ILM GONNA CRAWL — Led Zeppelin poll RESULTS THREAD

I have to admit that I made my ballot before relistening to any of the albums. I went largely by memories and sentimental associations, especially when it came to the first three albums, which I listened to so much from ages 10-12.

After listening to all the albums (after the countdown/discussion started, ha), I feel like I'd rank more layered compositions like "Ten Years Gone", "In the Light", and "The Ocean" over some tracks on my list such as "The Lemon Song", "How Many More Times?", and "Out on the Tiles". Also, while I still rate "Stairway", I probably wouldn't place it at #1, especially with those goofy lyrics. I think "Achilles' Last Stand" is my current #1. (I ranked it at #2 on my ballot. Don't know what to tell you, clemenza, my friend!). I'd probably place "Ten Years Gone" in the top 5, maybe even at #2. "The Rain Song" would place higher as well. And I'd include "No Quarter". "The Crunge" is total horseshit though.

This confirmed that I don't care much at all for In Through the Out Door, aside from "All of My Love". I'd even take most of my least favourite earlier songs over most of ITTOD; it just sounds like a band I don't care about. I'd much rather listen to solo Plant, actually, if I want to hear him sing over synthy art-pop/rock.

Weirdly, it never really occurred to me that Plant's voice might be sped up or otherwise processed on "Song Remains the Same", although it seems obvious now. I'd just assumed that he had some vocal technique to sound like that! Generally, Page's skills as producer/arranger stand out most.

xp: I think that dizzying in medias res effect is caused by Page playing 3/4 over Bonham's march beat (2/4)

sund4r OTM

Thanks. You're OTM about the polymetre on "Kashmir" yourself!

I also appreciate "Friends" a whole lot more now. I didn't really get it in Gr 6.

wow i completely forgot about "thank you" until right now. i had to check which song it was.

would have considered voting for it--especially given the great version on bbc sessions.

Also, they were touring a lot in the interim. I want to say the only "break" the band took was when Plant's son died.

I was fixing to cite Plant's car accident in '75, but then I remembered that they used the aftermath to develop & record Presence.

Was reading a how to play like Bonham post online, and came across this gem: "Realize, too, that brute force is half the battle."

"Achilles Last Stand" - always kinda went in one ear and out the other, but i don't have a problem with it really.

In Through the Out Ear!

I also made my ballot before relistening to anything, so it turned out like the ballot I might have made when I was seventeen. Although I never would have picked "When the Levee Breaks" as my #1 back then, it probably would have been "Over the Hills and Far Away".

Total points sorted by album:

IV 5479
PG 5476
HOTH 4612
III 3837
I 3374
II 2487
ITTOD 1598
Presence 1576
Box set 555
Coda 273
BBC sessions 36

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-hFrD_JXEMvw/TZJLBqPcwLI/AAAAAAAAAcA/yRKB-xf9efI/s400/FINISH%2BLINE.jpg

ha, wow. Eight songs vs. 15 songs, though.

Random thoughts...

I like "Immigrant Song," but its power or whatever seems a tad overestimated herein.

I was really surprised by "The Rain Song" placing so high, but not at all upset by it.

I thought "No Quarter" was creepy when I was 13, but it seems a bit silly now. I don't dislike it, but top 10 material?!?

Songs I like OK, but mostly am tired of: Dancing Days, Misty Mountain Hop, Black Dog, RNR, Kashmir, Trampled Under Foot, Fool in the Rain, Gallows Pole.

Songs I always find a bit of a chore to get through and wish they were shorter: In My Time of Dying, Since I've Been Loving You.

"Whole Lotta Love" at 34?! You people just hate rock and roll, innit. Actually, I find the overall attitude toward LZ II a bit bewildering. That album is recorded wonderfully - the mix is awesome. "The Lemon Song" is a bit of a bore, but it still sounds great. "Living Loving Maid" is not as bad as you all make out - it's better than "Heartbreaker" with that extended solo.

"Wearing And Tearing" deserved better treatment from ILM.

yeah II is a pretty killer record, rehabbing III's reputation to the point of rating it over II is classic ILM overcorrection

One of the many ILM overcorrections in this whole process that made it somewhat annoying yet endearingly ILM

The in through the out door over correction is way more egregious than the iii over correction

I don't like II very much at all. It's not that it's a weak album, it's just a record by the heavy-blooz LZ, my least favorite aspect of the band.

"Rain Song" is killing me at No. 2. You guys.

The in through the out door over correction is way more egregious than the iii over correction

― little dog (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Saturday, August 27, 2011 10:33 AM (1 minute ago) Bookmark

in what sense? it was the lowest of the proper albums in the fav albums poll, and 2nd lowest in the points breakdown of the tracks poll, which seems consistent with its 'least among equals' rep in the band's catalog.

I don't like II very much at all. It's not that it's a weak album, it's just a record by the heavy-blooz LZ, my least favorite aspect of the band.

ME TOO, the same thing, except about I.

those first 2 albums are pretty diverse records that resist pigeonholing, if not as much as some of the later ones

I hate II - it's just so full-on, you know? It's like hearing a modern record that's been too heavily compressed.

yeah an album with "Thank You", "Ramble On", & "What Is & What Should Never Be" isn't a "heavy blooz" album. If anything, the band got less "poppy" after the first two albums. The "blooz" were always there.

