Red Mosquito

Physical Graffiti - the first half of this double album, from Custard Pie to Kashmir, is just about one of the best hard rock documents ever. It’s simply incredible. The drums are the best I think I have ever heard drums sound, which each beat pounding you like a medicine ball to the chest. The guitars, the vocals, the song structures just all fit greatly together. In My Time or Dying is epic, Trampled Under Foot an unsung hero, Kashmir hits hard despite having heard the song hundreds of times. I have zero complaints and criticisms of this half of the album.

Side 2/disc 2/side C, on the other hand, has a significant drop off. There’s still some excellent stuff in The Wanton Song and Ten Years Gone as examples, but the punch just falls off, and the momentum just isn’t kept up. There is one, and perhaps the greatest, Zep album in here, if they cut it down to a single album.

Boogie With Stu, Black Country Woman, and Down By The Seaside while fitting the definition of filler are fun and interesting IMO. Perhaps they should have left these for their odds and sods collection but it seems they were emptying the vaults.

I was thinking about that and would have had Down By the Seaside as the last song if I were recreating the album as a single disc. The others you mentioned I also enjoy but probably b-sides like you said.

The PG sessions yielded these 8 tracks:

Custard Pie
In My Time of Dying
Trampled Under Foot
Kashmir
In The Light
Ten Years Gone
The Wanton Song
Sick Again

Nice playlist there.

LetMeSleep wrote:The PG sessions yielded these 8 tracks:

Custard Pie
In My Time of Dying
Trampled Under Foot
Kashmir
In The Light
Ten Years Gone
The Wanton Song
Sick Again

Nice playlist there.

This is the only way I've listened to Physical Graffiti for years - I think it's the best Led Zeppelin album!

Birds in Hell wrote:

LetMeSleep wrote:The PG sessions yielded these 8 tracks:

Custard Pie
In My Time of Dying
Trampled Under Foot
Kashmir
In The Light
Ten Years Gone
The Wanton Song
Sick Again

Nice playlist there.

This is the only way I've listened to Physical Graffiti for years - I think it's the best Led Zeppelin album!

I think it was you that posted that during the LZ tourney. it's killer, no filler.

LetMeSleep wrote:

Birds in Hell wrote:

LetMeSleep wrote:The PG sessions yielded these 8 tracks:

Custard Pie
In My Time of Dying
Trampled Under Foot
Kashmir
In The Light
Ten Years Gone
The Wanton Song
Sick Again

Nice playlist there.

This is the only way I've listened to Physical Graffiti for years - I think it's the best Led Zeppelin album!

I think it was you that posted that during the LZ tourney. it's killer, no filler.

No room for Houses Of The Holy?

Y'all are so wrong about PG.

liebzz wrote:I am glad to have opened up some good discussion with this. And with that in mind...

Led Zeppelin III - THIS! Outside of the finale, Hats Off to Roy Harper, this album is pretty much near perfect. The songs rumble along exactly as they should. Jimmy’s use of acoustic guitars throughout is probably my favorite aspect of this album and makes cohesive what is a very eclectic album - at least by Led Zeppelin standards. Your unsung hero here is Out on the Tiles, but everything is pretty much spot on. Tangerine and That’s the Way provide great folksy (for Zeppelin) touches while their version of Gallows Pole soars. Since I’ve Been Loving You made a big impact for me on this listen in it’s straight bluesiness.

This is probably my favorite LZ album.

The Rover and Houses of The Holy are the best songs on the album.

Presence - you know, sometimes you just wish for a band to just rip out a track at full throttle for 10 and a half minutes with not a moments slow down or breakdown. Ladies and gentlemen...Achilles’ Last Stand! The funny thing is that while I do love that song, give me Tea For One over that at the end of the day. Nobody’s Fault But Mine may be essentially a cover song, but it’s perfect Zeppelin. I have to admit there are a couple of clunkers but nothing of concern on this, what I think, is an underrated album. I think it’s biggest problem may be that it didn’t really move the meter as compared to Physical Graffiti and is almost like a third disc from that one. Also, I enjoyed For Your Life and Hots on for Nowhere.

In Through the Out Door - this album sounds so promising at the start with In the Evening and South Bound Suarez. Fool in the Rain is poppy but not so bad...and then we fall off the cliff. The remainder of the album is just not good. You can make me an argument for All My Love on sentiment, but I still don’t enjoy the song. Carouselambra would be the worst song in their catalogue if it weren’t for Hot Dog. I’m Gonna Crawl might have some redeeming qualities in there but it’s ultimately not worth the effort. This album convinced me that there wasn’t much of anything left in them at this point and had they continued I would not feel optimistic as to what that would sound like. That doesn’t take away from the prior 7 albums but I didn’t like the second half of this album at all.

