I’ve never been one to say nice things about Led Zepplin.
Yeah, I can be a blasphemer on the topic of Page, Plant, Jones and Bonham. I’ve never bought any of the albums, and am widely known to turn the station if they pop up via the FM radio.
It’s mostly Robert Plant’s voice that does it for me. I’ve stated multiple times in the past that I would be more inclined to buy their albums if I could find them in some sort of a kind of karaoke version.
While not costing me friendships or any such thing, it does put me out of “The Crowd”.
Until last night.
The other day I was driving down the road and my favorite Rock station was on a roll, having played four excellent bits of tunage in a row. The set was so good that I didn’t even notice until a few minutes in that they had slipped in Zepplin’s The Immigrant Song.
And I’ll be damned if I wasn’t carrying right along as though I didn’t mind.
All of which leads me to have to admit that I have procured albums One through Four, so that I may survey them ad nauseum. And I am certain that I will get sick of them sooner than later.
On a side note, in my searching for which albums to listen to first, I came upon a group of folks who despise Led Zepplin.
I don’t care who you are. Once you decide that you are going to spend hours at Amazon so that you can write bad things about a rock n roll band, you need to realize that you’re full of hate.
I was told that the election of President Obama was going to bring in a time of peace and love. Yet another lie.
Congratulations, Phil! I knew, even as stubborn as you are, that you would eventually realize why they are the greatest rock band of all time! Not my favorite, but the greatest none the less.
I know that you enjoy the Beck/Page years of the Yardbirds. Page really did bring a big blues influence to Led Zeppelin. And you are right about Plant’s voice becoming like nails on a chalkboard after too long.
Of course, my favorite songs are the more blues-based ones, and the few about ramblin’.
For real fun, find Bonham’s drum solos on Youtube.
I got my fill of “Stairway to Heaven” long ago, but I love most of LZ’s other music. As for “nails on a chalkboard” — for the longest time I thought that described Rush frontman Geddy Lee, but that band has gotten to be a big favorite of mine as well.
Man… I love Immigrant Song! I am not a huge Zeppelin fan but I do greatly enjoy that song.
It speaks to my inner Viking.
I dunno, I could probably put a bunch of time into a hate website against Bob Dylan’s album of Christmas carols.
Say what you will about Zep – and I will agree with a lot of it – ‘Immigrant Song’ is one of the best songs in rock.