apart the lyrics ( at least in their earliest days ) to concentrate on music.Contemporary heavy metal has a great debt with LZ : they introduced ( in the early '70 ) in the musical scene some kind of fantasy ballad with lyrics based on J.R.R. Tolkien' s books, the sometimes embodied the darkness of their epoch ( the best example is "No Quarter" ) and Plant' s falsetto is a model for all metal singers.And all those things go on linked to their fantastic musical skills.And so what' s wrong with them?At this point I may say my hate toward LZ is a reaction to how they are worshipped, but it' s not so right ; they really have, according to me, very obnoxious sides.The first is the lack of songwriting ability and I' m not talking about all their presumed-or-not ripps off ; sure they wrote some memorable tunes and excellent songs ; I can' t deny this fact, "Baby I' M Gonna Leave You" "Whole Lotta Love""Starway To Heaven" "When The Leaves Break" "No Quarter" "Over The Hills And Far Away" are only the most evident examples but also the only ones ( well, just add another dozen of tunes or something less ).But write good song doesn' t mean to be good songwriters!Just think to the number of the albums they put out and compare it with the number of good songs : you' ll find tons of fillers!And until this point there is nothing really bad, very much bands, like Deep Purple, Kinks or Jethro Tull, have some weaker songs in their albums, it' s normal ; the point is that LZ' s fillers are often unlistenable and truly offensive ( for more precision read the following reviews, but "Moby Dick" "The Battle Of Evermore" and "D' Yer Mak' er" are already enough for my ears! ) ; some people says : "Hey, hear how particular is this song, listen to the great counterpoint of soft vocals and treathening drums " and similar stuff ; they are right, LZ have really a particular sound, you can' t say it' s generic rock' n roll, but you have to distinguish arranging from songwriting and LZ are mainly very good arrangers not songwriters.Another point off to LZ are, for me, the lyrics ; when the music is fresh and innovative I can stand they sing about girls, fucking and drinking but when they try to be intelligent and "prog" it' s a total disaster : "Banality' s Fair" I say, parodying a famous book, just look to the reviews ( my main reproach is that they put all this fantasy stuff with the evident purpose to say "Hey, we are going prog, here a tons of fantasy things put all together!" ).Mr. Starostin called the bands like LZ, Deep Perple and Black Sabbath, "Gritty Axemen" : I completely agree : play things your are able to do and don' t try to be intelligent or artistic!In fact when LZ abandoned their usual ground ( the hard rock, in the case you missed something ) the result is a big disaster : all the weakness of their compositions and their pretentiousness comes to the light and there is very few to save.For any other clarification read the following reviews.
you don't know anything about Zeppelin [Federico's note: concise, short, effective, clear, direct to the point... some of the qualities a good reviewer needs! Just try to get a brain and you'll be all right :))) ]
In response to your led zeppelin review...
Okay, first of all, in order to write such comments, you should be an accomplished
musician. I have been playing guitar for about 5 years and i can play mostly
all of jimmy page's songs. It's not easy. If you carefully listen to songs like
"Since I've Been Loving You" (LZ III), "The Song Remains the Same" (Houses of
the Holy), or "The Rain Song" (Houses of the Holy), you will be able to hear
the different complex parts to the songs played over 2 or 3 guitars and a solid
bass line with a very artistic drumming and very inspirational and strong lyrics.
I'm not saying that Led Zeppelin are gods, but you have to admit they are good,
not just "Arrangers" with lots of "fillers", their unreleased songs have a powerful
meaning to them and if you listen to the earlier albums (LZ I through Houses
of the Holy) you will not be dissapointed.
My favorite band is Led zeppelin, and i think that they are the most inspirational
band there ever has been, as apposed to today's music.
I have done a bit of songwriting myself and it is very difficult. I end up playing
a led zeppelin riff while trying to write something new, I just say dammit,
they already wrote all the good stuff. So anyways, that's my views on Them guys
[Federico's note: ok, I admit I wanted to be mean and provocative. Howewer I
just want to add that for me LedZep are only overrated, not bad, just look at
my ratings: not extremely high, but also not very low too. Sometimes the band
is a bit complex, but complex doesn't mean good. And where are the 'inspirational
and strong lyrics' in their song? I have to be missing them! ]
Ah, Led Zeppelin I! Debut of the debuts,greatest and
the first hard-rock album ever,recorded for only 30 hours...
