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Led ZeppelinAlbums ReviewedLed Zeppelin (1969)Led Zeppelin II (1969) Led Zeppelin III (1970) __ (1971) Houses of the Holy (1973) Physical Graffiti (1975) Led Zeppelin(1969)Hastily formed by Yardbirds' guitarist Jimmy Page in order to tour to fulfill contractual obligations, and christened by Keith Moon, who predicted that they'd go down like a lead zeppelin; given these circumstances, it's surprising that Led Zeppelin have become one of the most enduring bands in the classic rock canon. But with a high degree of virtuosity, Page's excellent production skills, and a solid core of great songs on each of their first six albums, it's completely logical. Replicating the lineup dynamics of The Who - the maned blonde singer, the guitarist as the primary creative force, the manic drummer, and the quietly brilliant bass player - but dispensing with Pete Townsend's predilection towards rock operas, Led Zeppelin came to personify the excess of rock during the seventies. Their 1969 debut catches them before they became immersed in a tide of groupies, drugs, critical derision, and all the other pitfalls of first degree rock stardom. While Page and bassist/keyboard player John Paul Jones were already experienced session musicians, Robert Plant was still a fresh faced twenty year old vocalist who bought his former band's drummer John Bonham to the group. This is Led Zeppelin's most blues oriented album, and accordingly Led Zeppelin's tendencies towards plagiarism are most evident here. While it would have been courteous of Page to give credit, I'm no musical purist, and I find their white boy electrification of the blues more palatable than the real thing. Each Led Zeppelin album is slightly inconsistent, but contains a core of great songs. This is actually one of their more even efforts, and although it's not as diverse as later efforts, it's also refreshingly free of self-hype, particularly evident in Plant's egoless vocal performance. There's also more harmony singing here than on later albums, which adds an interesting dimension to their sound; Plant isn't up front playing rock God by himself for the whole time. Key songs on the record include 'Dazed and Confused', where Page innovatively uses a violin bow to create the ominous guitar tone, and the abrasive 'Communication Breakdown'. 'Babe I'm Gonna Leave You' is eclipsed by the third album's 'Since I've Been Loving You', but it's still a terrific blues ballad. The pyschedelic 'Your Time Is Gonna Come', with Jones on organ, and the folk instrumental 'Black Mountain Side' add some eclecticism to the middle of the record. The album does take a dip in quality at the end, with the last two songs dragging, but it's still an epochal album of its era. A lot of the hard rock that dominated the seventies can be traced directly to this record, although of course it has precedents in acts like Cream and Hendrix, while there were few other sixties albums with such a dark and potent atmosphere; there's a gulf between 'All You Need Is Love' and 'Babe I'm Gonna Leave You' that is somehow wider than the mere two years between them. 
Led Zeppelin II(1969)If the first Led Zeppelin album can be summarised as The Blues One, then the second is The Rock One. Released a mere ten months after their debut, the group are already ensconced on the treadmill of fame; there's a palpable swagger that contrasts with the humility of the debut. The legendary off stage excesses (there's a famous anecdote about a novel use of a shark) are reflected on the album itself; John Bonham indulges in an uninteresting drum solo, the aimless 'Moby Dick'. It starts off well with a nice little jam, but loses momentum when it drops off to just Bonham. When Page or Jones solo, everyone else keeps playing, so it's ludicrous that everyone stops whenever the drummer wants a solo. Elsewhere, just like the rest of Led Zeppelin's catalogue, Bonham's drumming is terrific; he can be slightly one dimensional, hitting everything as hard as he can, but it's a perfect fit for the group, giving them a crisp and uncluttered sound. But elsewhere this album is just as great as its predecessor; Page pulls out some magnificent riffs on the funky 'Heartbreaker' and the behemothic 'Whole Lotta Love', two of Led Zeppelin's catchiest rockers. 'The Lemon Song' rides off a memorable Jones bass riff, even if the squeezing lemon references are none too pleasant. The group also explore more complex material with the mini-epic 'What Is And Should Never Be' and 'Ramble On', where Plant displays his Tolkien fetish for the first time on record - although I'd argue that Sauron is the evil one and that Gollum's merely morally ambiguous. There's even a soppy ballad, 'Thank You', which is out of place among all the debauchery scattered through the rest of the record, but is full of tasty organ work from Jones. And closer 'Bring It On Home' starts messily, but it ends up kicking just as much butt as everything else. In fact, apart from the gratuitous presence of 'Moby Dick', this album's just plain terrific, and a step up from the debut. The group would get more ambitious and diverse, but this is a great place to begin an investigation into their back catalogue.
