Best Track on Led Zeppelin III

I voted for "Tangerine", but the segue between "Friends" and "Celebration Day" is killer (as has been stated before on here.)

"Friends" for me, with "Hats Off" finishing way up there.

my tears, they fell like rain

The acoustic stuff will probably get the votes around here, but I am going for "Since I have been Loving You" as I love when Led Zep played slow blues numbers like this one or "Tea for One" or "I Can't Quit You Baby".

"the segue between "Friends" and "Celebration Day" is killer"

From what I understand that segue was put there because the engineer on the recording screwed up the first few seconds of the drums on Celebration Day erasing some of Bonzo's tracks.

The thing on LZ II is I find it hard to believe they left "Hey Hey What Can I Do" off the record. That song is great.

"Immigrant Song" is one of my favorite songs of all time.

hangman...hangman...

actually the whole first side ROOLZ

my fave lz lp

SIBLY, for sure--"I open my front door hear my back door slam!"

Oh my god this album. It's hard to choose one, even though I have. Makes me sad I can't choose more tracks.

It was a tough choice but I had to go with Bron Y Aur Stomp. I love that tune. Tough choice though, since That's the Way is probably Zep's best song lyrically, and Since I've Been Loving You is their best blues number.

Always loved the string arrangement on "Friends"...

Celebration Day, dude.

Out On The Tiles

This thread is making me wish I voted for III in the Zep album poll.

"Immigrant Song". It is the sound of the hammer of the gods being lifted high, ready to smite. But the smiting would have to wait another record.

This is the toughest one yet. This is the only LZ album that I would never skip a song. My vote goes to Since I've Been Lovong Yo.

hat's off, but its all good.

"Immigrant Song" is the only Led Zeppelin song to refer to an Arkansas city by name.

Naw, that bit in "Achilles' Last Stand" is talking about Albion Township in White County.

I know "Immigrant Song" is the answer, but voted for "Friends"

Albion Township isn't a city, R. Hardy.

Out on the Tiles, it's so fucking joyful!

Definitely the best Led Zep album. My vote goes to "Gallows Pole."

this is a very tough one, because i find the better tracks to be really quite even in quality. i love the slow blues of 'since i've been loving you' and dig the haunting acoustics of 'friends' and 'that's the way'. hmmm, then there's the undisputedly classic paen to valhalla, 'immigrant song'. very difficult choice indeed

um...immigrant song.

I do love "Friends," but c'mon -- there is absolultely no argument. "Immigrant Song" EVERY. DAMN. TIME.

someone had to say it. thank you alex for being that someone.

There's plenty of argument.

DOWN WITH LED ZEPPELIN

whatever

i refuse to choose.

If you choose not to decide you still have made a choice...

I respect your refusal to choose. Now go vote "Immigrant Song".

Tangerine.

Fuck an immigrant song. I just see little viking kitties whenever I hear it now. "Friends" is where it's at.

as if there's something wrong with little viking kitties, you heartless bastard.

"That's The Way."

here's 'nother Tangerine, then!

Fuck an immigrant song. I just see little viking kitties whenever I hear it now.

That first sentence makes absolutely no sense in light of the second sentence.

"That's The Way" for me... I love the open D and the guitar solo.

You're right, Dan, I just thought I'd try out a big dumb blustery post -- they're out of character for me, but I do them every now and then to stay in practice.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

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

Yammy! I love it that teh Tangerine is so high up on the approved menu.

I was listening to III this morning and isn't there a later 70s Pink Floyd song that uses this lick? See approximately 2:07-2:15. I think it's on the Wall, but I don't have a copy of that to reference. Anyone?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bkjv9SscotY

the greatest thing you ever can do now
is give a smile to someone who's blue now

kinda sounds like In The Flesh maybe?

OOTT

I don't think I'm thinking of In The Flesh. Feel like it's something slow and smouldering like SIBLY, but not as bluesy. I'll have to try and find some Wall samples to listen to when I get home.

also I kinda feel like listen to Memphis Minnie When the Levee Breaks and then listen to Zeppelin's, the lyrics are the same and deserves proper credit but no offense to Minnie she didn't come up with that drum beat either

Memphis Minnie DID get a co-writing credit for this one tbf.

she played the harmonica part backwards on the track iirc

Bill McGill to thread

The thing with Zeppelin is that with them, it's not as simple as "they were a blues band/folk band/hard rock band" ... they may not have been a prog rock band in the typical way one thinks when they hear the term, but Zeppelin were a seriously progressive outfit that tied a lot of things together and fused together a lot of things in very creative ways. Yes, they may have lifted things, but their sound was all their own - so many have tried to imitate Zeppelin and get it spectacularly wrong.