SUCK COCK now!This IS overrated,very overrated,but still cool,you know-at least,not
so boring.And,certanly. Not the first hard-rock album.There is the only one
song that you REALLY can call heavy-“Communication Breakdown”,but this one was
rip-offed from some old song called “Nerveous Breakdown” and played with The
Who energy.
I need to calm down now.
OK,guys were not revolutionary at all.Judging from the objective sight,Led Zeppelin
was just good commercial product wanted to be another The Who.Even Jimmy Page
got the idea of the band right after he had watched some The Who show.But Led
Zep certanly were not The Who at all-more bluesy,they sometimes forgot about
the word “rock” and stuck into endless bluesy improvisatons with cock scream
from Mr.Plant that could bored you to hell.If you don’t believe in this theory,check
out the first side of their debut record-there is THE ONLY ONE rocker-“Good
Times Bad Times”.And it sucks.Imagine Beach Boys trying to do “heavy” parody
on both The Beatles and Chuck Berry ad you’ll got the all idea of the song.The
other songs are three neverdying classics-“Babe I’m Gonna Leave You”,”You Shook
Me” and satanic “Dazed And Confused”.And as muh,as I enjoyed the songs,I can’t
say that I was ot bored.When you hear the vocal parts,they are allright,but
when Led Zep are going to do improvisation I feel that I am automaticly go to
me bed.Take “Babe I’m Gonna Leave You”,for example.It is woundeful, wounderful
ballad with great singing and really good lyrics(though I think they were rip-offed),but
then goesbluesy jam built on a good folk melody(anyone noticed that bluesy jam
built on good folk melody sucks anyway)which is so naive,but very good played.And
there is also the one thing that easily can explains why I hate bluesy jams-
musicians do the soul and musical mastrubation while doing the jams and forget
about the listener at all.At all.But, surprisingly,I LOVE the song and the jam
too.
“You Shook Me” is the classic cover of Willie Dexon tune which gows into the
boring jam.And there is Plant qho played harmonica!And played it well.And so
did John Paul Jones on his Hammond.But so did not do Jimmy Page who destroyed
all of the atmosphere of the good love song with his self-loving guitar.Anyway,don’t
miss this song.
The classic satanic “Dazed And Confused” follows next.Now it is-I can’t listen
to the jam section which is terrible and boring The famous riff is nothing light
nooding.And this is the song everybody loves???Oh my,what the hell is this overrated
shit?
The side two is much,much better-it has only two blues songs that close the
album and both of them rule.”I Ccan’t Quit You Baby” is unforgetable song that
has simple melody,great guitar effects and almost no jamming at all.And Plant
rules on here.Just rules.
The second blues song is “How Many More Times” which riff was stealed from old
Eric Nelson's tune 'Summertime" and then were used in Deep Purple’s “Black Night”.The
main surproise is that jam rules more than the song itself-I LOVE all of these
cock rock Plant’s screams.And what a great drumming!Bonzo,you were amazing.
Other songs of the second side are all the best songs on the album.”Your Time
Is Gonna Come” is anthemic pop song with no pretends to be hard or what.That
line “Your time is gonaaaaaaa coome” sung by Jones and Page just gives pleasure.
“Black Mountain Side” is a little folky instrumental with Page’s acoustic guitar
doing immposible things.This is the best Led Zep Tolkien-moved song-no kidding!I
really feel some “Lord Of The Rings” or ‘Silmarillion” scenes without listening
to the stupid Plant lyrics.
Finally,the album got “Communication Breakdown” and this song could be the only
reason to own Led Zeppelin I. It is the great punk song.Just great-everyone
needs to listen this one.Heavy melody,amazing guitar solo and catchy chours-the
song has it all.
So,that’s all.The album is good,only some pointless jamming is really idiotic.Fortunaly,guys
forgot about the jamming at the next record.Lord bless them.
And now,while I’m listening to “You Shook Me” I’m going tttoklknauyuafavasupa7tgashvba,bviaygygfgvaygkas.......Ah,sorry,I
felt asleep.And I also did a balant rip-off.Which one?Well,think for yoursel,I
don’t remember.
