FEATURE:
Childhood Treasures: Albums That Impacted Me
Led Zeppelin – Led Zeppelin II
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THERE are not many parts left…
PHOTO CREDIT: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
of this feature but, before wrapping up, I want to highlight a few more important albums I heard as a child. There was quite a bit of Led Zeppelin in the family vinyl drawer when I was young. I remember Physical Graffiti was in there (and still is!). One album that I gravitated towards was Led Zeppelin II. Released in October 1969, I might have first heard it at the end of the 1980s – when I was five or six. I bonded more with it in the years after. Although songs like Whole Lotta Love are synonymous, I think it was actually Living Loving Maid (She's Just a Woman) that I loved the most. It may still be my favourite song from the album. A tremendous album with so many highlights – including What Is and What Should Never Be and Ramble On -, it still sounds so raw and terrific today! Led Zeppelin II introduced me to the iconic band. I had heard a bit of Hard Rock to that point (when I was very young), but it was mostly Pop that was part of my regular rotation. Accessible yet hard-driving, Led Zeppelin II definitely opened my eyes to new sounds. Before finishing up, there are a couple of reviews that I want to mention. Quite a few of Led Zeppelin’s albums have received huge acclaim and are regarded as classics. That is certainly true of their second studio album.
This is what AllMusic observed in their positive review of Led Zeppelin II:
“Recorded quickly during Led Zeppelin's first American tours, Led Zeppelin II provided the blueprint for all the heavy metal bands that followed it. Since the group could only enter the studio for brief amounts of time, most of the songs that compose II are reworked blues and rock & roll standards that the band was performing on-stage at the time. Not only did the short amount of time result in a lack of original material, it made the sound more direct. Jimmy Page still provided layers of guitar overdubs, but the overall sound of the album is heavy and hard, brutal and direct. "Whole Lotta Love," "The Lemon Song," and "Bring It on Home" are all based on classic blues songs -- only, the riffs are simpler and louder and each song has an extended section for instrumental solos. Of the remaining six songs, two sport light acoustic touches ("Thank You," "Ramble On"), but the other four are straight-ahead heavy rock that follows the formula of the revamped blues songs. While Led Zeppelin II doesn't have the eclecticism of the group's debut, it's arguably more influential. After all, nearly every one of the hundreds of Zeppelin imitators used this record, with its lack of dynamics and its pummeling riffs, as a blueprint”.
Definitely one of the most popular and incredible Hard Rock albums of the 1960s, it is difficult to define and limit Led Zeppelin II. Blue-Rock and Heavy Metal, the second album arrived in the same year as their debut. Led Zeppelin II cemented their sound and took the band to new heights. It was a big step forward in a small amount of time! If you have a band with John Bonham, Robert Plant, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones in it, you can be guaranteed of musical brilliance! Each band member delivers genius on every song. Although I love Plant’s vocals, Page’s guitar wonder and Jones’ bass command, it is the percussion of John Bonham that hooked me as a child. Hearing his solo and tireless pounding on Moby Dick was a revelatory moment! Prior to wrapping up, I want to source this review from Rolling Stone. Published in December 1969, it is obvious the effect Led Zeppelin II has on some people:
“Hey, man, I take it all back! This is one fucking heavyweight of the album! OK — I’ll concede that until you’ve listened to the album eight hundred times, as I have, it seems as if it’s just one especially heavy song extended over the space of two whole sides. But, hey! you’ve got to admit that the Zeppelin has their distinctive and enchanting formula down stone-cold, man. Like you get the impression they could do it in their sleep.
And who can deny that Jimmy Page is the absolute number-one heaviest white blues guitarist between 5’4″ and 5’8″ in the world?? Shit, man, on this album he further demonstrates that he could absolutely fucking shut down any whitebluesman alive, and with one fucking hand tied behind his back too.
“Whole Lotta Love,” which opens the album, has to be the heaviest thing I’ve run across (or, more accurately, that’s run across me) since “Parchmant Farm” on Vincebus Eruptum. Like I listened to the break (Jimmy wrenching some simply indescribable sounds out of his axe while your stereo goes ape-shit) on some heavy Vietnamese weed and very nearly had my mind blown.
Hey, I know what you’re thinking. “That’s not very objective.” But dig: I also listened to it on mescaline, some old Romilar, novocain, and ground up Fusion, and it was just as mind-boggling as before. I must admit I haven’t listened to it straight yet — I don’t think a group this heavy is best enjoyed that way.
Anyhow . . . Robert Plant, who is rumored to sing some notes on this record that only dogs can hear, demonstrates his heaviness on “The Lemon Song.” When he yells “Shake me ’til the juice runs down my leg,” you can’t help but flash on the fact that the lemon is a cleverly-disguised phallic metaphor. Cunning Rob, sticking all this eroticism in between the lines just like his blues-beltin’ ancestors! And then (then) there’s “Moby Dick,” which will be for John Bonham what “Toad” has been for Baker. John demonstrates on this track that had he half a mind he could shut down Baker even without sticks, as most of his intriguing solo is done with bare hands.
The album ends with a far-out blues number called “Bring It On Home,” during which Rob contributes some very convincing moaning and harp-playing, and sings “Wadge da train roll down da track.” Who said that white men couldn’t sing blues? I mean, like, who?”.
A hugely important album from my childhood, Led Zeppelin II remains very dear and influential. I can put on the album and hear new things in songs I have heard countless times. That is the power and genius of Led Zeppelin. I would urge anyone who has not listened to the album in a while to spin it now. Although I discovered a lot of great albums in the family home when I was a child, Led Zeppelin II is a very special one…
FROM the vinyl cupboard.