The Original Viagra Boys

Been dazed and confused for so long, it's not true

After a bit of a fallow period here I thought it was important to come roaring back with a bang, how about my fave Led Zeppelin? You know, the one with the priapic flaming love balloon on the cover.

Anyone else out there watched their film Becoming Led Zeppelin? four times, including twice at the cinema may be a bit of a giveaway as to where my Led Loyalties lie*.

The band’s quiet/LOUD dynamic has never been better serviced than right here on LZ1, right from the off too. It sounds punchy and diamond hard right now, a mere 56 years after it was released. It must have sounded like being caught in artillery fire back in 1969 when they were inventing all of this (gestures at record shelves in room)**.

Back when my mates and I were discovering this lot, Led Zeppelin was the LP that none of us rated much; adding ‘Communication Breakdown’ to mixtapes was about as much love as it merited. Due to acute PAISW^ it hurts me when honesty compels me to say it was because none of us thought it heavy enough, bunch of ‘king idiots! What was wrong with our ears?

I digress, there is such a rare alchemy behind Led Zeppelin, far more so than just a conjunction of 4 extraordinary musical talents. Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones had already banked a double lifetime of experience as top session musicians by the time they cut this LP and so along with the raw, desperate-to-make-an-impact rush of the other two, Led Zeppelin had something debuts never do – an excess of virtuosity, experience and virtue.

There were other bands out there offering a heavy take on the blues by 1969, but nobody else crackled with the lightning Led Zep did. Witness the slashing guitar solos that illuminate ‘Good Times, Bad Times’^^, or just the sheer velocity of ‘Communication Breakdown’.

Over 9 tracks and 45-ish minutes Led Zeppelin just delivered the future to anyone who cared to hear it. The bombast, the smirking joy in mastery, the dynamics and all the preening that became ROCK in the 70’s, is all right here. Despite all the tales of hurt and misfortune, casual sexism and occasionally clunky lyrics, why wouldn’t you want this? its flash, sexy-sounding and fun.

On this album I think it is the performance that gets me, rather than the songs. Everyone is constantly straining at the leash, every second of every track, nothing is knowingly under-groaned, or under-played throughout. Just witness ‘Dazed And Confused’ with its various segments all igniting, feeding the larger firestorm to come. Detach yourself and its a bit histrionic and silly, but if you can do that, you’re no rocker and you are utterly missing the point; just surrender.

Having said that, the subtler ‘Black Mountain Side’ and ‘Your Time Is Gonna Come’ are my favourites tonight. JPJ’s organ and choir mastery is put to suitably profane use on the latter, to profound affect. The former track led me, via a Page interview, to Davey Graham and it is far too short at only 2:12, the guitar playing over Viram Jasani’s tabla playing is beautiful and expressive of a clear yearning.

I should also mention that maybe my fave moment on the whole of Led Zeppelin is when the slightly prosaic charms of ‘I Can’t Quit You Babe’ segue straight into the brisk walking bassline that opens ‘How Many More Times’, it gives me gooseflesh every time, its so perfectly done.

Oh Rosie, oh girl
Steal away, now, steal away
Steal away, baby, steal away
Little Robert Anthony wants to come and play

Quite.

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Led Zeppelin is sounding absolutely faultless to me tonight^* every track better than the last and to be fair ‘How Many More Times’ is a perfect juddering synchronized climax.

Even above the high levels of performance, masculine muskiness and musicianship on show here, the most remarkable aspect of the LP for me is Jimmy Page’s production. To lock in such vitality and clarity on your first go around is just godly. Listen to the opening of ‘Babe, I’m Gonna Leave You’, the intimacy and warmth captured there is just phenomenal.

Chapeau Mr Page.

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My folks never caught Led Zeppelin live but they do remember going to a party in a basement flat in Chelsea one night where Led Zeppelin was being played over and over again a few days before it came out. I wonder who it was playing it?

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My copy of Led Zeppelin is, quite randomly, a 1980 German reissue and it is just an incredibly well pressed version, much better sounding than my recent deluxe 3LP version, at least to these tired old ears.

You know you shook me, you shook me all night long

1295 Down.

PS: Compare the two lots of credits – it does leave a bad taste that they were reticent at properly crediting the blues guys who they borrowed from. I always contrast this with the Stones evangelising for the music they loved so much.

*plus it is an absolute gem of a doc and a perfect model for how to make a great film about the origins of a group.

**not to wang on about the film too much but there is a great bit where the newly minted group play a devastating set to an audience that in true 1960’s style look either wildly out-of-place/bored, or utterly and totally uncomprehendingly shell-shocked.

^which as every doctor knows is Past Adolescent Idiocy Syndrome Wincing.

^^how can a song that lasts 2:46 pack so many in and still not lose sight of the fact that it is a song?

^*apart from the faults mentioned in paragraph 7 above.