Review Summary: With Led Zeppelin newly reunited to perform what has been called "the biggest rock show ever" and rumours swirling about a possible tour, it's time to revisit why this band is so highly regarded.
“If there’s a bustle in your hedgegrow, don’t be alarmed now, it’s just a spring clean for the May Queen.”
In case you needed to be reminded, that line is from “Stairway to Heaven,” Led Zeppelin’s most well-known song and one of the most instantly recognizable songs in the world. Of course, reading that line outside of the context of it being a part of the greatest rock anthem of all time, it doesn’t appear to be worth much in a lyrical sense. How is it that a band can perform a song with such a mediocre (if that) lyric, and yet manage to sound genuinely epic, mystical and important? The pure magic of the sound.
When you listen to “Stairway,” or any of the other 7 songs on this rock n’ roll cornerstone, the at-times seemingly throw-away nature of the lyrics take a back seat to the simple fact that they are both performed with the utmost conviction and produced with the utmost majesty. Only Zeppelin could create rock songs of this sheer force, with this mysterious ability to instantly entrance any listener. Zeppelin’s imitators and peers of the 70’s always lacked this magic, thus the reason it sometimes seems Zeppelin is the sole 70’s rock band that matters. Ask yourself: if “Stairway to Heaven” was a song by, oh, say, Rush, do you really think it would be the most requested song on FM radio to this day?
In each of these 8 songs, Zeppelin demonstrates that trademark majestic sound. But what makes that trademark, inimitable sound? A large part of the credit goes to the unarguable fact that the band members were the cream of the crop for their time, and arguably, for all time. Robert Plant could sing like no other, going from wailing at the top of his lungs to a gentle, playful folk sound, to a blues howl, often times in the course of one song. Jimmy Page is arguably the greatest guitarist of all time. Page innovated so much in the world of the electric guitar in terms of creating sounds no one had heard before and using different techniques, that it would take a reviews-worth on its own just to summarize his achievements. John Paul Jones was the secret weapon of the band, often assisting Page in arranging songs. His versatility as an instrumentalist was impeccable, and his heavy bottom end bass playing added an earth-crushing element to Page’s crunchy guitar riffs. Last but not least, the late John Bonham’s drumming has to this day been matched by absolutely no one- no one- in terms of sheer power.
And on top of this impressive foundation, is a flawless production that shimmers and sparkles, blasts and quakes, muddies and melts. Each song’s production is perfectly fit to the song, to enhance whatever effect the song is trying to impose on the listener. This was Zeppelin’s best weapon: Page’s masterful production techniques, demonstrated better on this album than any other Zeppelin album. It was this, combined with carefully crafted music, that effectively built a unique atmosphere to each song, making each song an experience all its own. This was what made Zeppelin- and specifically this album- so great: their ability to create a completely unique sound for each song, built like a monument.
It is demonstrated in the stuttering sexual slip-and-slide of Page’s guitar solo in “Black Dog.” It is demonstrated in the perfection of the arts of reverb and guitar overdubbing in “Rock n’ Roll,” which manages to make a simple rock n’ roll dity sound like an homage to the gods being played on top of the Grand Canyon. It’s demonstrated on the fairy-dust mandolin in “Battle of Evermore” and the even more mystical “Stairway.” It’s demonstrated in the simple, campfire-style “Going to California.” And it is demonstrated in the album’s stunning closer, the frightening blues remake “When The Levee Breaks,” wherein you’ll feel like your sitting right next to the levee, perhaps in some sort of tunnel, watching as the storm threatens to destroy everything and everyone in the area, and after sirens screech and the thunder strikes and Robert Plant moans in fear, the sun finally pokes out of the clouds after the chorus, where the key changes and the riff is uplifting rather than terrifying.
No one ever argued Zeppelin, on any of their albums, were exactly lyrical geniuses. But that’s never what this band was about. If you can learn to appreciate their mastery of the sonic arts, which is best demonstrated on this album, then you can learn to love this band. One of the greatest rock albums of all time and easily the greatest hard rock album, rock has ever sounded better than it did here.
