"Darlin', can't ya do me now?" Ok then, here's the LED ZEPPELIN IV POLL

This must have been done before, but I can't find it so here goes. Favourite song please.

I've a fair idea of the inevitable winner, so I'm particularly looking for why the other tracks are better. I love how audacious this album is. I get the feeling that all the songs, except maybe 'Going to California', are really trying to push some boundary here, and not in a pompous prog way. Other bands would have turned the 'Black Dog' riff into a joke song, and it's great that 'Rock and Roll', after that intro, doesn't just sound like an exercise. I love how clean the album sounds too, it's hard but always controlled - only when it starts to churn up at the very end does it start to get overwhelming. For that, and just for the feel of it, 'When The Levee Breaks' is the one that gives me the shivers, so it gets my vote.

WTLB for me too!

Such a badass record. I voted for Four Sticks cause it stomps like hell.
That riff from Black Dog almost swayed me, though.

misty mountain hop

Never liked Misty Mountain Hop, but I was reading the lyrics while I was listening to it tonight and it was growing on me. I could never work out what they were up to. I used to think this one was just an exercise - that horrible 'walk-ing-in-the-park-just-the-o-ther-day' rhythm - but it's not a bad tune all round

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Sticks

If the river runs dry baby how will you feel?

This is impossible. But Misty Mountain Hop.

Levee, big time.

Levee.everything about this song is perfect.

one of those polls where every song here is gonna get at least 1 vote

and Levee will win

"Four Sticks" plays in my head, pretty much 24/7.

I have to add that WtLB has a feel and mood that makes things intense. Just that little drop at the end of the Liz Phair song made it 389% better.

My band has an unreleased album that we did in a real studio and everything. One of the reasons that it has stayed unreleased is because we can't agree on a running order. My idea of sequencing is a direct rip-off of this album (We only have eight songs and everything.)

I'm surprised that there hasn't been 2938 movie previews that start with the first bars of "Misty Mtn Hop".

And I'll never forget the day at a school talent show that our school's Baptist music teacher and the 329-year old piano teacher did a duet of "Stairway" for all of us. Along with the flute and organ, the biggest sasquatch in the school was on drums and as soon his part kicked in, we didn't hear anything else in our ears for another month.

Haha!

California, but I know it won't finish anywhere near the top.

TS: 389% better vs. 329-year old piano teacher

nobody ever got acid righter than "misty mountain hop"

i really hope no one votes for stairway to heaven.

misty mountain hop

Battle of Evermore - feat. Sandy Denny!

Gonna vote "Rock And Roll" coz we fucking destroyed that bitch TWICE last night at our gig, it was our encore

This poll is so hard it makes me want to cry (and do the Misty Mountain Hop)...

Black Dog sends chills down my spine every time. I love the part where the vocals drop out and Page, Jones, Bonham hammer that riff over and over. I think I could listen to that sound forever.

this is the best-produced album ever.

wigglypedia says re "Misty Mountain Hop": "At 2:11, in the second half of the second verse, the band erroneously falls out of sync with one another. However, the musicians felt that the rest of the take was too good to discard it."

That is awesome.

"black dog" is the best groove on my album and therefore my favorite.

Misty Mt Hop SO easy!

http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en-commons/thumb/a/af/250px-Zoso.svg.png
These are rubbish, aren't they? Wikipedia says: "John Bonham's symbol, the three interlocking rings, represents the trinity of mother, father and child. It could also depict an aerial view of a drum kit." I used to own a pack of tarot cards, so I must've thought Jimmy's affectations were interesting once. Nowadays I'm just glad for these little signs that Plant and Bonham weren't taking it all that seriously.

quit being poseurs and admit that it's stairway to heaven whether the shit is overplayed or not

no it's just not. i will let you know what it is after i listen now.

oh it is too. there are times when bigger is just better and that shit is massive.

but it's so poetic

Wikipedia says: "John Bonham's symbol, the three interlocking rings, represents the trinity of mother, father and child. It could also depict an aerial view of a drum kit."

It also looks suspiciously like the logo for Ballantine ale...

"it's stairway to heaven whether the shit is overplayed or not"

easy to say,difficult to carry out

never really loved stairway to heaven, and other than Rock and Roll (which did get kinda ruined by that car commercial for me), it's my least fave on this album. WtLB is probably the best Zep song period, or at least the one they need to bronze for the planet earth hall of fame induction.

impossible to choose between Goin to Cali and When the Levee Breaks

i can't hate on Rock and Roll

ever

Heh! Ballantine Ale is even better xpost

What an album. 1971 will forever be the greatest year ever for classic rock.

Went with When The Levee Breaks, but it could honestly have been any of them.

i can't imagine this coming out. lucky kids.

Battle of Evermore - feat. Sandy Denny!

-- that's not my post, Sunday, June 22, 2008 12:35 AM (3 days ago) Bookmark Link

somethin else

who's gonna step up for Battle of Evermore?

