Led Zeppelin - Presence

Page on "For Your Life" is a nice mix of precision and absent-minded whammy bar-testing.

I always found the cover art on this one to be out of character -- it looks like a post punk record.

man I was nine years old on the floor of my babysitter's teenage son's bedroom going through his LPs to try and understand the music these grown-up boys listened to and just TRIPPING on the Presence sleeve. It would have been new or nearly brand new and it felt like it was something so weird and deep and impenetrable, I would look and look and look. At that one, and at Wish You Were Here. It is a weird fit for the sounds, but since IV they'd been going for a pretty mysterious vibe with Hipgnosis.

I like WmC's reduction, makes for a muscular listen, especially with Wearing and Tearing. Seems like mixing the best of Presence (achilles) with ITTOD (carouselambra) yields... Trans Am.

For all the chops and power of Achilles tho I'm going with Tea For One, cos of the aura.

For Your Life needs to be half as long and twice as fast.

^ i did this in audacity last night and it was fucking awesome

Haha, me too.

Canyuknowwhoaowitrollsanyureallyfeeelit? UH - OH OHH.....

You'll all be slowing down Achilles to half-speed to make it last the length of a 20 minute side next!

I think part of what makes Achilles so masterful is that it'd just be a boring, gradually deflating jam in the hands of almost any other band, but they're able to both sustain and control such a high level of intensity throughout the track, kicking it up just a little bit more and then bringing it back down when needed.

never feels like ten minutes either, more like five

'Achilles' is already a masterpiece, but imagine what it would have been if Plant had been at full fitness in the studio... fuck!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scz-omSoQb0

lol sounds like a shreds video

Nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh

'Achilles' is already a masterpiece, but imagine what it would have been if Plant had been at full fitness in the studio... fuck!

― Turrican, Wednesday, September 2, 2015 2:24 PM (10 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I dunno, his performances on Presence are easily my favorite in their oeuvre. The wandering whining and aimless pseudo-scatting are largely dispensed with, and his voice has a breadth in the upper register it didn't really have before.

Couldn't make it through that Tempe performance. Do they ever agree on where they are in the song? They should've stopped to ask directions.

yeah does plant have to stand up to sing well

Page on "For Your Life" is a nice mix of precision and absent-minded whammy bar-testing.

ITTOD and things like Knebworth give a glimpse of LZ had the band lasted longer and Page gone full '80s Strat.

i actually just bought a powered subwoofer for my stereo system recently, last night picked up the new Presence vinyl

man....today before work i just kept cranking the volume higher and higher on Achilles, just in awe of its power

page really knocked these remasters out of the park, just excellent

also just listened to 10 Ribs/Carrot Pod Pod, one of the few genuine "rarities" in this whole series but kinda neat I guess, funny for Zeppelin...almost feel like I'm listening to the basic track of a pretty good Wings song

So far very little from the outtakes/rarities on the new remasters has really grabbed me.

the one on LZ I that sounded like The Who was kinda good

I don't even know why they bothered really, I guess to make extra dough but I guess everyone who said there was really nothing there to bootleg was right, I mean "Travelling Riverside Blues" off the old box set is the only thing that felt like a proper new Zep song.

but as far as the vinyl quality and remaster etc, these are great

the one on LZ I that sounded like The Who was kinda good

Yeah, "La La" is probably my favorite of all the outtakes, but it's seriously slim pickings. Most of the rough mixes are barely discernible from the masters, and on ITTOD, the "alternate mixes" just sound like a 3rd-generation cassette dub of the LP.

Everything on the Coda set could've easily fit on two discs; nice of them to pointlessly spread it out to 3, and price it accordingly.

In a weird way I wasn't that upset about it because it made it easy to not even consider the deluxe editions and just get the regular reissues

You'll love the next wave of reissues, when they tag that Puff Daddy song at the end of Physical Graffiti.

Crap this is fun, here's my Presence/Out Door/Coda:

Fool In The Rain
Nobody's Fault But Mine
For Your Life
In The Evening
All My Love
South Bound Saurez
Achilles Last Stand
Wearing and Tearing

i couldn't tell any difference between "Two Ones are Won" and "Achilles," what's going on there?

Voted for Tea for One with Nobody's Fault a close close 2nd.

