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Go baaaaack to the main Led Zeppelin page! Looks Like I've Done a Led Zeppelin.
Overall Album Score: 8.6 out of 10 I woke up this morning ... I scratched my anus ... I realized that I am NOT a lesbian after having a very interesting dream ... and I thought to myself: "You know... today would be a good day to review a Led Zeppelin album." So here I am. I'm sitting here, naked, in front of my PC, and I have very droopy breasts. WHATTTTTTTTTTTTTT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh -- phew -- I'm still half-asleep. I'm awake now. I think. I don't really have droopy breasts, thank god. They're, in fact, very firm and perky. Enough of that. We're here to talk about the LED ZEP! You know what's weird? I spend a lot of my time comparing other hard rock acts to Led Zeppelin by saying that "Well, if they had the talent of Led Zeppelin, the might have been able to come up with better RIFFS!" And... as I listen to this album, I'm like saying to myself "Where are those good riffs?" Isn't Led Zeppelin a hard-rock/heavy-metal band? While there are certainly some heavy-metal songs on here, there isn't the staunch reliance on them like we'll see on some other Zep albums. There are some other types of songs on here. Like psycho-dellic stuff ... and folksy stuff ... and R'n'B stuff ... and all sorts of stuff. I will tell you right now that I am not a Led Zeppelin fan. Even though I started purchasing their albums early in my album-purchasing days (...back when I appreciated Styx...), I didn't seem to want to listen to them much! So ... as I review the tracks of this album, I am doing it with little or no enthusiasm. Sorry!!! I never could appreciate this band! I actually *surprise, surprise* own five Led Zeppelin albums as I write this, and I'll probably get more. I'm not even sure which of those albums is my favorite. However, this album (their debut) is certainly their most interestingly diverse. I'm usually not brought to tedium when I listen to it, which is all-too-prevalent when I divulge into some of their later albums. Another reason that I'm usually not too enthusiastic when it comes to listening to Led Zeppelin albums is that ... apart from about four ... I simply cannot recall any of their songs. Now that I've spent a fair share of my time listening to these albums, there are very few songs that jump out at me. Heck! I can name them! There's "Dazed and Confused," "Stairway to Heaven," "Black Dog," and "The Rain Song." Any Led Zeppelin song other than those ... even though I might still enjoy them ... I wouldn't be able to recall if you asked me to. Of course, now that I'm going through these albums track by track, perhaps the number will exceed ten. But as of now ... Nuh uh! If there are any Led Zeppelin fans out there who wish to add their thoughts about this album and any other Zep albums on this site, then I welcome them with open arms! If not, then I guess you'll have to read about my opinions. Oh well. Sucks to be you. Okay. I suppose I had better also discuss the historical significance of this album. It was released in 1968, and it was probably one of the more influential albums that helped usher in the 70's. (Not that we should particularly look forward to ushering in the 70's.) 70's bands such as Black Sabbath, The Blue Oyster Cult, ...... Kiss, Aerosmith, and other such heavy-metal bands. Although, rumor has it that Led Zeppelin wasn't entirely original, rather they squashed together elements from Jeff Beck, Jimi Hendrix, and other proto-heavy metal acts. At any rate, we do know that while Led Zeppelin may have begot heavy metal as we know it, they did not start hard rock. Such an honor is bestowed upon The Kinks circa 1964. Overall Album Score: 8.6 (Impressive instrument playing exceeds all else. I'm not all-too-excited about Led Zeppelin's style. Their less-than-excellent songwriting abilities also drag this score down, and I'm betting this is about as high as I'll give a Zeppelin album. I'm usually more bored when I listen to anything else by them.) Average Song Score: 8.7 (Yeah... this is about what I thought this album would score. High, but not too high. There are some true classics within this genre ... and there's a little bit of boringness to even things out. The songs were performed almost immaculately, however!) Album Tilt: 8.0 (I'm afraid I am not too enthusiastic about this album as I am other albums. Personal taste drives this, probably. But - heaven help me - there aren't enough tracks on here that I consider particularly wonderful, even though I rated some of them fairly high. While Led Zeppelin were very talented, they were also boring to me.) Artist Tilt: 9.0 (But don't let boringness get too much in the way of a good artistic feat. You don't run across people who can play their instruments THIS WELL too often! Although... I do feel somewhat uncomfortable giving Led Zeppelin a VERY high artistic rating for this album--as influential as it was. There are simply too many dull moments in here, even if they were well-executed.) Track Reviews Good Times Bad Times 10/10 A good little Zep rocker! It's a hard rocker with solid (if not readily memorable) riffs that basically epitomizes heavy metal for all it was ever worth. (I mean ... if they realized that 15-20 years later, then the 80's might have been a little more agreeable!) The music is nice'n'heavy and really quite a lot of fun to listen to. Though, I'm not too enthusiastic about this melody (which is probably why one would have to