Mortality creeping up you? It’s walking right beside me.

Have kids…then you better grow up smart.

Forgo the little darlings…with the right breaks you can grow wisely immature and hang out at Janie Jones’ eternally.

Wow. So now we know the source of your fascination for Hugh Hewitt’s mammaries. All very helpful.

(For us old schoolerz waxing nostalgic about the old site and the days before Mr. Simple Pleasures went all commercial on us and switched to Jane’s big mainstream label, here’s the money shot from the archives. This has been a public service announcement).

Led Zeppelin is the greatest rock band of all time; their music is so complicated it never gets old. Even after listening to them lo these many years, i still hear new things. When i took my 15 year old daughter to see School of Rock she was the only one under 30 who could correctly answer Jack Black’s question w/ “Jimmy Page & Robert Plant.” I was so proud.

Maybe it’s the mix of what you listened to back in Led Zep days. Sure, I listened to Led Zeppelin and loved their stuff. At the same time, though, I was listening in equal measure to Blues Project, Sonny Boy Williamson, Bo Diddley, Paul Butterfield, Oregon, Biff Rose and Pentangle, among many others.

I turn 60 next Spring and I still love to put on the earphones and crank me some Led Zeppelin II. And, if no one else is home, I sing along with “What Is and What Should Never Be” in a really bad semi-falsetto.

“Hey, oh
Oh the wind won’t blow and we really shouldn’t go
And it only goes to show-ow-ow.
Catch the wind, were gonna see it spin
Were gonna…sail, little girl
Do do do, bop bop a do-oh
My my my my my my yeah
Everybody I know seems to know me well
–but does anybody know I’m gonna move like hell
–but they’re never gonna know cause I move like hell.”

If I have to give up Led Zep to grow up…well, I’ll be that bald guy you see playing air guitar at the stop light as “The Lemon Song” blasts out the pick-up’s windows.

Zeppelin is one of the few artists from my high school days that I never dropped from my life and never regretted…unlike, say, Journey, who I am compelled to admit that I liked for a while (although this may have been an attempt to meet/impress/not be scorned by girls), then dropped forever (which may have been a subconscious attempt to save my ears from Steve Perry’s whiny howl). I don’t regret purging Journey from my life; in fact, I have to stifle a gag reflex when they’re played on the radio these day.

(Follow-up nomination for most-annoying-”hit”-song-ever; “What’s Up” by 4 Non-Blondes – It’s stupid, boring, and Linda Perry’s voice gives me a headache.)

I absolutely love Nick Hornby and think High Fidelity – book and movie – is brilliant (and I’m not even a guy!!)

As for Zep – I’m sure they’ve been the cause of more than 1 traffic accident or speeding ticket (Ramble On and Communication Breakdown are two of those “gee, officer, I didn’t realize I was going 80 in a school zone” kind of songs).

Ah musical taste – a topic bound to induce all sorts of heated commentary. One of the most interesting things to me is that declaring ones likes/dislikes tends to be freighted with this subtext of how cool am I ,or don’t like my taste? then suck on it!, or the most mortality-rattling get offa my lawn! I guess it is how we non-rightards display our own version of tribalism.

But I’m an idiot who pretty much just listens to jazz. Though I have been known to occassionally see just how much noise I can make with my bass.

I’m with MrZiffel up there. Nuff said.

…a topic bound to induce all sorts of heated commentary…how we non-rightards display our own version of tribalism.

It is that. The only things I can think of that cause more instant flame wars are the silicon versus vacuum-tube guitar amp debate, the which SQL server is the best debate, and (if it’s still raging) the .gif versus .jpg debate. Any of them is guaranteed to attract some unwavering, highly vocal partisans and devolve into a dick-matching contest over who has the best amp / computer / etc.

I wanted more about boobs.

two things: listen to Vital Information’s cover of Moby Dick — INSANE. As for best Zep song by Zep: Achilles Last Stand.