Four accomplished and professional musicians joined their
forces and recorded one of the first hard rock albums; my friend Oleg has already
tell you that this is not the first true hard rock album (I suppose Yardbyrds
win the prize here) and he insisted that this album is not that revolutionary.
I think here should be some more precisations; first of all, if you count only
the volume, the loudness, the "crunchy factor", the style I have to agree with
you that this album is truly unique and represents one of the most audacious
step towards hard rock: the Zep had surely taken a direction that before had
never been taken so radically and so professionally. However this stylistic
choose wasn't so unpredictable at the time: c'mon, Yardbyrds had already tried
a sort of hard-blues, maybe more pop-ish, Stones released Beggars Banquet
which features a remarkable gruff and crunchy guitar tone, Cream experimented
with furious and loud guitar/bass interplay, founding the basis of the future
hard rock movement; and how to forget Hendrix? Didn't he transform on stage
some of his blues songs, like "Red House", making them sounding much more menacing
and hard-hitting, a sort of power-blues (check out his version of "Killing Fllor"
on Live At Monterey, or "Red House Blues" in the live compilation Hendrix
In The West)? And Jeff Beck? He was, together with Page, a guitarist in
Yardbyrds and in 1967 he released, after joining forces with Rod Steward and
Ronnie Wood on bass, Truth in which he played the same music Zep try
here, just less loud and violent. You see, the seeds for this kind of heavy
blues had been already present in the musical scene; howewer I don't want to
criticize too much the band, since none before them have made the blues sound
this way.
The album is surely good and I consider it their best, not only because it sounds
fresher than anything else in their catalogue, but also because the diversity;
maybe Houses Of The Holy is more diverse, but its diversity is married
by the low songwriting quality, while here, the little diversity (hard pop "Good
Times Bad Time", pure blues "You Sook Me", hard rock "Communication Breakdonw",
eastern flavoured pop "Black Mountain Side") is backed by solid melody and arrangements;
some melodies are surely stolen, but I don't care because they are transormed
in a very intelligent way. The band, if not so tight and unite as will happen
with time, displays in its roughness an unusual power, a sort of chaotic and
pulsating strenght; not that they are amateurs, either, Jimmy Page is an amazing
guitarist but on this album his guitar sounds a bit murky, "evil", distorted,
menacing and all the riffing sounds like a 20 tons panzer: Jimmy Page is satanic!!!
The drummer bashes the Hell over the goatskins, but he is one of the greatest
drummer EVER, and his bass drums makes your stomach jumping and thrilling, with
its inusitate power and frenzy; in the more bluesy numbers like "You Shook Me"
or "I Can't Quit You Baby", he is a bit restrained, but not less interesting
thanks to the good technic (his drumming is far from being vulgar or unprofessional).
The most charming surprise from the record for me was the singer, Robert Plant:
he doesn't indulge with his self-loving falsetto, instead he pulls out some
of his most guttural tones, making his singing a sort of visceral scream, a
menacing primordial chanting. Listening to this album I can't avoid thinking
of a bloody orgy among cavemen: it' s dark, frentic, visceral, crunchy, its
sound so spontaneous and savage that for me it' s impossible to have another
image in my mind. Blues, and particularly Delta Blues, has always had a dark
and mysty nuance: add to it the violence of the hard rock, and you'll have this
result. The images of the orgistic cavemen shouldn't deceive you: despite their
behaviour, Zep aren't exactly cavemen, at least musically speaking and their
professionalism saves some mediocre tracks like the trite pop, disguised with
distorced chords as hard rock, represented by "Good Times Bad Times" (BTW here
Bonham did a great work with the bass drum: has he a mechanical foot?).
The other songs are all worthy, thanks to the solid melodies, like the delicate
acoustic arpeggio of "Baby I'm Gonna Leave You" or the crystalline guitar lines
of "Black Mountain Side", the eastern flavoured songs in which Jimmy makes a
sort of reharsal for the future polished and smooth acoustic experiments of
III. My favourite track is "Dazed And Confused" a song in which all the
features previously described are present at the highest level: Plant screams
as if someone is taking his heart out of his chest, Jimmy alternates panzer
riffs to frentic solos while the drummer gives us some rhythmic exquisiteness;
the song structure is a bit too much simple and basically the most exciting
part consists in the jam in the middle part of the song. Don' t forget the steady
bass too. But maybe you are one of those who prefer the majestic blueswailing:
"You Shook Me". It' s an impressive cover, mainly thanks to the spectacular
guitar-work, but Plant is a bit annoying while he tries to imitate the guitar,
altough this will become a clichè for all metal singers (but the duet between
Blackmore and Gillian is much more spectacular). The super-fast rocker "Communication
Breakdown" is exciting and vertiginous, not to mention heavy as hell for the
epoch: don't miss it!