The vocal performance on Achilles always bothered me. I know Plant was recovering from injury at the time, but it's unfortunate that carried over into his takes.

never notice how crazily loud the bass guitar is mixed on "For Your Life", it's awesome

wtf is 'Saurez' anyway

a typo

Why on earth do I keep singing sections of Level 42's "Something About You" over "10 Ribs & All"?

...and "Carrot Pod" sounds like the jam of an early 80s SNL credits roll

...which is not to say I don't like this obsurity!

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

do you do you wannaaaaa

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Yup, could totally predict that top 2.

I was going to make a playlist of the winners for each album but it looks like we haven't done polls for I, II and IV. Or I just can't find them.

(kinda surprised Carouselambra didn't win for ITTOD)

If I had to pick one besides Achilles though, it'd be For Your Life, I love that groove in the middle ("Do you really really wanna?")

Why wasn't this well received when it came out? It's one of the most well produced rock records I've ever heard, and it's the most muscular thing they ever did. Over saturation after conquering the world in the first half of the '70s? I don't find Plant's vocals strained at all, despite his condition.

ccording to Dave Lewis, "The direct, hard-hitting nature of the seven recordings failed to connect with a fan base more accustomed to the diversity and experimental edge of their previous work.[ 21 ] Page later acknowledged that, because the album conveys a sense of urgency resulting from the troubled circumstances in which it was recorded, "it's not an easy album for a lot of people to access ... [ I ]t's not an easy album for a lot of people to listen to."[ 22 ]

However, despite its initially subdued reception, Lewis considers that Presence

has become a much underrated element of their catalogue. The basic drums-bass-guitars formula may lack the diversity of previous Zeppelin sets, but in terms of sheer energy, 'Presence' packs a considerable punch, and has emerged as one of their most potent performances... This album is also a triumph for Jimmy Page. His production and dominant guitar style has an urgency and passion that reflects the troubled period that the group were going through at the time. 'Presence' is Led Zeppelin with their backs against the wall.[ 3 ]

The way I see it, Plant and Bonham were the core of LZ, with Page and Jones adding color

I dont think this band works if you remove any of the four, they're all crucial

Why wasn't this well received when it came out? It's one of the most well produced rock records I've ever heard, and it's the most muscular thing they ever did. Over saturation after conquering the world in the first half of the '70s? I don't find Plant's vocals strained at all, despite his condition.

(everyone immediately disagrees on said third track)

Plant was always the weakest link in this band.

Οὖτις OTM, these are both insane positions imo:

The way I see it, Plant and Bonham were the core of LZ, with Page and Jones adding color

Plant was always the weakest link in this band.

Well, let's think about this...

Remove Bonham and you remove the excellent, hard-hitting rhythms.

Remove JPJ and you remove the excellent, often intricate bass work and superb keyboard and/or string arrangements.

Remove Page and you remove the riffs.

Remove Plant and you remove the guy that goes "oOoOoOoOoOo" and shrieks half-inched blues lyrics and stuff about Lord of the Rings over a superbly played backing track.

I mean, I wouldn't want to remove any one element from Zeppelin's music, but if I had to...

"Tea For One" is my favorite Zep closer.

I think this album has perhaps the weakest *songs* of any Zeppelin album (not that there aren't also flashes of genius, ie Achilles), but even when the songs aren't thrilling, the machine powering through it all, the band, is still a remarkable thing.

Did Turrican leave ILM? Also, I like Robert Plant a bunch, but I think his is at least a reasonable perspective.

"Nobody's Fault But Mine".

I'd never heard this album until a couple of days ago. I can't say I like it very much - despite the best efforts of JPJ and Bonham. "Achilles Last Stand" is good but it's really a bit too prog metal for my tastes - I find some of it really clunky. The rest of the album just isn't very memorable.

u mad bro
Achilles is like their best song

I'm mad? One person thinks "Royal Orleans" is better!

“tea for one” is dreamy and incredible

"Tea For One" and "Hots on For Nowhere" on two ends of their spectrum are marvelous; the latter is top ten Zep imo.

my favorite Zeppelin album

― flappy bird, Thursday, November 23, 2017 4:28 PM (two hours ago)

same, by a mile

― WilliamC, Thursday, November 23, 2017 7:18 PM (six years ago)

a hundred miles by now