1971@40: LED ZEPPELIN/IV/FOURTH ALBUM/FOUR SYMBOLS/ZOSO/WHATEVER

I've already covered this one in my series on this band's records. That article is here. In that I go over how I came to hear the record and what it means to me personally. Also, I address the bullshit plagiarism courtcase over the guitar figure at the start of Stairway to Heaven. So, I won't be saying anything about them here beyond noting (as I couldn't at the time) that the case and later appeal were found in favour of Led Zeppelin and not the plaintiff (who was not the author of the piece in contention, anyway). So why Am I doing more than linking? Well, it goes somewhere towards completing the picture on the blog and as I noodle here there might be more to say.

I talk in the other article about how I came to discover Stairway to Heaven at my sister's prodding. The song that really hooked me, though, was the last one in the list. Track  4, side 2: When the Levee Breaks. From the apocalyptic drum opening to the final snarl of the electric 12 string this song still carries me along atop its thick and heavy current. Someone on a newsgroup a long time back said that whenever they heard this track they wanted to become this music. I know what that feels like. There is a new arrangement idea with every verse, a middle eight that arrives after a cinematic powerdown that then crashes into screaming life again with an impossibly high and powerful Robert plant vocal. Things panned left are then panned right. That Fender XII never sounds remotely like a '60s folk rock jangle, it's a mighty cloudbursting force. Slide that sounds both assured and diseased and the same goes for the harmonica playing. There is a full verse played before a note of it is sung and not a second of it feels too long. I was already aware of it but one night when my brother Stephen had the radio on in his room it came on and I heard it afresh and marvelled all over again.

This is the album that you can have and safely claim you know something of Led Zeppelin. Barnstorming rock, mystical ballads, poppy side steps, gentle acoustic numbers, eastern influenced riffs, the lot. It's also the one with a profile high enough even these decades after its fact that allows attacks from all sides by people who latch on to a popularly known artifact so they can appear wise about it. See also, Sergeant Pepper, Exile on Main Street, Dummy or Nevermind. That cultural placing alone can be offputting but then you really can just press play and smile as the warm up notes cluck to life just before Black Dog tears your ears off. This is joy.