More from Led Zeppelin
(1969) Led Zeppelin
(1969) Led Zeppelin II
(1970) Led Zeppelin III
(1971) Led Zeppelin IV
(1973) Houses Of The Holy
(1975) Physical Graffiti
(1976) Presence
(1976) The Song Remains The Same
(1979) In Through The Out Door
(1980) Coda
(2003) How The West Was Won
Led Zeppelin
by Led Zeppelin (1969)
Written by ant (24)
When The Yardbirds dissolved around him in a fizzle of apathy, guitarist Jimmy Page found himself left with the rights to the group's name and the responsibility of fulfilling the band’s remaining contractual obligations. His first-choice vocalist, Terry Reid, was tied up with a contract of his own but recommended a young singer from the West Midlands, one Robert Plant, still semi-amateur at the time.
Stunned by Plant's power and his range, Page didn’t think twice. The new singer suggested an old friend and bandmate, John “Bonzo” Bonham, as drummer. The lineup was completed by an experienced session bass and keyboard player, John Paul Jones. The rest, as they say, is history.
Right from their first jam session, the musicians knew that the band was going to be special. After a few rehearsals, they played in Scandinavia in late ‘68, still called The New Yardbirds (you can see some TV performances from this period on YouTube).
By the time they returned to England and started work on their debut album, they were calling themselves Led Zeppelin, a reference to their hard-yet-floating sound coined by The Who’s Keith Moon and John Entwistle.
The whole thing was recorded and mixed in just 35 hours. Page himself took charge of the production, assisted by veteran engineer Glyn Johns, before they even had a record company to issue it. Atlantic soon obliged, releasing the eponymously titled LP in Jan 1969.
Though largely underrated at the time, the Led Zeppelin album laid out the map for everything the band subsequently did. It comes across as a congruent whole, not just a random series of tracks, and incorporates a wide diversity of styles: blues, folk, soul, classical and Eastern music and — of course — ROCK.
It’s all too easy to label Zeppelin as ‘heavy’ (though they could certainly be heavy) but it was their ability to fuse different genres which made them so unique.
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Led Zeppelin — Led Zeppelin: Track-by-track review
1. "Good Times Bad Times"
What an opener! Page's double powerchords are linked by Bonham's clickety-clicks, changing each time, adding a cowbell, evolving into a lazy roll to introduce the vocal:
In the days of my youth
I was told what it means to be a man
Considering he wasn't yet 21, Plant delivers the line with a remarkable assuredness! Perhaps to reiterate the irony, the band used the track to open the 2007 Ahmet Ertegun tribute show.
"Good Times Bad Times" is an unrelenting 2 3/4 minutes, John Paul Jones' solid bassline allowing Jimmy and Bonzo to go off on their own wild tangents (that cowbell never lets up), while Plant's effortless vocal philosophically accepts his lady friend's infidelity:
Good times, bad times
Y'know I've had my share
Well my woman left home for another man
But I still don't seem to care!
The flying guitar solo was played through a revolving Hammond organ speaker — just one of the production tricks Page employed on the album.
2. "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You"
This is a perfect example of Zeppelin's crossover approach to music: sensitive acoustic guitar and soulful vocals alternating with explosive barrages of drums and bass; Page's overdubbed electric; Plant full-on.
Full-on. So powerful was the vocalist's voice that it was sometimes picked up by the other microphones in the studio, leading to some interesting, if unintended, echo effects. Often his singing merges into part of the musical backing: if he'd been paid a pound for every "baby" on the track, I calculate he'd've made a cool 30 quid! The sweet ending, just voice and acoustic again, always strikes me as an early precursor of "Stairway to Heaven".
Not for the last time in their career, the band ran into trouble over writing credits for the song. They knew it from Joan Baez's folky version and assumed it to be a traditional theme, so listed it accordingly as "Trad., arr. Page". When, many years later, they were threatened with legal action by Ann Bredon, who claimed to have penned it in the early '50s, the credit was changed to include her name on the Remasters box set.
3. "You Shook Me"
Another cover, this time by Willie Dixon (who subsequently sued them over credits on the follow-up, Led Zeppelin II). As you'd expect, it's a bluesy number, though its electric enormity has little to do with the original. The bass and drums carry the fat riff, while Plant and Page play a clever game of cat-and-mouse.
At times the guitar is playing the same melody as the soaring, swooping vocal; at others there are breathtakingly rapid runs up and down the fretboard. Robert also gets the chance to blow some harmonica, nicely anticipated by Jonesy's keyboards further along the track.
The culmination of the chase comes at the end, with Plant screaming increasingly complex challenges for Page to imitate, just before the crashing finale.
4. "Dazed And Confused"
Although Jimmy Page had played the song with The Yardbirds, this is the definitive version: the masterpiece of the album and a pivotal part of Led Zeppelin's live shows.
