Sifting through Led Zeppelin’s first six albums on Spotify today what is immediately obvious is there where reasons why I didn’t like them the first time round but they weren’t really very good reasons: thee band overstate heir case and then some, they seem to overplay, over think, over indulge, over wrench. It is like they have something to do with rock and roll and the blues, sure, but whatever it is they represent is something that I just don’t want to be a part of under any circumstances. I disagree with their weird Tolkeinist dreams of sex and bellbottoms, it is there for less danger and more daydreams about the band.
To put it another: I don’t believe in Led Zeppelin the way I believe in, say the Stones, everything is a little too imaginary and too overdone, it is all 20 minute drum solos and the song remains the same and the same and the same.
Certainly, once punk hit it was all over and completely done with andno one took em seriously for a second. What could you do with the codpiece fopping planks but smirk at them. Which is, OK, he who lives by the cool will die by the cool and then something strange happened. The times caught up with the band, even in 1980 by rapping buddy Disco Dee was namechecking Led Zeppeling and wile since then they’ve always been the band I loved least -and I mean LEAST, from the early 1970s, when I took a break and actually listened and really with Spotify I just went through the entire six albums and it is really amazingly sonically great. Sure, Robert’s falsetto can get irratating, so can Ezra Koenig’s by the way, and sure Page overdoes it, why wouldn’t he, and sure, while I did see Page And Plant, I never saw the entire band live on stage and I always felt the trick lay in the rhythm section. Like nearly every great rock band.
So altogether, I wasn’t thrilled by the band but listening to Zep 1 – 4 plus Houses Of The Holy and the incredible Physical Graffiti, I must admit I think punk has something to answer for, while it is true that all six albums dropped pre punk still it was punk that made them obsolote with one amphetemine sneer from Johnny Rotten’s lips.
Today, they sound great. There isn’t a dog in the lot, six albums, all “A”. Plus “Rock And Roll”? How did I miss that one??? I mean I know it, but I never really listened.