This thread was inspired by discussion beginning in Youtube thread here:
I’ll start it off. Favorite Led Zeppelin album and song?
Album:Houses of the Holy
*Best cohesive album; it rocks,has a blues-ey swing to it too, but has wonderful baroque numbers too (The Rain Song, No Quarter) without drifting into the bit bloated excess of Physical Graffiti (lots of B-side-y tracks that really just didn’t make it on III, IV and Houses).
Song:When the Levee Breaks
The Sound of the Wrath of God, to quote @divedivedive. And John Bonham at his Bonham-ian best, providing God’s beat in a miked-up Victorian stairwell.
On any given day, most of their famous songs, I just can’t get enough of. Rock 'n Roll is so good. Kashmir is so good. Black Dog is so good. When the Levee Breaks is so good. Immigrant Song is so good.
I was listening to a best of collection I made a while back, having forgotten what songs I’d put on there from each album, and it was great song after great song. But even then, despite all that, Stairway to Heaven came on, and I hadn’t heard it in almost a decade, and it just floored me.
So yeah, as cliche as it might be, there’s no topping that song for me. Each section of that song is so powerful, I just love it.
It kind of sucks that IV/Zoso/Untitled takes a bit of a back seat in my mind to other albums and tracks because of over-familiarity due to radio-playtime. Stairway suffers in particular. And it deserves a far better fate. Because every time I sit and purposefully listen to IV/Zoso/Untitled I end up second guessing Houses as my favorite album.
Like I said in the other thread, I am not really a Zep guy. I respect them, and I like a few of their songs, but for the most part not my thing. Seems like most folks are big fans of the early albums, but those sound like warmed over blues songs that were done first, and better, decades earlier to me. I think some of their more, I don’t know, experimental stuff sounds better to me, like What Is and What Should Never Be and Immigrant Song. Those songs don’t sound like anyone else, and I wish there was more like that.
One other reason I’m not a big fan, and this is totally just down to preference, their songs are just too damn long. Even songs that are really good, like In My Time of Dying on Physical Graffiti - it’s eleven minutes! Kashmir - eight and a half minutes! When the Levee Breaks, by far my favorite Zep song - seven minutes! I’m more of a punk guy, get in, do your thing, get out. Oh you wanted to hear more? Well rewind and listen to it again, I gotta go shoot up.
Are we talking Topographic Oceans? I used The Revealing Science Of God as the music of the contact made with a sentient, alone (eternally? Infinitely?) pocket universe in a STTTRPG adventure that kicked off a campaign. I love that album.
Yeah, I invited him as the designated “They aren’t my favorite” guy kind of a designated contrarian here to stimulate discussion…but I don’t want to end up throwing him in the brig again.
I am, in fact, not! Instead it is one of the bands that can trace their musical lineage to them though.
The studio cut from Bridge Across Forever is actually only 14:32 long though.
But I could have chosen Light of Day, Day of Darkness by Green Carnation, that and Transatlantic’s (same band as video) Kalidescope both are over an hour for a single ‘song’
The song I linked takes as much inspiration from the Beatles as it does Yes, but Roine Stolt (Swedish guitarist) of The Flower Kings has a long tradition of homage and inspiration from the prog acts of the 70’s.
Gotta say their first is their best. Babe, I’m Gonna Leave You alone elevates that album to their best, but with Dazed and Confused, Your Time is Gonna Come, and Communication Breakdown? It’s a slam dunk. I even totally dig the noodling in I Can’t Quit You Baby and the oh-so-Page Black Mountain Side romp. There isn’t a bad song there, but the standouts really do stand above.
So to the actual topic, my personal feelings to Zep are general admiration, but passing interest. Did The Immigrant Song in Thor 3 make me exceedingly happy? Absolutely. If they come on my mix, will I listen? Sure. But they’re not one of my all time favorites or anything.
Honestly my favorite parts are when they cut lose from constraints and lean in to the unique. Complex structures, lyric nerdery, tonal changes, basically anything but a straight 70’s rock song. Which, to be clear, they do well. It’s why Achilles is my song of choice, it’s one of their most indulgent songs.
Which is as much a reflection of my antipathy to the rock radio format that curtailed music for far too long.
I was never a big Zep fan back in the day. I think it’s because I went to a midnight showing of their concert movie “The Song Remains the Same” (I think that is the title) and basically was put to sleep by the overindulgence of the band.
But with time I have become a fan of their early studio stuff. There is some very strong music there that I over looked back in the day.
Yeah, I’m not knowledgeable enough to rank albums, but as far as songs go, Since I’ve Been Loving You is my top with No Quarter following not far behind.