Edit: just to add that I still have that paper bag the album came in...maybe it’s most redeeming quality?

Coda - I think this is a valuable b-sides and alternate takes album. We’re Gonna Groove is solid and this take on I Can’t Quit You is louder but just about as quality as the original. Ozone Baby is fun as is Walter’s Walk. Bonzo’s Montreaux is echo-y but a solid drum solo. Wearing and Tearing I think is quite good. B-sides yet a step up from In Through the Out Door.

it's unhealthy to listen to this much led zeppelin in this short of time but you did it and you didn't off yourself or cause a dispute at your workplace and you should be commended for that

Oh it’s all during the commute. The issue is making sure it’s not too loud on trains so people don’t kill me.

My final thoughts after all this is that Zeppelin in many ways started it all off for me as a 14 year old boy and nurtured 27 years and counting of an unquenchable need to digest rock music on nearly a daily basis. I found them maybe weeks or months after I started listening to say Pearl Jam and Nirvana, but they were the first in what seemed like an extensive catalogue of albums to dive into.

All that time later, my preferences have changed, but the music endures because it truly straddles the line between in your face propulsive rock music and experimentation.

It would be hard to rank them because most of them are very very close in terms of quality, but I can say in this run through my favorite was Led Zeppelin III, and my least favorite was In Through the Out Door.

liebzz wrote:In Through the Out Door - this album sounds so promising at the start with In the Evening and South Bound Suarez. Fool in the Rain is poppy but not so bad...and then we fall off the cliff. The remainder of the album is just not good. You can make me an argument for All My Love on sentiment, but I still don’t enjoy the song. Carouselambra would be the worst song in their catalogue if it weren’t for Hot Dog. I’m Gonna Crawl might have some redeeming qualities in there but it’s ultimately not worth the effort. This album convinced me that there wasn’t much of anything left in them at this point and had they continued I would not feel optimistic as to what that would sound like. That doesn’t take away from the prior 7 albums but I didn’t like the second half of this album at all.

Edit: just to add that I still have that paper bag the album came in...maybe it’s most redeeming quality?

one day, (if you try very very hard) it will finally dawn on you that both south bound suarez and carouselambra secretly (don't tell anyone) kinda rule.

you still won't like hot dog though.

it took me a long time but i've come around to disregarding the conventional wisdom on ITTOD. a few of those songs actually point to a different direction they could have taken as they headed into the 80s. basically let JPJ have more input and have Plant's more eclectic tastes come to the forefront.

that said, i'm exceedingly glad they stopped after bonzo died.

out of the biggest bands of the rock era, the beatles and zeppelin have the most intact, unfuckwithable discographies precisely b/c it all stopped at a certain point and never started again. there was no kenny jones or final cut or cut the crap or dirty work or etc etc.

evenslow wrote:it took me a long time but i've come around to disregarding the conventional wisdom on ITTOD. a few of those songs actually point to a different direction they could have taken as they headed into the 80s. basically let JPJ have more input and have Plant's more eclectic tastes come to the forefront.

that said, i'm exceedingly glad they stopped after bonzo died.

out of the biggest bands of the rock era, the beatles and zeppelin have the most intact, unfuckwithable discographies precisely b/c it all stopped at a certain point and never started again. there was no kenny jones or final cut or cut the crap or dirty work or lightning bolt, etc etc.

ftfy

evenslow wrote:

liebzz wrote:In Through the Out Door - this album sounds so promising at the start with In the Evening and South Bound Suarez. Fool in the Rain is poppy but not so bad...and then we fall off the cliff. The remainder of the album is just not good. You can make me an argument for All My Love on sentiment, but I still don’t enjoy the song. Carouselambra would be the worst song in their catalogue if it weren’t for Hot Dog. I’m Gonna Crawl might have some redeeming qualities in there but it’s ultimately not worth the effort. This album convinced me that there wasn’t much of anything left in them at this point and had they continued I would not feel optimistic as to what that would sound like. That doesn’t take away from the prior 7 albums but I didn’t like the second half of this album at all.

Edit: just to add that I still have that paper bag the album came in...maybe it’s most redeeming quality?

one day, (if you try very very hard) it will finally dawn on you that both south bound suarez and carouselambra secretly (don't tell anyone) kinda rule.

you still won't like hot dog though.

I really like South abound Suarez. I really hate Carouselambra.