I always skip Stairway, and never really got the love for it.

lolz x-post

Misty Mountain Hop all the way

=P uh oh it's on. imagine coming up with Stairway to Heaven. what would you feel like afterward? exhausted probably

when the levee breaks - the guitar riff through the "chorus" and especilly at the end of them after "if you don't know about chicago" are played by god himself. orgasmatic.

=P uh oh it's on. imagine coming up with Stairway to Heaven. what would you feel like afterward? exhausted probably

you'd be like "well I guess I just wrote the best song on the album, time to get to work on the runners-up"

I came of age at a time when Stairway was basically an overplayed joke and for a long time that was the only Zeppelin song I'd ever heard. It doesn't strike me as doing anything that other Zep songs don't do better (the acoustic-to-electric transition in "Ramble On" is superior, for ex.), it isn't particularly catchy, the lyrics are actually worse than usual, etc.

My favorite part of this song is actually Plant's "does anyone remember laughter?" aside in "The Song Remains the Same" lolz

"It also looks suspiciously like the logo for Ballantine ale..."

That's because it is.

I'm surprised that there hasn't been 2938 movie previews that start with the first bars of "Misty Mtn Hop".

because zep are notoriously stingy with their music licensing. i think (but can't confirm) that almost famous is the only movie with more than one zep song in it, and page&plant refused permission for cameron crowe to use "stairway" (for a scene that ended up being cut, but still).

just the 2 Cs for zep: crowe and cadillac.

w/r/t: cameron crowe: fast times at ridgemont high side 2 of Lep4 and playing kashmir

Fuck CDs if only for making people feel like they needed to assemble more than 8 songs per release. There is nothing you could add to Led Zep IV to make it better.

You could vote for any of 'em though I'm not much of a MMH guy. "Black Dog" is the trickiest riff/beat in their catalog and has such a good start/stop. "Going to California" is classic on record but transcendent on live recordings. "Battle of Evemore" is just an amazing duet, and "Stairway" is almost too singular to be considered objectively anymore.

Voting for "Levee" because it's the best electric blues song ever. In a genre full of A-1 poseurs they did a Robert Johnson, Son House, pick-one-of-those-guys song with a full band and absolutely, totally, killed it. Still one of the heaviest recordings I've ever heard, and there is nothing else like it in the Zep catalog or elsewhere.

In a genre full of A-1 poseurs they did a Robert Johnson, Son House, pick-one-of-those-guys song with a full band and absolutely, totally, killed it.

Born Lizzie Douglas in Algiers, Louisiana, Minnie was one of the most influential and pioneering female blues musicians and guitarists of all time. She recorded for forty years, almost unheard of for any woman in show business at the time, and possibly unique among female blues artists. A flamboyant character who wore bracelets made of silver dollars, she was the biggest female blues singer from the early Depression years through World War II. One of the first blues artists to take up the electric guitar, in 1942, she combined her Louisiana-country roots with Memphis-blues to produce her own unique country-blues sound; along with Big Bill Broonzy and Tampa Red, she took country blues into electric urban blues, paving the highway for giants like Muddy Waters, Bo Diddley, Little Walter and Jimmy Rogers to travel from the small towns of the south to the big cities of the north. She was married three times, and each husband was an accomplished blues guitarist: Kansas Joe McCoy (a.k.a. "Kansas Joe") later of the Harlem Hamfats, Casey Bill Weldon of the Memphis Jug Band, and Ernest "Little Son Joe" Lawlers.[1] Paul and Beth Garon's 1992 biography on Memphis Minnie, Woman With Guitar: Memphis Minnie's Blues, makes no mention of a marriage to Weldon, but only says that she recorded two sides with him in November of 1935, for Bluebird Records. It does describe the relationships and marriages to McCoy and Lawlers.[2]

After learning to play guitar and banjo as a child, she ran away from home at the age of thirteen. She travelled to Memphis, Tennessee, playing guitar in nightclubs and on the street as Lizzie "Kid" Douglas. The next year, she joined the Ringling Brothers circus. Her marriage and recording debut came in 1929, both with Kansas Joe McCoy, when a Columbia Records talent scout heard them playing in a Beale Street barbershop in their distinctive "Memphis style", and their song "Bumble Bee" became a hit.[3] In the 1930s she moved to Chicago, Illinois with Joe. She and McCoy broke up in 1935 and by 1939 she was with Little Son Joe Lawlers, with whom she recorded nearly 200 records. In the 1940s she formed a touring Vaudeville company. From the 1950s on, however, public interest in her music declined and in 1957, she and Lawlers returned to Memphis, Lawlers died in 1961.[4]

Fuck CDs if only for making people feel like they needed to assemble more than 8 songs per release. There is nothing you could add to Led Zep IV to make it better.

Completely agree with this, but where would you put some of those IV outtakes? Between what songs would "Down by the Seaside" go for instance?

just the 2 Cs for zep: crowe and cadillac.

They did license "The Immigrant Song" for School of Rock after the entire cast made a video begging them for it. It's included on the DVD -- it's pretty cute.

Shit, has any band ever been so good at pure DYNAMICS?? Every song here is practically 3D.

