Music Blogs

Okay, so maybe Led Zeppelin wasn't the greatest band in rock history. (Now there's a statement that could start an argument in many a household-feel free to start one in yours.) All the same, you gotta admit that few other groups have been as influential. They didn't invent hard rock or heavy metal, but with their virtuosity and sheer power, Zep raised the bar for everyone who attempts those styles of music. Robert Plant's piercing voice and long golden locks helped him perfect the role of rock frontman as sex god. Jimmy Page, the principal architect of their staggering success, enlisted his own formidable skills not only as a guitarist but also as a songwriter, producer, sonic craftsman and--how to say this nicely?--a master selector of others' musical ideas. Meanwhile, multi-instrumental whiz John Paul Jones and the late drum titan John Bonham formed a rhythm section that remains a wonder to hear, capable of both mountain-flattening force and surprising intricacy. Now, as a long-awaited reunion of the three surviving members looms, with Bonham's son Jason taking the drum chair, it seems like an opportune moment to re-evaluate the Zeppelin legacy on disc, the core of which consists of 10 albums, nine studio and one live. (The nine studio albums are available either separately or as part of a boxed set called The Complete Studio Recordings; two earlier boxed sets contain the same material but don't present the songs in the order of the original albums, which is highly annoying.) To slightly paraphrase that noted wise man Sammy Hagar, only time will tell if Zep's music can stand the test of time. But so far, with nearly 30 years gone since the band's abrupt demise, it's standing that test pretty damn well.

1. Led Zeppelin (Atlantic, 1969) * * * * * Right from the opening seconds of track one, Zeppelin's debut sends a simple message: We rock. Those polyrhythmic John Bonham bass-drum wallops on "Good Times Bad Times" have made generations of teenage boys want to pick up sticks, and Jimmy Page counters with a finger-shredding guitar run that's nearly as hallowed by Zep fans, punctuating Robert Plant's keening vocal. The rest of the album is just as raw, heavy, and supremely confident. British folk ("Babe I'm Gonna Leave You," "Black Mountain Side") and American blues ("How Many More Times," "I Can't Quit You Baby") get mutated into a new form of rock so ludicrously over-the-top that one is tempted to laugh. And yet one does not; the whole thing's just too alluring. Among many highlights are the lascivious shrieks that Plant and Page trade at the end of "You Shook Me" and the balls-out riff of "Communication Breakdown," which prefigures both punk and speed metal.

2. Led Zeppelin II (Atlantic, 1969) * * * * This one hasn't aged as well as its predecessor, mainly because of a letdown in the songwriting department. "Whole Lotta Love" is one epochal rock riff, no question, but in the end it's just a riff. "The Lemon Song," a grab-bag of blues borrowings, is just plain silly. And then there's the drum solo. But "What Is And What Should Never Be," "Living Loving Maid (She's Just A Woman)" and "Heartbreaker" are perfect encapsulations of the merciless early Zeppelin style; the latter track also contains an unaccompanied passage by Page that somehow manages to be both one of the worst all-time rock guitar solos and one of the best, simultaneously. Glimmers of more eclectic glories to come shine through on two cuts: the touching power ballad "Thank You" and the acoustically oriented "Ramble On," which finds Plant the lyricist wandering into Tolkienland for the first time.

3. Led Zeppelin III (Atlantic, 1970) * * * * 1/2 For their third musical offering, Zeppelin created an album of two distinct halves. In the first half, Page cranks his amps and Plant unleashes his inner banshee; key lyrics include "Valhalla, I am coming" (from the opening paean to Vikings everywhere, "Immigrant Song") and "All you gotta give to me is all your love" (the pint-hoisting refrain of "Out On The Tiles"). The true standout here is "Since I've Been Loving You," the most dramatic slow blues in the Zep catalog. In the second half, Page and John Paul Jones break out the acoustic guitars, banjos, mandolins and pedal steels while Plant gets thoughtful. "Gallows Pole," "That's The Way," "Bron-Y-Aur Stomp," and the ever-gorgeous "Tangerine" aren't just excellent songs; they also point toward a deeper future for the band. Although Zeppelin would integrate their loud and quiet sides more artfully in later years, Led Zeppelin III's buoyant sense of freshness makes it uniquely rewarding.

4. Led Zeppelin IV (Atlantic, 1971) * * * * * "Black Dog." "Rock And Roll." "Misty Mountain Hop." "Going To California." "When The Levee Breaks." And, of course, that favorite of guitar-store clerks the world over, "Stairway To Heaven." FM radio perennials all, these songs practically define the term "classic rock," to the point where it's hard to imagine a time when they didn't exist. And along with the slightly less celebrated "Four Sticks" and "The Battle Of Evermore," they make up the album that stakes the strongest claim to being Led Zeppelin's masterpiece. (Strictly speaking, the album doesn't have a title; Led Zeppelin IV is simply what it's best known as.) All the major characteristics of the first three Zep albums--the twisted Page blues riffs, the hyper-aggressive playing of Jones and Bonham, the hippie mythology of Plant's lyrics, the traces of olde English balladry, the music's growing tendency toward the anthemic--are refined and merged here to spectacular effect. Just because you've heard it before 85 million times doesn't mean it's not great.

