Led Zeppelin Week on Maidenfans (June 8-14, 2009)

SinisterMinisterX

SinisterMinisterX

Illuminatus
Staff member
Thanks to Perun for the idea...

This week, Maidenfans.com invites all members to listen to all the Led Zeppelin albums, and discuss them here.

Suggested schedule:
Monday June 8: I and II
Tuesday June 9: III and IV
Wednesday June 10: Houses Of The Holy and Presence
Thursday June 11: Physical Graffiti
Friday June 12: In Through The Out Door and Coda
Saturday June 13: How The West Was Won

Future schedule:
June 15-21 is Helloween Week (in honor of Foro's Helloween vs. Gamma Ray thread, which deserved more attention)
June 22-28 is Dream Theater Week (in honor of the new DT album Black Clouds & Silver Linings, out June 23)
During DT Week, I'll run a poll for the next band.


Led Zeppelin I

Good: "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You" is the high point for me, but there are plenty of other standout tracks. "Good Times Bad Times", "Dazed And Confused" and "How Many More Times" are all great. The latter two show what a great improv band Zep was from the very beginning.

Average: "Communication Breakdown" is OK, but overrated in my opinion. "Your Time Is Gonna Come" would be a classic for most other bands, but gets overshadowed here by the monster classics listed above.

Bad: I'm not a fan of the slow blues stuff, so "You Shook Me" and "I Can't Quit You Baby" drag this album down. "Black Mountain Side" is a bit interesting, but ultimately feels like filler to me.

Overall: 6.5 / 10.
I'm stingy with my ratings, and those blues songs take this album down for me - but still a good listen.


Led Zeppelin II

Good: "What Is And What Should Never Be" and "Ramble On" are the two best-written songs here. "The Lemon Song" is another slow blues, but is saved by a brilliant bass solo. But the high point of the album is unquestionably "Heartbreaker / Living Loving Maid (She's Just A Woman)". Outstanding solo, great riffs ... quintessential Zep.

Average: "Whole Lotta Love" is dragged down by the experimental middle section, which doesn't do much for me, though the following guitar solo is near perfection. "Thank You" and "Bring It On Home" are both good, but fall a bit short of great.

Bad: "Moby Dick". Ugh. Bonham was a brilliant drummer within the context of a real song, but I've never liked his drum solos.

Overall: 7.5 / 10
If it weren't for the middle of "Whole Lotta Love" and that boring drum solo in "Moby Dick", this album would rate higher. Even with those weak spots, this is an essential record for any rock fan.
 
Honestly - I've never heard an entire Zeppelin song. I know, I should get crucified. I'm on the case however. From what I have heard though Plant can belt out some pretty high notes so that's a must to check out.
 
When I was cutting my musical teeth, the 'Dinosaur' bands were Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, and Led Zeppelin.I kind of branched out with Sabbath, as I didn't thing the other two were 'metal' enough.By and large the Zep studio albums leave me a little cold, although I am starting to appreciate them a little more.

However I saw them at Knebworth in '79 and they were awesome. Subsequently the only Zep albums I own are the live ones(Song Remains the Same and How the West was Won
 
Led Zeppelin I

"Black Mountain Side" is a song which I particularly dislike, above any other in the band's catalogue.

I quite like the rest of the album, "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You" is the highlight for me too.

Led Zeppelin II

Favourite songs are "The Lemon Song" and "Heartbreaker".
Drum solos are OK but only in moderation, and I think they're better on video, so "Moby Dick" isn't a song I like to listen to that often.
 
Led Zeppelin III

Side one[sup]1[/sup] is one of my favorite Zep sides. "Immigrant Song" is a bit overplayed but still rocks, "Out On The Tiles" is one of the most underrated Zep songs on any album and the massively awesome "Since I've Been Loving You" is where Zep figured out how to play a slow blues and still keep it exciting. (Plus they earn bonus points for the squeaky drum pedal.) Side two is mostly great, except for the final letdown with "Hats Off To (Roy) Harper" - what were they thinking there? However, the gradual buildup of "Gallows Pole", the melodies of "Tangerine" and the groove of "Bron-Y-Aur Stomp" are fantastic.

Rating: 9 / 10 (or 9.5 / 10 without "Harper")


Led Zeppelin IV

I've listened to this album so many times that it's hard to approach it objectively. Frankly, I'm really tired of all of these songs; I've heard them too many times. But I do recall my amazement the first time I heard this record, and I can't deny the greatness of these songs. It's not quite perfect: "The Battle Of Evermore" goes on too long, and maybe "Four Sticks" too, but this is only a minor fault. But these are minor complaints compared to the rest of the album. I think the word 'epic' was invented to describe this record.

Rating: 9.5 / 10


[sup]1[/sup] Remember sides? For you youngsters: they existed on vinyl and cassette before you were born.
 
It's a shame but I'm not a big fan of Plant's somewhat whining contributions. I saw a live DVD where he constantly did this (Babybabybabybaby...!!)  Is this less on the studio albums?

It's the same with DT. Good music, difficult voice for my taste.

