LED ZEPPELIN

Review Nº 781

"Coda" is the ninth and last studio album or a compilation album, as you wish, of Led Zeppelin, released in 1982. It's a collection of unused tracks taken from various sessions during Led Zeppelin's musical career, and so, it could be heard as a quasi compilation album of unreleased tracks in the same tradition of other albums such as "Odds And Sods" of The Who and "Basement Tapes" of Bob Dylan. It was released two years after Led Zeppelin had officially disbanded following the death of their drummer John Bonham. The word "coda", meaning a passage that ends a musical piece following the main body, was therefore chosen as a title. So, it represents the end of the musical career of a great band.

"Coda" has eight tracks. The first track "We're Gonna Groove" was a song co-written by Ben E. King and James A. Bethea with the original title "Groovin". It's a live track recorded on 9 January 1970 in London and was edited with guitar overdubs. This track was originally stated for inclusion on "Led Zeppelin II" and kicks off the compilation album with the heavy, funky blues so common on the early band's works. Lyrically, it's a song with a high energy and an excellent musicianship, being just a plain of a pure Rock'n'Roll song. The second track "Poor Tom" was written by Page and Plant and is an outtake from "Led Zeppelin III". It tells us the story of the eponymous railroad worker whose clairvoyance leads to the knowledge of his wife's affairs. Musically, it opens with a solid drum riff and with Plant dinging softly. The drums are the predominant instrument through the early musical stages of the group and this song isn't an exception. However, it's very curious and extremely rare for the highlight on an acoustic song to be the drums. The third track "I Can't Quit You Baby" was written by Willie Dixon and recorded by Otis Rush in 1965. It was included on Led Zeppelin's debut studio album in 1969. It's an edited live track recorded on 9 January 1970 at the Royal Albert Hall, in London. It's a song heavily influenced by the blues riffs and the slow bass drumming. This live version is better than the original with nice guitar solo and the sound just seems tighter than on the original studio take. It's a nice flashback into the early days of the group. The fourth track "Walter's Walk" was written by Page and Plant and is an outake from "Houses Of The Holy", possibly with later overdubs. It's perhaps Led Zeppelin's rawest song on the album. It opens strong with the guitar followed by a solid drumming. Plant's vocals, although strong, sound like they are in the background. The musicianship is very strong and despite being a good song is probably one of the weakest tracks on the album. The fifth track "Ozone Baby" was written by Page and Plant and is an outtake from "In Through The Out Door". It opens very promisingly, and musically it continues all over the song. Plant's vocals are very good, as always. He sings very well in tune with the music, and its upbeat guitar riffs and fills with a nice solo too. It makes of this song as one of the best tracks on the entire compilation. I probably would have liked to have seen it on "In Through The Out Door". The sixth track "Darlene" was written by Page, Plant, Jones and Bonham, it's also an outtake from "In Through The Out Door". This is another good song with a great beat and where Jones makes a great piano job, once again. Plant's vocals are once more great and the way that it put his vocals back up Page's interesting guitar line, make this song being catchy and nice to hear. The seventh track "Bonzo's Montreux" was written by Bonham and was recorded in 1976 at Mountain Studios in Montreux, Switzerland. It's a four minute drum solo taken from one of Bonham's sound checks at Royal Albert Hall. It can be compared to "Moby Dick" in that they are both drum solos, although, aside from that, they are slightly different. It doesn't open and close with Page taking the centre stage and Page added some electronic effects over the solo in the studio. This is a great track and shows for the last time, just how great Bonham was, really. The eighth and last track "Wearing And Tearing" was written by Page and Plant, is another outtake from "In Through The Out Door". This is a musical effort to mirror the growing popularity of the punk movement at the time, and it imitates its style. The chaotic musical atmosphere of the track provides an excellent background for Plant's stylishly sung vocals. However, I've never was a great fan of punk, really. But, it's a fresh song, for the time, and I don't dislike it.