...er, I don't know how to write a decent conclusion, but I suppose it's totally
unnecessary: Oleg has already told you to buy this album ; ).
Any comments or reviews to grant us with?
Peraphs the LZ masterpiece, maybe not, but sure an impressive record, that shows the sound of those guys at its best : unlike "LZ I" here you can find the precise will of record a real heavy album, but there is not the mannerism of later album like "IV" and "Houses Of The Holy" and they sound extremely fresh and vivacious.The production is not very precise and accurate : like on some Hendrix' s albums, you can hear with headphones a continual buzzing by the always at highest volumes ampli ; but don' t care, you can heard this buzzing only during the low-volume passages and they are very few!This album is surely catchy, but for me is extremely lightweight ; after listening to it, I feel a sense of void : what did these guys want to communicate?Well, I know most of the records are made for fun ( and some of them are the so called easy listening ) and personally I often appreciate also this kind of music ; but this is an extreme example, for me this album is frigid, it hasn' t anything to say.Plus for me ( this is extra subjective, you see, I warn you ) it' s boring : all songs are or frontal powerful assault or they start quiet to grow in intesity with time, but they are often overlong ( song of this kind are the jolly for bands like Cream, for instance, and I' m thinking of "Swlabr" on "Disraeli Gears" or "Can You See Me" by Hendrix ) and the album itself is overlong.I know the only thing they want to do is hard rock, but this album is miles away from being diverse ( unlike of "Houses Of The Holy" for instance ) and surprising.For me if it ended at the middle of the actual record, it' d be much more worthy.To be honest this is not a reproach only against LZ but against all the hard rock movement : for worth they are, they aren' t diverse and this is an imperfection.But now forget these subjective words and think the album is among the best in its genre ; there are a lot of riffs that will catch and hit you with a great strenght and the songs are, as usually for LZ, extremely well arranged ( I may say they are albe to underlines all the most remarkable nuances of rock' n' roll, making them as strong as possible and this is a compliment ).J. Page isn' t at his best yet ( in fact I think that the solo on "Whole Lotta Love" is not so fluent as it should be ) but he always provides to improve the songs with his bluesy guitar.For me on this album you can find the best Plant ever ; you know, with time he seems to get worse, not less powerful but less controlled and brilliant.Ah...do you want me talking about the single songs?Ok, I' ll do ; the first track, "Whole Lotta Love", is the best song here, thanks to the introducing riffage, maybe the essence of hard rock ( even if the riff has a strange parallelism with "Ehy Joe"' s one ) ; the part with strange noises and the famous simulated orgasm seems to be put into to create a sourt of shock-the-system attitude and for an omage to the epoch, but its quite good and it also provides to the closest LZ ever got to psychedelia.You can also find terrifing hard rocking song, like "Heartbreaker" and smooth acoustic ballads, but with some "high&heavy" moments.......well, these songs have been overplayed by radio, you don' t need I tell them to you.What can I add?Sadly nothing....it' s a very good album but there isn' t a lot to say.
I’m not going to tell you all the songs that Led Zeppelin
rip-offed from other songwriters and bands-go to Wilson and Alroy site-they
know much more than me.I am going to review this album-in my opinion,it’ the
better thing than calculate all of these Led Zep rip-offed melodies,riffs,lyrics,songs
etc. etc. etc.I only thell,that this recrd is on 70%(or around 70%)not original
at all-after big success of Led Zeppelin I guys and their record company
wanted to get some money and record this.
Well,certanly,this album is not Led Zep debut album in any means-if there were
more interesting hard-rocking songs like “Comunication Breakdown” on the first
album,there are more hard bllues on the second one.Guys got some old good (un)famous
blues numbers and built the whole album on them.Such songs like,for example,the
opener ‘Whole Lotta Love”(which almost everyone call the best Led Zeppelin song)is
a boring blues-rocker with catchy chours and terrible middle section where Jimmy
Page wants to be Eric Clapton SO MUCH.I hate,hate this song and don’t think
that I will ever understand why everyone praise this song.