And most underappreciated band of all time (aside from Dire Straits): AC/DC — has any band ever had more memorable riffs. (there is an ad on the air now that is using “WHole Lotta Rosie,” though I am nto sure if it is intended). Putting aside the lyrics (buy the Wall if needed), Highway to Hell and Back in Black are riff factories.

I like Zeppelin, but I much prefer the live stuff to the studio stuff. Bonham’s drumming just fills an amazing amount of space. Page and Jones, well, what needs to be said.

What Hornby thinks of Zeppelin, I think of Rush. They are the band that satisfies my appetite. And sure they started out as a Zep copy, but they evolved into so much more. 30+ years later they release a new album that is not only relevant, but it is some of their best work, and they still draw huge crowds in concert. Their tour this year had them at their peak. They were just amazing!

AC/DC has many memorable riffs, but not as many as the Stones. What I really like about AC/DC is that in 25 or 30 years of playing, the drummer has never, ever played a fill! (Joke.)

The problem with the Stones for me is that there are too many anti-riffs in a legacy that should have ended itself long ago.

as for great riffs: Black Sabbath — first album and Into the Void

It’s funny to see more and more appreciation headed Zep’s way. I came in late enough (at 14 in 1978) that the stuff about them knocking off Muddy Waters left me bemused. It seemed like a bit of piling-on and not a little jealousy. Lately the creeping appreciation has moved to a new front: for Jimmy Page’s production, particularly how he innovated in two areas, innovative miking of drums and the pre-laying. The former was a big thing for some very old-timer, main-stream producers, who’d listened as drum sounds got boring during the rock era. The latter was a little trick of anticipating a note by playing a tiny bit of the decay of that note in advance, just a matter of turning the tape around in the control booth. I think this is the effect you hear a lot in the guitar break of the song mentioned above, ‘What is and What Should Never Be.’

Then when I’m no longer thinking about such stuff, the thing I like to do is not listen to a Zep song for maybe a year. After that wait, hearing Robert Plant approximates the first time I ever heard him, and one percent of the feeling of it comes back. Best accomplished with ‘Black Dog’ or ‘Whole Lotta Love’ for me.

Innovating with innovation, whew! Better catch that before my betters do, and then slink slinkily down some hole.

I saw them when they were second billed to Donovan. Lost interest in them when LZIII came out. I think Zeppelin is remembered for authoring more rock cliches than any other band in history.
I admit to a major anti-metal bias, and cede that they were competent showmen.

I’m about the same age as TBogg but somehow skipped a Zeppelin phase in my youth. But I now have the same feelings about the Replacements. Man I loved that band for a few years and can still have fun blasting them at top volume when I’m alone in the house. But they’re no longer where I am in life, either. Sixteen Blue? Bastards of Young? Great songs but they don’t really speak to someone in thier early 40s, do they?

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Moving pictures can convey as much as a book. If you ever need to teach your children the meaning of the word “rock”, simply put the 2003 “Led Zeppelin” box set in your DVD player. This might be the single greatest act of parenting you can perform.

Led Zeppelin was never high on my list back in the day, but now, in middle age, I’ve rediscovered them……..on vinyl…. as God told me she intended it.

My kids and their friends were way ahead of me: they love The Blimp. It makes my day when they hang around Casa Monty, flipping through the vinyl. “Hey, Mr. B! Can we play this one?”

Hell yes, you can play it…. but turn it up a little more.

You know, you could have shortened this whole post with an appropriate Simpsons quote: “I used to rock all night and party every day, then it was every other day. Now I’m lucky if I can find half an hour a week in which to get funky.”

Also, Tbogg, I wanted to mention that having to hit “read more” for every post kinda sucks; also that the pictures don’t show up on the front page. Not a serious complaint, just something to think about for the next re-design.

I was lucky. I has six older brothers and sisters, so by 1980, I had heard a lot of rock and roll. You name it, someone in the house had the album.

