I’m just discovering Led Zep for the first time.
[shocked]
Don’t laugh - I’ve never been a big ‘classic’ rock fan, so I’ve generally ignored all that stuff (except for early Pink Floyd). I basically went from listening to hardcore as a teenager to listening to industrial/experimental ‘weird’ shit. I skipped rock.
Until now that is.
So does anyone have any recommendations or personal faves?? Would like to hear.
And fuck me if Ministry didn’t rip off When The Levee Breaks when writing Scarecrow.
just get all the albums, there are only nine of them, and listen to them all. their weakest ones are obviously “in through the out door” and “coda”. don’t get any live stuff yet (except the live at the bbc 2cd) like song remains the same and other recent official live releases because they have one thing i hate about them live - sometimes they stretch songs way too far, i mean, imagine dazed and confused for 25-40 minutes. while this is certainly cool that they can jam and play it like a real band, but most of the time it just goes like this - bass and drums are keeping the rhythm, page is raping his guitar for like 10 minutes and plant just stands there and moans “aah aaaah / mama / baby” because he just has nothing to do. and page’s live solos are not that great actually. then again, it just shows that they were really powerful at that time, because they could get away with it 
but on the other hand it was just a common trend, deep purple did that too. i love some extra live bits, but i don’t like it when it just turns into total wankery.
as for albums, someone recently asked john paul jones once what lz album would he recommend to the “new generation” of younger people who are starting to discover music of that era, he said “just get the first one, it basically has everything”. and i sorta agree with him. and man, he had some neat bass on all the albums goin’!!!
personal favourites… well: how many more times, the lemon song, heartbreaker, friends, gallows pole, bron-yr-aur stomp, no quarter, in my time of dying, trampled under foot, black country woman, and some more; and it’s all besides the obvious “hits” like black dog, stairway to heaven, etc.
and yes about levee/scarecrow they didn’t just plainly steal the main riff, it’s just very similar. not surprising though - al ripped himself off when he recorded “bloodlines”. and that “cuz u r next” (which i yet to hear in full form) is basically “let’s go” from the last sucker. oh well.
Don’t laugh - I’ve never been a big ‘classic’ rock fan, so I’ve generally ignored all that stuff (except for early Pink Floyd).
In that case you need to pick up the first 6 Black Sabbath albums and some Hendrix too.
i really like everything off of LZ IV Except stairway… damn do i hate that song!! musics alright but plant’s voice just bugs the living crap out of me! My personal favorites from LZ are “Going To California” “When The Levee Breaks” and of course “Kashmir”
Late,
grmpysmrf
Oh and also Bon Scott era AC/DC!!!
[reply]
Don’t laugh - I’ve never been a big ‘classic’ rock fan, so I’ve generally ignored all that stuff (except for early Pink Floyd).
In that case you need to pick up the first 6 Black Sabbath albums and some Hendrix too.[/reply]
First 2 Aerosmith albums are pretty nice as well(in the same vein as LZ), “toys in the attic” and the other one escapes at the moment seeing as it’s 3:30 in the am right now!
Late,
grmpysmrf
[reply]
Don’t laugh - I’ve never been a big ‘classic’ rock fan, so I’ve generally ignored all that stuff (except for early Pink Floyd).
In that case you need to pick up the first 6 Black Sabbath albums and some Hendrix too.[/reply]
word.
Oh and also Bon Scott era AC/DC!!!
i second this!!!
LZ 1 is brilliant, LZ 2 was great too but sounds a bit rushed and disjointed which is not uncommon for sophomore attempts…
But LZ 3 is just so different from the rest of the catalogue that it rates as my fave. Immigrant Song, Out on the Tiles, Gallows Pole, even some old Blues (Since I’ve Been Loving You). A very mature effort by a band at their creative peak.
And fuck me if Ministry didn’t rip off When The Levee Breaks when writing Scarecrow.
That’s ok, Led Zep is notorious for having ripped off a lot of their stuff from old blues guys.
As for the best Zep to listen to, I agree with Wempathy about 3. They were into the English folk revival that was going on at the time, and it makes for a sound that’s different from most of the rest of their catalog.
Led Zeppelin are awesome! My favorite song is Ocean. You should also get into The Doors and Jethro Tull just for kicks.
Led Zeppelin II is by far and wide their greatest achievement. Way better than the debut, this one takes what the first album set out to do, then expands it out into the stratosphere. Hard to believe that a song as tripped out and as fucked up as Whole Lotta Love was recorded (in a hurry) back in 1969. Do not listen to that song on drugs…actually NO, listen to it on drugs!! Blow your mind. It also has my fave Led Zep track, Ramble On.
Led Zeppelin IV is a VERY close second. I don’t care how cliche it sounds or how many times they freakin’ play Stairway To Heaven on classic rock radio, this album is the be all and end all. Not a duff track on it. Battle Of Evermore will leave you spellbound.
In order of my favourite to least favourite:
Led Zeppelin II
Led Zeppelin IV
Houses Of The Holy
Led Zeppelin III
Physical Graffiti
Led Zeppelin
Presence
In Through The Out Door
Coda
Robert Plant’s first two solo albums are choice also.
