Best Led Zeppelin Album?

Guys the fourth record is not called "Zoso," come on.

I can only cluster them into groups, even the least of these is Godhead

1. III/Physical Graffiti/Presence

2. IV/Houses of the Holy

3. I/II/In Through The Out Door

I wonder if people who voted for one of the first two records fall into a different, less enthusiastic category of fans than boosters of III or Physical Graffiti? By that I mean the kind of late-adapter (I've done this w/ other bands) who by default is listening for what he's been led to expect — in this case purplish, OTT blues ripoffs...?

Which is not to say they didn't continue to do that over the years but the influences were subsumed into their own sound, e.g. "In My Time of Dying" is more representative of "Led Zeppelin" to me than "You Shook Me"...

I wonder if people who voted for one of the first two records fall into a different, less enthusiastic category of fans than boosters of III or Physical Graffiti? By that I mean the kind of late-adapter (I've done this w/ other bands) who by default is listening for what he's been led to expect — in this case purplish, OTT blues ripoffs...?

No

Ha but if you never listened to PG all the way through you are basically my case study

I voted for Physical Graffiti because I wanted to

The last time I was at Strictly Discs I found a used copy of the remastered In Through the Out Door and bought it. My least favorite clerk was like "Really? Out of all their albums?" I said "IT IS AWESOME." Just like that. He meekly replied "most people go for one of the others" and I raised myself to my full eight feet, unfurled my black leathery wings, and intoned ""I AM NOT MOST PEOPLE""

he got the hint i think

― Dimension 5ive, Thursday, April 12, 2007 5:52 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

d-damn...

I've been listening to them since I was 7 years old though! (xp)

Ok, but come on you are definitely in the "less enthusiastic fan" category for not even being able to stomach what many/most fans consider their magnum opus

Fair enough, I wouldn't particularly call myself a Led Zeppelin fan anyway

Only means you still have something left to live for.

Guys the fourth record is not called "Zoso," come on.

chill out, it's fun to call it that informally now and again.

I call it I-Vee

xpost...like i was kinda sleepy watching this Traveling Wilbury's documentary(!) on Sundance last week and realized I was unduly dismissive (MEAN, even) at the time when actually those songs are pretty good and I was listening for the wrong thing, and maybe I'll pick up that record now...

Or: I am old.

Runes

Hunchback With Bundle

That Which Cannot Be Named

Why does Bill Magill hate II so much?

Guys the fourth record is not called "Zoso," come on.

2. IV/Houses of the Holy

It's not called "IV" either.

isn't it untitled?

1. Physical Grafitti
2. Coda (complete box set vers)
3. III
4. II
5. Four
6. Houses of the Holy
7. Presence
8. In Through The Out Door
9. I
10. other records by other bands

True enough but "Zoso" is WAY OUTTA LINE...anyway it's not a word, it's a symbol representing Saturn... /end pre-pubescent pedantry

"Why does Bill Magill hate II so much?"

???????????????????? It's certainly not my favorite, but I don't know if "hate" describes my feelings for it.

I hate II with a passion rivalling my feelings for post-rehab Aerosmith.

― Bill Magill, Thursday, 12 April 2007 20:27 (1 year ago)

Nice work. I forgot I said that. I don't like it, I especially dislike the Lemon Song. Plus I have no use for Heartbreaker/LLM or Whole Lotta Love. I like What Is.. and Ramble On. That's about it.

I'm really not the biggest Zeppelin fan at all.

weird. i always saw II as more or less the blueprint for early-Sabbath. what could be more Bill than that?

I would have thought the same.

It never clicked with me. I don't know about II having much influence on Sabbath, I know they were gigging pretty hard by then and already had what they were going to put on wax, at least initally, pretty worked out. They were heavily influenced by a lot of the stuff on I.

II does kind of blow...Whole Lotta Love is pretty much summation of first album, and I do like What Is, Ramble On (dig that mellotron), I even like LLM & Heartbreaker: extending the quicksilver pop of Communication Breakdown, but just before it reached perfection on III with Immigrant Song and Out on the Tiles...still cmon...Lemon Song and Bring it on Home are as cumbersome and boring as anything on Daydream Nation, and Moby Dick is even worse...a terrible idea for an album track...II is definitely a classic example of the hastily patched-together follow-up album, but since Zep are pretty much Norse gods of teh rawk, it still rules at least 70% of the time...I'd prolley rank it just below Zoso/IV/untitled/stfu...

oh yeah Thank You kind of sucks...Planet Caravan shits upon it from the golden heavens...