Conclusion: As a true album, "Coda" isn't definitely, to anyone, one of the favourite albums of Led Zeppelin. It was composed of the left over stuff from the band, even if Led Zeppelin's throwaways are better than most groups usually make at their best. This is definitely an album that would be labelled only for hard core fans, even thought that the world is full of them. It's one that every Led Zeppelin's fan should save in the last. It's an album that only a real Led Zeppelin's fan would or could really enjoy, if your musical collection of pre "Coda" isn't complete yet, I wouldn't recommend this album to anyone. Concluding, "Coda" is definitely not the Led Zeppelin's best musical work. It's not a bad album, but not a good start off to listening to Led Zeppelin's music. Fans of the band, like me, will probably enjoy it to an end, as I do. It's non-essential, but as a posthumous work for Bonham's, it's a very emotional album for the group and fans too.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)

After "Led Zeppelin IV" as the high point of their meteoric rise to the top of the rock scene, the English band left their comfort zone and opted to venture into new and challenging paths, the end result of which was "Houses of the Holy", their fifth album.

Distanced from the dense guitar riffs and thick instrumental walls of the previous album, Led Zeppelin presents a collage of styles from the very beginning of the album, with Jimmy Page's clean guitars close to progressive sonorities in the hyperactive "The Song Remains the Same", the acoustic folk overflown by the invaluable contribution of John Paul Jones' evocative mellotron in the beautiful ballad "Rain Song", and the Celtic reminiscences of JJR Tolkien's work in the boisterous "Over The Hills And Far Away", a piece sustained by Page's rhythmic acoustic riffs and John Bonham's mastery on percussion.

But the styles that are furthest away from the band's recognisable frontiers come with the American Funky of "The Crunge", a piece that doesn't quite manage to take off, the jubilant and persistent Groove of "Dancing Days", and the unsuspected "rock" reggae of "D'yer Ma'ker", in a clear demonstration of the exploratory concerns of Page and company.

The musical mosaic reserves for its final stretch the experimental progressive exercise that the vaporous and aquatic tension of "No Quarter" proposes with a stupendous work on Jones' atmospheric synthesizers, Robert Plant's voice loaded with effects and Page's saturated riffs in one of the best passages of the album, and "The Ocean", the track that comes closest to the band's hard rock roots.

"Houses of the Holy" is another of Led Zeppelin's great albums, and like "Led Zeppelin III", it has achieved widespread recognition over the years.

3.5/4 stars

The fact that the general reception of "Led Zeppelin III" was not as expected, hit the band's self-esteem and especially Jimmy Page's, who considered it the best album of the three released up to that time. And so the fourth album, "Led Zeppelin IV" (although officially untitled by the musicians' decision), had a meticulous creative and production work to harmonise its intense hard rock vein with folk and blues influences.

The first part of the album is outstanding and there is nothing to be wasted, with pieces with the necessary ingredients to make up timeless anthems of the genre: Page's dense riffs in the lusty "Black Dog" and the incendiary "Rock and Roll", Celtic reminiscences in "The Battle of Evermore" with the contribution of Page on mandolin and English singer Sandy Denny, and the perfect electro-acoustic combination of the immortal "Stairway to Heaven" with the growing instrumental wall built by John Paul Jones and John Bonham and crowned by Page's portentous guitar solo and Plant's heartbreaking phrasing, one of the band's and the genre's flagship songs.

Although in the second half the rushed "Mystic Mountain Hop" marked by Jones' electric piano and the orientalised "Four Sticks" lag a little behind the rest of the pieces, "Going to California", a beautiful acoustic tribute to the Canadian singer Joni Mitchell, and the infallible blues of the parsimonious "When the Levee Breaks" (an adaptation taken from the American singer Memphis Minnie) interpreted in the way that only the British can do, maintain a superlative level and bring the work to a close.

The album of the portrait of the mysterious peasant hunched over with a bundle of branches on his back hanging on a peeling wall, would become one of the cornerstones of the genre and would raise the band to the top of the rock scene.

