Led Zeppelin in a day

Not long ago I decide to listen to all of the Led Zeppelin albums back to back in a single day and write a couple of micro reviews on Facebook.

Led Zeppelin - "I" thoughts: The album starts off with a bang, the sound of a revolution beginning. It's a band that's already found it's sound but not quite it's voice. Lot's of covers, songs that are heavily based on existing blues standards, or direct rip offs with one or two originals mixed in. But, since they play them so amazingly well it's all easily excusable.

July 22 at 10:49am ·

Thoughts on Led Zeppelin "II" - It's a frenetic album that shows the chaos and creativity of being recorded while touring. The influences are less obvious and are more assimilated. The bands style is expanding and they are becoming more self-assured in abilities.

July 22 at 11:36am ·

Thoughts on Led Zeppelin - "III" Jimmy Page and Robert Plant solidify their rolls as the creative engine of the group. The band lets off of the accelerator a bit creating an album with both calm and frenzy. There's very little musical "borrowing" on this album. Hats Off to (Roy) Harper is the only song to "lift" lines from blues classics.

July 22 at 1:51pm ·

Thoughts on Led Zeppelin-"IV" Jimmy Page begins to "paint" with sound using a multitude of guitars and different tones within the same song increasing the sonic palette exponentially. Robert gains confidence in his lyrical abilities. The group creates a fully realized coherent style that raises this above just a collection of songs and makes it a true album that must be listened to start to finish to truly enjoy.

July 22 at 2:48pm ·

Thoughts on Led Zeppelin - "Houses of The Holy" The musical complexity greatly increases compared to previous releases. Not a single song on the album has a simple riff. The band is challenging themselves and pushing each other to their creative limits. If Zeppelin ever made anything close to a progressive rock album this is it.

July 22 at 3:48pm ·

Thoughts on Led Zeppelin - "Physical Graffiti" The album is a bit like an quilt cobbled together from other, older items. Half of the songs on the album were recorded for previous albums. While there are lots of great songs the album lacks a certain coherent focus. It's more of a book of short stories as opposed to a novel.

July 22 at 5:36pm ·

Thoughts on Led Zeppelin - "Presence" It's the sound of a band eager to re-invent itself. The album is full of melancholy and uncertainty. The songs all fit together well to present a satisfying total picture. It's a great listen while alone late at night or during a rainy day.

July 22 at 6:21pm

Thoughts on Led Zeppelin - "In Through The Out Door" It's the sound of a band struggling to be as great as they should. While Page and Bonham are present, they really aren't "there." Plant and Jones work hard to pick up the slack. For the first and only time Jones Keyboard take center stage in many if not most of the songs.

July 22 at 8:13pm ·

Thoughts on Led Zeppelin - "Coda" It's not really an album more just a bunch of left-overs. In fact "Poor Tom" sounds like the drums were added after the fact by taking a bit of left over drums and looping them. The guitar on "We're Gonna Groove" is clearly an overdub done most likely after the end of the band. All of that having been said, Led Zeppelin's leftovers are better than most band's best efforts.

July 23 at 12:30am ·

Them Crooked Vultures

In many ways John Paul Jones was the most under appreciated member of Led Zeppelin. Until recently his post-Zeppelin work has been pretty sparse but recently he seems to be making up for lost time. In the last couple of years he has released two excellent solo albums, "Zooma" and "The Thunderthief" and produced a couple of others. On Tuesday, November 17th his next project will be released. The album is a collaboration with Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age and Dave Grohl of Nirvana and Foo Fighters fame titled Them Crooked Vultures. It is currently available to stream through youtube.

The making of Led Zeppelin LP's

Below is a short video on the making of the recent "Mothership" and "The Song Remains the Same" records.

