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40 Years Old: Houses of the Holy


pujols05

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HOTH is the best single Zeppelin album, neck and neck with the PG double album masterpiece. Page was at his peak on TSRTS and The Rain Song, OTHAFA, The Ocean, and the brilliant Page/Jones' No Quarter. Talk about atmosphere!

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  • 3 weeks later...

I much prefer live versions of TSRTS (actually, that's true for just about every Zepp song for me!), but I don't dislike the studio version.

Wow, it is the exact opposite for me. I can't stand their live recordings. I have only enjoyed Celebration because the sound quality is exceptional.

Houses is a great album and TSRTS is Page at his best. I'm so fond of it that I consider it one of their top three (alongside Achilles and Kashmir) in spite of being sung by one of the members of "Anvil And The Chipmunks". Plant's voice sounds MUCH better in live versions (it was sped up for the original), but no live version can match the instrumental roller coaster of the original.

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HOTH was the best Zeppelin experience I had as a fan. I became obsessed with it at the beginning of 1977's summer right about the time I became obsessed with girls and other things that went along with summer. Going to the rock quarry to swim and party with it blaring from a parked car with windows down and trunk open. To this day it reminds me of that summer every time I hear it.

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The production on this album is just slightly off and that has always bothered me as I can't definitively say why. However, to my ears at least, Plant's voice sounds too high pitched on TSRTS and on The Ocean - almost as if it has been processed in some way (sped up or with a vocal effect?) and overall in general the record sounds too "bright"

Other than The Rain Song and No Quarter; which I think they nailed in the studio and live, the live versions of other HOTH tracks sound much more dynamic and visceral than their HOTM studio counterparts: OTHAFA and Dancing Days from HTWWW and The Madison Square Garden version of The Ocean (from DVD) for example, and to me they surpass the studio versions.

So yeah, it has some of their best songs (Rain Song & No Quarter) two of my least favourite (D'yer M'aker & The Crunge) great album art, aforementioned "weird" production and yet despite that (or perhaps because of) it does have a sound and a certain charm all of its own that is unique in the Zeppelin oeuvre, but, perhaps... it has too much light and not enough shade....(for me at least)

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but, perhaps... it has too much light and not enough shade....(for me at least)

Interesting way of putting it. Sounds about right, really. Not that I mind.

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My favorites off HOTH would have to be No Quarter (this is also my husband's favorite Zep tune), The Rain Song, and Over the Hills and Far Away. HOTH and LZIV are the first Zeppelin albums I ever purchased. Went straight from that to the bbc session, then the remasters, and finally the box set. About wore out my VHS copy of TSRTS; probably watched it over a dozen times in college just to stare at Mr. Plant! Those were the days...:)

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  • 2 weeks later...

Houses of the Holy is my favorite Led Zeppelin by far. It brings back happy memories of my 13th summer. My first crush. Two weeks at a lakeside nature camp. "Over the Hills and Far Away" and "D'yer Maker" playing on the radio. Good times!

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It was 40 years ago today....perhaps Zeppelin's most overlooked album, for me Houses of the Holy has a laid-back, confident, groovy feel that has only gotten better with age. Indispensable in every way.

What is your favorite track on the album? I might just have to go with "The Rain Song", but it's a hard choice.

dude how is it overlooked? 11 million copies have been sold in the US!!! if you want overlooked, then go to Presence or maybe even In Through the Out Door idk

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  • 2 weeks later...

Just can't get to like TSRTS somehow, no matter how much I try.

I would have agreed with you for years about this. The spng never moved me, both the studio track & the live title track from the sound track. THEN I saw Page & Plant in Philly in April 1994. When they played that with Jimmy on the double neck I totally fell in love with that song! It gave me new appreciation for this song. Now almost 20 years since that show I still love it. But hands down, my favorite track is, you guessed it.... The Rain Song.

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  • 10 months later...

I cannot explain this very well , but the production on HOTH felt very different to any of the the other albums, and I do know the albums have their own "feel".

Maybe it was my "hi-Fi" of the time, but it did go for a very different sound from the first four albums.

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The best way to listen to HOTH is on vinyl. Much more dynamic and three-dimensional.

I agree, especially stuff like, the song remains the same and no quarter. Young fans who haven't heard this album on vinyl, should find a friend or someone in their family with a turntable and listen to this record. The first issued cds had issues, stuff pointed out on websites, like Hoffmann, that have been re posted on this site...which I heard but couldn't explain. Same with some of the first remasters, like tsrts having a clearer bass guitar...but it took away from the original metallic chime the riff had on vinyl record.

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It's remarkable that 40 years later, I much prefer listening to this music to the music of 'today'. It's hard to pick a favorite from HOTH but will go with The Rain Song, one of the most beautiful songs ever made!!

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