Good old singer Mr.Plant has his highlight on Led Zeppelin II-along with
The Song Remains The Same it is his best album,where his singing is just
perfect.Some cockness+some good blues-influenced singing+great and genetic screams=Robert
Plant in his best.Check out such songs as “The Lemon Song” or “Bring It On Home”
to hear the man in the really good light.But,I still hate Robert Plant for his
coky-rocky stuff and for his idiotic hair that he NEEDED to cut off.
Anyway,back to the album now.After “Whole Lotta Love” there is solid ballad
“What Is And What Should Never Be” which has nice(but rip-offed,I think)melody
and such a good and tighten playing that makes me really feel that guys were
good players-not great,though.Lyrics(as eever)suck cock-I prefer some lyrically
garabage that Ken Hensley did to this.
“The Lemon Song” is a brilliant song.George Starostin once said that it was
the medley of old blues songs,but I disagree-it was the whole one song rip-offed
from some band.That band(which is unknown-even I donm’t know his name and don’t
think anyone,except such weird guys as Wilson and Alroy remember them.But I
am too lazy to check out their site,so you may now open the new Internet Explorer(or
Netscape Navigator..or Opera...or whatever...)window and go right to W&A reviews)sued
them for rip-offing,and moreover-that band won!He-he, every fucker(evemn little
one)must get the judgement.Anyway,about the song now.Creepy and unusual riff
with absolutely stupid lyrics goes into hard-rocking section and to strange
funky section.I love this song-best song to hear when you are writing exam or
doing homework or doing something related thing-really helps to think a lot.At
least, it helped ME.
“Thank You” is the pop song and really good pop song,I must admit.Melody is
nice and cathy,lyrics are even good, but not even a single person but me understand
this song.Pity,just pity-sure,Robert Plant and Jimmy Page were not great pop
songwriters,but they could write good catchy songs.
“Heartbreaker” is a terribly messed song that can’t even fit in your mind and
has no good ideas at all.Or maybe it was rip-offed too?If yes,so all that I
can say is the magic and terrible sentence:”Guys sure have bad,bad taste”.The
song must burn in hell.
“Living Loving Maid(She’s Just A Woman)” is my second favourite song on here-just
good fast rocker(from which Uriah Heep borrowed a lot of ideas-that’s for sure)that
were played with amazing energy-guys sometimes knew that they did.
“Ramble On” is the short re-write of “What Is And What Should Be” with even
more Tolkien-based fantasies and strange melody.But I till like it-you may think
I am crazy,but I LIKE it.
Finally,”Moby Dick” is the most underrated song on here...Stop,stop,I said ‘song’?Forget
it-it starts as a cool instrumental with riff used in the song “The Girl I Love(She
Goy Long Black Wavy Hair)” and continue with great and bombastic Bonham drum
solo.I even prefer it to another classic drum solo of the epoch-Baker’s “Toad.”At
least, Bonham really demopnstrated what he could do with drums.
Finally,the great ending called “Bring It On Home” is divided into two parts.If
the first part is moody hard blues song,the second is avarage hard rocker with
plasent-ear melody that would be later re-worked and used in “Immigrant Song”.
So,if the album is so great,so why only 7?I have told it before and will repeat.Rip-offs
never were good things and the copying of the music you have already written
too.So,that’s it.
But the album needs to be in your collection.
Send your comments and reviews of "Led Zeppelin II"
This was a year after the relase of the debut,but Led Zeppelin
had already tired to do this hard-bluesing things and go acoustic folk-so gentle
and peaceful,based on lame Tolkien fantasies!And that’s great.For only one reason-
there were not such great folk perfomancers and so Led Zeppelin didn’t rip-off
anyone...Well,almost didn’t rip-off-two songs on here ARE rip-offs!It made Led
Zep gathered round together and showed the talents of themselves.There are grea
songwriter quality,great playing from all memebers of the band(except Robbie
Plantr,of course,but now he sings normal-not like on Led Zeppelin II,but
really cute and funny) and even two non-boring blueses(imagine that!) on the
whole album!