It's also remarkable that John Paul Jones and Jimmy Page were session guys prior to Zeppelin, but I don't get any kind of real "session guy" vibe from any of Zeppelin's stuff. These guys really liked making and playing music and you can tell from the tracks they're totally vibed on what they're doing. Of course, it totally helped that both John Paul Jones and Jimmy Page were so musicianly, but in Zeppelin nothing ever felt "academic", even when they threw in odd time signatures etc.

they may not have been a prog rock band in the typical way one thinks when they hear the term, but Zeppelin were a seriously progressive outfit that tied a lot of things together and fused together a lot of things in very creative ways.

Iirc, Page did refer to them as a progressive rock band in Light and Shade.

If Pink Floyd hadn't so clearly demarcated "RULES" as the default answer to all attendant criticisms, I'd just stamp LED ZEPPELIN RULES about 300 times over Moka's recent posts.

I listened to Led Zeppelin II amongst a bunch of stuff that came out in the late '60s, and production wise it just wiped the floor with pretty much everything I listened to that day from the same period. Everything else just sounded weedy by comparison.

remarkable all the more considering the haphazard nature of the recording and the speed at which they put it together.

Absolutely! Sometimes I wish all quickly recorded albums from the '60s sounded as good as Led Zeppelin II does sonically, but I guess it wouldn't be as special if everyone had figured out how to do it.

Page was brilliant as a producer right from the go.

He had some great engineers working on those records who don't get as much credit as perhaps they should - people like Glyn Johns who engineered a lot of great sounding records. Page may have known what he wanted and have been no slouch in the studio, but he didn't achieve those results alone!

I should have known that Johns worked on them. Makes perfect sense.

You guys should check out pagey’s interview with Jeff koons at the 92 st Y.

physical graffiti thread got me running through the discography again. prob a controversial challopsy opinion but this record is a quantum leap over the first two

More challopsy to prefer the first two I would have thought? (I do, by the way).

general opinion suggests this one is still kinda underrated somehow

"friends" is so mindblowing

“Friends” def in the POX.

"Bron Yr Aur" didn't make the cut is insane. Some of Page's best picking.

This is still the lowest selling of their proper albums?

i'm really fond of the version of "friends" by this flash in the pan prog band around 2000 called azigza, so great

yeah, wow that bron yr aur was in a low tier. that's some of the best zep ever

Keep a swingin
Keep a coolin

Out on the Tiles

Out on the Tiles

fuck yes it is

I love this album, it's def the most joyful zep record

"friends" / "celebration day" = "brain damage" / "eclipse"

If they would have swapped Hats Off to Roy Harper with Hey Hey What Can I Do, this would have been a perfect album for me.

I don't mind 'Hey Hey' not being on it, I don't think it would fit with the mood of the album. It's a perfect b-side tho

one of my favorite zeppelin stories is robert plant is the first person to have smoked up jon anderson

never heard that one!

this is blowing the moral of the story, but here you go

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGyu27tbtpc

Still “that’s the way”, one of their most precious sounding songs.

I kind of wish Bonham would have featured in it, though. Playing bongos or something percussive like tapping on some plastic jug like he did on “ramble on” (not sure if it’s a plastic jug it just kind of sounds like it)…

Oh apparently it was on an empty guitar case… should’ve googled before posting.

I can do a fair impression on my lap

looking for what you knew

this record is a quantum leap over the first two

There's something about the production of those records that I mostly can't stand, maybe the reverb Page was using? It really dates them to the worst of 1969. The subsequent records have more atmosphere, room to breathe.

I kind of wish Bonham would have featured in it, though.

He plays the tambourine over the coda, it's brilliant to keep him out of the song till then.

The second one has always had a muddy, "underwater" quality to me, or it did at least until the release of the four CD boxed set. But, the quality of the songs transcends the production.

First two sound sludgy to me for sure. III sounds “green”. IV sounds sludgy ( again). The rest are a hodgepodge sonically until the last two ( not including CODA) which sound positively “shiny” compared to the rest of the catalogue.

how often do you think eddie van halen succeeded in making his sound 'brown'

Do any of these songs truly hold a candle to Tight Fit's Fantasy Island?

(Ofc they do. Friends would be my vote.)

both I and II sound amazing, what are you all smoking

OTM

The sludgiest one is graffiti

I love 'em all! It's just how I hear them.

I'm feeling "Friends" this morning.

The sludgiest one is graffiti

OTM again

bron-yr-aur stomp really does stomp. the harmonies are great, the castanets that come in near the end, the pure daffy love lyrics, and another acoustic miniature masterpiece of riffing from page

He plays the tambourine over the coda, it's brilliant to keep him out of the song till then.

― Halfway there but for you

Oh it’s true! I take that back