 Led Zeppelin III(1970)Nominally the acoustic Led Zeppelin album, although that's a touch misleading since only the second half is acoustic; the first side is much more eclectic, with a magnificent blues ballad and the weird string inflected 'Friends' nestled among some straight ahead rockers. Following the musical coherency of the first two albums this record is a lot harder to take in, but ultimately it finds the band successfully exploring new territory even if there are some hiccups along the way. The major hiccup is the closing track, 'Hats Off To (Roy) Harper', which is produced in an effort to replicate a vintage blues recording, and is almost impossible to follow with a seeming lack of structure; in short, it's nowhere near as cool as the music of the man it's dedicated to. Playing this for the first time, expecting a nice acoustic album, I was surprised with the ferocious adrenaline rush of the opening track; 'Immigrant Song' explodes with a frenetic pace, a repetitive guitar and bass riff and Plant's wails about Vikings. 'Celebration Day' and the relatively straightforward 'Out On The Tiles' are the other rock songs, and they're also great. The blues ballad 'Since I've Been Loving You' is one of Led Zeppelin's best moments, with an emotional vocal performance from Plant and an effective solo from Page. The acoustic side opens with 'Gallows Pole', a dark folk piece which is similar to the traditional material that Fairport Convention were exploring at the same time. Both Page and Plant were folk fans, citing Pentangle and the Incredible String Band as influences - Plant was even a member of a band named Hobbstweedle before joining Zeppelin - so it's no surprise that they dedicated an entire album side to it. Page gets a sole writing credit with the gorgeous 'Tangerine', one of Zeppelin's most pop oriented songs with close harmonies. 'Bron-Y-Aur Stomp', dedicated to the Welsh cottage where parts of the album were conceived, also contributes to the album's weak ending; it has an informal atmosphere that's at odds with the carefully constructed nature of the rest of the album. Despite the bizarre ending, this was Led Zeppelin's most interesting album yet, although despite the mastery of another genre there was still more growth to come.
(1971) This is the iconic Led Zeppelin album, which the band didn't even bother to title, instead labelling the spine with the cod-mystical symbols for each member. But why this is the most publicly revered of Led Zeppelin's albums is beyond me; take away the epic that closes each side of the original LP version, and the remainder is plain uninspiring by Zeppelin's high standards. They do combine the blues, rock and folk explored in their previous releases, but the melodies are often sub-par, Plant's vocals are often irritating and some of the material is annoyingly repetitive. I don't listen to rock radio a whole lot, so I'm still immensely fond of 'Stairway to Heaven'; there's plenty to admire from the pretty folk melody to the arrangement that builds from recorders and acoustic guitar to full fledged rock. The guitar solo is amazing, one of the few occasions where it sounds like Page bothered composing something rather than making it up on the spot. And even if they don't make a whole lot of sense and he's since disowned them, Plant's lyrics are extremely effective; lines like "there's a feeling I get when I look to the west", "the forests will echo with laughter" and even "if there's a bustle in your hedgerow" are extremely evocative. The other epic, 'When The Levee Breaks', is one of the most intense moments in the Zeppelin catalogue with an enormous drum beat, Plant's paranoid wailing and some effectively minimal guitar leads from Page; it's easily one of the best songs, and captures the dark blues pounding that Zeppelin were striving for better than anything else in their catalogue. The album does start decently, with the pairing of 'Black Dog' and 'Rock and Roll'; Zeppelin takes on basic blues and rock respectively. 'Going To California' has another pretty folk melody, later requisitioned by Pearl Jam for 'Given To Fly', but it doesn't really go anywhere too spectacular. It's the remaining three songs that cause major problems. 'The Battle Of Evermore' meanders through dumb lyrics about ringwraiths and fairy queens for six minutes, and even the presence of Fairport Convention's Sandy Denny on vocals doesn't help. 'Misty Mountain Hop' rides a leaden footed electric piano groove, while the vocal line irritatingly accentuates each beat in the bar. Meanwhile, 'Four Sticks' is a complete throwaway; the only memorable aspect of it is that Bonham drums with four sticks. In short, this is far from Led Zeppelin's best album; the only reason it's the famous one is because it features 'Stairway to Heaven', and the only things saving it from mediocrity are 'Stairway' and 'When The Levee Breaks'. Buy it if you must, but remember that Zeppelin made much better records.
