What is your favorite track on Led Zeppelin I?<\/p>\n
That’s my favorite album.\u00c2\u00a0 Along with "Physical Graffiti".\u00c2\u00a0 But unlike "Physical Graffiti", I love EVERYTHING on I.<\/p>\n
First it was "Good Times Bad Times".<\/p>\n
It was that guitar sound.\u00c2\u00a0 And Robert’s attitude.\u00c2\u00a0 The swagger.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s all you’ve got when you’re a teenager, your hopes and dreams.\u00c2\u00a0 Oh, there are some people who feel those were the best years of their lives.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m not one of them.\u00c2\u00a0 And I doubt you are either.\u00c2\u00a0 Those who flowered in high school seem to be done now.\u00c2\u00a0 Working at the gas station, or in their father’s business.\u00c2\u00a0 We flowered later.\u00c2\u00a0 Not that we’re believers.\u00c2\u00a0 Oh, some of us shop at Armani and have enough toys to feel we’re winners, but once a loser in high school, not even a loser, but an ALSO-RAN, your psyche never quite recovers.\u00c2\u00a0 Hearing Robert…made me feel like I was one up on everybody else.\u00c2\u00a0 I had this knowledge, this power, they might have been popular, but I held the key to fulfillment.<\/p>\n
Not that they didn’t come along for the ride the following fall, when "Led Zeppelin II" went nuclear overnight.\u00c2\u00a0 But the first album was still mine.<\/p>\n
Of course, loving "Good Times Bad Times" it was not hard to get into "Communication Breakdown", with its energy.\u00c2\u00a0 But "Communication Breakdown" lacks soul.<\/p>\n
But there was soul-aplenty on the rest of the record.<\/p>\n
"Babe I’m Gonna Leave You" has the same late night feel of Elton’s first American album.\u00c2\u00a0 But with an anger and intensity that Elton’s debut lacked.\u00c2\u00a0 What are you to do when nothing’s working out, when life doesn’t make sense, but listen to a record.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s when music is most powerful.\u00c2\u00a0 When it serves as your best friend.<\/p>\n
"I Can’t Quit You Baby" was slow and meaningful, but also plodding.\u00c2\u00a0 It was about the blues beat.\u00c2\u00a0 We’d heard this before, however well the band worked out here.\u00c2\u00a0 Same deal with "You Shook Me".<\/p>\n
But "Dazed and Confused" had that eerie feel of "Babe I’m Gonna Leave You", albeit with a scary EDGE!\u00c2\u00a0 Listening you were no longer the protagonist, you were just along for the ride.\u00c2\u00a0 A ride we took on a regular basis.\u00c2\u00a0 We grew up in split levels, played Little League, but we also boarded the New Haven Railroad for pilgrimages to the Fillmore East, where schmutz mingled with marijuana and music floated over the whole thing.\u00c2\u00a0 It was not like going to a show today.\u00c2\u00a0 There was an element of danger.\u00c2\u00a0 It was a secret world, you felt torn, did you want to remain here, or go back to where you once belonged.<\/p>\n
"Black Mountain Side" isn’t a throwaway, but it works primarily as an intro to "Communication Breakdown", the change from soft to loud.<\/p>\n
"How Many More Times" is a great closer.\u00c2\u00a0 Instead of being long and drawn out, like the final track on most albums, it’s full of energy.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s more like the kind of song that LEADS OFF an album side.\u00c2\u00a0 When it ends, you want more.\u00c2\u00a0 You want to get closer to the flame.\u00c2\u00a0 Yes, Zeppelin was dangerous.\u00c2\u00a0 It SOUNDED that way.\u00c2\u00a0 And ultimately lived that way.\u00c2\u00a0 Groupie tales and Peter Grant adventures proving the point.<\/p>\n
But the track I come back to.\u00c2\u00a0 No, that would imply I leave it.\u00c2\u00a0 The track that I sing to myself always.\u00c2\u00a0 When I’m skiing, when I’m happy, when I’m depressed.\u00c2\u00a0 That track led off side two.<\/p>\n
You used to get two bites at the apple.\u00c2\u00a0 Two chances to make an impression.\u00c2\u00a0 Yup, listeners would flip over the record in silence, drop the needle, and you could immediately bombard them.<\/p>\n
Or enter their souls.<\/p>\n
For a band that started the first side of their debut with such an onslaught, the second began in an almost psychedelic fashion.\u00c2\u00a0 More akin to the work of Keith Emerson than a guitar god.<\/p>\n
And that’s why Page and Plant don’t add up to Led Zeppelin.\u00c2\u00a0 They need John Paul Jones.\u00c2\u00a0 John Paul Jones is the heart of "Your Time Is Gonna Come".\u00c2\u00a0 His organ ends up being soft and inviting in an act that specializes more in bludgeon and posing.<\/p>\n
