Led Zeppelin: Classic Or Dud?

I think I was probably the last male American rock fan, born during the era in which the band was active, to "get into" Led Zep. I got the box set as a gift in high school, when it was released, but didn't dig it too much (in retrospect, it wasn't a great introduction... a lot to wade through). Over the years, I came to dislike the band pretty actively, based on the tracks from the first two albums and IV that are played on the radio all the time.

Then, a few years ago, I picked up a used copy of Physical Graffiti (I don't even remember why); and was like, whoa... I knew the big hits, but wasn't familiar w/cuts like "In the Light" and "Ten Years Gone." This was a terrific album... and I moved forward & backward from there, getting really into the albums with titles (instead of numbers) in particular. Basically, it's the second half of their career that I had received little exposure to, and which turned out to be very much my thing (I also dig III, and side two of IV is good).

I haven't revisited them so much lately, after that heavy six or eight months... but I definitely "get it" now!

always rep hard for III, which is one of the greatest records ever

There was a recentish LZ thread where people (incl. myself?) dissected some youtube drummers' playalongs of some of Bonzo's more uh... athletic/difficult? performances... but that is currently beyond my ILX search ability.

whoops wrong thread but kinda works too I guess?

Even listening to an audio stream via tinny computer speakers, at mid-low volume, Bonzo's drums bust out so powerfully

saw a youtube the other day where guy was disproving the legend that Bonham's Levee part was recorded in a stairwell w/no added artificial echo

Hard funk is my favourite Zeppelin mode:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqs3hw0rgpc

saw a youtube the other day where guy was disproving the legend that Bonham's Levee part was recorded in a stairwell w/no added artificial echo

― A True White Kid that can Jump (Granny Dainger), Tuesday, September 25, 2018 3:29 PM (fourteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I don't think the artificial echo was ever a secret. The stairwell provided most of the color, but it was supplemented with outboard gear:

https://www.musicradar.com/news/drums/andy-johns-on-the-secrets-behind-the-led-zeppelin-iv-sessions-586533

"I used two Beyerdynamic M160 microphones and I put a couple of limiters over the two mics and used a Binson Echorec echo device that Jimmy Page had bought. They were Italian-made and instead of tape they used a very thin steel drum.

"Tape would wear out and you'd have to keep replacing it. But this wafer-thin drum worked on the same principle as a wire recorder. It was magnetised and had various heads on it and there were different settings. They were very cool things!

"And so playing at that particular tempo on 'Levee the limiters had time to breathe and that's how Bonzo got that 'Ga Gack' sound because of the Binson. He wasn't playing that. It was the Binson that made him sound like that. I remember playing it back in the Stones' mobile truck and thinking, 'Bonzo's gotta f**king like this!' I had never heard anything like it and the drum sound was quite spectacular."

Right not a secret, but to non-engineers/casual fans (hi) that part of it was left out & story was condensed to "it sounds like that cause it was recorded in a stairwell". Which it wasn't! The room was akin to a lobby of a small hotel.

I always though the tape speed was altered too, everything except the vocals microtoned down a quarter or maybe even a half step

A little more on the box set: I definitely gave it some listens... I remember the four CDs with their "atmospheric" cover images, and thinking the "No Quarter" riff was really cool. I must have just set it aside after freshman year, as I moved more towards other stuff. Also, the friends I fell in with shared my love of R.E.M., VU, etc. -- I didn't know anyone who listened to Led Zep (except for a cool girl in middle school who was obsessed w/classic rock, Keith Moon in particular).

xpost There is a ton of stuff going on in "When the Levee Breaks."

this sounds interesting

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1909526509?ie=UTF8&tag=washpost-20&camp=1789&linkCode=xm2&creativeASIN=1909526509

lol, did I ever tell you guys about my seventh grade history fair project?

I didn't really like US history that much, and I had just gotten into Led Zeppelin, so I asked my teacher if I could do a history fair project about Led Zeppelin. She was skeptical but sort of gave me a chance: "Oh, you mean like as part of a cultural phenomenon, I guess that could work."

I enlisted my metalhead friend Nick as my partner. I had recently received some jenky quasi-picture-book biography of Led Zeppelin, like maybe the whole thing was 6000 words. I basically just started writing text for the posterboard based on stuff I read in that book. Jimmy Page invented the reverse echo! John Bonham took extended solos and even used his hands! A third of the way into the process, Nick dropped out. The ultimate work product was soundly rejected from even appearing in the history fair.

haha

Does anyone ever recall seeing an essay written by Michael Ian Black under the title of, something along the lines of, "My Buddy Jerry Kicks Major Ass on Drums"? It was a seriously, incredibly funny thing about this guy could really play drums and there was a short antidote included in the essay about how Jerry could play along perfectly with Led Zeppelin IV ("except for 'The Battle of Evermore' WHICH FUCKING SUCKS"). It's one of the best things I've ever read.