Right now, I'm gonna nominate the pine-needle haystack that is "Battle of Evermore". Bring it back, bring it back, bring it back.

xpost - Ever see "Wayne's World" on video? Page or whoever forced 'em to replace four fucking notes of "Stairway"! (Cue spoilsports citing Spirit's "Taurus")

FOUR STICKS

Though "Battle of Evermore" is close behind

Anything other than "When the Levee Breaks" is just fuckin' wrong.

Alex perhaps you did not notice that this is the album which has STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN on it

stairway denied

'Going to California' easy. Never cared for Led Zep IV particularly.

Stairway FTW. I've gone full circle with this song in my life, from loving it, to getting tired of it, to hating it and back to loving it again. I don't have that kind of relationship with any of the other songs on this album.

Four Sticks.

Too much harmonica on WtLB for me and the drums (THOSE DRUMS) kind of overshadow the rest of the band.

If the band are so protective of licensing their songs, why'd they let "Rock and Roll" be used for that car commercial?

The School of Rock video where the kids beg Zep to let them use Immigrant Song is pretty good. It's an extra on the DVD. Why are Zep so stingy about their rights? Zep's ok, but it's not like they're Black Sabbath or anything.

No bad choices here. I really, really love "When the Levee Breaks," but I voted for "Rock and Roll," tainted as it is by overexposure. I'm not sure I can explain why. There's something compelling about its combination of nostalgia, heaviness, and speed. Its about-to-go-out-of-control quality puts it in a different emotional position with respect to its sources than, say, Plant's solo excursions into doowop (which I also like).

I suspect I hear "Rock and Roll" differently now because of Jerry Lee Lewis' cover on "Last Man Standing."

Zep's ok, but it's not like they're Black Sabbath or anything.

We've had this argument and ZEP WON

Alex perhaps you did not notice that this is the album which has STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN on it

Oh please. Fuck "Stairway". Bloated, overrated wedding cake.

yeah guys it can't all be wedding cake

voted Stairway.

sometimes I can understand arguments about overexposure, but we are talking about Zep IV: at this point you've probably heard all the other tracks just as many times as Stairway.

real story: I was at a church youth group in hs and they played Stairway one night as rock with good theology. Needless to say I did not continue with this group much longer (other tunes played include "Livin' On A Prayer").

mmm cake

When I visualize bloated, overrated wedding cake, I don't think of "Stairway To Heaven".

I'm actually getting visuals of that ghetto fabulous wedding cake picture that was passed around the Internet 8 years ago.

What does 'rock with good theology' mean?! I hope you told them what happens if you play it backwards

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_LkAAzCQrQ

i don't know yet.

ROCK AND ROLL

Wait, why won't the poll let me select all of the songs, then press submit over and over again

only downside of r&r for me is that its always sounded like an inferior sequel to ramble on

do you have to be wrong about everything

I am certain Senator Alex from the great state of New York is referring to some other stairway than the monolithic and permanently awesome Stairway to Heaven by Led Zeppelin

I am lobbying for a constitutional amendment stating that Stairway is awesome and I thank you all for your support

fuck, I posted a witty response to why this church thought Stairway had good theology, but ILM ate it or something. In any case the gist is that it talked about heaven, and that was good enough. I left after that week but I suspect the next week they played "Heaven" by Bryan Adams.

(I've said most of what I have to say about "Stairway" and this album on other threads but you know I'm with you, right, J0hn?)

our cause is just!

also I would support a constitutional amendment naming Stairway the US national anthem, or at least runner-up after "God Bless the USA" or "Funk Dat".

Your cause lacks orcs.

"Misty Mountain Hop."

Also lacks orcs.

I would support a FISA compromise if it allowed us to monitor how Plant and Page came up with "When The Levee Breaks."

HOW PAGE AND PLANT CAME UP WITH WtLB:

http://www.crazedfanboy.com/nolansnewsstand02/images/memphminkanjoemccoy.jpg

VERY SIMILAR TO HOW I CAME UP WITH THE SONG "FOUR STICKS".

"Stairway To Heaven" is my very boring, but also very obvious, pick.

seriously why do ppl pop all this bullshit about page and plant ripping off when the levee breaks when:

A) stealing/trading/adopting riffs and lyrical passages where STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURE in all of blues history...who the fuck knows if Memphis Minnie and Kansas Joe didn't steal it from dudes we've never even heard of?

B) The fucking OMINOUS AND CRUSHING arragement of said song as done by Zeppelin bears much more than a slight resemblence to the actual *sound* of said Memphis Minnie joint.

(for those interested in hearing the original:http://www.publicdomain4u.com/html/kansas_joe.htm)

C) MEMPHIS MINNIE DIDN'T WRITE THE MOTHERFUCKING DRUMBEAT

anyone complaining about anyone ripping anything off is always bullshit no argument needed

^^^on the realz

wtf is wrong with wedding cake!?

B) The fucking OMINOUS AND CRUSHING arragement of said song as done by Zeppelin bears much more than a slight resemblence to the actual *sound* of said Memphis Minnie joint.