Also I am not the biggest blues fan (at least: not yet. I never realized that I would become a jazz fan, so who knows!), and I like early Black Sabbath much more because they had way less bluesy playing/schemes in their music than Zeppelin which made their music less predictable.

But I like this kind of topic. It's cool to listen to music together, even if there are thousands of miles between us.
 
I'm going to contribute to this tomorrow, I've still got my head stuck in heavenly and hellish spheres...
 
Forostar said:
But I like this kind of topic. It's cool to listen to music together, even if there are thousands of miles between us.
Click to expand...

A friend and I would get on MSN messenger and pick a track to play simultaneously as we "sang" along LOL, as stupid as it was it was pretty fun :)
 
Forostar said:
It's a shame but I'm not a big fan of Plant's somewhat whining contributions. I saw a live DVD where he constantly did this (Babybabybabybaby...!!)  Is this less on the studio albums?
Click to expand...

Yes, much less on most studio songs - but not entirely absent.


Forostar said:
Also I am not the biggest blues fan (at least: not yet. I never realized that I would become a jazz fan, so who knows!), and I like early Black Sabbath much more because they had way less bluesy playing/schemes in their music than Zeppelin which made their music less predictable.
Click to expand...

True for Sabbath's studio albums, but not live. Sabbath was a blues band until Iommi wrote the "Black Sabbath" riff. That is literally the riff that changed the world. Listen to Live At Last, recorded on the Sabbath Bloody Sabbath tour - plenty of improvised blues during "Wicked World". Still heavy, but it's the blues.
 
Houses Of The Holy

My favorite Zeppelin album - perfection from start to finish. What has always impressed me about this album is the diversity of styles. For Zep's characteristic hard rock, you've got "The Ocean" and "Dancing Days". Zep added more songwriting sophistication in the same hard rock style for "The Song Remains The Same" and "Over The Hills And Far Away". Beyond this, "The Rain Song" is the band's most beautiful ballad; "D'yer Ma'ker" (though overplayed) is reggae; "No Quarter" is an atmospheric epic worthy of Pink Floyd, and "The Crunge" is complicated, syncopated funk inspired by James Brown. Not a weak moment anywhere, and the first 3 songs in particular feature some of Page's best guitar work.

Rating: 10 / 10


Presence

This is the first album I've really had to listen to before writing a review - I know the first 6 Zep albums by memory, and could post about them in my sleep. There are two classics here I know well: "Achilles Last Stand" and "Nobody's Fault But Mine". The first is Zep's greatest pure prog song, and the latter is a continuation of Zeppelin's quest to twist the blues into new experiences - a chain that begins with "How Many More Times" and runs through "Since I've Been Loving You" and "In My Time Of Dying". These two songs are both superb, but the rest of the album is an exercise in mediocrity. It's a reasonably pleasant listen, but nothing to write home about. I suppose the best of the other songs would be "For Your Life" and "Hots On For Nowhere", but only ALS and NFBM are really worth repeated listens.

Rating: 5.5 / 10


A further note:
This topic is now pinned, until the end of the week. Every week, I'll keep the current "Artist Of The Week" thread pinned.
 
Physical Graffiti

There's a lot to be said for this album, but it suffers from a problem few bands can overcome: it's hard to maintain consistency over a double album. Zep did fairly good here, as there's no outright stinkers - but there are a lot of merely average songs. "Kashmir" is Zep's best song as far as I'm concerned, where music and lyrics work together perfectly to create an exotic atmosphere. "In My Time Of Dying" is another favorite of mine, molding the blues into a new and epic shape. Other highlights are "The Rover", "Houses Of The Holy", "Down By The Seaside", "Ten Years Gone" and "Sick Again". With those 7 songs, you've got one album's worth of greatness. This only makes the rest of the songs sound like filler by comparison. Like I said, those other songs are good, but they don't bring the excitement as much. The biggest problem may be the running order: most of the best songs are on the first half of the release, making the second half sound mostly lackluster by comparison.

Rating: 8 / 10
Very good, but you've got to be a serious Zep-head to listen to this whole album in one sitting.
 
In Through The Out Door

Disappointing. "In The Evening" and "All My Love" are great songs, but the rest never did much for me. With "Fool In The Rain", I appreciate that Zep were trying something different, but it doesn't work well for me. And "Carouselambra" is a song that I've never liked - too long and repetitive. This has always struck me as Jones' keyboard album, and it simply lacks the power of the earlier guitar-based albums.

Rating: 6 / 10


Coda

This one has some nice nuggets, especially "We're Gonna Groove" and "Wearing And Tearing". Aside from a completely unneeded 2nd version of "I Can't Quit You Baby", it's a good listen for Zep fanatics, but everyone else could skip it.

Rating: 6.5 / 10


Sorry about the short comments today - I've got family visiting and don't have much time to post. Also no time to listen to the live album, though I recall it being mostly good ... again, the only major fault being the overly long version of "Moby Dick".
 
Led Zeppelin Week has now ended. Please join us for Helloween Week!

Note: Just because Zep Week is over doesn't mean you have to stop listening to Zeppelin, and you can of course continue to post about Zep in this thread.
 
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