It was in an old issue of Filter magazine, but they don't have it available to read on their site: http://filtermagazine.com/index.php/magazine/FILTER_issue_17

<3 <3 <3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=421&v=ulEugtz0FY4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=421&v=ulEugtz0FY4

ugh I am meaning to link the Telecaster promo fuck

That's pretty awesome. I do think some of those replicas are kind of crazy, but it really highlights how iconic the instruments are, whether Joe Strummer, Andy Summers or Page (all Teles!). Jeez, what would you do with one of those custom, hand-painted and signed $25K models? Would you play it? I guess I'd just display it, because if I could afford that I could afford one of the cheaper ones.

Video and specs stress he used it for the first album, but wasn't Zep II all Telecaster? And lots of other stuff was Tele, too, like the "Stairway" solo. Different guitars?

Jeez, what would you do with one of those custom, hand-painted and signed $25K models? Would you play it?

That's the weird thing: they go to crazy lengths to replicate the playing and sonic characteristics of the original instrument, surely knowing that maybe 20% of the people who buy it will actually play it.

Ha that is entirely true. I do find something endearing abt Pagey's fastidiousness in old age here. He seems to have sweetened in his winter years.

xp iirc on the the second LP he mostly played the '59 Les Paul Joe Walsh gave him

Solve me this mystery: why is "Tangerine" out of tune? Not an alternate tuning, just out of tune. Like, between tunings.

You mean how it's like a 1/4 step out of tune from 330hz E?

I found a quote that he used a pedal steel on this that was out of tune so they tuned to it:

Jimmy Page played a pedal steel guitar on this track. He told Guitar Player magazine in 1977: "On the first LP there's a pedal steel. I had never played steel before, but I just picked it up. There's a lot of things I do first time around that I haven't done before. In fact, I hadn't touched a pedal steel from the first album to the third. It's a bit of a pinch really from the things that Chuck Berry did. Nevertheless, it fits. I use pedal steel in 'Your Time Is Gonna Come.' It sounds like a slide or something. It's more out of tune on the first album because I hadn't got a kit to put it together."

I've heard one Daphne & Celeste song once and it had more of an impact on me than all the Zeppelin I've ever heard put together.

from what i can tell this came within a week of being the ilx first mention of #28 on the album poll for 2018 !

So rather than just tune the pedal steel they tune the acoustic and acoustic 12-string to the out of tune pedal steel?

(All I know is that if you play along in standard it's totally off.)

yeah, or tape speed?

https://www.reddit.com/r/Guitar/comments/2w0976/weird_tuning_on_led_zeppelin_tangerine/

Isn’t a pedal steel kind of hard to tune?

very

The pedal steel on "Your Time..." sounds like it's actually out of tune. "Tangerine" generally sounds in tune to me, just about a quarter-tone down from A=440 Hz concert pitch, as Al says. I feel like I recall Beatles tunes that are also a bit like this. I don't recall a definitive reason given for it on "Tangerine" but on this Reddit thread, people suggest the possibilities of tape speed alteration or the fussiness of 12-strings of the time, both of which might be credible (esp the first). This 1975 live version seems a lot closer to A440.

Ha 3xp!

I feel like there could be something a little unnatural about the timbre of the voice on the recording; it seems noticeable when comparing to the live video. Tape speed alteration sounds believable to me.

I'm sure there's literally thousands of examples of tape speed manipulation knocking the overall pitch of tracks just slightly out of standard pitch. There's an entire Stranglers album (La Folie) that's like this because of the way Tony Visconti mixed it.

Then again, in the days of vinyl I'm sure different turntables all had their own inherent quirks which could potentially lead to further subtle pitch differences.

It's weird to think that there was a point in their early career where Zep had to mime their songs on TV shows like any other band of the era...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMRJSXHJ8ok

xpost Just about every song on "Highway to Hell" is in a different varispeed-manipulated key.

Obv. Zep get into tape manipulation a lot more on "Houses of the Holy" and "IV."

https://www.amazon.in/Tupperware-Rocker-Lunch-Set-Multicolor/dp/B00KFC4F8G

Spotted one of these at work today

India exclusive (and/or bootleg)?

Squeeze my lemon, until the juice collects in the Tupperware...

Lid Zeppelin: Gonna Make You Burp, Gonna Make You Dish

Leftover The Hills and Far Away

D'yer Tup'er

Living, Loving Rubbermaid

got a whole lotta lunch

Quichemir

Rock and Casserole

Stairway to Oven

Tea For One

The Wonton Song