(also I think you mean it DOESN'T bear much more than a slight resemblance...? this has always annoyed me about arguments that various rock n rollers were just ripping off blues artists - I don't give a shit how structurally similar the Stones' "Stop Breakin Down" is to the Robert Johnson original, sonically it sounds COMPLETELY different, just like Zep basically sounds nothing like Memphis Minnie. this idea that the underlying musical structure is somehow more important/relevant/critical than the actual SOUND of a given piece of recorded music is completely nonsensical to me.)

I hadn't heard that before -they're effectively entirely different songs. If Plant had given the Zeppelin version new words, you'd never spot the link. I like that he didn't.

(shaky yeah i meant DOESN'T, they barely even sound the same at all, lyrics aside)

"Stairway to Heaven" is a wheezing, overplayed, overwrought, overpicked, overpraised dinosaur fart, and a largely wanky meaningless one at that. I love Zeppelin, but if I never heard this fucking song again, that'd be just fine with my and my sweet Satan.

"When the Levee Breaks" meanwhile, I never tire of.

wait is Stairway a wedding cake or a dinosaur fart, the two things are very different IMHO

It's an overstacked, almost-toppling wedding cake iced with hippo vomit and spritzed daintily with l'eau de Dinosaur Fart

haha, when people accuse LZ of being ripoff artists, I've often wondered how many of the original blues and folk recordings they've actually listened to.

Also, I think a key issue is that the structure is quite different in the LZ version (as it is in "Whole Lotta Love" vs "You Need Love" - entirely new sections are added and everything). The structure of e.g. the Stones' "Little Red Rooster" comes a lot closer to the original.

I think the moral objection is more about them borrowing something largely public-domain and then taking songwriting credit for it rather than just "Traditional, arranged by" etc.

well no argument there - Stones were the king of assholes in regards to that stuff (I hate you Allen Klein)

Also, Jimmy Page's utterly disingenuous denial that he's ever even heard Jake Holmes' "Dazed and Confused" makes him look more duplicitous than if he just admitted the truth.

I completely agree about those things, Myonga. But a lot of people do make it sound like LZ just lifted these things wholesale without adding much of their own. (Really, the most sensible things to do would have been to either write new lyrics to WLL and WTLB or else just give credit for lyrics.)

Well, if it's any consolation (and it isn't), the Damage Manual basically ripped LZ's arrangement of "When the Levee Breaks" right out from under Zep... and didn't give them a whisp of a credit... on "Sunset Gun." It would be a bigger deal if anyone gave a fuck, which of course they don't.

hear it here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmoVIKDlZS8

heh - never heard that, that's pretty funny considering Zep is one of those bands that seems to have heard everything. voracious listeners/magpies, those guys.

x-post

"All night long, sat on the levee and moaned".

I'm not saying the Led Zeppelin version sounds completely the same as the Kansas Joe version, but asking "O WHERE O WHERE DID JIMMY PAGE COME UP WITH THIS?" is fucking ignorant.

I think the moral objection is more about them borrowing something largely public-domain and then taking songwriting credit for it rather than just "Traditional, arranged by" etc.

-- Myonga Vön Bontee, Thursday, June 26, 2008 8:45 PM (25 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

yeah they dicks for sure...same w/the stones.

the Stones strike me as being way more direct in their ripoff approach, particularly early on. I mean, basically covering stuff like the Staple Singers "Maybe the Last Time" and calling them yr own composition? wtf with that bullshit.

WTLB

I think the moral objection is more about them borrowing something largely public-domain and then taking songwriting credit for it rather than just "Traditional, arranged by" etc.

You know what Frank Farian used to do?

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

I had to go with Rock and Roll, but I'm glad to see MMH getting some love.

"Black Dog".
Wadda knotted jolt of a miracle riff.

Levee.

i'm going with Levee too which i feel is too intellectual an answer but that's what's gonna happen. Evermore is gonna get shafted i suspect.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

the levee broke

nice!!

"Went..to..the..park..just..the..other...day.."

yay MMH!

Whattup Levee. Awesome.

I am shocked and amazed at the number of people who voted for "The Battle Of Evermore".

this poll is ridickalous

I dunno -- there are the most respectable poll results I've seen in weeks.

maybe its cuz im a much bigger fan of retro-zepp than trippy-zepp

I am shocked and amazed at the number of people who voted in this poll. Good work, everyone.

Dan otm

Shocked and amazed = a good thing, right?

Actually, I meant to say two words: Sandy Denny!

i voted Battle of Evermore but i'm cool with top 2 vote getters

one of those polls where every song here is gonna get at least 1 vote

-- stephen, Friday, 20 June 2008 20:35 (1 week ago) Link

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

and Levee will win

-- Zeno, Friday, 20 June 2008 20:37 (1 week ago) Link

OTM !

These are weird results. I love WTLB, but I'd like to see the breakdown among voters for whom Zeppelin is the Greatest Thing Ever versus recent converts (DILETTANTES!), who are drawn in mostly by the sound of Bonzo's kit

For me a big part of what elevates Zeppelin among the other dino rock acts of the era was how SWINGING they were, and to my ear there are 3 songs on this record where Bonzo/JPJ groove harder than on WTLB which by comparison is kinda lumbering & i dunno, monolithic (& yes I understand that is its appeal but come on)

Also, Battle of Evermore is genius.

you have a point there, hadrian.

