Punk was something not even Zeppelin could have predicted or even withstood. Halfway through there’s a shot of adrenaline administered and they all pick it up, but just a bit. The intro riff sounds spirited, like early Damned, but then the track kicks in and is ponderous and over-produced, too many overdubs. Though fate prophetically points her finger to the new barbarians storming the rock citadel… Punk. Although I love the way Page generally mixed Plant’s vocals down into the mix, allowing the listener to investigate and get involved with the recording, to be able to work out, or even reinvent, what the lyric is. Ten long years of on the road decadence and way too much impersonal sex with teenage groupies had taken its toll. Sick Again: “Through the circus of the LA queens”. Bonham’s four-to-the-floor kick and twisted Beefheart break smashes this otherwise ordinary acoustic, country blues stomp. I love the way they leave that on, like a current hipster field recording. You can hear an airplane flying overhead.“Nah, leave it,” replies Page with a nonchalant chuckle. “Shall we roll it, Jimmy?” asks a young Eddie Kramer as they’re captured recording al fresco in Mick Jagger’s Stargroves garden in ‘72. It’s quite Bolan-esque really, but where it leads us is to the incredible Black Country Woman. This is Zeppelin at their solstice zenith, and maybe their most influential track, but it’s all down hill from here.īoogie With Stu is a lighthearted jam that evokes an image of the band on a day off in a New Orleans Bordello with the Stones’ Ian Stewart woogie-ing away at a 1920’s ragtime piano. Dirty, gravelly, soulful howls are exorcised from Plant, superb reversed guitars and a bridge that reminds me of Ace’s How Long, a great Lesley rotating speaker cabinet guitar overdub and a slick-wristed, psychedelic flowerpop solo. A killer beat, arc welded to a filthy riff. The Wanton Song is another anthem to female sexual promiscuity. These b-side ‘throw aways’ would be other bands’ lead tracks… staggering. Night Flight is another rescued outtake from ‘71 that, despite out of tune guitars, swaggers along like a maliciously strutting droog. It is prophetic, as nothing the band recorded subsequently would again match these heights. The struggle is beating them down, you can hear the weariness in the voice and beats, the end is near. Lost in the desert, wheels spinning in the sand. Our astronaut alchemists nearing the end of their quest, heroin-soaked, cocaine-addled. When I listen to Ten Years Gone now it’s still spellbinding. This really reminds me of waiting for school to finish during the long summer of ‘75. Although its genesis was acoustic and influenced by Neil Young, it comes over more whimsical-Faces/Stones-like: the middle eight changes gear and it kicks off with some real verve. Down By The Seaside, again a little light pop flavoured digression, is a little bit Beach Boys with Doo Wop backing vocals.
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