Album: Led Zeppelin II
I'm a huge fan of Zep, but that doesn't stop me having mixed feelings at times. On the one hand, there's probably been no better assembly of four musicians in the history of rock music, but on the other they're responsible for some of the worst excesses of the genre. They revolutionised music in several ways, not least the fact that they became the first act not to build their success on chart hits. Led Zep also constructed songs around riffs rather than verses or choruses. And they were loud! 45 years later, it's hard to appreciate how loud they were on record or live, but many reviews from the era focus on how heavy they sounded. On the debit side, for all his undoubted talents, Jimmy Page is a questionable character, not least for the way he appropriated the work of others (like Bert Jansch and many bluesmen) without credit. While Robert Plant is my favourite rock singer, his style led to many imitators who took it to increasingly absurd Spinal Tap extremes in the 70s. This is almost exclusively male music which, as it morphed into harder and more industrial forms, became more and more onanistic.
Anyway, back to Led Zeppelin II, which is my favourite of their I-IV albums. Though the blues influence still weighed heavily on the group's sound at this stage, it had started to evolve into a unique brand of virile hard rock, mixed with the mystical folk songs that also began to typify their music. Led Zeppelin II likewise showcases the talents of John Bonham, rock's greatest ever drummer (of this, I have no doubt), on Moby Dick. The power of those trees thumping the drumhead and the speed and range of his playing is about as electric as a drum solo gets. On Bring It On Home and The Lemon Song, the debt to blues legends Sonny Boy Williamson and Howlin' Wolf is obvious (if uncredited). My favourite tracks are What Is And What Should Never Be and Ramble On, both of which show Plant's development as a songwriter, and Heartbreaker and Whole Lotta Love for the riffs and production techniques. This is exhilarating to listen to now, God knows what it was like at the time.
Artist: Led Zeppelin
Born: Soho, London
Released: October 1969
Genre: Heavy Rock
Influenced: Lynyrd Skynyrd, Smashing Pumpkins, Nirvana, Foo Fighters
I'm a huge fan of Zep, but that doesn't stop me having mixed feelings at times. On the one hand, there's probably been no better assembly of four musicians in the history of rock music, but on the other they're responsible for some of the worst excesses of the genre. They revolutionised music in several ways, not least the fact that they became the first act not to build their success on chart hits. Led Zep also constructed songs around riffs rather than verses or choruses. And they were loud! 45 years later, it's hard to appreciate how loud they were on record or live, but many reviews from the era focus on how heavy they sounded. On the debit side, for all his undoubted talents, Jimmy Page is a questionable character, not least for the way he appropriated the work of others (like Bert Jansch and many bluesmen) without credit. While Robert Plant is my favourite rock singer, his style led to many imitators who took it to increasingly absurd Spinal Tap extremes in the 70s. This is almost exclusively male music which, as it morphed into harder and more industrial forms, became more and more onanistic.
Anyway, back to Led Zeppelin II, which is my favourite of their I-IV albums. Though the blues influence still weighed heavily on the group's sound at this stage, it had started to evolve into a unique brand of virile hard rock, mixed with the mystical folk songs that also began to typify their music. Led Zeppelin II likewise showcases the talents of John Bonham, rock's greatest ever drummer (of this, I have no doubt), on Moby Dick. The power of those trees thumping the drumhead and the speed and range of his playing is about as electric as a drum solo gets. On Bring It On Home and The Lemon Song, the debt to blues legends Sonny Boy Williamson and Howlin' Wolf is obvious (if uncredited). My favourite tracks are What Is And What Should Never Be and Ramble On, both of which show Plant's development as a songwriter, and Heartbreaker and Whole Lotta Love for the riffs and production techniques. This is exhilarating to listen to now, God knows what it was like at the time.
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