LED ZEPPELIN

So this is the first album of maybe my favoutite band of all time. Despite I've listened to this songs a lot of times, I still find them very enjoyable as the first time I listened them, and this has lots of Rock classics, that make it be an essential album on every ROCK collection, but an excellent addition to any PROG music colletion, IMO.

Led Zeppelin's debut is incredible, a discharge of adrenaline and Rock and Roll, with some heavy moments on it (some of them very heavy, considering the time of its release). As I said before, here you can listen to lots of classics "Good Times, Bad Times", "Dazed And Confused", "Babe, I'm Gonna Leave You", "Communication Brakedown", "How Many More Times" .... that influenced a big amount of posterior bands (including Prog bands, that's why them are here), and are the founders of what we call today Heavy Metal. But that's another story. Let's go to 1968: Jimmy Page, who was the guitarist on The Yarbirds on that time, was searching for musicians for his new project, The New Yarbirds, after The Yarbirds broke up. So he met John Paul Jones (who has also worked with The Yarbirds), an unknown blues vocalist called Robert Plant, and a beast of the drums, the genius John "Bonzo" Bonham (who played together in The Band Of Joy). After a bad joke of Keith Moon, the band changed the name to how we know them today, Led Zeppelin. And then starts the story ...

They recorded in just a week this amazing debut in the Olympic Studios, how could they ? Well, just Zep knows ! It was a wave of fresh air with an original new sound, combining Blues, Rock and Roll and some Folk, to create what we know as Heavy or Hard Rock. I'll go with a short description of the songs:

The album starts with the powerful "Good Times, Bad Times", rocking with a nice riffs and a cool drum groove, and then the amazing vocals enter: "In the days of my youth I was told how to be a man now I've reached the age", yeah, I know, it rocks. A good way to begin the disc, a rockin' catchy song.

The 'ballad' goes then, "Babe, I'm Gonna Leave You", which starts with a characteristic acoustic guitar melody, and dramatic vocals. It has some heavy moments when the drum turns louder, and I think here Plant says "Oh, Babe" at least 20 times. A pleasant listening song, softer than the previous one, that has some Folk influences as the other ballad "Your Time Is Gonna Come" too, a classic.

Then goes "You Shook Me", a blues classic of Willie Dixon, that used to be a big jamming on live shows, if you listen for example to the "BBC Sessions" disc 1. The other Dixon cover is another blues classic, "I Can't Quit You Baby", which gives more space to the bluesy voice of Mr. Plant, and both blues feature excellent and tasteful guitar solos, that proves Jimmy was a beast improvising, and of course jamming had a big part, not only on this album, on their entire career, specially on the live presentations too !!

"Dazed And Confused" is one of my all time favourite songs, and the best one here. Who can miss the hypnotizing bass line on the beginning ? Who can confuse that part ? Maybe one of the most characteristic moments on Rock n' Roll history. This song is maybe the proggiest, with "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You". It has a psychedelic and spacey feeling on the start, even bluesy, going to a peak of agressiveness on the soloing time, when Bonzo goes crazy with the crash, and a tremendous guitar solo takes part ! On live shows, before the incredible jamming part, Page took a violin bow, and started improvising with that ! A legendary and psychedelic image that every person that has ever listened to Zep has in his head ! Even, the live versions of this song lasted up to 40 minutes ! OH YEAH, WHAT A MOMENT !! Then it goes back to the main bass line, and the vocals go back, to finish this all time classic on Rock history.

"Black Mountain Side" is a nice instrumental of 2 minutes long, with acoustic instruments and some percussion. Not much more to say about this one.

Every time I listen to "Communication Breakdown" I realise where Heavy Metal came from. A discharge of pure adrenaline, with crunchy drums, low and powerful bass, raw guitars and screaming voice, the origin of Metal, definitely. Again, another very catchy song that will blow your head apart, in the vein of the opener.

To close this essential album, we've "How Many More Times", which is an almost improvised song, dominated by a great bass riff, and all the parts, improvisations and heaviness increase are around that. A great jamming track !!

So, overall, one of my all time favorites albums, that is ESSENTIAL on every ROCK collection, every Rock fan should have it; but an excellent addition to any PROG music colletion, considering this is a Prog site.

4.2/5

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