listen to it dozens of times for it to make any sort of imprint in the brain). Ahhh... melodies aren't the reason we listen to Led Zeppelin, anyway. Babe, I'm Going to Leave You 9.5/10 Now ... this ISN'T what I remember Led Zeppelin for. This one is almost a folksy tune almost reminiscent of "Stairway to Heaven," except this one is more exciting! The acoustic element of this tune is actually quite beautiful, and then it breaks into these harder, pounding sequences, which accounts for the song being more exciting than 'Stairway.' Ooo... this is a long song, too. It's still playing. Shall I write more? Hmm... I also like the atmosphere. Yes. Running well over 6 minutes, I'm not even tired of listening to it. You Shook Me 9.5/10 Ahhh! Good time rock'n'roll. It had the typical slow-and-sexy R'n'B riff and beat. It's a solid song ... it was performed very well from these truly great instrumentalists and even nice vocal work by Robert Plant (ehhh... I never thought too much of him as a vocalist). The reason I'm not scoring this track so high is because it gets a bit boring for me. Though I must stress that every instrument played here be it the harmonica, the guitar, the drums is of TOP-TOP-quality, making this a very impressive bluesy song. Without these instrumentalists, the track might be worth a 7 at most. I dub this track as being the best instrument-performance of the album. Dazed and Confused 10/10 Ah! Here it is! THAT song! The only song I can ever recall from this album. Yes. Not only is this song very good, but it is diverse within itself. It's nice and complex, and every moment of it is interesting to listen to. Even though it seems to wander around like the 'Nowhere Man,' there is not a dull moment here. It's also one of the better psychedelic-blues-rock tracks that comes to mind that tries to illustrate drug trips. The Velvet's "Heroin" can barely hold a candle to it. Yeah... this is my favorite track of the album. Your Time is Gonna Come 8/10 Hey! Did I accidentally go to church! Oh fark, I must be sleepwalking again! Man ... I wander into church naked all the time. The church ladies are going to have another FIELD DAY over this. This track begins with rather luverly, lush organ playing and then transposes into a medium-tempoed, pleasant rock song. I really have no problem awarding this track a mere 8 (which is still pretty high). The instrument playing isn't too impressive here ... no big, power riff to speak of. In fact, this doesn't particularly sound too much like a Led Zeppelin song! (Well... that definition of Led Zeppelin I have in my brain, anyway.) It sounds more like a Stones song, I reckon. At any rate, I think the beginning is very beautiful so therefore I cannot award it anything less than an 8. Black Mountain Side 7/10 And so 'Your Time' bleeds over to this rather dull, folkish instrumental track. I'm not taking away too many penalty-points because the track is only 2 minutes long and therefore doesn't get too boring. I'm not impressed with it at all, however. Communication Breakdown 10/10 Awwwww! Now *here's* CLASSIC Zeppelin! A great song relying mostly on a power-riff. Oh... this is the level of heavy metal song that so many of those bands in the 70's were trying to achieve! You like Kiss? Aerosmith? You'll realize how much they suck after listening to this!!!!!!! Surprisingly very short (under 3 minutes) ... they could very well have stretched it out longer and not have hurt anything at all. In fact, I wish they had extended it. Pooh. I Can't Quit You Baby 7.5/10 This is another slow-n-sexy rhythm-and-blues song in the same vein as "You Shook Me," (they're both actually covers of Willie Dixon) ... but it's not even REMOTELY as utterly impressive instrument-wise. Though it's still very good! Remember, Led Zeppelin were a VERY talented band, and there is some great, innovated guitar-work here from Saynor Jimmy Page. Oi! That guy's good! Unfortunately, though, this track bores me. Sigh. I guess I'll never be much of a blues-rock fan. How Many More Times 7/10 This whopping 8+ minute track closes the album and the first and last parts of it are good POWER-ROCK! Though I can't say I like the first three minutes of this song ... much less do I like it better than the criminally short "Communication Breakdown." Much much less do I like fact that this song as it clocks over 8 minutes! The instrument playing doesn't impress me as much here as many of those other tracks did, unfortunately. Through the middle part of this song, they do a good job creating a little bit o' atmosphere. The running time is way too long and it grows boring. Nevertheless, it was executed very well! Did I properly illustrate this album? Or, am I too dazed and confused to even fart properly? Leave your worthy comments here slb23@shaw.ca (Simon B.) received Sept. 1, 2004 I first listened to this years ago, thought it was good, but
didn't buy it. Then just a month or two ago I borrowed a friends' copy,
and I realized how good Led Zeppelin's debut is. Granted, not as darn
fine as their next one, but still pretty damn good for a debut. And they
recorded it in just over 30 hours!
pangle@zippnet.net (The Pang) received March 20, 2005 I see your altough I would rate this album far higher on the average than you have. After all imagine if they had been allowed 60 hours studio time. Then think of the utter crap that is released now days with months of editing and do overs. I am prejudiced though. God bless, The Pang |
All reviews are copyrighted by the author, Michael Lawrence. He's a man.