The slow, downstepping bass intro and spooky guitar harmonics create an ominous atmosphere, perfect for the gloomy lyric:
Been dazed an' confused for so long it's not true
Wanted a woman
Never bargained for you
As the verse finishes, in slam the drums and a wailing guitar.
It's the middle section, however, which gives us Zeppelin at their most innovative. The bass, drums and cymbals hover broodingly in the background, Plant moans and groans with the pain that this devil-woman's caused him, and Page uses a cello bow to pull the unholiest of sounds from his guitar strings.
Then suddenly the whole thing leaps into one of the most blistering onslaughts ever to grace vinyl: Bonzo furiously flailing his kit, John Paul's fingers flying and Jimmy delivering another possessed solo, before returning us to darkness of the beginning.
Time to turn the album over, still shaking!
5. "Your Time Is Gonna Come"
A swell of churchy organ opens Side 2, delicately introducing the melody. A splash of cymbals and lazy drums bring in the picky acoustic guitar and the vocal. It tells the tale of yet another philandering female, "lyin', cheatin', hurtin'", though this time — as the title implies — she's going to get her comeuppance!
The rest of the band join Plant for the chorus, reiterating the warning, "your time is gonna come!" Page uses the whine of a steel-guitar (normally associated with country and western) to add further depth to the bitter resignation of the words:
Gonna make you pay for that great big hole in my heart!
6. "Black Mountain Side"
Before the final chorus of the previous track has faded away completely, the introductory acoustic chords of "Black Mountain Side" ring out.
Page uses a specially tuned guitar to achieve the sitar-like sound, emphasised by his playing style and the use of an Indian tabla player, Viram Jasani, to back him. Despite the Eastern flavour (which Page described as "CIA" — Celtic/Indian/ Arabic), it's actually based on an old English folk song.
At just over two minutes, it's the shortest piece on the record, as well as the only instrumental. On stage, however, it would often evolve into an extended improvisation, usually medleyed with another traditional tune, "White Summer". This coupling, taken from a BBC Radio session, can be heard on the Remasters collection.
7. "Communication Breakdown"
The previous track, "Black Mountain Side", stops dead, and the supercharged electric riff of "Communication Breakdown" kicks in. The furious pace doesn't let up throughout, the band locked together in an all-out musical attack on the speakers and again singing backing, adding to the intensity of each chorus.
Plant introduces the guitar solo halfway through with what's surely one of the all-time classic vocal lead-ins: "Whooooooooah — SUCK!!!" (I still grin each time I hear it.)
It's easy to see — or, rather, hear — the legacy of "Communication Breakdown"'s ballsy riff in a multitude of subsequent rock/heavy/metal acts, but it's interesting to note that punk rocker Johnny Ramone also claimed it to be one of his biggest influences.
8. "I Can't Quit You Baby"
Another reinterpretation of a Willie Dixon blues number, with Zeppelin once again making it all their own. Plant, unaccompanied, opens:
I...
I can't quit you babe
(In comes the instrumental backing, BWAAAUM!)
Woman I think I'm gonna put you down
For a little while!
As always, John Paul Jones provides the backbone with his rolling, melodic bass, allowing Bonham to indulge in his trademark embellishments (though never straying far from the rhythm). Page alternates between the subtlest of touches to some of his most blazing solo work ever: no wonder it was another live favourite!
At times as light as air (like a real Zeppelin airship), at others as heavy as lead, there's an amazing intensity of emotion in each member's contribution. This was always the quintessential essence of the band, and is why they still transcend meaningless musical labels.
9. "How Many More Times"
Continuing directly from Bonzo's monstrous final crescendo for "I Can't Quit You", the final track on the LP is also the longest (8 1/2 minutes).
"How May More Times" borrows liberally from many blues sources, both lyrically and musically, and was the basis for much on-stage improvisation. Based round a bolero rhythm (with explosive interspersions), it's another protest about a cheating woman: what else do you expect from the blues?!!
Really, it's two songs in one (Page deliberately listed it as 3 1/2 minutes on the original album to try and con more radio play!). The second part, "The Hunter", veers into experimental mode, Page bowing his strings backwards and forwards across the speaker channels, Plant (in the character of "Little Robert Anthony") lifting ad-libs from anywhere he could think of, and throwing in a few of his own.
The final uncompromising ultimatum to the brazen hussy — and the whole course of rock 'n' roll — is delivered in the crashing climax:
I've got you in the sights of my
G-u-u-u-u-u-n!!!
No prisoners taken, no compromises: Led Zeppelin!
milindaledzep May 19, 2008 9:40 AM Quote ↓
this is a very though review of one of my most fav zep albums.
i exspecially love — i cant quit you babe- so beautiful,sensative,intense in parts and it really moves me ;)