Excellent

4/4.5 stars

Led Zeppelin were on the crest of the wave with their revolutionary "I" and "II", and hence the expectation for their next release was enormous, with a growing legion of fans eager to receive more voltaic shocks that Jimmy Page's riffs and Plant's powerful and erotic voice brought with them, and, as sometimes happens, the results would not necessarily be the expected ones. And a bit of that happened with "Led Zeppelin III" (1970), an album divided into two large segments with dissimilar orientations.

The first segment approaches (with the exception of "Friends") the hard rock sound of the band, as with Page's guitar riffs, John Bonham's intense percussion and Robert Plant's demonic screams in the combative "Immigrant Song", with the dark ezquizophrenia of "Celebration Day" and the anxious riffs of the lively "Out of the Tiles" and, on the other hand, the deep blues influences of the band, the deep blues influences are also present in the plaintive "Since I've Been Loving You", a very solid instrumental progression (courtesy of the Jones/Bonham duo) that supports Page's masterful guitar ramblings and solos and Plant's heartbroken singing giving his life in every verse, in one of the best moments, if not the best, of the album.

The second segment, nevertheless, shows a significant turnaround, no more thunderous and saturated walls of sound, and the Englishmen's undeniable taste for acoustic nuances takes over: the folk arrangement of "Gallows Pole", a traditional song of probable 18th century Anglo-Saxon origin, the beautiful and melancholic grey tone of "Tangerine", the reflective "That's The Way", attributable to the Page/Plant duo's inspirational sojourn in rural Snowdia (Wales), a place that also lent its name to the percussive agility of the also folk "Bron-Y-Aur Stomp", all tracks that make for an unexpected and unbeatable unplugged set. The haunting "Hats Off to (Roy) Harper", which borrows elements from legendary American blues representatives like Bukka White and Fred Mc Dowell, closes the album with a nod to the band's singer/songwriter friend Roy Harper.

Despite the initial feelings of bewilderment and suspicion generated by the unpredictable drop in revolutions, "Led Zeppelin III" is a great album (including its psychedelic cover art), and with hindsight it has achieved the recognition it deserved.

Very good.

4 stars

Less than a year after their explosive debut, the band led by the Page/Plant duo released "Led Zeppelin II" at the end of 1969, an uninhibited proposal that consolidated them as one of the carriers of the hardest rock sound known up to that time. Conceived and recorded in more than a dozen studios in the United Kingdom and North America in the brief spaces that the promotional concerts of "Led Zeppelin I" and its daily maelstrom allowed, the album was built step by step, and would mean the beginning of a new era for contemporary music.

From the opening chords of Jimmy Page's immortal and distinctive guitar riffs and his subsequent solo on the iconic and powerful "Whole Lotta Love", a track that also features the "freakout section" (so called because of the strange effects obtained from theramin and guitar) in its middle section, the album flows remarkably well, with pieces such as the libidinous "The Lemon Song", which combines blues elements and a Jimmi Hendrix-style improvisation with John Paul Jones on bass to the rhythm of Robert Plant's excesses in his musical duel with Page, and also with recurring acoustic elements in the band's discography such as the delicate "Thank You", Plant's homage to his wife at the time, and the adventurous "Ramble On", a spirited journey into the universe of J.R.R. Tolkien.

And with no respite, Page's saturated, dense riffs return to shape both the mournful "Heartbreaker" (along with "Whole Lotta Love" the album's best) and the bluesy, rough half-time with which the instrumental "Moby Dick" channels John Bonham's profuse, experimental percussion solo, before "Bring It On Home", another bluesy piece featuring Plant's harmonica and the alternation of his portentous voice with Page's guitars, brings the album to a close.

Not exempt from controversy due to the use of songs and fragments of American blues composers like Willie Dixon ("Whole Lotta Love" / "Bring It On Home") and Howlin' Wolf ("The Lemon Song"), "Led Zeppelin II" is undoubtedly a cornerstone and an obligatory reference of hard rock, and a regular resident of any compilation list of the best albums in the history of the genre.