Thank You apart, I feel bludgeoned by it

Let the meta begin!!

have been thinking about the job i worked in college where at least a couple nights a week i'd be in there w/ the classic rock station on late enough to here the Get The Led Out block, and that was when i really got into the LZ deep cuts and decided to get the box set and have all the albums (although i listened to the Zep set on another station in high school pretty consistently too). that was where i fell in love with "The Rain Song" and "Achilles," although i remember the beginning of "Ten Years Gone" always getting me hyped and thinking it was going somewhere and then the rest of the song never really felt like much of anything.

how can you hate led zep ii. mentalists!

First two are more clearly blues-rock, I guess, and then Zep goes art-rock and gets more interesting? Or I should say "interesting," because the first two are still good, and the things that make the later albums good - playing, production - are totally in place from note one.

My ballot was largely tossed off, and the order was atrocious. But pretty early on I decided that despite my love of synths, Mellotrons, hobbits and lollipops, I was going to vote for every HEAVY Zep song first -- and then the ballads acoustic things I liked. In high school I loved III and spent a lot of time with the second disc of Graffiti. But at the end of the day, those songs didn't feel like the reason Led Zeppelin became Led Zeppelin.

Zep I is awesome, but Zep II always feels like a sort of exhaustion of that initial burst of creativity. "Moby Dick" is the dead giveaway here, a horrible idea that suddenly made every big British rock band decide they needed their own 'drum solo' track (see: Rat Salad, The Mule)...my two favorite songs are the two that placed highest: What Is & Ramble On, and both have that sort of light-hearted, carefree, almost jazzy feel (maybe not so much on Ramble On) which became one of many facets of the band that set them apart from their heavy metal heirs...

Didn't Cream beat Zeppelin to the punch with a drum solo track, "Toad?" The fact that I can't hum the riff to "Toad," but can hum "Moby Dick," says it all.

Did "In-a-Gadda-da-Vida" predate "Moby Dick"?

Yes, it was released in 1968. II was released in Oct 1969.

Would add that I spent the hurricane dancing to the second disc of Physical Graffiti with my daughters -- and if there's one song I should've voted for and that absolutely should've placed it's "Night Flight." Great "meet me in the mornin'" chorus -- and damn if the "WHOAH MAMA WELL I THINK IT'S TIME I'M LEAVIN'" break isn't some kind of epic motherfucking throwdown.

touche xxp

Would add that I spent the hurricane dancing to the second disc of Physical Graffiti with my daughters -- and if there's one song I should've voted for and that absolutely should've placed it's "Night Flight." Great "meet me in the mornin'" chorus -- and damn if the "WHOAH MAMA WELL I THINK IT'S TIME I'M LEAVIN'" break isn't some kind of epic motherfucking throwdown.

― Naive Teen Idol, Sunday, August 28, 2011 7:45 AM (43 minutes ago)

I mentioned on the other thread that "Night Flight" would not have sounded out of place on Every Picture Tells A Story.

Otm

everyone feeling bad for "Night Flight" is proof that LZ is so great that we can't countdown like well over half their catalog without their being one big glaring omission people all regret

I've also mentioned the Cleveland '77 show upthread -- tho I hadn't heard it in probably 20 years (same for Physical Graffiti prob.), for my money it is the best thing I've heard by them: loud, dirty, phased-out and strung out, with an almost desert island tracklisting. Why they haven't released it (assuming they haven't) I do not understand.

But oh my god that performance of "Nobody's Fault But Mine." I just completely forgot how fucking ENORMOUS his voice sounds on that song -- the "Got s monkey on my back/Got a MUH-MUH-MUH-MUH-MONKEY ON MUH BACK! BACK! BACK! BACK!" couplet is just so huge and intense. It gives me chills.

That song always sounded especially proto-GnR to me for some reason.

(And, yeah, I always thought "Rod Stewart" when I heard "Night Flight" too.)

I was on vacation while the results rolled out, but I just read through all 1771 posts and I want to say THANK YOU to WmC.
These polls are just a lot of fun.

I should add one other story about the Agora Ballroom show...

I went to college out in the Cleveland area, so I actually knew a woman who went to that show. By the time I got to know her, it was in the late 90s -- she had been a teenager when that show happened and was still smokin'. So, I asked her what the show was like.

Me: What was it like?
Her: The minute after I got there, somebody said, "Here, take this" and gave me some pill. I don't remember anything after that.

Didn't Cream beat Zeppelin to the punch with a drum solo track, "Toad?" The fact that I can't hum the riff to "Toad," but can hum "Moby Dick," says it all.

― Josh in Chicago, Sunday, August 28, 2011 9:05 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark

I dunno, I don't see "Moby Dick" working in Scorsese's Casino nearly as well.

(also, I can hum both. I prefer "Toad" for it's garageyness, but don't like either of the solos much)

Thanks for the tip re: Cleveland 77 show. Is the sound quality generally sort of fair to poor for that one. The only boots online I could find sound like audience recordings, pretty poor...any recs for particular titles featuring that show would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

The one I have isn't amazing quality, but it's def. from a soundboard. I'm sure it's the same one you've heard -- it's just been copied a million times. Def. worth digging into.

OK, NTI. Thanks

I was on vacation while the results rolled out, but I just read through all 1771 posts and I want to say THANK YOU to WmC.
These polls are just a lot of fun.

― ArchCarrier, Monday, August 29, 2011 2:16 PM (1 hour ago)

Thank you! They are a huge amt of fun, and all credit goes to the enthusiasm and participation of the voters.

I just read through all 1771 posts

I'm guessing you're okay with all those long "Moby Dick" drum solos?

Look for a boot called The Supreme Destroyers. Best version of that Cleveland show I've found.

Thanks, EZ!