Now I pretty much listen to jazz and hold existential debates with the cat.

moondancer: you miss your own pointm I think:

I think Zeppelin is remembered for authoring more rock cliches than any other band in history.

They authored them, others copied, thus rendering them cliches/

When the first Zep album came out, every musician I know, myself included, said “everthing just changed!” We needed to re-calibrate our thinking, mush as we had to do upon hearing the first Black Sabbath album. For me, “Good Times Bad Times” still makes the hair on my neck stand p straight.

That said, I intentionally dropped my interest in Zep, due to the fan base. Because some of you might not rbe old enough to remember, but most Zep fans in the ’70s, the most vocal ones, were Beavis & Butthead. Truly, the prototypes for those buffoons were the ones going “Dude, Zep rawks!” I wanted no association with them.

But I came back later, after they had drifted off to Skynyrd.

Now I pretty much listen to jazz and hold existential debates with the cat.

Humboldt, you’re a guy after my own heart (but my jazz guitarist husband got there first, and the cat, well she’s a reasonably good conversationalist…).

“but most Zep fans in the ’70s, the most vocal ones, were Beavis & Butthead.”

During the 80’s, before they went all Lynyrd, they were fans of Van Halen (fuck I hate that band).

“Humboldt, you’re a guy after my own heart (but my jazz guitarist husband got there first, and the cat, well she’s a reasonably good conversationalist…).”

I was lucky. Mom was a classically trained soprano, so she gave me the greats (plus Roberta Flack, Ella and Sara Vaughn, among others). Dad was a sax player and vocalist and he gave me the Big Bands, while all of my siblings as well as me, played instruments from the moment we could walk. (Mom was tough with that goddamned metronome clicking back and forth and Mom smacking her hands together while we struggled through some piece or another).

But it was jazz and blues that always made me wiggle. I envy no one more than an accomplished jazz guitarist or pianist.

I, too, came of age in the late 60’s…and what a time it was! Perhaps it’s my own egocentrism, but it seemed like a really special era for music. I remember been blown away, almost weekly, with a new sound or band. Then, in the late 70’s something changed…music went on auto-pilot, more derivative, less and less uniquely new. While never a big Zep fan, I had lots of friends who were…so I grew to appreciate their big sound and marvel how creative 3 guys with instruments could be. Funny thing, my 19YO son who’s a big fan of UFC has suddenly become quite a Led Zep / Pink Floyd fan. Mainly because it’s featured in their product marketing. After years of open hostility to my music. Finally, we find some common ground in our musical tastes. I’m listening to a lot more Big Band Jazz these days….stuff my dad dug, which I, of course, couldn’t stand back then. And so it goes, around and around….

One of the things that I don’t understand about how some people react to music is how they not only don’t try to broaden their exposure to different kinds of music, they become actively hostile when someone tries to do it for them. One local radio station advertises itself as “world class rock”, and they get complaints when they play something offbeat, like the Ditty Bops or Nellie McKay, and the complaints usually end up stating “that’s not ‘world class rock!’” (I wanted to punch the guy who complained about the Leo Kottke/Mike Gordon version of “Sweet Emotion”.)

Meanwhile, these folks are perfectly happy hearing the new Eagles tune multiple times a day, whereas, even if I liked it, once a day would be plenty – there’s other music to get to!

I never really got Led Zep, partly due to a forced diet of a rock station that played little else (living in the dangling dingus of Florida, the only culture we saw grew in the humidity). So the reunion doesn’t thrill me and even if the reunion tour showed up across the street, the tix would be $100 minimum. Most of their fandom was all about Jimmy Page’s playing which I was and am kind of ‘meh’ about. As Hornby points out, the riffs are the thing: the solos never really amaze me, though the closer he stays to blues, the more I think he shines.

