POLL LOTTA LOVE - ILM Artist Poll #6 - Led Zeppelin

I mean its pretty lol to think a band with Jimmy fuckin' Page needed another guitarist, but I can't think of how sweet it would have been for a Richard Thompson solo to have shown up in "Evermore" to complete the Fairport Convention thing.

Hammer Of The Gods - great read, gets kind of heavy & depressing at parts though. Plant & Jones come out well, the rest not so much iirc.

I'd heard about it for years before I ever found a copy. When I did find one it had a mangled back cover, so I asked for a few quid off. It was a very nervous wait while she consulted the manager, cos I'd have to back down if they refused. Couldn't believe it when they agreed, I wanted to shake them and shout 'DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU'VE DONE?! THIS IS PURE GOLD' (but I didn't).

"Night Flight" sounds like it could be an outtake off of Every Picture Tells A Story. I haven't heard this in 20 years I bet.

wow, Coda (original issue) is pretty bad. In Through The Out Door pretty bleak as well.

Man at times "No Quarter" almost sounds like it could fit in on an Amon Duul II record or some shit.

Lots of Zep fans love "All My Love," but Plant mastered the synthy ballad once he went solo.

In Through The Out Door's actually pretty great imo, you just have to get past the dated sound of it (also it sounds a lot less dated than it used to iykwim). I'd rep for maybe six out the seven tracks on a good day.

there's something about the shift in sound from Presence on that kinda bugs me, like Percy got REALLY into tight plate reverb.... everything seems to take on a much more metallic sheen.

In Through The Out Door's actually pretty great imo, you just have to get past the dated sound of it (also it sounds a lot less dated than it used to iykwim).

This was similar to my preconception going into it, but the bleak content was more of my concern than the sound/production/engineering. It is not a surprise to learn that 2/3rds of the musicians had checked out by this point, and JPJ alone could not salvage a full quality album out of the studio material, mismatched with limp genre exercises.

If that album is the sound of 3/4 of a band checked out, I'm all for checking out. "Fool in the Rain" may even make it to my list.

2/3rds, sorry.

I thought Bonham was in decent shape for ITTOD? He certainly sounded more together than Page.

"Fool in the Rain" is on mine. What a way for Bonzo to go out. I don't know who else would have thought of playing that beat.

Bernard Purdie would have, and did.

I've got a cd of bonham's outtakes from ittod, and he still sounds checked in to me.

perhaps a great place to once again show Jeff Porcaro taking the Purdie shuffle, adding "Fool in the Rain," and getting "Rosanna."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwFdExvCxM4

will no one rep for Hot Dog lol

Purdie breaks it down:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9t0VlzJeNvA

Bernard Purdie would have, and did.

true

"Hot Dog" rep here.

"Fool in the rain" will absolutely be on my ballot.

Was just listening to 'Carouselambra' at lunch. I think I have it too low on my ballot.

"Fool In The Rain" was my #2, that song is fucking incredible

It won't be that high on mine but it'll certainly be there.

ILM's love for "Fool In The Rain" was one of the things that first attracted me to this place.

Hahaha, somewhere, somebody who has already voted is grinding his teeth.

Can we please not talk about what our number ones and number twos are this soon?

sorry :(

http://dsmyardsales.com/multimedia/photoarchive/tours/1979/images/lz19790804_11.jpg

I'm not super pissed or anything, just sucks away some of the fun if we start seeing what everyone has placed highly before the countdown even starts.

I'm not sure how many songs from it will make it onto my ballot, but I think Coda is unfairly maligned. "We're Gonna Groove" alone is worth the price of admission, but "Poor Tom" and "Wearing And Tearing" are great as well. I also dig "Walter's Walk" and "Ozone Baby" - in fact, there isn't anything on it that I really dislike. I could do without the John Bonham Drum Orchestra, I guess.

It may help that it was the first Zeppelin I bought back in, um, 1983 or 84 and I only knew the first two albums by that point.

jon's right, let's try to avoid being too spoilery

btw, the rollout is going to start the same day as votes close -- that's why I specified noon EDT Tuesday for cutoff.

Can we please not talk about what our number ones and number twos are this soon?

In a way, I voted for Fool as my No. 2.

heh...when I ripped the box sets into itunes on my desktop machine, I retagged everything back into their original album formats.
Me too.
― jon /via/ chi 2.0, Wednesday, August 17, 2011 12:01 AM (20 hours ago) Bookmark

I did this manually, and it made me insane recreating the original album song orders one by one. is there some magical way that you sorted the box sets back into their original order?

If we were voting for "best side" it'd be "Houses -> Trampled -> Kashmir", right?
― Ban or Astro-Ban? (Ówen P.), Wednesday, August 17, 2011 11:38 AM (8 hours ago) Bookmark

yup, no contest. god, this thread is so "rockist" i love it

is there some magical way that you sorted the box sets back into their original order

i re-sold the box set and bought the complete remasters

I'll rep for the 2009 Mick Wall bio of Led Zeppelin. I even got used to the "Bright Lights Big City"-like 2nd person singular mini-chapters where he gets in the mind of each of the four, not just once but throughout the book...it should be annoying but it kind of works. For those who can't get enough detail, it's 500 pages of Zep fun.

I don't remember it taking too long -- iirc first I stripped out the box set disc & track numbers for all of the tracks. Then I command-clicked to select all the songs for one album, changed their album titles en masse, then repeated for the rest of the albums. Once I had the album titles reset, I could sort by artist and each album's tracks would stay grouped together. Open the info window and enter track numbers and you're done. 10-15 minutes, I think?

yeah, that's sort what I did, but I'm glad you confirmed it--i'm just sort of a slowpoke. thanks for responding--i appreciate it

This poll is impossible but, ironically, also sort of easy, because I know I can't go wrong. If I just picked the first 20 songs a Zep shuffle shot me I'd likely be more than happy. That said, I'm sad I won't find room for stuff like "For Your Life."

Damn, it's amazing how much Bonham gets away with doing so little. Dude's feel was unmatchable. A lot of the drums on "Kashmir" are as straightforward as they come, fills aside, but the guy just punishes that beat.

https://3084615131657267755-a-1802744773732722657-s-sites.googlegroups.com/site/nickdouglas/zoso-finellan2.jpg?attachauth=ANoY7cozjoYQz6xAp-vqeGTDLhMw-kXG3Ms3uEqiP2FtFgC7n5OJSWQL3xpxb17UXAsFA3EctgG5tchLYO2EzMX3ZcPfHFmpsaLtj84Qzd6lDx2kbVxp52AXL7TD6Wv8RMC5m8H4fZRJQrluBj5sh9SQvSjqcDMsJPfaB78jrdym_9KDJw37ux_1jTMd9BfJgea4J6PspXxlRBUk52jOf1sn1DT0uUTAhw%3D%3D&attredirects=0

ah yes, the enigmatic "question mark" post...a perennial fave

sorry, jk

Most days, In Through The Out Door is my favorite Zep record. I definitely prefer the last four to the first four, but it's not like the have a bad album.

I wish they'd release a follow-up to How The West Was Won that focuses on the later tours. There are some great boots from the mid to late 70s and I think Page really shortchanges their live legacy by ignoring it.

Ballot count stands at 12

Soon to be 13, gimme a sec.

sent via webmail, lmk if that works for ya

Got it, thx!

fascinating: http://www.last.fm/music/Led+Zeppelin/+tracks

don't think it's giving anything away to say some of my top 10 ain't even in the top 50

if you start at the bottom and move up, then you're lookin at a potential 20...thanks for the link, food for thought