4 stars

The beginning of one of the greatest rock bands in history and largely responsible for such offshoots as heavy metal came at the dawn of 1969 with the release of their eponymous debut album, "Led Zeppelin". Led by singer Robert Plant and Jimmy Page, one of the former guitarists of the legendary Yardbirds, less than 30 hours in the recording studios were enough to shake up the music scene of the time with a proposal that borrowed (and often more than borrowed...) elements from American fifties blues, soul, folk and psychedelia, and put them in a cocktail shaker adding their own unique energy and forcefulness.

That sonic assault is present in all the nuances that Led Zeppelin knew how to make use of, such as the early hard rock in Page's boxed guitar riffs in the fleeting aggressiveness of "Good Times, Bad Times" and "Communication Breakdown", or the spirited folk vein of the excellent "Babe, I'm Gonna Leave You", a piece adapted from the singer of the genre Anne Bredon and also covered by Joan Baez, or the intense blues of the superlative "You Shook Me" and the Hammond of John Paul Jones going beyond his role as bass player and "I Can't Quit You Baby" with the Plant/Page duo in a superb voice/guitar duel, both pieces unbeatable adaptations taken from the American bluesman Wilie Dixon.

And the combination of blues and psychedelia of the experimental "Dazed and Confused" (in my opinion the best track on the album and not without some skirmishes with the American singer-songwriter Jack Holmes over royalties), and "How Many More Times" with Page at the helm of the bowed guitar (so called because of the use of the violin bow instead of a pick to achieve that particular sound) and John Bonham in great form as on the whole album, complete the collage of the auspicious debut of the English band.

A new way of understanding and interpreting music was born with Led Zeppelin and their iconic first album is still an obligatory reference today.

4 stars

The concept of the Golden Age . . . ? Is this the notion of the reality from which humanity has fallen? Or, is it the recapitulation of an existence towards which we move?

Eternity is in love with the productions of time.

William Blake

In the Western Tradition, we especially revere the Golden Age of Athens, the fifth century, BC. Our cherished values of democracy emerged during this time under Pericles; our understanding of philosophy and the life of the mind originated in the lives and works of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle; the genre of tragedy was defined by Sophocles, Aeschylus, and Euripides.

Similarly, we recognize a Golden Age of progressive rock. Somewhere in the mid-sixties, cauldrons of creativity lead to Bob Dylan, the Beatles, the Beach Boys, the Byrds, Jimi Hendrix, Cream, the Yardbirds, Jefferson Airplane, and the Moody Blues.

By 1969, a milieu existed that fostered, most notably, King Crimson's "In the Court of the Crimson King." It also led to the now famous comments of Melody Maker's Tony Wilson on the cover of Yes' eponymous October of 1969 first release:

At the beginning of 1969, I was asked as were all Melody Maker writers to pick two groups who I thought would make in the following year.

One of my choices was Led Zeppelin. A bit obvious perhaps, but then we all like to back a winner occasionally.

The other was Yes.

Thus, "from the beginning," Led Zeppelin has been "Prog Related."

For me, there is a great irony to this relationship. During my high school years in the mid-seventies, there were two "camps" -- the Led Zeppelin camp and the devotees of Yes. Speaking for myself, I was overtly committed to the Emerson, Lake, and Palmer, Yes, Genesis, and King Crimson "party" to the exclusion of Led Zeppelin. Secretly, I enjoyed Led Zeppelin and even went on to perform "Rock and Roll" in a garage band named "Eclipse."

Fortunately, with the passage of time, I have become far more appreciative of the music of Led Zeppelin. I attempt to base my musical commitments on a "both/and" rather than an "either/or" principle. (To this end, I would like to nominate Joni Mitchell for inclusion on the Progarchives.com site . . . .)

In my current Weltanschauung, John Bonham is to the drums as Jimi Hendrix is to the guitar; John Paul Jones, compositionally and instrumentally, is to Led Zeppelin as Paul McCartney is to the Beatles. On a certain level, Physical Graffiti is to Led Zeppelin as Tales from Topographic Oceans is to Yes.

Why this final comparison? -- "Kashmir" and "In My Time of Dying" in particular.

