1969@50: LED ZEPPELIN II - Revisited

A cough then BADAH BADAH DUH! The biggest riff in recorded history so far stutters and crunches. Then it's made even bigger with a bass the size of a skyscraper. Then the song lifts off with Plant's vocal screaming in bewilderment about his girl. We haven't heard a single snare hit yet and it's already spanning oceans. Then Bonzo slams another stuttering figure leading to the chorus which is augmented only by a slide with backwards reverb. Another verse with the full band and then the great weird chasm of cymbals, distorted theremin squeals and screams, distant wails and orgasmic uhs. Soon enough this forms from the primeval mist with some dinosaur thuds and a scratchy solo that seems to lose control of itself until the drums bring us into the last verse which breaks for a giant scream and an upward wail of looooooove before the riff returns with all hands on deck rising back to the clouds with its engines crunching and the of its voice screaming into the heavens.

I'm aware of the hyperbole in that description and how silly it might read today. The thing is that Led Zeppelin at their most fulfilled inspired and continued to inspire hyperbole as new younger listeners find their way to them. That's what I heard as a second generation fan: it was big and powerful and the obviously sexual tone of the mid section carried a special cache, once you got over playing it where adults could hear you listening (it was a headphone song). But that's the last you'll hear of that tone here. I've already written enough about this album here. What I'll do instead is pay mind to its context at the time of its release, what it meant to me and how it sounds now.

1969: release
LZ II sounds as vital and airier than the debut for two reasons: it was done at its own pace, not that of the self-funded budget of the first; it was done after the band had become a real live band. The rapidity of the band's success in the world's biggest market meant that they could pick and choose when and where to record and as they were the type of band to improvise new material on stage the great love feedback from their growing numbers of fans forged enough new songs to suggest a new album only months after the release of the first. Extra time and tight time plus a lot of affirmation from their public.

There was an increase in original material but the light-fingered practices of the first album were still in force. It's not hard to see where this comes from: the band had a massive stock of blues numbers to choose from and if the rest of them started up a groove in rehearsal or on stage the singer had better find something to do. Unfortunately, until the break that led to the third album Plant's invention was inferior to his ability to put something familiar over the new instrumental material. I deal with this further below. Otherwise, Songs like the What is and What Should Never Be, Thank You, Heartbreaker and Living Loving Maid demonstrate that a little more concern for detail in Whole Lotta Love or Lemon Song would have gone a long way.

1975: first listen
My acquaintance with this one began with the visit of my brother's entourage mentioned here. I was knocked over by the power of this album and listened to it daily over the break between grades eight and nine during a particularly wet monsoon in Townsville.

After that, after punk and the whole minimisation of rock into anti-rock the band and their legend were rendered the stuff of jokes, relics of their time like tie-dye flares or incense. I gave all my Zep records (including a few deep dish US import copies) to my brother who warned me that I was giving away a stock of good ideas. Then, years later in a different city, I picked up a copy I found at a Salvos and again thrilled at the force of it. I got the rest, as well, and then on CD when that happened and again more recently as his-res downloads of the remastered albums (which are so far the pinnacle of any presentation of the band, no contest). It's still good. It has problems but it's still good.

Plagiarism?
This issue plagues this band and with good reason. Whole Lotta Love's verse lyrics and melody are too close to Willie Dixon's You Need Love to ignore. Is it a rip-off? Take the vocal away and there's NO resemblance. But you need the vocal. They not only used it but allowed themselves to be credited for the song. See also the Lemon Song. They added a riff but the song is Willie Dixon's Killing Floor. Bring it on Home isn't just lifted from Howlin' Wolf the acoustic frame is sung in blackface. These have since been publicly attributed to the correct artists as shared credit but only after law suits or by settlements. It was wrong to publish without proper credit (and whether they did it or let it happen amounts to the same thing). They were found out and paid for it. But the other side of this is that once people start doing this they don't stop so in a very few steps you start getting absurd comparisons that are claimed to be plagiarism. The lesson of this is that no one should be too big to escape the charge, it is NOT tall poppyism: if you expect giants like Led Zeppelin to play it straight do so, yourself, and think before you accuse: there's a good reason why the Stairway to Heaven case found in favour of Led Zep and if you still don't know why after listening with honesty to the two guitar figures you are not qualified to make the call.

Today
I listened to this again yesterday evening and was again taken by the power and confidence of the record. It is a successful exercise in scale and texture variation. From the stadium-sized riff of the opening track to the understated slide guitar in the pre-chorus of Ramble On and much more this is the statement of a band spoiling to get bigger and better. That they did.