We're Gonna Groove

Today marks the 28th year since the death of John Bonham and the end of Led Zeppelin. John was a family man who hated touring and the rock star lifestyle. He preferred to go to the local pub and talk to farmers about how every body's crops were doing. He didn't just own a farm, when he wasn't recording or touring he worked his farm. He was as proud of his prize winning cows as of his gold records. There are many stories about his angry outbursts but for the most part he was depressed about being away from his family. Everyone who knew him described him as a warm and giving person.

Led Zeppelin had one of the most varied list of influences imaginable. Bonham and Jones were into Soul, R&B, and Jazz. Plant loved Blues, West coast psychedelia, pop, and Indian Music. Page was fascinated by Blues, Early Rock N' Roll, Folk music, and world music. When people call them the first Heavy Metal band that's an insult. No heavy metal band has their knowledge of music history or their ability to play just about any type of music they decided to attempt. How many band could play blues, folk, hard rock, punk, reggae, country, and pop? Add to all of those the songs that simply defy categorization.

In interviews both in 1980 and since every band member has admitted that they felt that the band was stagnating and they were hungry to explore new directions and conquer new territory. Were they on the verge of another great period or were they about to head down a creative dead end? If their track record was any indication another great success was in their future. They were always risk takers. Even ending the band was a brave move. They had to know that none of them would ever achieve that level of success as individuals. Led Zeppelin is perhaps unique, with the exception of The Beatles in the fact that they decided to end it and go out on top. A wise move as no one would have been able to fill Mr.Bonham's drum stool. They never won a Grammy during the band's existence, they have since been honored with a Lifetime Achievement award.

White?

Led Zeppelin's newly remastered "The Song Remains the Same" is being released on four 180 gram LP's. The latest version of the album includes 6 bonus tracks not on the original album including "Black Dog", "Over The Hills and Far Away", "Misty Mountain Hop", "Since I've Been Loving You", "The Ocean", and "Heartbreaker." Also orders through ledzeppelin.com by July 22 have a chance of being randomly selected to receive the release on white vinyl, which is limited to 200 copies. Isn't white supposed to be for virgins?

Extremely early Jimmy Page

You tube is really a treasure trove of old video, most of which can not be released commercially because of copyright reasons. Below is a performance by James Page, better known as Jimmy Page (much later of Led Zeppelin) from 1957. Who knew he was a world class whistler too? I wouldn't hold my breath for a reunion of this group either.

Touching

Below is a clip of Robert Plant paying tribute to Jimmy Page. Here I am completely ready to write Robert off as a completely selfish, pompous ass and then he does something like this. It chocked me up a bit.

An unexpected twist

For those of you who haven't heard Robert Plant (of Led Zeppelin fame) and Alison Krauss (a famous blue grass singer) have done an album together. Robert's motto has always been, "ever onward" which has earned him my respect. After Zeppelin he could have easily cashed in on the success by sticking with what he knew, but he decided to take risks. Some albums have been better than others but none of them have sounded the same.

I beg to differ

Originally Written: Thursday, April 20, 2006 and Wednesday, June 14, 2006

In the article "Okay, we're Rollin'" from the May 2006 issue of Stereophile magazine it is stated Led Zeppelin recorded "Stairway to Heaven" at Sunset Studios. From all available evidence this is incorrect. A number of sources state that the backing tracks for "Stairway" were recorded at Headley Grange (an English country house) with the Rolling Stones mobile studio, overdubs being done at Island Studios. The possibility also exists that the entirety of the recording was done at Island Studios, but even this seems to contradict the available evidence. Jimmy Page did mix the album at Sunset, at the behest of Andy Johns (the engineer) but after listening to that mix elsewhere rejected nearly all of that work, with the exception of "When The Levee Breaks." The results of the album mix done at Sunset were considered to be murky and lacking in detail. Everything other than "When the Levee Breaks" was remixed.

Add nationally published author to my list of accomplishments. In July's issue of Stereophile magazine (one of highend audio's most respected magazines) they published my letter to the
editor. It concerns an issue on which I consider myself an authority. The issue hasn't hit news stands yet, but subscribers have started to receive them in the mail. I also had a nice personal correspondence with the editor as well. I wonder if any of the regular customers at the store will notice.