The opening track is famous radio hit “Immigrant Song”,which is really best
song on the album.It is also the first really heavy-metallic song the band ever
did.Driving metal riff,Sabbath-like vocals and amazing drumming-that’s all you
really need.There’s also some good lyrics about vikings coming to Roman Empire
to ruin it and live on the new lands...Well,I suposse that the song is all about
it,at least-you can’t be sure what is in the head of old Robbie Plant.
“Friends” is the first acoustic song on the album-one of the six.It is REALLY
cute with great singing from our favourite frontman and cool acoustic folky
style of playing on guitar.Really cool littel thing,though lyrics are terrible.
“Celebration Day” is great catchy rocker with amazing driving and catchy riff
that goes on and on through the whole song.But the song is just prelude to everyone’s
favourite on here-long Led Zep classic blues “Since I’ve Been Loving You”.Great
drumming,good singing and superb Jimmy Page’s solo in the middle where he did
the immposible things.The lyrics are rather lame though:”Working from seven
to eleven every night...”-is it supposed to be the description of famous long-long-long
Led Zep concerts?
“Out Of The Tiles” is almost acoustic first-rate boogie-woogie with catchy vocal
hook in the chours when Robert just screams:”...is AAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLL YOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUR
LOOOOOOOOOOVE”.Heck, guy knew how to sing so why he didn’t do it before?!
“Gallows Pole” is gentle-gentle acoustic tune with lovely Plant vocals,while
“Tangerine”(which seems to be a fan-favourite,but I really don’t know why)is
absolutely lame song.Lame melody that doesn’t give me anything,lame arrangement
which is nothing by almost acoustic noodling and lame lyrics,which are again
Tolkien-based fantasies.I HOPE that they are Tolkien-based fantasies because
everybody say it and you never know what to think when you remember Jon Anderson-like
messages kinda “The hours,they bring me pain”(you need to hear how Plant sings
this line,by the way) or “Thinking of us how it used to be/Does she stll remember
the times like these?/To think of us again?/And I do”.And the chours when Plant
goes “Tangerine-tangerine” every time...What the hell is this sweety shit???If
I want good pop melody I’d better get my Led Zeppelin I copy and re-listen
‘Thank You” again-I don’t even going to hear this shit again.
“That’s The Way” is a long five and a half minute acoustic song that is really
perfect as well-there are great music and great unusual lyrics(Plant FINALLY
get good Tolkien fantasies thi time:”And yesterday I saw you standing by the
river/And weren’t those tears that filled you eyes/And all the fish that lay
in dirty water dying/Had they got you hypnotzed?”-cool,mystic,weird and very
dark).It is real pleasure to hear all the song.
“Bron-Y-Aur Stomp”(what,if I not mistaken,means on Welsh something like “Golden
chest”(cock rock?!What cock rock?!”))is another gentle acoustic peace of music
and the ending “Hats Off To (Roy) Harper”(Roy Harper is the famous folk singr/songwriter,the
one who sung on Pink Floyd “Have A Cigar” and who is one of the favourite musicians
of Mr.Ian Anderson-ever heard about him?)has quite smilar to “Bring It On Home”
production and great bluesy rhythm with fuzzy Page acoustic guitar.Great song,but
everybody seems to hate it.
After the listening of “Hats Off” you probabl ask yourself:”And this is all???”So
did I,but that’s album time-it is somehow limited,but this one can go on and
on and on and you’ll never be tired.So,buy this one.
