"Living Loving Maid (She’s Just A Woman)" was my favorite track on "Led Zeppelin II".\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe it was just teenage hormones, but the way the song took off like a shot appealed to me.\u00c2\u00a0 Like you could OUTRACE society.\u00c2\u00a0 And I’ve always been about playing outside society.<\/p>\n
But now although when I hear "Living Loving" I STILL love the way Robert sings "umbrella", and the break with "merry-go-round" and the SHIMMY in Plant’s voice when he sings "Tellin’ tall tales of how it used to be", the track just doesn’t resonate in quite the same way.<\/p>\n
I was never a huge fan of "Whole Lotta Love".\u00c2\u00a0 There just wasn’t enough there, beyond the riff.\u00c2\u00a0 Or maybe it’s just that the track was SO big in my high school back in October ’69, I got burned out and abandoned it.\u00c2\u00a0 Led Zeppelin had been my secret.\u00c2\u00a0 And within a week of "II"’s release, EVERYBODY knew about the record, and Jimmy and the boys were their favorite new band.\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, maybe that’s why I glommed on to "Living Loving".<\/p>\n
"What Is And What Should Never Be" hearkens back to the first album.\u00c2\u00a0 A long slow-burning blues number that erupts with passion.\u00c2\u00a0 And until "Physical Graffiti", I always loved that first album best, and maybe do again, so all of these years later "What Is And What Should Never Be" sounds SPECTACULAR!\u00c2\u00a0 It resonates.\u00c2\u00a0 This is the sound that the Black Crowes are so often reaching for but failing to achieve.\u00c2\u00a0 Because they just don’t have the soul.<\/p>\n
But people never talked about "What Is And What Should Never Be", they reserved their comments for "The Lemon Song", with the juice running down Robert’s leg.\u00c2\u00a0 I personally thought it was a bit too obvious.\u00c2\u00a0 But, except for the lyrics, the main riff would sit perfectly in the aforementioned "Physical Graffiti", when Jimmy Page stretched out and was less worried what the audience would find palatable (even more so than with "III").<\/p>\n
"Heartbreaker" has that bungee jump of a riff, bouncing all over the place.\u00c2\u00a0 Can’t say anything negative about this track, which I loved back then and still do.\u00c2\u00a0 Hey, fellas, have you heard the news???<\/p>\n
"Moby Dick" ranks with the Nazz’s "She’s Goin’ Down" as the best song to contain a drum solo.\u00c2\u00a0 Sure, the Nazz break was oh-so-brief, but still, in this era after "Toad", Bonham didn’t make you feel like your limits were being tested.\u00c2\u00a0 Especially since you were stoned out of your mind most of the time you were listening anyway, and there was that great intro and outro riff.<\/p>\n
"Bring It On Home" did what today’s groups are oblivious to.\u00c2\u00a0 It showed Zeppelin wasn’t a one note band.\u00c2\u00a0 Shit, the first half of "Bring It On Home" sounds almost like folk music, cut in a hamlet far from the mainstream in Mother England.\u00c2\u00a0 Or maybe it’s closer to John Hammond, Jr.\u00c2\u00a0 That fretwork is so sexy, it ENRAPTURES YOU!<\/p>\n
Still, none of the above tracks are the best on "Led Zeppelin II".\u00c2\u00a0 That’s a toss-up between "Thank You" and "Ramble On".<\/p>\n
Sure, girls liked "Thank You", these same girls who told you to turn the rest of the album down.\u00c2\u00a0 But that doesn’t mean it’s substandard and wimpy.\u00c2\u00a0 Robert sings sincerely without lapsing into pathos.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s this honest emotion that made girls all over the globe spread their legs and surrender to him.\u00c2\u00a0 The whole song is so MAJESTIC!\u00c2\u00a0 Like it lives in a place before electricity, in a castle on a hill, far from the rest of the populace.<\/p>\n
Still, there’s a magic in "Ramble On" that is infectious, the song builds and DAZZLES YOU!<\/p>\n
Oh, Jimmy’s playing the acoustic.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s his sound, no one else can replicate it.<\/p>\n
But the record is nothing without John Paul Jones’ bass, dancing all over the bottom of the track, like a court jester.\u00c2\u00a0 Adding levity to such a serious song.\u00c2\u00a0 And Bonzo is working his hands over the skins like a three hundred pound man tap dancing in slippers.<\/p>\n
But about a minute into it, when they reach the chorus, the track EXPLODES!\u00c2\u00a0 Jimmy and Robert start to rage and John Paul Jones tightens up his lines, they exist in a smaller range and they have an emphasis that goes to your gut.<\/p>\n
And after the explosion, there’s that SOUND!\u00c2\u00a0 What is that SOUND!\u00c2\u00a0 I’m not a forensic listener.\u00c2\u00a0 Is that something Jimmy’s doing on the guitar or one of John Paul Jones’ synth workouts?\u00c2\u00a0 Sounds like the latter.<\/p>\n
And then there’s the frosting on the cake.\u00c2\u00a0 Jimmy’s trebly guitars.\u00c2\u00a0 Not edgy, but existing richly up in the upper register.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s as if Catherine Zeta-Jones suddenly started to twirl.\u00c2\u00a0 Put the track on, at about 2:25.\u00c2\u00a0 And listen closely.\u00c2\u00a0 There’s the main guitar, and then another one back in the distance.\u00c2\u00a0 You fall in love with the second the same way you do for the less good-looking, less outgoing younger sister.<\/p>\n
And then we’re back to two acoustics.\u00c2\u00a0 With John Paul Jones and Bonzo still doing their dirty work.\u00c2\u00a0 And when that electric comes back to solo at 3:14, it’s so subtle, as if it’s being played over the hills and far away.\u00c2\u00a0 And then the rage comes back.\u00c2\u00a0 Jimmy’s playing starts to sting.\u00c2\u00a0 Robert’s vocal is phasing in and out of the speakers.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s an adventure as rich and exotic as the "Lord Of The Rings" trilogy that inspired the lyrics.<\/p>\n
I had to retire "Led Zeppelin II" for a bunch of years.\u00c2\u00a0 It was just that burned out.<\/p>\n
That’s not the band’s fault.\u00c2\u00a0 Stuff this good can’t be held back.\u00c2\u00a0 But all these years later, when playing is no longer revered.\u00c2\u00a0 When it’s about stardom first.\u00c2\u00a0 When there’s no MYSTERY!\u00c2\u00a0 "Led Zeppelin II" shines like the masterpiece it is.\u00c2\u00a0 When I heard "Ramble On" on XM today I was transported back to high school, and stunningly, I still felt I was the same guy.\u00c2\u00a0 And that felt good.<\/p>\n
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"Living Loving Maid (She’s Just A Woman)" was my favorite track on "Led Zeppelin II".\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe it was just teenage hormones, but the way the song took off like a shot appealed to me.\u00c2\u00a0 Like you could OUTRACE society.\u00c2\u00a0 And I’ve always been about playing outside society. But now although when I hear "Living Loving" […]<\/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-377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-music"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-65","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377","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=377"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}