Houses of the Holy(1973)After the intensity of the music and the rapid release pace of their first four albums, Led Zeppelin relaxed for Houses of the Holy, their most satisfying album. It's their most diverse, careering through a James Brown pastiche, a slice of reggae-pop, full scale progressive rock, and even a catchy rocker with an seamless a capella interlude; pretty much everything but the psychedelic blues they dabbled in just four years earlier. It's also full of beauty; Jones shines with his mellotron and keyboard work, Page piles on layers of chiming guitars, while Bonham and Page are less obnoxious than previously in the more relaxed setting. Like every other Zeppelin album, Houses of the Holy has its quota of below-par tunes, but the par level on this album is higher than usual, and even the throwaways have their share of melody and charm. Actually melody doesn't play an important part in 'The Crunge', but it's effective enough as an amusing James Brown send up, it gets a nice groove going, and the references to the bridge at the end are priceless (although they don't make much sense if you've never heard James Brown's 'Sex Machine'. Also clustered in the centre of the album are 'D'yer Maker' (say it out loud), a fun reggae tune, and 'Dancing Days', a harmless but tuneful piece of pop/rock. It's the other five tracks that bookend the album that all rank as Zep classics. Opener 'The Song Remains The Same' has a battalion of guitar overdubs from Page and an evocative melody, while 'Over The Hills And Far Away' reiterates the mystical folk/hard rock contrast that made 'Stairway' so great and is one of Led Zeppelin's most overlooked tunes. It's the two ballads that are perhaps the album's standout pieces: 'The Rain Song' is drenched in Jones' beautiful mellotron, while "No Quarter' is another tour de force dominated with Jones' atmospheric keyboards, a great Page riff and evocative lyrics about Vikings. 'The Ocean' is just a great straight ahead Zeppelin rocker, except that about two thirds of the way through it breaks into a bizarre a capella doo-wop section, before effortlessly dropping back into its groove. If anything, Houses of the Holy feels the less significant than the quartet of albums that preceded it; it's less focused, and has a lighter atmosphere. But all this only helps to make it a better listen; it's full of great songs, none of which are among their most overplayed, and it captures Led Zeppelin at their most accessible.
Physical Graffiti(1975)When Led Zeppelin recorded their sixth album they had too much material for a single LP, so they threw in some outtakes from previous albums to create a double. Because of its sheer size, it encapsulates everything they'd done up to that point; spanning blues rock, catchy riff rock, folk, and epic prog rock are all contained in this sprawling set; it's often referred to as their most representative record for a good reason. There isn't much new ground covered, though - Eastern influences on 'In The Light' and the funk of 'Trampled Underfoot' are the notable exceptions - from this point on Zeppelin stopped being the innovators and settled down into a less prominent role in rock. If Physical Graffiti was trimmed down to a single album it would probably be their best, but even as it is there are plenty of great songs although it does trail off towards the end. In fact, the first disc of the set is arguably their best ever, containing two immense epics and a handful of other great songs. 'In My Time Of Dying' may be overlong at eleven minutes, but there is an unstoppable power in its heavy blues attack that's hard to deny. The eight and a half minute 'Kashmir' is massively creative, with a powerful string arrangement courtesy of Jones and an arrangement that contrasts a straight 4/4 drum beat against the other instruments and vocals in 3/4. It's also one of Plant's most evocative lyrics and vocal performances; lines like "I am a traveller of both time and space" give the song an otherworldly power. Among the shorter songs, Houses of the Holy outtake 'The Rover' stands out as one of the group's most overlooked moments, a straight up rock song with a great riff from Page. Jones leads the group through a funk excursion in 'Trampled Underfoot' with a stylish keyboard riff that's a nod to Stevie Wonder, before Page and Plant make their respective contributions with a dirty guitar riff and automotive analogies. The album opens with 'Custard Pie', a driving blues rocker, while confusingly 'Houses of the Holy' is also included. The second disc is less unified and consistent than the first, but again it features a couple of strong epics. The keyboard dominated Eastern stylings of 'In The Light' are attributable mostly to Jones; it's slow moving and reliant on atmosphere, but when the main hook comes in it's irresistible. 'Ten Years Gone' is a sweet and evocative relationship song with a neat riff and a complete lack of pretence. 'Bron-Yr-Aur' is an absolutely gorgeous two minute folk acoustic guitar piece, which is so distinctive that it's surprising that it's not more widely known. The last side of the LP version is easily the least impressive; it's not bad per se, but it's lacking the identity of their other work and it's easily more generic than anything they'd done before. 'Night Flight' and 'The Wanton Song' are catchy enough, but none of the last three songs are particularly impressive in my book. Despite trailing off at the end, Physical Graffiti still has more great songs then any other Zeppelin album, and it's easily one of their best, even if its sprawling nature makes it less approachable than their earlier efforts.
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Written 2001-2007, Graham Fyfe