About ten or twelve years ago, I had a very close brush with death, or at least grevious injury. I was riding a bike on a rural street when a truck, probably driven by some drunk fucker (wouldn’t surprise me in the area I spent my formative years…) came out of nowhere and hauled ass by me and clipped my handlebars. I flipped and tore my arms, shoulder, back, and legs to hell.
The song that was blaring out of this guy’s radio? “Black Dog.”
[laugh]
Few years later, I learned what “irony” was, and that one’s been a special favorite of mine ever since.
I think Presence gets an unfair bum rap of sorts. It’s a great album but largely ignored by the Zeppelin fanbase. Shame really, as it has some genuine knock you out moments. Tea For One would be one of their most under-rated tracks next to Ten Years Gone off Physical Graffiti.
And who could ignore Achillies Last Stand???
I think Presence gets an unfair bum rap of sorts. It’s a great album but largely ignored by the Zeppelin fanbase. Shame really, as it has some genuine knock you out moments. Tea For One would be one of their most under-rated tracks next to Ten Years Gone off Physical Graffiti.
And who could ignore Achillies Last Stand???
Although I was always a hard-core “Sabbath rules Zep are panzys” type of guy I too always thought Presence was quite cool.
I’m going to go out on a limb here are state that I find quite a number of Sabbath’s output rather clumsy.
I like what they tried to do and the vibe that they set out to create - exploring dark subject matter sidled with doomy downtuned riffs and eerie, hypnotic wailing - but more often than not they stuffed it up with silly, high-schoolish lyrics and feeble, by-the-book instrumentation that is, at times, rather embarrassing to have to sit through. They honestly came across as a bunch of bong addled factory workers who suddenly realised that ONE of their number was somewhat musically inclined and subsequently got lucky writing about things they had read in a Tales From The Crypt comic book.
They were never ever EVER in danger of usurping Zeppelin from their well earned throne. Technically speaking, the Zep were a trillion light years ahead of the Sabs in vitually every department (except maybe in the eerie, hypnotic wailing department). It’s almost like comparing Frank Zappa to Ugly Kid Joe.
However, having said all that, there are quite a few Sabbath albums that I can enjoy from time to time - notably Black Sabbath and Volume 4.
well, I can tell you two things about sabbath that I have consistently read over the years…
#1 none of the band wanted Ozzy in the band BUT he was the only person that they knew with a P.A. so they had to let him in the band.
#2 the band’s detuned guitars were sheer luck! the day prior to Sabbath kicking off their tour Toni Iommi cut the tip of his middle finger off at a cannaray accident the very last day of his work (He was not even going to show up but his mom made him go to work!) so they had to pospone the tour for 3 weeks (Or 3 months, don’t remember which) Toni wasn’t completely healed and it was hard for him to fret the guitar let lone bend the strings so as a result he used lighter strings and tuned them lower to easily fret and bend strings…
and for the first time in the history of us “knowing” each other, we are in complete agreement about music… I think you 100% correct on your assessments of Sabbath and Zeppelin!
Late,
grmpysmrf
Sorry but Zep takes it up the ass when it comes to Sabbath.
Sabbath were cooler, funkier, darker, heavier, wore black and were straight up bad-ass!
Zep were a posse of fairies that got around in flowery shirts and sang about lovey dovey pish and tried to copy Hendrix but instead sounded like cracker ass crackers.
Sure from a pure technical musicianship standpoint LZ was vastly superior. However, Toot is right. Zeppelin is nothing compared to the mighty Sabbath. Now please go listen to A National Acrobat at extreme sound pressure levels.
YES.
DO THAT.
Sorry but Zep takes it up the ass when it comes to Sabbath.
Sabbath were cooler, funkier, darker, heavier, wore black and were straight up bad-ass!
I was waiting for you to say this. Or something along these lines.
[crazy]
Zeppelin don’t ‘take it up the ass’ compared to Sabbath. They were a band more rooted in folk, bluegrass and early blues - a completely different beast than Sabbath.
I’m not saying Sabbath were crap (although listening to anything they put out after Mob Rules is a form of torture I would not subject even my worst enemy to) it’s just that TECHNICALLY Zeppelin were on a much higher level. Iommi is a decent guitarist, but compare him to Jimmy Page and he’s a living joke!!
And who cares if Sabbath were ‘darker’? Korn is ‘darker’ than Animal Collective, but which band do you think I’d prefer to listen to? What the fuck kind of argument is ‘darker’?
Anyway, Zeppelin were ‘dark’ just alot more subtley so. Jimmy Page even bought Aleister Crowley’s home on the shores of Loch Ness, whilst in Ozzy’s own words “the closest we ever go to black magic was a box of chocolates”.
Zeppelin had their dark side - but Sabbath were ‘comic book’ dark. If ya get my drift. Zeppelin were more … man, I hate using this term…intellectual.
Zep were a posse of fairies that got around in flowery shirts and sang about lovey dovey pish and tried to copy Hendrix but instead sounded like cracker ass crackers.
Compelling argument.
You win.