Forty years before Chinese Democracy came out...

Don't feel like going into politics since it's always depressing and I've been working on my "History project" too much to think about anything else.  So what will I do except listen to Led Zeppelin?

As I've said many times, I'm not a Zeppelin fan, I prefer bands that copied them.  Not that I haven't listened to the band enough in my lifetime.  I've been listening to some instrumental music, mostly classical, as I work on the "History project" and I was wondering if I could go for The Song Remains The Same since it's *mostly* instrumental.  I never cared for that album much and obviously I haven't uploaded it from cd to this computer so that's out.  I wasn't going to listen to the 2006 reunion concert, just didn't feel like it, and I'm not much of a fan of concert recordings anyway.

So what the hell, just go for the first album.  "Good Times Bad Times" has always been one of my favorites, it's short, it's fast, it's catchy.  One thing I've never liked about the band is how repetitive their songs are, seemingly always based around one guitar riff played over and over and over.  This song does that but it works well.  The bass and drums show off their part and the guitar solos are icing on the cake.

The rest of the side A is long songs, over six minutes each.  It does feel like it was the basic sound at the end of the 60s but that makes sense, it was recorded in 1968.  Essentially it was getting away from the Beatles-style for generic British blues-rock.  I do enjoy it, probably for that reason.  They're just riffing off whatever was going on at the time.  Plant is just throwing in vocals here or there and the rest of it is well-done jamming.  I notice all but the first song are now credited to other writers.  Who knows if they get paid?

Still, this was Led Zeppelin without any of its fame.  They had just finished their first tour which they played as the Yardbirds and had to pick the new name.  I've never thought Jimmy Page was a great guitarist but he did know how to use whatever talent he had as well as being the producer.  He and Zeppelin's manager paid for the recording process so there was maximum saving of time to make what they wanted before even getting a recording contract.  John Paul Jones was a total pro and knew how to accomplish the task.  Robert Plant and John Bonham were newbies who just went along.  And in 36 hours of studio time, they made just under 45 minutes of music.

I don't have any idea how long it's been since I've heard the B-side.  "You're Time Is Gonna Come" doesn't even sound familiar but it actually had a catchy chorus.  "Black Mountain Side" shows off Page on guitar and producing, then it cuts right into "Communication Breakdown" which is similar to "Good Times Bad Times," if less catchy.  There are only a few kinds of songs they go through here but they can take each one in different directions.  

One the one hand, it's definitely Led Zeppelin.  On the other, I don't know how they were particularly any better or different from any of their competitors.  There must have been awareness of what the fans wanted to hear - particularly in America - and it was definitely an advantage to have pros bring in a finished album, I just don't have a clue what any company would want to sell, Atlantic Records or anybody else.

But obviously it worked.  I'm just hearing the music, not remembering much of anything.  "How Many More Times" sounds like an album finally, that's about it.  But this isn't a complaint, it's where rock'n'roll was going and they were leading the way, even if they were following earlier examples.  I still like Page's guitar playing more than Eric Clapton's, make of that what you will.

I'm now listening to "Baby Come On Home," an extra track recorded and not released until 1993 as an extra track for their Boxed Set 2 and later added to the re-release of Coda.  It actually sounds neat because it's more pop-music than the rest of Zeppelin and I like Jones playing the organ.  We can see why they didn't go in that direction which is why it was probably never included on the album, I'm just surprised they even bothered to record it.  Quite possibly they were expecting to release singles and wanted to have something like this available for one.

"Sugar Mama" isn't as interesting.  The band is fine but there's no point in bothering with lyrics like that.  Couldn't they have written something else instead of using an established blues song?  No one would have known.  Oh well, it's easy to tell why this didn't make the album, one wonders why they even bothered on it?

Still, that's 11 songs in 36 hours, two of which wouldn't even be known for a few decades.  It's definitely one of the most productive moments in music history.  I may not be a Zeppelin fan but I'm not ignorant of what they accomplished and it started here.  The band had only formed in August and the Yardbirds had only broken up in July.  Now they already had work that would take them to the new era.  And we're still there.

And just a note, Plant has released eight albums with 96 songs since 1993, not counting bonus tracks, b-sides on singles or new songs written with Jimmy Page for their MTV reunion.  Ignoring all that other stuff, he's recorded and released more songs since the last real G'n'R album than G'n'R ever has.  Plant also released albums before that.

I haven't heard any new Plant album since Walking to Clarksdale and I didn't like that one.  I think I've heard some of his newer songs here or there but I don't recall them.  Actually I think I have Dreamland so I must have heard it but don't remember and am too lazy to check.  Fate of Nations is one of my favorite albums ever and he did a few good songs before that.  He was also in some popular band you might have heard of.

You can say Robert Plant's music is worthless but at least he has something to fall back on and at least he keeps working anyway.  He'd just turned 20 when Zeppelin recorded their first album and now he's 72 years old.  Led Zeppelin's career took less time than we've spent eager to hear the second part of Axl's "trilogy."  We're only alive for a brief moment and have to make what we can within that time.  Which example would you rather follow?