IV - Led Zeppelin (1971)
This is not my first rodeo. I don’t recall every music purchase I’ve ever made, but I do remember this one. I bought this on cassette, at the K-Mart that used to be on 37th and Minnesota, probably in 1986 at age 13, because of a recommendation from a friend about how cool Stairway To Heaven was. I’ve known this album backwards and forwards for many years, which makes it interesting to listen to again.
One thing that i have puzzled over before and still don’t have a good answer for: why is it that Four Sticks is the one song on here that I want nothing to do with? It’s not substantively worse than the other songs, yet it will forever be the one time i hit skip. Best i can figure, it’s that there’s nothing in the instrumentation or structure that isn’t done better on a different track. 12-string guitar flourishes? Go a few minutes into Stairway. Lockstep rhythm section? Why are you not listening to Misty Mountain Hop? Mandolin? um, hello. Evermore has more of it, and better, and you get Sandy Denny singing to boot.
tracks i liked:
Rock And Roll - I’ve always loved it for its proto-punk drive, but I hadn’t appreciated until this listen how much it owes to 50s rock n roll. It has a vaguely Chuck Berry riff, but it goes so many levels deeper than that. The guitar break that starts with something you can hum along with and then goes into a blistering solo built on blues harmonics. the piano that crashes into the last 3rd of it. It’s not just a Chuck Berry song, it’s a Chuck Berry song if his band were all front and center along with him like a late-60s rock band rather than the backing combo for a 50s star.
Stairway To Heaven - i mean, fucking Stairway, man. it’s an epic film in a 7 minute song. The payoff crescendo at the end is pure Zep, of course, but by the time you get to it, it’s been recontextualized by the structures that built up before it. It’s a cliche, but it’s a cliche because it will never not be incredible.
Misty Mountain Hop - I love how the drums and guitar are working in a conversation for so much of the song. If you listen close, you can almost hear it as a call and response. The drums do something with the rhythm, and a beat later the guitar and bass pick it up and change along with it.