Send your comments and reviews of "Led Zeppelin III"
This is the best album to start with LZ because it' s the most quintessential ; but it' s also the place where the boredom begins to take the control of the most of the songs and the mannerism overhelms musical originality.Apart for the timeless classic, I sure not deny the quality of them, like "Starway To Heaven","Rock' N' Roll" and the "When The Leaves Break" ( maybe you can add "Going California" ) the album doesn' t carry any new musical idea, simply LZ go on with what they can do at its best : hard-rock.In fact, apart for some truly offensive and atrocious beyond immagination fillers, the album is very listenable and sometimes also catchy ; as usual the super-professionality of the band makes most of the song quiet fine, plus the arrangements achieved the highest high of LZ ( "Houses Of The Holy" is the other strongest challenger on this ground ).As I already said, this is their most quintessential album ; here you can find true hard-rock ( "Black Dog" ), pure rock' n' roll numbers ( ehy, you know what I' m tlaking from the title of the song ), folk-fantasy ballad ( "The Battle Of Evermore" ), the prototipe of all heavy-metal ballads, the song that Starostin calls "...the little ditty about the escalator...", synth driven songs like "Misty Mountain Hop" and "When The Leaves Break" ( a dark and threatening song, overplayed by the radio, but maybe the less overrated of the Lz' s catalogue.On this album each member has his moment to shine ; Page improves the quality of each song with his usual first class guitar, less bluesy than in 1 and 2, but still excellent ; J. P. Jones shows at his best his talent of multiplayer and arranger, making good works expecially on "When The Leaves Break".Just skip the equally usual excellent work on drums by Bonzo : at very high levels each moment, expecially at the end of "Rock' N' Roll".And for his fans even Plant shines here ; he shows all his catalogue of screams and for the first time his falsetto improves the quality of a song ( I' m talking about "Black Dog" : a plane hard-rock song, with nothing remarkable apart the usual good quality of playing and Plant' s voice )."Rock' N' Roll" has no particular musical innovation, it' s a simple rock song played with the technology of the '70 and more loud ( but not so much ) ; but it' s incredibly groovy, fresh and vivacious ( I think this is the last time LZ are fresh ) with fantastic drums parts ; the lyrics are nostalgic and this creates a good contrast with the music.Then we have one of the worst song I ever heard ( at least from famous band ) : "The Battle Of Evermore".The music tries to be medieval, and it has its moments but in general is uniform and boring, another failed experiment from LZ III ; I' ll pass on the lyrics : pretentious, affected by simplism, full of commonplaces taken directly from Tolkien ( "...the queen of light took her bow.....waiting for the angels of Avalon.." ?!?! If I give my 4 year old a chance to tell me his fantasies he' d come out with more intelligent and interesting images! )An example of stupid pseudo mysticism, Tolkien would be offended from this song ( I' d say it' s a parody ).No, no it' s better to directly go to "Starway To Heaven" ; good acoustic riff and good melody, the medieval lyrics are this time more interesting and really able to create powerful images ; not an immortal masterpiece, it' s without doubt a extremely solid and good song, but I' m don' t able to understand why it is so famous ( oh readers, I' d be glad if you tell me why! ).For me the album ends here ; in fact the following tracks are the same song for me : the usual hard-rock song, with some -little- innovations ( that consist mainly in the massive use of synths in "Misty Mountain Hop" ) and the usual LZ clichè ( powerful drums, Plant' s screams....... ).The other remarkable songs ( and I recommend you to resist from sleeping trought "Four Sticks" in order to enjoy them ) are the soft and delicate acoustic ballad "Going To California" ( very peaceful and relaxing ) and the threatening "When The Leaves Break", a sourt of manifesto of the dark mood of hard rock in the '70.In this song the drums are solid and hypnotic, the wall of sound combined with Plant' s voice is really terrifing, and when Plant begins to sing, just before he spits out the first letters, he does a particular sound I particularly like ( "tum tum ta, tum tum ta..iiiiiiffffffffgive.." do you understand?no? ).Highly distorced guitars and synths complete the song.A memorable tunes, with melancholic and gloomy lyrics.LZ are very good arrangers and they show their talent at best in this song.So what' s wrong with this album?Well, ladies and gentlemen, the wrong thing is the genre!No, I' m joking ; what I want to say is that if an hard rock band hasn' t new sound to shows the boredom is the only result, even if the songs are solid and catchy as in this case ; this doesn' t mean the album is so bad, if you are an hardcore fan you' ll surely enjoy it ; but if we want to speak of how this album carry to the music, the rating can' t be very high, a 7 as overall rating is even too much.Without doubt the beginning of the end for the band, but it remains their peak for songwriting.
