For this week’s album of the week, I wanted to chose an album that was so iconic that everyone knows who it is no matter what song you play. It can be argued that the self titled debut album from Led Zeppelin (otherwise known to their faithful as Led Zeppelin 1) could be the album that kick started the hard rock and heavy metal genre. I know Sam Dunne explored this theory in many of his documentaries, but one thing that you can’t deny is that their fusion of rock and roll and the blues laid the ground work for what was to be known as hard rock. On the UK album charts, it peaked at number 6 while it peaked at 10 on the Billboard 200 selling 8 million copies (8X Platinum) with 10,025,000 world wide sales (this includes the US sales of 8 million). The legendary band that featured Jimmy Page (Guitars), John Paul Jones (Bass), Robert Plant (Vocals), and the late great John Bonham (Drums) released an album that has awards and accolades that include The Grammy Hall Of Fame and it made the definitive 200 list for the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. The album cover for the record is just as iconic as the music as it features the Hindenburg disaster picture of the crash in New Jersey.
Good Times Bad Times is one of the most amazing tracks that opens up this iconic record with their in your face approach matched by some amazing drumming from Bonzo. Bonzo was so innovative that drummers would immitate him for years especially since he was repeating a series of two sixteenth-note triplets on a single bass drum. It was so amazing for it’s time that Page once said, “The most stunning thing about the track, of course, is Bonzo’s amazing kick drum. It’s superhuman when you realize he was not playing with double kick. That’s one kick drum! That’s when people started understanding what he was all about.” Babe I’m Gonna Leave You is Led Zeppelin’s cover of the Anne Bredon penned track that originally featured Joan Baez singing. You Shook Me is the band’s blues tinged cover of the Muddy Waters classic. Dazed And Confused is a song that takes you on a musical journey of ecstasy and is one of a few tracks that features Page playing his guitar with a bow.
Your Time Is Gonna Come is the first track of side b that features Jimmy Page playing an out of tune 10 string steel fender guitar and it features John Paul Jones playing the organ in the beginning of the track. Robert Plant shows off his love for the blues in this track as he sings about a girl who is very unfaithful. Black Mountain Side is a very creative instrumental that featured Page creating his magic with his guitars. Communication Breakdown features a kick ass pounding guitar intro from Jimmy Page before the band explodes into full throttled rock and roll madness. I Can’t Quit You Baby is Led’s blues rock cover of the Otis Rush classic that was originally written by Willie Dixon. How Many More Times is the ninth and final track on this classic album and it’s an epic 8 and the half minute long song that is divided into sections that were held together by a bolero rhythm named after Beck’s Bolero by Jeff Beck. This is one of my favorite Led Zeppelin albums and a real asset to the history of Hard Rock. That is why I am giving this record five stars out of Five for a final grade.
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