Led Zeppelin (Official Thread)

Soot and Stars

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Re: The OFFICIAL Led Zeppelin Thread

I'll start with the debut which features 8 unheard tracks by myself:

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Good Times, Bad Times-A track I've heard but never got into personally! It seems like it's meant to be a fun tune and it is to a point. The intro is the best part for me but the chorus is way too flat for me. I usually like a good chorus. Most people would say the guitar solo would make the song but those are the things that do nothing for me. Nothing against the playing but it didn't pull the song towards any more favorable territory for me.

Babe, I'm A Gonna Leave You-I like this track, which is new to me already. It's a nice strumming melodic guitar into a nice bluesy vocal and when it picks up I like it a lot. Builds! I love builds! :grinthumb Now I know I criticized the last song for being flat and this is a mellow one but it has enough emotion during the small parts and it has great ebbs and flows. I love the guitar in this starting at 2:02! It has the rhythm worthy of a dance! I talk little about guitar but this is a song I can dig for the guitar! Oh and this is the best Zeppelin wail I've ever heard!

You Shook Me-I don't like this! I know this is supposed to be pure blues in a rock, kind of grungy way (not the grunge genre) but I actually hate Plants vocals for this. The playing is cool but this sounds like it should be sung and performed by the original Blues masters Zeppelin was inspired by. I want to hear a vocal like B.B. King with more blues than the stretch out wailing here. I don't know if it's a cover but it's not an improvement on the genre IMO!

Dazed and Confused-This one works better than me mostly because it's back to the rock side and that guitar is hypnotizing! The guitar's the highlight and the vocals are adequate on here! At about the 2 min. mark it's cool because Plant sounds transfixed himself as he starts aaaahing non-sensibly! I actually was dragged into this but I'm not sure the bluesy guitar pickup into the frenzied guitar licks works for me. This song was alright until the guitar hero climax and buries the vocals.

Your Time Is Gonna Come-Holy Organ! This actually bores me and feels like filler! I criticized some of the other tracks but none of them felt like filler. That's not a Zeppelin chorus, is it? Ugh, at 2:40 they were teasing a transition and then nothing! Jerks! :heheh: Yep, most subpar Led Zeppelin track I've heard!

Black Mountain Side-A short but fitting instrumental! Pleasant and cool noodling at about 1:30! :grinthumb

Communication Breakdown
-Cool beginning! It gets me amped until the vocal where the wails and the music just feel generic! I like the guitar sound o.k.! It's got a good groove but it does nothing for me as repetitive as the song feels for me!

I Can't Quit You Baby-This suffers from the same criticism that You Shook Me suffers! Just doesn't work with a rock star wanting to play the blues! I prefer authentic blues artist here!

How Many More Times-Now this is jazzy! I like it! The whole song keeps me moving and even the solo works for me! I like the drums along with it and this is going like a closer should! Epic! Hear we go with the marching drums and into a more tribal feel! Awesome! I like! This is getting dark now and the songs gotten so much better from the tribal drums on! Highlight of the album I think! It starts to lose steam until the awesome drum rhythm at 5:45! Loses steam again but a great epic wail by Plant! My heads bobbing til the end as they keep that groove!

All in all this was an album of peaks and valleys! What I liked was great but what I didn't like really fell flat! A start that has me interested in what's around the corner though! :grinthumb
 

Soot and Stars

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Re: The OFFICIAL Led Zeppelin Thread

So tonight I'll revisit the first of the albums I own and give it the most thorough listen I have since buying it.

Led%20Zeppelin%20-%20Led%20Zeppelin%20II.jpg


Whole Lotta Love-This is a popular song by them where I see the appeal when it comes to the basics of it. It's got the early spirit of rock n' roll written over it with a great riff and Plants vocals have the right amount of attitude! Unfortunately I just don't like their phoned in chorus's. I would've eliminated the break in this one though or shortened it. This should be a song that's just about the meat IMO and a straight rock song. I can see why this one is covered a lot because every part of the vocal oozes rock and it's a song that's made to do live to really represent it's energy! It also justifies the break because you can riff with the audience at that time. One live cover I love of this song is the one by Beth Hart! She kills on this one!:

Beth Hart-Whole Lotta Love


What Is and Should Never Be-This is a change of pace. Really laid back and jazzy in general. Not sure this is a good followup after Whole Lotta
Love as it loses steam but it does have a big chorus and really gets good at 3:33. Really like that part and it makes up for the rest leading into the next song. I love that guitar rhythm and how Plants vocals sound kind of like their scatting at times and he's just riffing of the rhythm of the guitar. It's a cool moment.