Lemon Song and Bring it on Home are as cumbersome and boring as anything on Daydream Nation, and Moby Dick is even worse

don't really care what anyone says about DayDream Nation but COME ON!! The riffs in Mobdy Dick and Bring it are monstrous. the drums at the end of Moby DIck are tedious sure but I think the inclusion of that part was an attempt to recreate the Zeppelin live show on record (something that was not uncommon in 1969). "Bring It On Home" is like a lightning bolt explosion through an old jukejoint

i also love "Lemon Song" but I'm an ex-Page supernerd

the Lemon Song smokes. It's got some of the nicest John Paul Jones bass playing on record. I've always thought J.P.J. was the undercover magic in this band. This cut also has some choice Bonham playing as well - listen to his in-the-pocket syncopation off of Jones' giant bass riffs about a third of the way into the song...damn.

zeppelin ii is awesome. "bring it on home" and "heartbreaker" have two of their swaggeriest riffs

funny that this thread was started in april and is now revived in april, the same week i with no outside prompting whatsoever have been listening to houses of the holy and ii on the ipod. in springtime a man's fancy turns to zep?

anyway, i would've voted houses if i'd voted in this. what a set of songs, and the playing is so loose and good.

just coincidence, I didn't realise I started it a year ago.

Would've picked III, I think it's the only one of theirs where I enjoy every track. Picking a second place would be tricky though - HotH has six amazing songs and two throwaways, PG is a classic throw-it-all-in double-album, side one of IV suffers from radio/pub/rock club overkill but the second half is flawless.

I still haven't heard In Through The Out Door though. Or Coda or The Song Remains The Same...

ITTOD got completely gypped here...

Fool in the Rain! Carouselambra! Come on people.

disregard my last post...challopsy tripe...I'm sorry; I haven't listened to II in years...

I know there's backlash against "Stairway" for being the most played song in the history of ever, but there's no denying that it's just an astonishing piece of music.

― Jeff Treppel, Thursday, April 12, 2007 3:22 PM (3 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
yeah its coda is just completely fucking unbelievable & doesn't really get old

― Hans Rott

This.

Recently, I got admittedly worn copies of II and IV on the original plum Atlantic.

I sort of skimmed through II, wasn't struck.

IV does have the overplayed "Stairway", but I'd describe that album as 'pretty good after all"

.. but BOY was there ever a band who spawned so many imitators that did not share their influences...

I was talking with my dad last week and it got me thinking about how radio formats may radically influence perception/baggage around bands like Zeppelin, Pink Floyd etc. Basically my dad knew See Emily Play and Another Brick in the Wall (as they were the singles and played on radio), but was only dimly aware of the stuff in the middle - they may as well have broken up in 68 and reformed in 78. I'd never really grasped how big a deal bands like Floyd and Zeppelin not releasing singles in Britain was (although Zeppelin did release Immigrant Song/Hey Hey What Can I Do).

Not releasing singles meant opting out of an entire chunk of the industry - not being played on mainstream radio, not lip-synching on Top Of The Pops. In contrast, AOR stations meant that the average American listener was carpet-bombed with this stuff. When I started listening to Zeppelin, Floyd, Dazed and Confused soundtrack type stuff aged 18 (a decade ago), it was all genuinely fresh and exciting - there's no such thing as classic rock radio so I'd never heard any of it, and neither had most of my friends.

there's no such thing as classic rock radio so I'd never heard any of it, and neither had most of my friends

slowly, i began to understand wtf the britpress sees in Kings of Leon

what does "kings of leon" mean, anyway? it's a dumb name. dumb. then i read this on wiki:

Each member of the family group is known by his middle name (second given name) as opposed to his first given name

this band has a problem with dumb names and dumb name tricks.

sorry; i guess that's better said on a "kings of l(ol)eon" thread. this is a l(ol)ed zepplin thread.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41V0QZTGD3L.jpg

III or Grafitti. I hate II with a passion rivalling my feelings for post-rehab Aerosmith.
― Bill Magill, Thursday, April 12, 2007 3:27 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

WAIT A MINUTE WHUT

The aesthetics of the poll results please me

Presence was robbed.

there are lots of folks that genuinely hate Presence. I love it. "Achille's Last Stand" is definitely proto-metal

Don't get hating Presence at all. I can see not liking it as much as other LZ records, but if you like Zeppelin why would you deny yourself the majesty of Presence?

I think lots of folk tend to gravitate towards either early Zep or later Zep more, guessing most of the Presence haters are more early-Zep fans. Obviously that's oversimplifying a bit but I definitely started out as more of a late-Zep fiend before I developed more appreciation for blues-based rock. would still put Houses of the Holy up top.

"bring it on home" = best album closer