Best Led Zeppelin Album?

Yeah, doesn't the book hint that someone, somewhere has a recording of LZ and Fairport jamming one night at the Roxy?

Presence
PG

IV, III & HOTH roughly on the same level

I
ITTOD

Coda and II at the bottom

Here's a Zep question I've never seen answered. Page could be sloppy live, but his albums are exceptionally precise ... except the solo on "Heartbreaker," which is a total mess. What's up with that? How can the guy who could pull off the solo on "Good Times, Bad Times" (again, first song first album!) be that messy, and why didn't he just do another take? Is it supposed to be a joke?

I disagree. Page is sloppy as eff throughout their discography. I mean, he's amazing and does some astoundingly intricate stuff, but he's certainly no perfectionist. Part of the charm.

And I would imagine that the eighth letter of the alphabet is a fairly concise explanation for much of his sloppiness.

I think the only Page misstep that I have trouble with is when the solo in 'Tangerine' starts to get a little sour towards the end.

Huh, I've never noticed anything remotely as egregious as the Heartbreaker solo.

It was never anything terribly egregious, but he was often fairly unpolished.

darin coming in w/some hot takes on the zep like woah

― Ma$e-en-scène (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, August 7, 2015 11:37 AM (42 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

next time I'll lie and pretend Presence is awesome. that's how things work around here, right?

dude i was just saying that's an interesting list, no biggie chill

but yes presence is awesome pls report to your local re-education camp

ha ha sorry...

reporting to re-education camp asap

Anyone else think Royal Orleans sounds like the Minutemen?

I thought that the first time I heard Royal Orleans, and stuck it on a mixtape of angular punk songs right away to amuse my young self.

I had no idea "All My Love" was about his son until a couple years ago and it doesn't matter -- the lyrics are generic love pap.

it's hard for me to come up with a zeppelin lyric I hold in much esteem, and it doesn't really matter, the words are mostly just vehicles for Plant's vocalizations

walking in the park just the other day doo do dooo

WHHHADYA...WHHHADYA THINK I SAW-AW?!

Yeah I can't hate a lyric like that, I mean it could have been a Fogelberg lyric too but when plant's singing it sounds incred

I think of Plant the way I think of Beefheart and Tom Waits (and probably many others): incredible singer, but sometimes I wish they'd shut up so I could better hear the awesome band.

Would pay good money for instrumental versions of Rain Dogs, Presence, etc. (The Trout Mask instrumentals on that Beefheart box set a few years ago was a revelation).

Yeah, doesn't the book hint that someone, somewhere has a recording of LZ and Fairport jamming one night at the Roxy?

― Josh in Chicago, Friday, August 7, 2015 1:44 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Joe Boyd mentioned this in the liner notes to House Full, going on to something to the effect that everyone was drunk and it was awful.

plant's commitment to hobbit core is a major secret charm of zeppelin

i'd rank the studio albums as follows

PHYSICAL GRAFFITI
IV
II
HOUSES OF THE HOLY
I
III
IN THROUGH THE OUT DOOR
PRESENCE

xpost

re people excluding III from their rankings unintentionally or is there some weird 'acoustic Zep is BULLSHIT!' backlash I'm unaware of?

― Off Pudding (Old Lunch)

HOTH
III
IV
PG
Presence
ITTOD

btw I've done this on his dedicated thread but solo Plant is responsible for some awesome, rewarding music -- the most consistently interesting boomer rocker imo. No embarrassing moments after "Sea of Love."

I forgot III. Amended ranking:

IV
Physical Graffiti (Disc 1)
II
I
III
Houses of the Holy (would be 2-3 spots higher if not for "The Crunge" and "D'yer Maker")
Physical Graffiti (Disc 2)
Presence
In Through the Out Door

THE SONG REMAAAAAAINS THE SAAAME SAIIIIM SAAAAYYYYMMM SAAAAIIYYMMMMM SAEEEEEMMM SAIIYYYEMMM SAIIIEEEEMEMM!! oooOOOOOoooOOOOoooOOOOOOOOoooo!

Physical Graffiti
IV
II
Houses Of The Holy
III
I
Presence
In Through The Out Door

IV
physical graffiti
houses of the holy
II
III
I
in through the out door
presence

love them all, probably most likely to listen to how the west was won if i listen to zeppelin nowadays

I don't even think Zep's lyrics are much worse than a ton of 70s bands, like Yes or Wishbone Ash or any buncha moustache farmers in flares

Led Zeppelin lyrics are not great, in keeping with the tradition of 90% of rock music.

love zep's lyrics in general, real nice mix of mysticism and wit

I can deal with pretty much everything, but the Mordor/Gollum line is kind of a problem in an otherwise fine song. Other than that, the lyrics are fine...

Also, I'm realizing on relistening that I must have played In Through The Out Door more than any of their other full albums as a kid. I was pretty surprised to find that I knew the whole thing by heart. That and Houses of the Holy are the only albums I'd ever played as albums. The rest I knew from the radio. Interesting thing about growing up during the radio era is that you often didn't actually buy the albums that were on the radio all the time...because they were on the radio all the time.