And Robert’s not posing here either.\u00c2\u00a0 He’s singing, not yelling, his story from the bottom of his heart.\u00c2\u00a0 Well, that would imply that he’s in the depths. He’s recovered, quite a bit.\u00c2\u00a0 But he’s still angry.\u00c2\u00a0 You see, her time is gonna COME!<\/p>\n
Today it’s like it was in the midsixties.\u00c2\u00a0 The SINGLE is the hit.\u00c2\u00a0 The TRACK is the hit.\u00c2\u00a0 But, for a period there, from late ’67 to maybe ’73 or ’74, the ALBUM was the hit.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe a bit longer thereafter.\u00c2\u00a0 Until the advent of MTV.<\/p>\n
Led Zeppelin I had no hits.\u00c2\u00a0 Nothing played by AM radio, which still dominated automobiles at that time.\u00c2\u00a0 And FM…this was before the days of limited playlists, emphasis tracks.\u00c2\u00a0 The deejays played what they wanted to, you weren’t limited to one cut.\u00c2\u00a0 You heard "Good Times Bad Times" and "Communication Breakdown", but also "Your Time Is Gonna Come".\u00c2\u00a0 You’ve got no idea what it was like to hear "Your Time Is Gonna Come" emanate from the stereo speakers in your house.\u00c2\u00a0 (And that’s where you listened, on your parents’ big rig.\u00c2\u00a0 That was the only place you could GET FM.)<\/p>\n
Lyin’ Every line is only one word.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s all that is needed to convey the message.\u00c2\u00a0 Country artists can spin whole YARNS about their baby who done left them, there are all those DETAILS, but Zeppelin boils it down to the essence.\u00c2\u00a0 Ever been involved with someone bad?\u00c2\u00a0 Someone selfish?\u00c2\u00a0 Who took you for a ride?\u00c2\u00a0 You thought you were together, and then you woke up by the railroad tracks in some burg you’d never been to, far from the city.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s beyond disheartening, it’s DISILLUSIONING!<\/p>\n "Your Time Is Gonna Come" doesn’t bang you over the head, it sneaks up on you.\u00c2\u00a0 It doesn’t relax you, rather it sets your mind in motion.\u00c2\u00a0 Reviewing all your past relationships.\u00c2\u00a0 What happened.\u00c2\u00a0 The person you can’t get over.\u00c2\u00a0 You wonder…did they realize you were the best thing they ever had?<\/p>\n People come and go.\u00c2\u00a0 You bump into your past at the strangest moments, when you least expect it.\u00c2\u00a0 But, generally speaking, when you’re done with love, you can disappear, you can retreat into your corner and lick your wounds.<\/p>\n But records are different.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re always there.\u00c2\u00a0 With all their attendant memories, their ability to set your mind adrift.\u00c2\u00a0 You just pick them up off the shelf and you’re back exactly where you once were.<\/p>\n Led Zeppelin I had the Atlantic red and green logo.\u00c2\u00a0 The songs were long in an era where they were still rather short.\u00c2\u00a0 I bought it in a head shop on the north side of Chicago.\u00c2\u00a0 I carried that vinyl record from Chicago to Connecticut to California.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s in the other room right now.\u00c2\u00a0 With the same scratches on the disc (limited!) and the same wear and tear on the cover.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s as much a part of me as my marriage license, and my divorce papers.\u00c2\u00a0 More.\u00c2\u00a0 I can’t forget it.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s a part of me.\u00c2\u00a0 So much to the point where I was just walking down the sidewalk earlier and I started to sing "Your Time Is Gonna Come".<\/p>\n It’s not that there’s anything wrong with the rest of the album.\u00c2\u00a0 I just want to single "Your Time Is Gonna Come" out.\u00c2\u00a0 I want to give you a head’s up.\u00c2\u00a0 In case you overlooked it.\u00c2\u00a0 In case it’s your favorite too and you can use the solidarity.<\/p>\n <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" What is your favorite track on Led Zeppelin I? That’s my favorite album.\u00c2\u00a0 Along with "Physical Graffiti".\u00c2\u00a0 But unlike "Physical Graffiti", I love EVERYTHING on I. First it was "Good Times Bad Times". It was that guitar sound.\u00c2\u00a0 And Robert’s attitude.\u00c2\u00a0 The swagger.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s all you’ve got when you’re a teenager, your hopes and dreams.\u00c2\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-music"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-2n","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Cheatin’
Hurtin’
That’s all you seem to do<\/em><\/p>\n