These two pieces are products of the mind's eye of Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Paul Jones, and John Bonham (and in the case of the latter, Blind Willie Johnson). Suitably, one might identify them as "twin peaks" with their imaginative homes in the Himalayas.

I believe a hypothetical reviewer could compose a review of Physical Graffiti based on "Kashmir" alone.

Musically, John Bonham's drums establish a rhythm that is evocative of the attentiveness to breathing behind meditation. Indeed, the drums are the rudder of the ship that journeys through a figurative Kashmir. Page and Jones provide the sails by which the vehicle is propelled. The main musical elements are expressed through orchestration provided by Jones, who, along with Page on the guitar, adopts a stealth approach to the mellotron.

In the wheelhouse are the vocals of Robert Plant. As with most quests for meaning, "Kashmir" begins with an auspicious exposition:

To sit with elders of the gentle/race, this world has seldom seen/They talk of days for which they/sit and wait and all will be revealed . . . .

But, as is commensurate with "standard" mystical experiences, attempts to relate them to others become ineffable:

But not a word I heard could I/relate, the story was quite clear/Oh, oh.

Plant's internal quest displays the rigors of an attempt to relate the landscape of the Imagination. The locale of Kashmir began in Sanskrit as kasmira, a territory bereft of water:

All I see turns to brown, as the/sun burns the ground/And my eyes fill with sand, as I scan this wasted land/Trying to find/where I've been.

"In My Time of Dying" presents a related quest. In my own unoriginal way, I have often remarked that Christianity (and most "axial" spiritualties and systems of belief) reflect an honesty regarding our consciousness of death. Taking the lead from Blind Willie Johnson and Bob Dylan, Jones, Page, Plant and Bonham present this awareness in this towering piece of what I would like to call "Progressive Blues."

There are further insights on "Physical Graffiti" ? Consider the wonderfully sublimated sexuality of "Custard Pie" and "Trampled under Foot" (replete with convincing keyboards by John Paul Jones and potent percussion of John Bonham); the global consciousness of "The Rover" (showcasing a somewhat transformational guitar solo by Jimmy Page); the meditational interiority of "In The Light" (which exemplifies Thelonious Monk's, "If it weren't always night, then we wouldn't need light . . .); and, finally, the closing benediction of "Down By The Seaside" ?

Sing loud for the sunshine, pray/hard for the rain/And show your love for Lady Nature. And she will come back/again/ The people turned away/The people turned away

Thus, in their own inimitable way, Page, Plant, Jones, and Bonham have provided us with their own narrative return to the Golden Age . . . .

Review Nº 740

By the late of the 70's, Led Zeppelin was starting to face the consequences of their own excesses. Guitarist Jimmy Page and drummer John Bonham were dealing with tough addictions, heroin and alcohol respectively, while singer Robert Plant was questioning himself about his own future in the music business after the death of his son, Karac. The music's situation was also having changes, pop music and the synthesisers were hitting the scene, and Led Zeppelin had to keep pace with the times and added some synthetic sound to their works. Thus was born "In Through The Out Door".

"In Through The Out Door" is the eighth and last studio album of Led Zeppelin and was released in 1979. The album marks a mixture of sounds and rhythms from different styles. It has a massive use of keyboards and synthesizers by John Paul Jones that excels beyond the chords of Jimmy Page. A fact that greatly marked the release of the album was the edition of six different covers because the scene in the bar was photographed by six opposite angles. It became also the band's final studio album, because it was released one year before the death of their drummer John Bonham.