Four Sticks 10
Rock and Roll 6

this amazes me: "Four Sticks"? I'd love to hear someone rep for it.

I'd love to hear someone rep for it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Sticks
Maybe you didn't check this link that Steve Shasta posted?
The synth part on this song in the bridge is awesome.
I feel like I only just noticed it.

yes that is the best part in the song!!

hadrian totally otm

Shocked and amazed = a good thing, right?

OF COURSE (I voted for it, too)

yeah hadrian not *that* otm. WtLB does swing, it's just big juggernaut, unison swinging. Of course the production is a big factor in this song (at least for me), in a similar way as, say, Kashmir, or Dazed and Confused. It's somewhat impenetrable, and kind of a wall of noise, but not seeing how that makes it less good. It's like compressing all of Led Zeppelin into a single, head exploding sound.

I still love the 8-track version of this album's sequencing:

1. Black Dog
2. Four Sticks
3. Going to California
4. Stairway to Heaven
5. Misty Mountain Hop
6. The Battle of Evermore
7. Rock and Roll
8. When the Levee Breaks

"For me a big part of what elevates Zeppelin among the other dino rock acts of the era was how SWINGING they were.."

There was a pretty heavy "dino" band that came out right at the same time from the same town as two of the guys in Zep and was much more "SWINGING"

first Zep = '68, first Sabbath = '70

Keep fightin that battle tho

Who came first has absolutely nothing to do with the point I was trying to make.

for my money "kashmir" and "dazed and confused" are more zeppelin compressed into a single, head-exploding sound than "when the levee breaks" is. i mean where's the riff? relatively speaking, of course. great song though

Who came first has absolutely nothing to do with the point I was trying to make.

yeah I agree in general, just ribbin ya - altho I admit I do bear who came first in mind whenever I think of the similarity between the opening riff of "Good Times/Bad Times" and "War Pigs".

ugggg i don't wanna relive the whole sab vs zep rhythm section thing.

(((DRUDGE SIREN)))

Bill Magill still likes Black Sabbath

Happy 40th Birthday IV!

i never owned any zeppelin when i was younger, except the outtakes/sessions/whatever supplement to the big box set. i just heard it all on the radio.

now this album is hella weird to hear, in its own context and not as the scattered classic rock staples i learned it as. one track after another, there's always this feeling of them trying to APE classic rock radio and BE utterly omnipresent and played to death, down onto the level of individual riffs, vocal mannerisms, everything.

xpost - Ever see "Wayne's World" on video? Page or whoever forced 'em to replace four fucking notes of "Stairway"! (Cue spoilsports citing Spirit's "Taurus")

oh, so that's why that joke never really made sense to me

the way Plant and Denny's vocals flow in and out together on Battle of Evermore is so otherworldly. it's just such a damn great song.

The whole album is fucking great, and I'm seriously surprised I'm not tired of much of it.

Released Nov. 8, 1971.

ffs i can remember where i was when i read an article on its *20th* anniversary

As I mentioned on FB, I can still remember my grade 5 friend Pat Hutchinson telling me about the (newly released) "Black Dog," also Billy Preston's "Outta Space."

black dog shook me to the core in high school

I've mentioned this often--my favourite description ever by a rock critic: Billy Altman calling "Black Dog" "indescribably chaotic" in his Rolling Stone LZ essay.

One of my most distinct musical memories is hearing LZ for the first time at 16 in my friend's Chevy Vega on Main Street in our little town and Black Dog comes out of the speakers and sounded like nothing I had ever heard - more real than reality, demanding attention.

also 16, perfect time to hear it

It's hard to fathom now, but when I started listening to and buying music, Led Zeppelin had only been broken up for a couple of years, if that. I was trying to recall the other day if they had already or how quickly they entered the pantheon as a band whose (more or less) entire catalog was likely to be encountered on the radio. I truly can't remember, but it feels like at least half of each record has been in heavy classic rock rotation in one way or another for decades and decades, more than almost any band I can think of.

so consistent

it's funny to think now about my dad playing me when the levee breaks when i was probably like 11 in the mid 90s and how many years it took me from there to wrap my head around what a singular piece of music it is

i'm just old enough to not really remember them as a going concern

i do recall 'principle of moments' and the firm records coming out, and i liked them (well, mostly the former) but zep was even by then a Monument.

throughout the 80s my local rock station did a 'memorial day 500' -- i.e. the greatest 500 rock songs ever, as voted on by you the fans. 'stairway' was always no. 1 and live 'free bird' was always no. 2

can't even argue with the latter tho

Love this rough mix. Happy Birthday, IV!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYsJajRhQCY

wait

this album is 50 years old?

ummmmmmmmm i must be rusty on my math tf

STH is a bore ; all their planning made a slog of a song. It’s too rehearsed, moves at the speed of a snail. You can hear jp trying to speed things up and snap the band out of its quaalude haze in the accelerated rhythm of the second section and maybe rp trying to do the same during “sprinkling” ugh

RONG

After taking a long break from it I've come around to "Stairway" again (not that I ever disliked it). It's so efficient and logical and weirdly, perfectly compact despite covering so much ground in such a short time. It's definitely pretty rehearsed, though, as opposed to a more open-ended thing like, say, "No Quarter" or even "Levee."

