My useless Led Zeppelin fanboy thread

[moreau]

We all have our favorite bands. Me, I've had many over the years. But, recently I've realized that the favorite of the favorite for me is the aforementioned New Yardbirds.

Why do I bring it up? No reason, save I have an account here, and this forum is called "The Lounge" .

So, join me in shameless admiration and fond recollection of what is, in my opinions, a rock band deserving of a place in the pantheon of music, along with other equally talented and influential bands of that generation.

I'll start of with an amazing thing that I was pondering only moments ago: The band formed in 1968ish. They released 2 albums copywrighted in 1969! Pretty damn good ones at that

In only 4 more years, they were releasing their 5th album (an album a year was common in those days). When you compare that 5th album to the first, you see an amazing progression muscially. Certainly, there is an increased sophistication on songs like The Rain Song and The Song Remains the Same, both musically and emotionally. But it also represents a stylistic evolution, rather than just a simple deepening of orchestration.

Let me know whatcha think.

Cheers
The Other Dr. M.

[Helevitia]

I don't think you will get any argument on how great of a band Led Zeppelin was/is. They definitely invented their own style.

My personal favorite song from the is "Babe, I'm gonna leave you". Of course, there are so many good ones that I can't believe I have one favorite

[moreau]

There is an interesting version of that song on the recent DVD. On the first disk, there is a set of 4 songs taken from the Danmarks Radio session in 1969. B/W footage with a small PA system (or so it looks), and bunch of kids sitting around on the floow listening.

It is interesting becasue the version of Babe on the first album is obviously acoustic, with various overdubs. The Danmarks version is a single electric guitar arrangement. Also interesting is that the entire 4 song set is played on what I assume is the 1958 Telecaster given to Page by Jeff Beck (sort of a paisley pick guard by the looks). By 1969 you almost exclusively see Page playing one of 3 different Les Paul's (along with that wacky Danelectro )

[xortam]

LZ was one of the few rock groups that moved me back then ... the other being Pink Floyd. The first albums that I ever recorded (tape cassette) were by LZ. I recall recording a collection of LZ tapes (first three albums) to bring along to summer music camp (symphony). The line that still rings out in my head all these years is ... "The way you squeeze my lemon babe ... 'till the juice runs down my legs." Moving words for a young man.

P.S. Ah yes ... the big memory from that time is listening to "Oh Well" off of the "Then Play On" album out of the jukebox at music camp; potent introduction to Fleetwood Mac.

[TnT]

Too hard to pick my favorite Zeppelin song. Have their remasters collection and if I feel like listening to LZ I just randomize through them.

[Kruzin]

Lots of great tunes and great albums from those gents.
Robert "don't call me Bob" Plant has one of the all time best voices for rock.
For me, a favorite song is easy. While I like 99% of their songs, the one I cannot ever bring myself to turn off if I hear it is Kashmir (No Quarter is a close second).

[TransformX]

I see LZ more as a blues band than a rock band

[agallag]

Ah, memories of highschool, going down to the McLaughlin Planetarium for a couple hours of Laser Zeppelin. They should really bring that back. Laser Floyd was awesome too...

[SpiralDragon]

i am more of a floyd fan but zeplin would come next... some of my fav songs are; the battle of evermore, babe i'm gpna leave you, freinds, no quarter, kashmir (regular and oriental)... too name just a few... ....

floyd and zeplin are always on my play list along with the doors, supertramp and a few others

[schmosef]

Originally posted by agallag
Ah, memories of highschool, going down to the McLaughlin Planetarium for a couple hours of Laser Zeppelin. They should really bring that back. Laser Floyd was awesome too...

I didn’t get to see the laser shows. I still kick myself over never having seen laser Genesis. Genesis is my #1 fav band. LZ and Pink Floyd are a close second. Fleetwood Mac is high up there too.

When I was in grade school, either grade 7 or grade 8, my school gave me a scholarship to attend an astronomy course at the ROM. It was held every Saturday morning and it ran for about 10 weeks. We spent a lot of time in the planetarium. Our instructor let us see every show that was programmed into the system, even the ones that weren't part of the public schedule and IIRC, one that was still in development. He used the system to give us a preview of celestial events over the next week and indulged our requests to see different views of space in time.

[off topic]
Our instructor was really cool. In fact, he was so good we had to have a replacement for the last few classes because he was selected to replace the Canadian who had discovered the Super Nova earlier that year in Chile(?). The ROM is right beside U of T and he took us over there one day to look in their telescope at sunspots. We got to meet the guy who had been in Chile too.
[/off topic]

Back to the laser show issue... We didn't get to see any of those. Both instructors we had during the course told us they knew how to work the equipment but that they weren't insured to do so. They told us that the laser equipment actually belonged to an American company, which rented time from the planetarium to conduct their shows. And if the equipment was ever used by a non-employee of the Americans, and it got damaged, the planetarium would owe the Americans some crazy sum--I think it was like two million dollars. It wasn't worth the risk.

[really off topic]
Something that really sticks out in my mind from that course was a discussion we had about whether aliens have ever visited Earth. I remember lots of kids in my class taking about the reports of sightings and saying that they can't all be wrong. Our instructor silently let the class go on and on for like half an hour and then patiently told us his logic for not believing any of it. Throughout the course he was always stressing distances to us (I think because he knew we were going to have this discussion), he reminded us of the distances involved and then asked us what about us could possibly interest an alien species that, to make the trip, had to be so incredibly much more advanced than us. No one had an answer.
[/really off topic]

LZ rules!

[schmosef]

We are your overlords!

That is all.