"In Through The Out Door" has seven tracks. The first track "In The Evening" written by Robert Plant, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones is a very powerful song in the same line of the good old days. It's a classic Led Zeppelin's tune with a catchy riff and great keyboard lines. It's the second lengthiest song on the album and is a great song to open the album, respecting the good old tradition of their great opening musical numbers. This is one of the two highlights of the album. The second track "South Bound Saurez" written by Robert Plant and John Paul Jones is a song centred around John Paul Jones's piano, with strong vocals, and where is particularly noticed the almost absence of Jimmy Page. It's one of the only two Led Zeppelin's songs without the participation of Jimmy Page, in the song writing, in the history of the band. The other is "All My Love", also from this album. It's a piano oriented song with excellent vocals from Robert Plant, as usual. The third track "Fool In The Rain" written by Robert Plant, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones was chosen to be released as a single, with "Hot Dog" as the B side. It's a song dominated by piano and with a Latin touch. It's a song that spans several musical genres, and in the end, it has also a surprising samba section. It's an excellent song with a great drumming work that proves that John Bonham could play all type of music. The fourth track "Hot Dog" written by Robert Plant and Jimmy Page is clearly a song influenced by the country music. As you know, I don't like particularly of this kind of music, and you can remember, for sure, my negative observations about those songs written by Greg Lake for Emerson, Lake & Palmer. However, in this case and despite being the weakest song on the album, it's audible. The fifth track "Carouselambra" written by Robert Plant, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones is the other highlight on the album and stands alongside as one of the best and most progressive Led Zeppelin's tracks. It's the lengthiest song on the album and it's also their second lengthiest song ever. This is a fantastic song dominated by keyboards and with an incredible drum work, which soon became one of my favourite songs from the band. The sixth track "All My Love" written by Robert Plant and John Paul Jones was a song written in honour of Plant's son Karac, who died while Led Zeppelin were on their 1977's USA tour. It's a very beautiful ballad, one of the most beautiful ballads that I ever heard, and where the emotional lyrics are sung with a very sentimental feeling by Robert Plant. This is one of their finest ballads. The seventh and last track "I'm Gonna Crawl" written by Robert Plant, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones is a song heavily influenced by the American soul-blues. It's a very good song very well performed and where Robert Plant have, for me, one of his best vocal performances. It became, unfortunately, the Led Zeppelin's swan song.

Conclusion: I really always loved "In Through The Out Door". I always considered it their second most prog effort with "Houses Of The Holy". Still, "In Through The Out Door" was always the most controversial, unloved and misunderstood album of Led Zeppelin. So, it became an underrated album, one of the many underrated albums in the progressive rock history. "In Through The Out Door" is an album without weak points. It has two excellent progressive songs, "In The Evening" and "Carouselambra" and the rest of the album is very good, and even "Hot Dog" is good. "In Through The Out Door" is another album where Led Zeppelin changed their type of music. So, if John Bonham hadn't died so soon, I would be very curious to know what the musical path they would have followed in the future. Let's now write a few lines about John Paul Jones. I think he was placed in the shadow of the band, but he always was the quiet force of the group. He hadn't the charisma of Robert Plant, the virtuosity of Jimmy Page or the living force of John Bonham. Still, he is a very complete musician a basilar stone in the band. "In Through The Out Door" is essentially a John Paul Jones album. Though he had always contributed with songs to the group, on this album he confirmed he is a great songwriter, really.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)

Review Nº 736

By 1975 no one was bigger or heavier than Led Zeppelin. America and the world in general was punch drunk after the quadruple whammy of their first four albums, each supported by live tours that went from scene- stealing support slots to stadium-filling three-hour marathons, almost overnight. Even the slightly below average for critics and fans "Houses Of The Holy" hadn't dented their reputation one jot. The world, and its attendant pleasures, was theirs for the taking.

"Physical Graffiti" is the sixth studio album of Led Zeppelin and was released in 1975 as a double album. Recording sessions for the album were initially disrupted when the bassist and keyboardist of the band John Paul Jones considered leaving the group. After reuniting at Headley Grange, a former poorhouse in Headley, East Hampshire, England, which is best known as a recording and rehearsal venue in the 60's and 70's for bands like Led Zeppelin, Bad Company, Fleetwood Mac, Genesis, Peter Frampton, Pretty Things and Clover, the band wrote and recorded eight songs, the combined length of which stretched the album beyond the typical length of a single LP. This prompted the group to make a double album including previously unreleased tracks from other earlier recording studio sessions.