My kids ask me what kind of music I like and my short answer is, whatever I haven’t heard before. Heavy guitar rock, as humorless as it generally is (how can you not be ironic about the obligatory guitar solo, post Spinal Tap?), doesn’t do a lot for me: I’ve heard all I need to. Dance music, in its many forms, also eludes, as my feets have failed me repeatedly. Between the stuff I read about on TBogg’s random 10 and what I hear on KEXP (streaming in CD quality, if you want some), there’s a lot of stuff to discover. But maybe a dip in The Cult when I need the blow the cruft out is required occasionally.

And why did someone have to mention a new Eagles tune? Now I have to dread listening to any commercial stations in case I hear it.

CaptPhealy, do you live in the Denver area, or is “world class rock” universal?

I know I’m late to this party.

I was a huge British rock fan as a kid. I was weaned on The Who, The Stones, Pink Floyd et al, including Led Zeppelin, as well as several other lesser bands, most notably the Beatles. (Just kidding.)

It is only the Beatles and Zep that have survived my middle age. My first concert ever was Led Zeppelin (totally sober!) and it was fantastic.

I’ve seen almost every “major” act I’ve ever wanted to over the years, but to this day, it is the acoustic set that Zeppelin did that makes me watch and listen to this day. Amazing, and entirely out of their reputation as metal Gods.

Jimmy Page is the best concert guitarist, and maybe the best period, of all time. I just can’t get over watching his fingers move on “Goin to California” or “Bron Ya Aur Stomp” without recognizing the genius and skill involved.

Also, “Since I’ve Been Lovin’ You,” the greatest blues song ever recorded by white guys.

I would have paid a lot of money to get to that reunion show this week, and from all the reviews I’ve read, I would guess it would’ve been worth it.

I got my hip-hop nephew of 15 a Zep DVD for Christmas. My brother says he’s starting to understand why they were so great and tells me he’ll love it.

Can’t wait to see him open it.

Funny related link.

Gimme Tool and NIN anyday.

yup…

I’ve been dazed and confused for so long its not true….

Back in my 20s, when all my friends were getting married, it was the custom for people at the reception dinner to sing a song with the word “Love” in it to get the bride and groom to kiss. At the first such wedding, while I was still a retiring young fella growing a bad mustache, we let the grandmothers and aunts and uncles sing the old songs “Love and marriage” and we let the kids sing “Skinamarinky-dinky-dinky” and the sachrine obscenity that is the Barney the Dinosaur theme song. Then those of us sitting at the “friends” table looked at each other, and grinned and started pounding the table top “ba-bah-ba-bah boom ba-ba-boom ba-ba-boom” for probably nearly 30 seconds until I finally leapt up on my chair in my rental tux and did the full Robert Plant-grabbing-his-crotch-and-screaming-out-the-high-notes Whole Lotta Love at the absolute top of my lungs – I had a rasp for days – and brought the house down.
Peoples parents, including my own, and more importantly, girls, looked at me a little differently after that.
The only problem was that I was now expected to do it at everyone’s wedding. I tried, but never came close to having the same impact as the first time.
At my own wedding a dozen years later, Mrs. Revpaperboy and I were treated to several attempts at Whole Lotta Love, all of them well-intentioned and all of them hilarious. There was much drinking involved and I seem to recall being forced to join the band (all friends of mine) to a rather lower energy rendition before being allowed to leave.

I still belt it out at karaoke occasionally to frighten the polite Japanese.

Musically, I still find Led Zep interesting; it’s the lyrics that make me cringe now. I’d never really listened to the words for “Immigrant Song” until I saw that irritating Flash movie with the Viking kittens; they seem like the sort of lyrics that I would have made up in junior high after plowing through a few Thor and Conan comics. And then there’s “Ramble On”:

T’was in the darkest depths of Mordor, I met a girl so fair.
But Gollum, the evil one crept up and slipped away with her, her, her, her, her, her, her….yeah.

Anyone who’s picking up girls in Mordor deserves to have them stolen by Gollum.