This poll is correct, "Stairway to Heaven" is probably the third-best song on the record.

I suspect if Plant hadn’t mentioned ringwraiths “Evermore” would have placed higher.

Every LZ song should mention ringwraiths.

hey hey angmar said the way you move
gonna make you sweat gonna make you groove

Pretty sure most LZ songs do mention ringwraiths, or at least they're implied.

Ah that's what the confounded bridge refers to

I'm surprised that Spotify has Stairway as the most played Led Zeppelin song. I feel it's a song to be admired every few years or so, like how you may watch "2001" once in a blue moon but more often pop in a fun action comedy (I guess in this analogy, "Black Dog"?).

The Spotify ranking of "Yes" songs makes more sense to me, with "Owner of a Lonely Heart" first and their epic "Roundabout" second.

Re: how overplayed "Stairway" is supposed to be, was that mostly in the '70s and maybe the '80s? When I did listen to classic rock radio, it didn't stand out as being played more than anything else, so I wonder if that all faded with time.

There's also not as many radio outlets to play it, as both Mainstream and Classic Rock stations have shifted their playlists away from older songs.

It's weird to think classic rock radio may now be centered on the alternative era. First time I listened, it mostly stretched from '60s Beatles, Stones and the Who to early '80s stuff by the same people. I guess if radio formats kept with the same time lapse rather than the same individuals (not demographic) it was targeting, that's now all "oldies" programming.

stairway is perfect!!!

The local 50s/60s oldies station changed formats a decade ago, makes sense that the creep continues. Though in my childhood I don't remember a 40s radio station -- I get boomers decided all good music started after 1956, but were there stations around in the 60s and 70s still playing big bands for the nostalgic? Or, just like today, was that just relegated to Christmastime?

pretty surprised at "California" low showing here but this album is pretty loaded to be sure

Around here at least I still hear tons of Zep on the radio, and that's not even including "Stairway to Seven" or "Time to Get the Led Out" or other weekly classic programs.

xxp Except for programs like the late Phil Schaap's jazz program, I never got the impression that there were many programs, much less entire stations, dedicated to that era. (Which is ironic given how much that era relied on radio for publicity - moreso than later generations that were raised on television.)

I think Gary Giddins and Robert Christgau have written about this before, but that era of popular music seemed to evaporate in a way that later eras did not. Like Frank Sinatra's '50s records endured in a way that Bing Crosby's earlier records (the height of Crosby's popularity) did not. I want to say once the mass audience ages and passes on, most of the interest in anything from that era comes from those who are more particular about music and its history, not just nostalgia, so the stuff that actively gets revived, played and discussed tends to be records of greater musical value. That is, they weren't necessarily mainstream hits which involved as much dreck then as they do now.

52 years old now, happy birthday.

https://www.loudersound.com/news/an-original-photograph-of-the-mysterious-figure-on-the-cover-of-led-zeppelin-iv-has-been-found-in-an-old-photo-album-and-hes-been-identified

had one of the best swimming experiences of my life during a thunderstorm at Pryibil beach this September. i rarely go to there. a real hike from the LIRR station, it's one of the least scenic beaches in the part of Long Island where i used to live, and also one of the most crowded. but the water is really deep. north shore beaches are rocky as hell and it's the only beach where getting in and out of the water at low tide isn't a huge pain in the ass. on this day it was deserted but for hundreds of seagulls; i checked the tide forecast before i set out that day but neglected to check the weather. i was about halfway from the train station when the skies opened up and i just felt the sudden urge to listen to Stairway to Heaven. i'm not sure what came over me. i had a copy of Led Zeppelin IV as a pre-teen but hadn't listened to it probably since the 4th or 5th grade. but i managed to cue it up on youtube before wrapping my phone in a towel so it wouldn't get completely soaked through and die. reception up there is spotty and there were interruptions. but oh man listening to Stairway to Heaven loud while walking to the beach in a thunderstorm is an experience. i was screeching along with Plant thinking i was much too young when i picked it up to really appreciate what a masterpiece it is, and how there's probably so much stuff i've dismissed all these years because i was too immature to get it at the time. if i'm being honest, even the guitar solo ripped.

swimming was amazing, it was like a game of chicken with the lighting getting closer and louder and the seagulls gliding above me, dark and heavy storm clouds broken up by the bright summer sun in the afternoon. quite led zeppelinesque! eventually the lightning got too close and i had to get out. i like to swim out far, i was being pretty stupid as it is. of course the sun came out while i was walking back to the train listening to dubnobasswitymyheadman.

Great story Deflatormouse, thanks for sharing it.