I don't pay attention to lyrics. Like, ever.

BTW, the 2007 expanded remaster of The Song Remains The Same is a revelation. Yes, "Dazed and Confused" is still boring. But the bonus tracks they added really do make it flow much better, and the sound is amazing. I listen to it almost as often as the studio albums.

I've long suspected that Page's guitar soloing is rooted in his hired gun studio background. Come in, go splat on a track, get out. I think I like the later Zeppelin albums more because I just like that sound for them more. Jimmy Page producer >>>> Jimmy Page guitarist.

In Through The Out Door was the first albums I ever bought - I suppose it's the only time I ever bought a *new* Zeppelin album. Have always wondered how they would have fared had Bonham lived and kept things from being just a mash of Firm riffs and The Principle of Moments spaciness. I suppose that isn't bad...

Have always wondered how they would have fared had Bonham lived and kept things from being just a mash of Firm riffs and The Principle of Moments spaciness.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKlu3A3BBgE

I'd probably go:

III
Physical Graffiti
I
IV
HOTH
II
Presence
ITTOD

IV
1
PG
Houses

The only things I feel certain about though are that ITTOD is my least favorite, that III or Physical Graffiti should be at the top, and that I like I more than II. Otherwise the order could shuffle a bit.

Houses was a record I listened to a lot when I was 13/14, learning to play the guitar, and developing my first crushes, and I have very strong memories of listening to the Rain Song a lot one summer on my walkman, thinking about my crush, and just kind of generally being into the feeling of having a crush.

The moment when you first learn how to play The Rain Song opening on a 12-string is pretty singular.

I've long suspected that Page's guitar soloing is rooted in his hired gun studio background. Come in, go splat on a track, get out. I think I like the later Zeppelin albums more because I just like that sound for them more. Jimmy Page producer >>>> Jimmy Page guitarist.

― Elvis Telecom, Saturday, August 8, 2015 1:35 AM (45 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Weren't most of the guitar overdubs on Presence done in one continuous session, with Page staying up all night fuelled by goodness knows what?

The moment when you first learn how to play The Rain Song opening on a 12-string is pretty singular.

― Elvis Telecom, Friday, August 7, 2015 9:23 PM (25 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Totally, I spent so much frustrated time trying to figure out how to get that opening strum on a six-string in standard tuning. "I don't get it, it just sounds like a G chord but it doesn't sound like my G chord!"

Weren't most of the guitar overdubs on Presence done in one continuous session, with Page staying up all night fuelled by goodness knows what?

Supposedly...

Page had simply stayed awake for two days straight to perform all of the guitar overdubs. As he later explained:

I just had to lay it down, more or less: first track... second track – you know, really fast working on that. And all the guitar overdubs on Presence were done in one night. But I didn't think I would be able to do it in one night, I thought I'd have to do it across maybe three different nights to get the individual sections. Everything sort of crystallised and you'll notice everything was just pouring out. I was very happy with the guitar playing on that whole album, you know as far as the maturity of playing goes.

--- In an interview he gave to Guitar World magazine in 1998, Page stated that he worked an average of 18 to 20 hours per day during the mixing period at Musicland Studios:

After the band finished recording all its parts, me and the engineer, Keith Harwood, just started mixing until we would fall asleep. Then whoever would wake up first would call the other and we'd go back in and continue to work until we passed out again.

BTW, the 2007 expanded remaster of The Song Remains The Same is a revelation. Yes, "Dazed and Confused" is still boring. But the bonus tracks they added really do make it flow much better, and the sound is amazing. I listen to it almost as often as the studio albums.

Agreed, though I don't even think Dazed is boring (Moby Dick is still unlistenable though). The version of Rain Song is sublime.

PG
III
HOTH
II
IV
I
Presence
ITTOD
.
.
.
.
.
.
Coda

also, when my friends and I were discovering Zep in our teens, the shittiness of the solo on Heartbreaker was a regular topic of discussion. I kind of like it now, though, after years of listening to other musicians fucking with the concept of "good" musicianship.

PG
I
HOTH
IV
III
II
Presence
ITTOD

I'd rank them as:

III
Houses of the Holy
IV
Physical Graffiti
I
II

Havent heard them:
Presence
In Through The Out Door

― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Friday, 7 August 2015 17:06 (3 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I'd agree with this - I have heard Presence and ITTOD and would put them both at the bottom.

Although really it's a case of three groupings - the first three are classic, the next three are great and the bottom two just good.

I tried listening to HOTH for the first time the other day and was trying to enjoy it but really I was just waiting for No Quarter to come on. That's the problem with discovering a band through a best-of compilation, the individual albums get dissipated, as in there are always 2-3 songs you know really well spread out between songs you've never heard. Also makes the chronology and the stylistic shifts therein sound less obvious.

I know exactly what you mean although Zep weren't like that for me - before I started working my way through the albums I knew maybe five of their songs, so it was interesting to find out which were the favourites/radio hits off each record coming at them that way.

I > II > IV > Houses > III > In Through the Out Door > Presence > PG > Coda