The Lemon Song
-The is a song I've always heard by title but don't think I've ever really listened to it. It's not bad. It's cool that it has a bluesy riff until 1:28 where it sounds like a surf rock jam to me. I like this solo just fine because it seems focused and moves me along to the song. While one guitar is kind of jamming doing it's own thing the other guitar keeps you in the song by steadily playing the same riff. It works. Plants blues vocals have gotten stronger on this album as well IMO as this song shows.

Thank You
-Not much I can about this one as I love it. It's my second favorite Zeppelin song. Zeppelin did great ballads. They really kept them emotional and epic at the same time. I LOVE the instrumental break in this one. Great use of the organ as well! Plant tells a great story vocally on this track. Perfect! Love it!

Heartbreaker-This one is a high energy guitar hero blast of energy. It starts out typical with a good riff but builds and is appreciated better on a second listen. Just not personally into stopping the song for that solo. Didn't fit for me. Just noodling. At 3:08 I liked it fine because the song was still moving and it all fit. I like riffing like this where it's layered and fits.

Living Loving Maid (She's just A Woman)-I like this one. It's kind of a fun track. Kind of makes me think of an Aerosmith song in a lot of vocal areas. The chorus fits in with this one as well. Nothing flashy but a good song.

Ramble On-This ones alright. I've got to say something. I'm not a huge bass fan necessarily but it's cool that you can hear the bass with clarity in a lot of these songs and it's given for prominence. This song builds and has a lot of cool layers as it goes on.

Moby Dick
-This was a decent instrumental but honestly I don't think I'm a fan of drum solos regardless of talent. Music is an aesthetic so regardless of talent the solo wasn't pleasing to my ears (wasn't painful or anything) and perhaps this is a song I should hear remastered better. I appreciate drums as an addition to a song but listening to a guy bang on his drum kit doesn't fulfills me musically only in rare instances.

Bring It On Home-This is a cool stripped down Blues tune with a great addition of harmonica. Plants vocals are strange but cool on this one! Not sure this track needed the change to heavy. A lot of albums let the closer stay mellow and I would have loved this to stay with the same laid back tone. The vocals could have raised and the harmonica could've been used throughout and it would've been awesome IMO.
 

Magic

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Re: The OFFICIAL Led Zeppelin Thread

OOoooo! it is nice to see a youngster revisiting Led Zep. I go through phases where I want to hear all the music that my memories are made of, and I will spin the albums almost back to back. I haven't done this in quite some time though, been to busy spinning new music <ahem> power metal, and doom metal.


I like your synopsis of the albums, Sooty. :tup:
 

Riff Raff

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Re: The OFFICIAL Led Zeppelin Thread

I have the Mothership compilation album, has some of their classics like Dazed and Confused, Black Dog, Stairway to Heaven, Communication Breakdown :D
 

LG

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Re: The OFFICIAL Led Zeppelin Thread

Sooty makes his "Presence" felt in the "Houses of the Holy" at last...:heheh:

I see you put a lot of effort into your personal critique going into a lot of detail.

I am not going to go over point by point whether I agree or disagree with your opinions which are as valid as anyone else's, and you express them eloquently as usual.

I will say this one thing about Led Zeppelin, they remain even now one of those rare bands that kids of every generation find and collect. I look in the forum and am always pleasantly surprised when youngsters show up and are already big fans, or new arrivals that are getting into them for the first time.

Confirms my belief in the order of things, and shows that "Quality Does Last".
 

Sox

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Re: The OFFICIAL Led Zeppelin Thread

I enjoyed reading your write up there Soot and as these are two of my all time favourite albums I was intrigued. You made some valid points both good and bad, some I agree with and some I am still pondering, on the whole I think they remain intact. Nice work.:cheers2
 

Soot and Stars

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Re: The OFFICIAL Led Zeppelin Thread

Thank Sox and everyone who commented. I have a ton of respect for Led Zeppelin and wanted to take my time out for them as a band and just be honest about my preferences. I'll finish these guy up with the rest of the studio catalog and move on to other deservingly classic bands! :cheers2
 

METALPRIEST

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Re: The OFFICIAL Led Zeppelin Thread

Your write ups are very good here Soot...and if Tori Amos got you to listen to Thank You or Zeppelin II then more thumbs up for her!! I also enjoy Tori's version but am partial to the original....not in a purist sort of way...I just actually like the original better.

But Tori is a huge Zep fan and I never heard her say otherwise. She has great taste and I have that much more respect for her being inspired by LZ!!

:grinthumb
 

Riff Raff

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Re: The OFFICIAL Led Zeppelin Thread

That was an awesome read :)
 

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