Led Zeppelin is a funny band to me. I thought I hated them, got all their CDs via Columbia House. Listened to them but still wasn't that impressed. One day I finally got it and haven't looked back.

great story deflatormouse!!

this was first led zep album i heard
seemed like when i started high school
everyone had a copy of it? like they handed out copies at the door while i was looking the other way lol

everyone had bottle-green pencil cases (school color) & half the boys had zoso painted on theirs with liquid paper

in sewing class we had to make & embroider aprons & at least two boys made led zeppelin aprons with zoso embroiderery

so as you can see i was indoctrinated early & uh weirdly

yes APRONS

Great story as usual, Deflatormouse.

I still remember riding in my friend Dan's Chevy Vega on Main Street in our little town when he popped this album in and I heard LZ for the first time. Plant's initial couplet in Black Dog faded away into the darkness and the full band and riff came charging in and I turned to him, thunderstruck, and said, "what is this?" It had, shall we say, an immediate effect - within the year my parents were confronting me that LZ was devil music. Turns out it was :)

The part where the drums come in on Stairway is the best moment of the album.

Lot Longyear is an amazing name

Great story, Deflatormouse.

Unfortunately I was completely put off LZ because they remind me of one a particularly crappy day in 2009 on the first day of a job which had originally been sold to me as a "marketing" role but ended up being door-to-door sales in a Harpenden council estate.

The guy I was working with had LZ playing in the van as we wound through endless suburban cul-de-sacs, knocking on doors, being barked at by dogs (I'm phobic), and generally being told to fuck off by people who were eating their tea.

We ended up working much later than I had expected and when we got back to base that night, the bosses yelled at us for something or other (I don't know what) and wouldn't sign off my timesheet.

Needless to say, I didn't go back the next day. The whole experience marred my theretofore passing enjoyment of said band. I should revisit them now that the sour taste has gone from my mouth.

Somehow missed the continuation of the radio format chat upthread with poorpete & bird.

In Houston we had a long-running commercial FM station that played "Classic Pop", an umbrella term that covered Pre-Rock stuff (Big Band & Trad Jazz, Traditional Pop, Early C&W), '60s/'70s Easy Listening, and contemporary stuff in the same vein (Harry Connick Jr. etc.). Basically music for your grandparents. Very old-school, I barely remember them even running much advertising that wasn't the DJs themselves (almost all guys who'd been on-air here in town since the '50s/'60s) reading ad copy for local businesses. It got bumped down to the AM dial in '97 in favor of an Adult Contemporary station that lasted for about a year before switching again to the Latin Hits format it carries to this day.

A similar fate befell the AM station, which managed to stick it out into the mid '00s before also being transitioned over to a Latin format.

So my point is there actually were 40s-centric Oldies stations here and there on terrestrial radio, but they were almost all gone by the 2000s, surrendering the ground to online services and satellite radio.

I remember there were several "Big Band" stations on the AM dial in South Florida in the late '70s and early '80s. They seemed fairly popular for a while. I remember hearing that kind of music a lot out in public, though I had no interest in it then. Those stations all eventually switched to talk or business talk formats later in the '80s I think.

amazing post Deflatormouse thank you

XP That makes sense. Thinking more on it, I feel the Houston station only hung on as long as it did because it was family-owned with deep roots in the community. Then deregulation happens and suddenly there's all this money on the table for prime FM real estate.

https://fadedsignals.com/post/75103003298/kque-fm-signed-on-in-1960-from-houston-as-a-sister

haha dog latin, i somehow got roped into selling double glazed windows one summer while visiting family in England. it was chaotic. i'd completely forgotten about that! i also need to give this band another chance

yeah the payoff when the drums finally kick in on Stairway is something else

*door to door

This sounds made up, but it's not--about an hour ago, Pogo's computer played "levee" against me in Scrabble.

I love the story about the photo. If I ever thought about it at all I probably assumed it was staged or otherwise created for the album cover, did not conceive of it as a thrift-shop photo of an actual old-timey guy. (Also loved Deflatormouse's swimming story. I heard "Immigrant Song" as the soundtrack in my head.)

Yes, it's "Levee".

I like the album as a whole but I'm not convinced "Evermore" really works and who needs to listen to "Stairway" anymore?

ME lol

Don't get me wrong, I like it, I just don't want to listen to it.

ME TOO, MY GAWD THE GUITAR SOLO

lol meant as an xp, I’m with sleeve

lol

haha

Battle of Evermore is so freaking good. I would sign for an entire album of stuff with Sandy Denny.

"Four Sticks" plays in my head, pretty much 24/7.

Now it's stuck in mine.

"Four Sticks" plays in my head, pretty much 5/4.

wild coincidence this thread getting bumped, i just threw on this album in full for the first time in years, at high volume while cleaning house the other day. needed something high energy that could still fade into the background because it's so burned into my being. things i noticed: battle of evermore was more vampy groove and less song than i remembered (a good thing), four sticks rocks harder, and with reasonable distance from whenever the last time i actually heard it, was able to really appreciate the beauty of the main middle section of stairway (if there's a bustle etc). it's still levee for the poll though

always wanted a Sandy Denny shirt with her IV symbol on it. agree with PBKR, a Zep album with Plant and Denny trading vocals would've been amazing.

