Led Zeppelin - II

Mon 25th Apr, 2005 in Music Reviews

What would a replay/rewind section be without some Zeppelin? Along with the Rolling Stones and the Beatles, Led Zeppelin would account for much of the sounds heard from today’s highly derivative rock scene. Wolfmother anyone?

I wish I could embellish more on the overwhelming success of this band, and the undeniable influence Zeppelin has had on rock and roll forever, but I’d feel as though I was just repeating a string of quotes. What I can say is, although this band was far before my time, it says something that their cultural impact has spread to continuing to have an impact on high school kids today. In 2009 it will be the forty years since II was released, and still countless pint-sized potential musicians aspire to the level of talent and innovation the Zeppelin members presented.

Led Zeppelin must also win the award for biggest amount of side projects, solo careers and spin offs for any rock band in history. Sprung from the ashes of the Yardbirds, Zeppelin was a culmination of poaching efforts from various other groups. Robert Plant went on to do the solo career thing, as did Jimmy Page, whereas John Bonham’s legacy lives on in his drummer son, Jason. Bassist John Paul Jones went on to an equally enviable career in production – having produced the latest Datsuns record among others.

Unless you’ve been raised by apes in the Amazon with no form of communication to the outside world, you’ve heard at least two of the songs from II a few times in your life. Whole Lotta Love would have to be one of them. Even by today’s standards, it’s ludicrously sexual, with Robert Plant’s faux-orgasm permeating the pelvic grind of the guitars and lyrics like Shake for me girl, I wanna be your back door man. Yes, it’s the stuff mothers would gasp about and would inspire a legion of groupies for the tight-panted band.

What Is and What Should Never Be is testament to the formation of – I hate to say it – the prog rock genre. II is riddled with fantasy themes, time changes and rolling landscapes of sound, interrupted by injections of hard rock. This is perhaps essentially what made Zeppelin so great – their ability to pull all of this embellishment and excess off while still retaining an air of mystery and sex appeal. What Is... is a real head-nodder, the virtually inaudible verses providing just enough tension for it to be deeply satisfying when those riffs are attacked in the chorus and Plant howls in trademark falsetto.

Containing arguably one of the best guitar riffs in rock, The Lemon Song showcases the band’s talent for pulling focus towards and away from different areas. The guitars control the rhythm initially, providing a sensuous drawl and shuffle motion, then the peak is hit at about four minutes, where Bonham and Page fight it out for a game of who-can-play-the-loudest. Meanwhile, John Paul Jones contentedly holds it all together in the background, effortlessly sliding up and down the frets, dipping so low you can’t help but feel something a little primal awakening inside you. That and Plant singing about his lemon being squeezed. Subtle.

Things get a bit spiritual with Thank You, electric acoustic guitars taking the track to a less confrontational headspace while churchlike organs provide the characteristic sonic height the band prefers. It’s slightly tedious towards the end though, where admittedly, you’re just waiting for a riff.

And a riff you get when Side Two launches into Heartbreaker. The distorted bass is what makes this track: it grinds like the weight of a train’s wheels and is unavoidably something you just have to shake your hips to. Bonham’s rhythm section is light until the bridge, where he attacks the cymbals with schizophrenic fervour before Page displays some pitch bending skills followed by one of the most satisfying guitar solos ever recorded.

Living Loving Maid showcases some impressive patriarchy on the band’s behalf. Then again, this was an era with virtually no female rock groups and a seemingly overwhelming abundance of underage groupies willing to give it all up. Or maybe that’s just me taking Almost Famous a little too seriously. Nowadays, Living Loving Maid is the kind of thing you hear blaring from a ute with a leathery-skinned labourer tapping his arm on the windowsill – a hard rock formula that is so widespread today it has become beyond passe.

Plant’s fixation with the Lord of the Rings trilogy becomes evident in the fantastic Ramble On. You’d think it would sound incredibly corny singing about the JR Tolkien world, but it works. Well, maybe when Plant enthusiastically sings the line about Gollum it’s slightly humorous. But that’s only in retrospective context, when the animated image of Gollum in Peter Jackson’s LOTR springs to mind. The explosive chorus makes Ramble On yet another rock anthem, and the song peters away tastefully, just prior to it becoming excessive.

Bonham finally gets a decent look-in with Moby Dick. The man was an octopus. It really does sound like there’s a group of people hammering away on those bongo drums, and it’s with self-accepted bias that I declare there should be more drum solos like this today. Seeing this track live would have been mind-blowing. It’s impossible on first listen to tell where he’s going to take the rhythm next, and when the guitars eventually ease back into the song, the monstrous drum roll Bonham executes provides the perfect segue into melody again.

Closer Bring it On Home - appropriately titled – exposes the band’s blues influence in a murky introduction of harmonica playing and muted vocals, before launching into the now-familiar guitar assault. The stereo recording of Page’s riffing adds extra beef to the chunkiness of the chorus melody before the harmonica returns to ease the track into a flourished conclusion.

It seems the bigger the band, the harder it is to avoid saying something nauseatingly cliched. Led Zeppelin’s legacy certainly seems to speak for itself. Though I will comment that personally the derivative aspect of a lot of rock bands today doesn’t bother me in the least. Is it a bad thing to want to sound like the greatest hard rock band in history?