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p.s. When that happens, you know that you are dealing the legends.
the 2nd features heavy rock'n'roll, and premium compositions that defined that decade, as well as became the most sought for sound for many rock bands to come after. As in the 1st.
The energy is very intense, and the compostitions are impossible to repeat. However, by the words of Freddie Mercury, "Im not going to be a rock star, I will become a legend".
This legendary power quartet is a bit more than we usually expect from a rock band, even of a high caliber. My favorite part of the album starts towards the end with the Moby Dick freak out, moving into Bring it on Home.
This review is for those who HAVEN'T listened to the album yet
Bring it on home: book-ended with a nice, genteel bluesy sound, and a T-Rexy boogie shuffle on guitar, Plant pretends to be a black American or something of the sort. Their follow up album also contained one song which still gets airplay today, over here, but it isn't until IV that Led Zeppelin created an album with more than one song which commercial stations raided and still use today.My initial impression was that this album was worth around 70/100, but on second listen, it might be worth up to 75/100. Even though I concede that this song is a classic, I'm not sure I entirely enjoy Plant's vocal antics.listening to him, you get the impression that he is rubbing himself against his microphone stand as he sings. The song has nice genteel parts as well as more bassy and rock parts. Features a churchy sounding organ and steel string accoustic guitar. The rest:What is and what should never be: has a nice, jazzy, laid back part, as well as a rock part.The lemon song: groovy bass, some screaming lead vocals and galloping drums, and features the lyrics "Squeeze me baby, 'til the juice runs down my leg". As a long time AC/DC fan, it galls me to have Led Zeppelin revered as rock gods, but if AC/DC wrote a lyric like that, they'd be condemned as juvenile.
This song is perhaps the ultimate '[.]. An entirely listenable album which is catchy at times as well, Led Zeppelin provides an album with a song which is still fodder for commercial Australian FM radio stations.Whole lotta love: a bona fide Led Zeppelin classic. Kudos to Bonham for mixing up his drum sounds.it sounds like his tapping on a clip-board or something. And whole lotta love is the only song from this album which gets played over here. Features the lyric "So you better lay your money down", which sounded familiar to me.not sure if the Australian band Skyhooks used the same line in one of their songs too.Ramble on: might be the first ever song to reference J.R.R.Tolkien's novel "Lord of the rings". Moby Dick: the first example in modern pop/rock music that I am aware of for extended drum solo instrumentals is Cream's "Toad". The lyrics are self-consciously romantic, perhaps in a tongue in cheek kind of way. Haven't looked into how that odd sounding guitar sound was achieved, but it sounds like a synthesiser riff.
Plant occasionally has a very nice vocal melody in this song. rock' song. There are versions of this track which are interminable, live, or so I've heard. Led Zeppelin's track, like the others mentioned here, is topped and tailed by a band jam session. Around the same time as Led Zeppelin recorded this instrumental, Black Sabbath recorded an instrumental featuring a drum solo of their own, "Rat salad", from their masterpiece album "Paranoid".
Also featuring the harmonica, the song veers into more rock territory in the middle, with jarring electric guitars and the quality of sound seems to be the signature sound that the band would later develop. It's bluesy hard rock. Features the lyric "The man is back in town".a line which also features in the AC/DC classic song "T.N.T". It's features their first classic riff and Robert Plant presents the voice which defines him in this song. The solo is interesting and relaxing to listen to at times.
The middle of the track is an extended drum solo. Can't say that I like this drum solo as much as Cozy Powell's classic "Dance with the devil", which seems to me to have been quite influential, insofaras others have 'borrowed' the drum pattern, to my ears at least (e.g. Boney M's "Rasputin", from memory). It might be their most commonly played song here in Australia.
Anyway, there is a very good schizophrenic turn to the sound of this song midway.Whilst no other songs reach the album opener's high standards, I think the following couple of songs are not bad:Thankyou: has an introduction which reminds me of Boston's "More than a feeling", so perhaps Boston were inspired, in part, by this song. You will never here anything from their debut album played on those stations here, I don't think. Double standards, I think.Heartbreaker: nice rhythm, some fancy fretwork by Page on guitar, and a long guitar solo to boot. The bass guitar is very muscular in this song.Living loving maid: Sort of catchy song-the chorus especially-in a 60s pop style.
Cozy Powell's drumming hero, Cozy Cole also has a very good drum solo track from a decade ago, in "Topsy part 2).Even though Led Zeppelin were very successful with their debut album around the world, even in Australia, it is with this album that they produced a song, in "Whole lotta love" which would provide fodder for commercial FM radio stations over here. Superior to their debut album, in my opinion, which was quite rootsy.
Not much to add here, everything's already been said. One of the best albums ever made, and a slight leap in quality over the debut.
From the opening chords of Whole Lotta Love on Led Zeppelin's second album, one can sense the arrival of a monster riff that defined rock there and then. And this was when it did.By blending various influences, Led Zeppelin II is also blessed with the beauty of Thank You, the blues of The Lemon Song and Bring It On Home, the tales of old of Ramble On, the sheer hard rocking of Heartbreaker, the light and shade of What Is And What Should Never Be and John Bonham's mammoth delivery on Moby Dick. And then, still, people heard that middle part where Jimmy Page's theremin sounds and Robert Plant's orgasmic delivery left everyone gobsmacked just to be followed by a thunderous drum roll which welcomed one of the greatest guitar solos ever. It was 1969 and the world of recorded music was still young, the beginning of the seventies was looming around the corner and loads of stuff had to change - rock music being one of them. Also, not to be forgotten is John Paul Jones's incredible input: his bass playing is an irreplaceable contribution on all songs.The massive surprise this album brought must've been extreme. Nothing like that had ever come out, and the chemistry these four truly gifted musicians had playing together is still unmatched today - 40 years after its release.
When push comes to shove most hardcore Zeppelin fans I know, including myself, prefer their first album over this effort. However, song for song this is the one that is most familiar to more casual fans and seems to best define them as a band. Not quite as bluesy as their first album, but there's more hard rockin' and hip swinging material here if that's what you prefer. If you're just getting into Zeppelin and don't own any of their albums, this is probably the best one to get started with since it's extremely easy to digest.
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