Would wear

Different thing obviously but I feel like the Alison Krauss albums are kind of a version of that. He obviously likes duetting with women, the way their voices sound together.

The part where the drums kick in on "Stairway" is arguably the best moment of the album.

One of the most famous lost bootlegs of all time is a Fairport/Zeppelin jam that look place in LA at some point.

September 4, 1970 - Today, after playing to 20,000 fans at the L.A. Forum, Led Zeppelin appear with Fairport Convention at the Troubadour in L.A. to a crowd of only a few hundred. The bands share instruments. Richard Thompson, guitarist for Fairport Convention, plays Page's Les Paul, but FC's drummer, Dave Mattacks, is hesitant to let Bonham play his drums because of Bonham's reputation as a very powerful drummer. Bonham sits down at the kit and steps on the bass pedal. Mattacks watches in horror as his bass drum flies forward a half a foot. After the jam session, which lasted almost three hours, the drum heads need a good changing and the toms need a good tuning. After the jam session, Bonham retires to Barney's Beanery, an after-hours bar, where he engages in a drinking contest with Janis Joplin."

Joe Boyd:

https://www.innerviews.org/inner/boyd-1

You’re in possession of the legendary Led Zeppelin/Fairport Convention jam multitracks from the L.A. Troubadour in 1970. Have you ever considered attempting to get them released?

I would never be allowed to release them. The ghost of Led Zeppelin’s manager Peter Grant would come and put a stake through my heart if I ever did anything with them, including putting them up on YouTube. But it was a cool night. There were a lot of memorable things about it. It was Jimmy Page, Robert Plant and John Bonham. John Paul Jones wasn’t there. I don’t think Bonham played much. It was mainly Plant and Page who got up onstage and joined Fairport. They did things like “Hey Joe,” “That’s Alright Mama,” “Mystery Train,” and other stuff. This was after Sandy Denny had left Fairport, so it was the all-male Fairport lineup.

I have some great memories from that show. Now, one of the problems with live recording on a small stage like the Troubadour is the amps are right behind the vocal mic. So, when you go to mix the thing, you’ve got so much signal from the amps spilling down the vocal mics that it’s difficult to get a good sound on the voice. And when you raise the voice by riding the vocal level, you get more of the guitar or bass, or whatever it is nearest to the vocal mic. But with Plant in this case, it was the opposite. (laughs) Plant is so loud that his voice was spilling down the mics in front of the amps. In those days, you didn’t have direct inputs from the amps. You had to put a mic in front of the amp to record it. You didn’t have split leads going straight into the boards. So, Plant would start singing and I’d have almost as much vocal as guitar on the mic in front of the amp because he’s so fucking loud. There was no danger of the vocal being drowned out by the guitars.

I also remember Fairport doing one of those jigs and reels pieces while Page tried to play it. It was a pretty good attempt and then Richard Thompson took over and played the rest. Page just looked at Richard with this “What planet are you from?” look on his face. (laughs) He just couldn’t imagine how Richard could do what he did, that fast.

My favorite memory though, is Peter Grant. Now, Peter was a thug. Led Zeppelin wanted a thug. They wanted a shark to deal with the sharks. That was the great theory of band management in those days. So, Peter was with them that night. It was late. The band came to the Troubadour after playing the L.A. Forum, a sports arena. Fairport were winding down their last set. The Troubadour was a very relaxed place. Doug Weston, the owner, loved music and was all in favor of spontaneous things happening. But he had to deal with very strict licensing laws. It was a really good evening happening at the Troubadour, but at 2 am, they had to get the booze off the tables, but you could keep playing. So, 10 minutes before 2 am, the waitresses said “Drink up. We have to take your glasses in a few minutes.” At three minutes before 2 am, the waitresses were out there with trays picking up wine, beer and cocktail glasses. Everybody knew this was part of the ritual of the Troubadour. At 2 am, Fairport started playing a ballad called “Banks of Sweet Primroses” with Dave Swarbrick singing. It’s a beautiful song with lots of open space. It just has drums with a little chording from Richard and Simon Nicol, and Dave doing a little riff on the fiddle. It’s very still and silent. And when John Wood and I were listening back to the multitracks, you hear this beautiful first verse, and just at the end of it, you hear this rattle of glasses and the sound of something smashing against wood. Then you hear the voice of Peter Grant yelling “You fucking bitch! Get your hands off my fucking glass!” (laughs) He was sitting right near the front of the stage, so it went right down the vocal mic. He didn’t know the Troubadour routine.

Excellent.

Certainly, in the topsy-turvy world of heavy rock, having a good, solid piece of wood in your hand is quite useful.

Bonham retires to Barney's Beanery, an after-hours bar, where he engages in a drinking contest with Janis Joplin.

In the end, who won?

would guess Janis

Hearing Four Sticks again makes me realise how much of a debt all those 90s noise rock bands had to LZ. Pretty much sounds like a far less scabrous Jesus Lizard or Unsane song.