It was the first album released by Swan Song Records, the new label created by the group, and the album points to various styles and influences of music. "Physical Graffiti" is often cited as one of the greatest albums of all time. This album is one of the list of 200 definitive albums in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and it was also considered by Rolling Stone Magazine the 70th greatest album of all time. The album was a critical and audience success, reaching the top of the Billboard. Soon after the release of "Physical Graffiti", all previous released albums of Led Zeppelin returned to the list of 200 most listened albums. It went 16x platinum in the USA, in 2006, signifying shipments of eight million copies.

Often described as Led Zeppelin's definitive work, there's no denying that "Physical Graffiti" influential hold on the modern music acts. This is a double album that traversed many genres, blues, rock, roots, folk, metal, world- music, and that's just for starters. For many this sixth studio album of Led Zeppelin is arguably their pinnacle, their peak, their high rock worthy of its rating. This two record set, the product of almost two years' labour is the band's "Tommy", "Beggar's Banquet" and "Sgt. Pepper's" rolled into one. "Physical Graffiti" is the Led Zeppelin's bid for artistic respectability. Admittedly, a fair amount of "Physical Graffiti" was composed of offcuts and work- in-progress from their previous two albums, though those were offcuts startling quality. But what really shines out is the sheer genre defying eclecticism of it all. Far more than just a crowd pummelling hard rock act with the world's beefiest rhythm section, these boys were able to do everything from folk "Bron Y Aur" and blues "In My Time Of Dying", to country rock "Down By The Seaside" and barrelhouse Rock'n'Roll "Boogie With Stu". In fact, "Physical Graffiti" serves pretty much as a primer of the band's entire oeuvre. And amongst these flights of dexterity we get some of the band's best loved numbers of all time. "Trampled Underfoot", driven by Jones' stomping Fender Rhodes pulls off the remarkable trick of being both heavy and funky as hell. "Custard Pie" and "The Rover" are monster axe workouts, and of course "Kashmir" is still a juggernaut of incredible power, a blend of east and west inspired by Page and Plant's mystical wanderings and underpinned by Bonham's legendary rumble, famously captured in all its ambient glory in the huge hallway of Headley Grange Manor. And it all came wrapped in one of those fabulously intricate die cut sleeves that make all people of a certain age long for a return to the glory days of vinyl. In short, "Physical Graffiti" captures the whole experience of Led Zeppelin at the top of their game. "Physical Graffiti" is the sound of a group writing their identity across the popular culture, indeed.

Conclusion: Led Zeppelin returned from a nearly two years of a hiatus of time since their previous fifth studio album "Houses Of The Holy", released in 1973. This very ambitious double studio album treat many of the songs on "Physical Graffiti" as forays into individual styles, with only occasionally synthesizing sounds, notably presented on the second most extensive song on the album "Kashmir". In reality, "Physical Graffiti" is a real tour the force and a perfect test to Led Zeppelin's musical versatility. Thus, "Physical Graffiti" is a very difficult album to judge as a whole really, such is its musical variety. However, it's, in my humble opinion, a very essential album in the discography of the group, even it has only one essential track on it, "Kashmir". In reality it has only two truly great tracks on it "In My Time Of Dying" and especially "Kashmir". However and in general, this is an excellent Led Zeppelin's studio album, very good and cohesive enough. Led Zeppelin doesn't know how to make weak albums, really. "Physical Graffiti" is an album that reminds me too much "Living In The Past" of Jethro Tull. Both are essential albums to both bands but both are far way of being real masterpieces. Sincerely, for me, all the first five studio albums of Led Zeppelin are better than "Physical Graffiti" is.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)

Review Nº 720

"Presence" is the seventh studio album of Led Zeppelin and was released in 1976. It was written and recorded during a tumultuous time in the band's history, when Robert Plant was recovering from serious injuries that he had suffered in a recent car accident. During the convalescence period in Malibu, California, Plant wrote some lyrics, and when Page joined him those compositions were finished. So, due to that, most of the album was composed only by Page and Plant.