One of my as yet unrealized aspirations is to be a professional audio reviewer and writing for Stereophile would be a dream come true. Another periodical for which I would love to write is The Absolute Sound. Also there are a couple of on line publications that would be fun too. Do these publications consider working for a highend dealer and reviewing products a conflict of interest? I'm not sure. I don't think that I have quite enough experience to start reviewing yet any way. Perhaps by the time I'd feel ready it would be a non-issue anyway. I'm still toying around with the idea of starting a blog entirely about audio. My major question is where I'd get the content. I'd like to write one article a week. I think that at that pace I'd run out of topics and things to review fairly quickly.

Twenty-Five Years Gone

Originally Written: Sunday, September 25, 2005

Today marks 25 years since the death of John Bonham and the end of Led Zeppelin. Led Zeppelin is perhaps unique, with the exception of The Beatles in the fact that they decided to end it and go out on top. A wise move as no one would have been able to fill Mr. Bonham's drum stool. Think of them as the anti-Rolling Stones if you will. John was a family man who hated touring and the rock star lifestyle. He preferred to go to the local pub and talk to the other farmers about how everybody's crops were doing. He didn't just own a farm, when he wasn't recording or touring he worked his farm. It brought him a lot of pride and fulfillment. He raised prize winning cows that brought him as much joy as his gold records. There are many stories of his outbursts of anger but for the most part he was depressed about being away from his family. Everyone who knew him described him as a warm and giving person.

Led Zeppelin had one of the most varied list of influences imaginable. Bonham and Jones were into Soul, R&B, and Jazz. Plant loved Blues, West coast psychedelia, pop, and Indian Music. Page was fascinated by Blues, Early Rock N' Roll, Folk music, and world music. When people call them the first Heavy Metal band that's an insult. No heavy metal band has their knowledge of music history or their ability to play just about any type of music they decided to attempt. How many band could have played blues, folk, hard rock, punk, reggae, country, and pop? Add to all of those the songs that simply defy categorization.

In interviews both in 1980 and since every band member has admitted that they felt that the band was stagnating and they were hungry to explore new directions and conquer new territory. Were they on the verge of another great period or were they about to head down a creative dead end? We'll never know, but my money's on it having been a huge success. They were always risk takers. Even ending the band was a brave move. They had to know that none of them would ever achieve that level of success as individuals. They never won a Grammy during the band's time, they have since been honored with a Lifetime Achievement award.

Life imitates art imitating life

Originally Written: Sunday, August 21, 2005

In an ironic twist of fate Jerry Lee Lewis's new album will feature a cover of a Led Zeppelin song which was inspired by Jerry Lee Lewis's unique style of playing the piano. He is paying tribute to someone for paying tribute to him by covering their tribute to him. Got all that? To make matters more confusing Jimmy Page will be the featured guitarist on the track. It's a Led Zeppelin song called Rock N' Roll.

The Hammer of the Gods!

Originally Written: Tuesday, July 12, 2005

A survey of 3500 Planet Rock radio listeners who could pick anyone as their favorite guitarist, singer, bassist, and drummer for a hypothetical supergroup picked Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Paul Jones and John Bonham as their favorites. Well for those not in the know these four men were in a little short lived group called LED ZEPPELIN. This is yet more proof that the rolling stones are NOT the worlds greatest rock n' roll band.

Fuck you Mick!

