More Dinosaurs

OK, so last time I was extolling the virtues of Jeff Beck as guitarist extraordinaire, and mentioned only in passing a contemporary who is also a favorite of mine,Jimmy Page. He haunted the same London music scene Beck and Clapton did, but honed his skills doing more studio work than either of the other two. He eventually joined the Yardbirds in their final incarnation, initially as bass player, then lead guitarist when Beck left the group. It was in the midst of attempting to form the New Yardbirds followed on that Led Zeppelin formed.

I've been listening to the Zep catalog recently, and doing so out of order to avoid babbling about the chronology of the band, blah blah blah. All of that is readily accessible all over the Web. I just wanted to delve back into the music in a manner that escapes the tiny Classic Rock Radio box the band has been stuffed in since the format was invented 20 years ago. For anyone who cares, it was known as Album Oriented Rock prior to the all-the-same shite radio we have across the nation, and the playlist was still very much in the hands of the individual DJs. Of course hot records got more play, but they had a lot of leeway, so tracks other than the "hits" got decent exposure, as did bands then defunct or not selling in large numbers. In those days you could still call up and make requests, and if a song were already playing, get the DJ himself on the line.

But no more. Classic Rock Radio killed all of that, which is why the only DJs who become semi-famous in any radio market are a small number of live club DJs, and those numbnuts idiots that have turned your morning and afternoon commute into a low brow, vulgar shout fest. Gag me with a wet T shirt.

I digress. Please excuse.

So I'm listening to the original Zepp records out of order, letting the music wash over me, move me, drive me, entertain me all while I reconsider it in the context of the 25 years that have passed since I bought my first record. Zeppelin did release singles like most bands, but did little to push individual songs, relying instead on the full body of the music to carry a particular album, then backing it up with epic tour marathons. Unlike many bands in the very end of the sixties and into the seventies, Led Zeppelin did not travel with an opening act. They were the entire show, and still sold staggering numbers of tickets, setting attendance records all across the US.

So each album is a thing unto itself. I started with Houses Of The Holy, whose cover always looked as though it had been photographed under a sodium lamp, all weird orange and purple, and whatnot. The opening track (Song Remains The Same) has an insistent, compelling riff that pushes you right into the rhythm of the song. Page was consumed by the possibilities of his guitar in a way unlike Hendrix, who was said to have been frustrated by the disconnect between the sounds in his head and those he could actually conjure from a guitar. Page wanted to create layers of guitar voices, each one different but complementary to the others. One voice might be popping out the rhythm that Bonham's drums would pick up while another would add in chords edging on discordance, and the whole thing would somehow fall into place when it was so utterly clear from the first few notes that it couldn't possibly work.

Several songs from Houses Of The Holy appear on "greatest" compilations and Classic Rock (Heretofore known as CR cause I'm a lazy bitch) and rightly so, but this time around I found myself really smiling and grooving to the closing, and simplest track of the record, The Ocean. The recording is stripped way down, the guitar is loud and clean, and the riff as perfect as most of Page's riffs are.

Next up was In Through The Out Door the final release from the band before drummer John Bonham died. His death was a shock to the band, its fans, and the music world generally. Zepp had released their first record in three years, played a huge festival show at Knebworth, and was in rehearsal for a US tour when Bonham died. I can recall even now, reading it on Page 3 of the Stars And Stripes newspaper while in Tokyo. The only word from the band was "we're done". Just started tenth grade at The American School in Japan which was proving a very difficult transition and music was all the refuge I had. In other words, I was fucked. The ground beneath my very feet had betrayed me several times that week in a series of medium strength of earthquakes, and now the mighty Zepp had fallen.

And in truth, I wasn't lovin' the final record. In Through The Out Door spawned three very popular radio hits, only one of which I could really stand at all - In The Evening, mostly because of the groaning, murky sludge that lays the foundation for the signature riff to follow. That record does have its moments, however, but to my ears the hits, while well crafted rock tunes, are not what stand out. Two tracks, "Carouselambra" and "I'm Gonna Crawl" appeal most to me following this "relistening" I've been doing. The first does rely on a somewhat cheesy synthesizer sound, but once it gets rolling it's gone, and you can tell the guitar was slung way low down over Pages' shoulder as he tears the chords out. The mix is really dark, but that adds to the appeal. The second track also has too much synth for my tastes, but it falls quickly into the background. It's basically a blues track without the raunch, but plenty of testifying by Plant. Stacked against the monster reputation of so many other Zepp tunes it isn't much, but it really does close out this album on a strong note.

That's it for tonight. Thought I'd do more, but listening to entire albums is not something I do often enough anymore. The popular music industry is in many ways coming full circle. In the fifties and sixties in particular, it thrived on singles. Good old 45RPM records with that one song everyone had to have and a flip side that may or may not have been any good. By the mid sixties record companies were combining those few hit singles with other tunes already recorded by a band an releasing it as an LP. To the execs it seemed a sure fire way to sell more vinyl - the hits were on these 12 inchers, the kids loved the hits, so they'd buy these to get all they could from their favorite bands. The execs were right.

A lot of other factors combined with this economic motive to turn LPs into organic musical beasts. Some of the bands making whole LPs were also still releasing singles, but many fans were bypassing the two song 45RPM for the whole 33 1/3 enchilada. Now, in the era of computers, downloads (legal and not), and televisions' ability to push a song the LP (now in the form of a CD) is falling by the wayside. Most bands still make them even if they are nothing more than an unrelated collection of songs, but those who buy the music are moving away from wanting the whole thing. Think of how many CDs or LPs you bought primarily to get one or two songs off it. If you rip your music to computer, it is likely those tunes that never interested you in the first place are not going to make it onto your hard drive. Illegal downloading of music often centers around a particular song from really popular acts.

In other words, the single is where it's at, all over again. I currently have 13,033 songs on my computer in six different formats. And I've yet to finish ripping my entire CD collection. I've left off songs from many of the CDs I've ripped. Since my computer has become my primary listening place (one of my stereo speakers was rendered unusable after a cat knocked it over and rode it down to safety as it crashed into the wall. Claws and woofer surrounds do not mix well) the way I deal with the music itself has changed. It's all just files now, so I can move them here and there, copy them, back them up, alter their formats, and play them in any order I want, or ferret them out using various parameters, or just load up a gigantic list in Winamp , hit "shuffle", and let it fly. Beats the fuck out of craptastic radio, and has the blessed benefit of "next" anytime what's playing is not moving me to the groove.

More dinosaur ruminations for you all next time around. I may even finish my half-ass Page tribute/analysis/baseless rant.