Page and Plant had planned the album as a return to hard rock but on a new level of complexity. It marked a change in direction from Led Zeppelin to a bit less elaborate sound. While previous albums contained hard rock with acoustic ballads, "Presence" is the only album that uses no keyboards and no acoustic tracks. It's perhaps the most unusual Led Zeppelin's album with the last one "In Trough The Out Door", although each of their albums is quite distinct, really. The album received mixed reviews from critics and became the least successful album in the Led Zeppelin's catalog, commercially. However, "Presence" is the album that the band themselves considered to be their "most important" too.

"Presence" has seven tracks. The first track "Achilles Last Stand" written by Robert Plant and Jimmy Page is the third longest studio song released by Led Zeppelin, after "In My Time Of Dying" and "Carouselambra". It's an amazing epic track full of complex guitar work by Page, a famous Bonham's powerful drumming, a Jones's galloping bass line and a wonderful and one of the most remarkable vocal works by Plant. This is one of the most powerful and amazing tracks ever made by the band and one of my favourite tracks too. The second track "For Your Life" written by Robert Plant and Jimmy Page is a very good song but doesn't represents one of the greatest songs on the album. It's a song influenced by blues with plenty of energy through all over the song and with a very pleasant riff. Despite all I said before, it's a very pleasant and interesting song on the album. The third track "Royal Orleans" written by Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones and John Bonham was the song chosen to be the B side of their only single from this album "Candy Store Rock". It's the only band's composition on the album and it's also one of the two weakest songs on the album. It's a very funky influenced track with a nice drumming performance on it. This is, in my opinion, a very weak song for the Led Zeppelin's usual quality standard. The fourth track "Nobody's Fault But Mine" written by Robert Plant and Jimmy Page is clearly a song with its roots in the blues and in the rock, the formula that made Led Zeppelin so famous. It has a great vocal performance, a great guitar performance, a great bass riff and a great harmonica work. It's another superb song that represents the second highlight on the album and that soon became a classic Led Zeppelin's track. The fifth track "Candy Store Rock" written by Robert Plant and Jimmy Page was, as I wrote before, the song chosen to be the single of the album. The track was made in the style of a 50's Rock'n'Roll musical number. It's a monotonous and a boring song, which is, without any doubt, the second weakest song on the album. Like "Royal Orleans" it's also a very weak song for a Led Zeppelin's track. The sixth track "Hots On For Nowhere" written by Robert Plant and Jimmy Page isn't also one of the greatest songs on the album. However, this is a very decent and catchy track, with a nice and cool vocal melody. It isn't a masterpiece or even a highlight, but there are some interesting and nice things to hear on it. The seventh and last track "Tea For One" written by Robert Plant and Jimmy Page is another great song and the third highlight on the album. It's a great slow blues epic track that recalls the earlier Led Zeppelin song, in sound and style, "Since I've Been Loving You". It came from the desire of the band to return to their initial roots. This is, in reality, an exceptional track where Plant's vocal work is absolutely tremendous, one of his best in the history of the group, really.

Conclusion: There is a common point on the two last studio albums from Led Zeppelin, "Presence" and "In Through The Out Door". They aren't a collective effort by all bands' members but almost an effort of two of them. "In Through The Out Door" features much greater influence of Plant and Jones because Page and Bonham often not appeared on time in the studio sessions with Page suffering from heroin problems and Bonham suffering from alcoholism problems. "Presence" features much greater influence of Plant and Page because the car accident of Plant in Malibu. As I said before, this can be explain by the fact that the majority of the songs were made at Malibu, where Page had initially joined to Plant, but no Jones and Bonham were present. By the other hand, they're two completely distinct musical works. "Presence" is a guitar based album where the keyboards were totally removed and "In Through The Out Door" is the opposite, a keyboard based album with keyboards on all tracks that pushes Page's guitar into the background on several songs. However and despite both albums represent two completely different musical proposals, they are both, in my humble opinion, two much underrated albums. Sincerely, in my opinion, all Led Zeppelin's albums are excellent.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)