Top Artists
Totals are derived from cumulative album sales totals (U.S. only)
Artist (Units in Millions)
Originally Written: Wednesday, June 29, 2005

Top Artists
Totals are derived from cumulative album sales totals (U.S. only)
Artist (Units in Millions)

1. THE BEATLES 168.5 (DUH!)
2. ELVIS PRESLEY 116.5(No surprise here!)
3. LED ZEPPELIN 107.5(As it should be)
4. GARTH BROOKS 105.0(I wonder if this includes the 8 copies as Chris Gains)
5. EAGLES 89.0("I hate the fucking Eagles man!")
6. BILLY JOEL 78.5(Great song writer, probably the ugliest guy in rock)
7. PINK FLOYD 73.5 (Just think of that it terms of dime bags smoked?)
8. BARBRA STREISAND 70.5(Does this include the Jewish singer's Christmas album?)
9. ELTON JOHN 69.0(Sixty-nine, now that's funny)
10. AC/DC 66.0(How many outside of trailer parks is my question?)
11. AEROSMITH 65.5(That's a lot of clam chowder)
12. THE ROLLING STONES 64.5(And they have the balls to call themselves the greatest rock n' roll band in the world. Try number 6 Mick. I'd love to sue them for false advertising.

Ten Favorite albums

Originally written: Wednesday, March 16, 2005

In no particular order here goes:

1. Dire Straits-Brothers in Arms Very atmospheric and melancholy. Meticulously arranged and recorded. It's ironic that this album has only one upbeat song and that is probably the most famous cut, "Walk of Life." It is also the least representative of the rest of the album.

2. The Who-Who's Next For my money the ultimate hard rock album, containing the ultimate hard rock song "Won't Get Fooled Again." Great songs and great performances. It's hard to believe that this album was really the cobbled together bits and pieces of a failed masterpiece.

3. The Beatles-Abby Road On this album they were hitting on all cylinders and couldn't make a mistake if they had tried. Great songs, cool vocal harmonies, and they take risks with song structure that no one else had nor has anyone else since. This may be the only time that a band did their best album as their last. Let it Be was released later but it was recorded first.

4. Robert Johnson-The Complete Recordings I discovered Robert Johnson because he was mentioned so many times by Jimmy Page and Robert Plant. He only recorded about three sessions over the course of two years in the late 1930's but the impact that this music has had can't be under estimated. Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones and Eric Clapton of Cream all admire this guy and have covered his songs.

5. Led Zeppelin-Physical graffiti Possibly their most diverse album. I love Led Zeppelin so much it was really hard to choose just one but this album will give you an idea of what they were all about. Also unlike most double albums there is no filler songs and no repeated musical ideas.

6. Pink Floyd-The Wall What can I say about this masterpiece that hasn't already been said? Many will tell you that Dark Side of the Moon is a better album and musically and sonically it probably is. Where this album really comes into it's own is the sheer scale of the story it tries to tell. It is a concept album with a plot and numerous subplots. Briefly it is about: the death of a parent, the oppression of the modern education system, an over protective mother, the fear of nuclear war, the isolation that fame causes, the excesses of stardom, and ultimately madness.

7. The Beach Boys-Pet Sounds An album about the kind of romantic first love that only comes once in a life time and it's inevitable end. No one every comes close to touching these guys when it come to their ability to harmonize with each other. This is almost more of a Brian Wilson solo album with the rest of the band along for the ride. Brian also throws every instrument he could get his hands on into the mix and it all works.

8.Sheryl Crow-Tuesday Night Music Club Probably the strongest first album by any artist ever. All of the songs are smartly written and the arrangements are near flawless. The other musicians that worked with her on this album really contributed whole heartedly. I love everything that Sheryl has ever released but she has yet to top her first album.

9. Theloneous Monk-Straight, No Chaser Believe it or not I had a pet rabbit named Hope that used to love this album. Whenever I would play it she would fly into the room and run around kicking her feet up in the air for about the first five minutes and then settle in at my feet to listen to the rest. She also loved Pink Floyd's Meddle and had the same reaction. Most other music she ignored as noise.

10. Chuck Berry-The Great 28 Elvis may have been the King of Rock and Roll but Chucks was it's father. The amazing thing about this music is that unlike most 1950's Rock it sounds as fresh today as it did when it was first released. It is feel good music that forces you to tap you toe.