5. Houses Of The Holy (Atlantic, 1973) * * * * 1/2 At this point, the Zeps begin to show signs of anthem fever. Four of the eight tracks on Houses Of The Holy are sprawling, multi-sectioned epics. Luckily, they all work tremendously well, and they also demonstrate Jones's growing importance within the band, as his keyboard playing lays the foundation for both the wistful "Rain Song" and the ominous "No Quarter." Not everything is serious here; the jaunty "D'Yer Mak'Er" concocts an improbable hybrid of reggae, doo-wop and Bonham's caveman drumming. And the one misstep, "The Crunge," attempts to adapt James Brown-style funk to prog rock-style time signatures, a hilarious idea that doesn't quite turn into an actual song. Still, the core trait of Houses is grandeur, and that's present from the sweeping guitar fanfare of "The Song Remains the Same" straight through to the swaggering central riff of "The Ocean."

6. Physical Graffiti (Swan Song, 1975) * * * * There are some who fervently believe that Led Zeppelin's sixth album is their best work. It's certainly the band's longest studio album--15 songs on two discs weighing in at over 80 minutes--and excess of this sort is often a wonderful thing in rock 'n' roll. Unfortunately, boredom isn't, and far too many otherwise first-rate songs on Physical Graffiti outstay their welcome by a lot. "Kashmir" is a perfect case in point. Driven by perhaps the greatest riff in Zep history, the song creates a dark, entrancing atmosphere that kindles bizarre thoughts of imaginary Indo-Arabic monster movies. And yet that mood never changes in any meaningful way for eight-and-a-half minutes; the aim was surely to be mesmerizing, but the result is a little tiresome. All the same, the riches here are many: "The Rover," "Houses Of The Holy," "Down By The Seaside," "Night Flight" and the incomparable Page-Plant ballad "Ten Years Gone."

7. Presence (Swan Song, 1976) * * * * By the mid-'70s, the scene was changing for Led Zeppelin. Page and Bonham were becoming immersed in drink and drugs, while Plant suffered through a serious car accident. There was an overwhelming sense that after years of triumph, some bills were coming due, and that feeling pervades Presence, with its tough, stripped-down songs about loneliness, addiction and bad luck, the best known of which is probably the harrowing "Nobody's Fault But Mine." Jones steps away from the keyboards here, shifting the focus to Page's increasingly idiosyncratic guitar playing; his tortured solo on "For Your Life" is a rare gem. Zep found only one epic in them this time around, but it's a doozy: "Achilles Last Stand," powered by Bonham's virtuoso drumming and a majestic guitar choir brilliantly orchestrated via multiple overdubs by Page. Without a doubt, this is Zeppelin's most unfairly overlooked album.

8. The Song Remains the Same (Swan Song, 1976) * * * If your life has been missing the thrill that only a 27-minute rendition of "Dazed And Confused" can provide, The Song Remains The Same is for you. Then again, it may not be; this live double album, recorded in 1973 and released as a companion to the concert film of the same name, has since been supplanted by two far superior documents of Zeppelin's onstage prowess, BBC Sessions (Atlantic, 1997) and How the West Was Won (Atlantic, 2003). It was standard Zep practice in concert to stretch songs out and see where they led--into extended solos, spontaneous jams, random interpolations of cover tunes, or all three--and this album does a good job of showing that side of the band. The only problem is that they clearly weren't firing on all cylinders at these New York shows, and what comes out often feels bloated and meandering. So if prime live Zeppelin is what you crave, you're better off looking elsewhere.

9. In Through The Out Door (Swan Song, 1979) * * * Oddly, Zeppelin's last studio album is its most dated-sounding. Jones's keyboards are once again a major component of the music--sometimes more so than Page's guitar--but his choice of synthesizer tones places these tracks squarely in the late '70s. Plant's voice frequently sounds strained; he clearly can't summon up the shrieks and wails of yore, but he doesn't always seem to know what to replace them with. The songs aren't Zep's strongest, either. But every LZ album is worth hearing at least once, and In Through The Out Door has its moments. "In The Evening" is the band's final great epic, all foreboding drones and gloomy riffing. "All My Love" is a pretty and unusually optimistic ballad. And "Fool In The Rain," with its cheeky touches of salsa rhythm, has an appealing skip to it, along with another endearingly off-the-wall Page solo.

10. Coda (Swan Song, 1982) * * * Not really a complete album in the way that Zep's previous eight were, Coda was more a way of tying up some loose ends left after John Bonham's death in 1980. Two of the band's last recordings, from late 1978--"Ozone Baby" and "Wearing and Tearing"--seem to be attempts to address the wave of punk rock then sweeping the world; they're catchy and exhibit good energy, but as Zeppelin tracks they're pretty minor. More exciting are a few leftovers from the group's early years: a 1969 rampage through Ben E. King's "We're Gonna Groove"; a 1970 live rendition of "I Can't Quit You Baby" that smokes the version on the first album; and "Walter's Walk," a hard-rock blitzkrieg from 1972 that showcases Bonham's drumming at its hammer-and-anvil best.