Send your comments and reviews of "Led Zeppelin Untitled"
They tried to diversify their sound but not necessarily improve it. I have often heard a lot af appreciations for this album, heard calling it the best by Led Zeppelin and so on.I never understand why, that' s all.The first impression after a couple of listens are irripetible on this page and in that time I wondered if the people finds so difficoult to distinguish songwriting from arranging : to my ears, it seems that all those mellotrons, synths, pianos and organs are a sourt of masks and behind these masks the only thing I could find is only a bunch of mediocre songs.And I don' t want to discuss about the diversity of this album ; an objectvie fact is that this album doesn' t sound like an hard rock album : there is medieval ballads, raggae, some funk rhythms here and there, gloomy acoustic ballads, the usual cock rock numbers.Ok, it' s diverse and of course unique in the entire Led Zeppelin catalogue ; but is it good?No, it' s only an incredible bunch of failed experiments : this was my first impression.After a couple of months I decided to give a second chance to this stuff and I must confess that in my early days I was used to be too harsh towards it ; my fault was that I expected a great album, but dreadfully "Houses Of The Holy" is just an ok-album.Now I can appreciate this a bit much more than in the past, excpecially for the fact that all songs, if you don' t pay too attention are a pleasant background, thanks to the good arrangements.Another point to analize is the genre-experimentation question : I' ve already said that this is their most diverse album, with a lot of genre contamination in it, but I think a reviewer should analize if they managed in this mix.My response is that they totally failed ; they are miles away from good taste, an example can be "D' Yer Mak' Er", a reggae-ish song, with funny chords and super stupid lyrics : the song is very repetitive and quite catchy, but a jolly like this can' t last FOUR MINUTES!!!!It makes you sick after a couple of listens.Or "Over The Hills And Far Away" : the song starts as an interesting medieval ballad, with some overdubbed acoustic guitars playing charming "trombadour" lines....and then, they totally ruins this ancestral melody with the usual, trite hard-rock part : the rocker is vivacious and good as the whole song, but this for me is the proof that they can' t go beyond crunchy-bluesy riff or dark and gloomy ballads.The beginning melody of "Over The Hills And Far Away", is surely interesting and very different from the usual bluesy lines Jimmy is used to play, but they don' t ( want to ) develope the song in this direction : why?They want to diversify their sound, but they aren' t bold enough to totally throw it away : "Over The Hills..." could have been the medieval tunes they are looking for since "The Battles Of Evermore" or "LZ III".Other problems come for the ultra-boring "The Rain Song", a delicate acoustic ballad : the song is really smooth and pleasant for the first two minutes but it' s clearly overlong with its 7 uniform minutes and the additional instruments can' t hide the fact the main melody is boring after a while you' re listening to it.Another problem of this album are the lyrics ; some of you may say that rarely an hard rock album has good lyrics.My reply?First this isn' t an hard rock album.Second, since they chose to rely on ( pseudo ) mystycism, the pretentiousness of this album is evident and if the music isn' t so good as in "No Quarter", the concept and the mystycism should find a solid base in the lyrics at least.But the lyrics are hideous, the trite things about girls, obnoxious non-sense ( like on "The Song Remain The Same" ), childish-ly mystic ( like in "No Quarter" : the landscape the lyrics describe is really cool, but I think that with another music it wouldn' t be the same ).And there is also another problem.....Robert Plant : this guy begins to get on my poors nerves.In fact on this album he relies a lot ( and of course more than in the previous albums ) on his falsetto : while at Led Zep' s early days the falsetto was used to underline some of the most passional parts, now it' s abused, he sings most of the things in falsetto.Of course his voice is still remarkable but it worsened a bit according to me.On this album you can find the fan-favourite "The Song Remain The Same", a multipart song with an interesting beginning riff and obnoxious vocal part ( and obnoxious lyrics, too ) : a good hard rock song, nothing to add.There is also the vivacious rocker "The Crunge", one of the less pretentious things on here, where LZ manage to find some of the old glory, with a fresh and involving sound ; "Dancing Days" follows this way but with an harder and louder riff : not good but also absolutely not bad.The highlight of the album is surely "No Quarter" : a song about the viking and northern mythology ; well I don' t care so much the subject, even it contributes to makes the song more scarying.The most remarkable feature of this song is the music : on a limpid and cold landscape create with a genial use of synths ( by Jones of course ), Jimmy plays some inspired menacing, slow and distorced riffs, just after Plant finished singing the ( he plays it also in the instrumental intro but the effect grows if you have heard the lyrics ) epic lyrics in a desperate mood.The obsessive and powerful drums complete the scene.For one time they managed to be : experimental and original ( very few of the usual blues legacy on here ), really dark and gloomy, rightly pretentious, finally developing all their talent ( for the most wasted if you listen to me ).The album ends with "The Ocean" a song with an impressive rhythmic section.
Send your comments and reviews of "Houses Of The Holy"