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Sugar Mama first listen


woz70

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I like the track a lot - but with a lot of these treasures unearthed (Jennings Farm Blues, etc) I find that after a few "that's really interesting" listens these quickly make their way out of rotation for the more familiar tracks. I think more live material would have pleased a lot more of us. - But it's not about us - it's about Page/Zeppelin and That's The Only Way To Fly!

I thought Jennings Farm Blues was/is outstanding. I have the 4 or 5 takes that are extended from the first bootleg I ever got - really great quality, and it still regularly gets a run through. Just hearing JB's voice at the very start while JP noodles some notes. Freakin outstanding. I think that should actually have been incorporated into the official release. A cracking good beat.

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Listened to it on Spotify for the first time.Definitely a work in progress although i feel if it was finished it wouldn't be anything earth shattering.In fact if it wasn't Zep I wouldn't have bothered.Sorry guys,just my humble opinion.

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I think the song works well as it is. I like the short and succint songs like communication breakdown, living loving maid and immigrant song etc. They are great rocking songs in a catalogue with more complex longer songs. My first thoughts were like others, youth....youthful energy and ya can imagine those stories of were they said, they knew the band was gonna be good when they started jamming. Also esthetically i thought yardbirds, early jimmy page, she just satisfies sorta vibe. Its super catchy, was stuck in my head so much the other day i had to put on news radio.

Yesterday i heard a segment on talk radio about comedy. They said, all children are funny, but most kids lose that going into adulthood. Comedians keep that funny state going and make it into a creative thing, an artform. It immediately made me think of this song, being i just been listenin to it. Zep's sense of fun is there in that song and they kept that going all the way to their last record. In fact the sense of fun, youthful energy, maybe being the source for some moments musically, even in more serious and heavy stuff, in regards to the creative process, them jamming and working on music.

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^^ Agree The Old Hermit, It does sound quite different. I like it and this is hard for me to say, but not in love with it. Maybe it will grow on me and sound better on a good sound system. :peace:

I am also hoping (if he wants to ) that JPJ does a few interviews with the Presence and ITTOD releases :smiley_pray:

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^^ Agree The Old Hermit, It does sound quite different. I like it and this is hard for me to say, but not in love with it. Maybe it will grow on me and sound better on a good sound system. :peace:

I am also hoping (if he wants to ) that JPJ does a few interviews with the Presence and ITTOD releases :smiley_pray:

...and maybe answer a few questions about TCV next release?!? :smiley_pray:;)
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This song is making me think about some of the page,plant songs and drone type music...songs like city dont cry and yallah where there are no guitar solos, no bridges. I like that stuff alot and it would be so great to hear just page and plant demos of most high and shining in the light without any drums, no bridges, just 2 minute versions, with the essence of the songs like that. I sorta thought some of the companion zep discs might have material like that, especially on physical grafitti. When songs are stripped down to the basic framework its hypnotic.

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  • 3 months later...

Since I didn't see this thread while it was talked about in the pre release times, I'll comment on it now. Sugar Mama is in my top 10 favorite songs throughout these companion discs! I was really hoping for a track from the Led Zeppelin I sessions and I got it!! I really like every song off that album including all the songs from the era that didn't make the album! I think Sugar Mama would have been an awesome addition to the debut back in 1969 at the beginning of side 2 before Your Time Is Gonna Come IMO! But that is already the longest Zeppelin album besides Physical Graffiti of course, though Presence is right there with it. 6 songs on side 2 would have been awesome though! I really like this short rocker though! It really puts me in a good mood. I didn't like it as much on my 1st listen as I do now, but after tons of listens it has really grown on me! Definitely a 9/10 from me, maybe even a 10/10 someday!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Now that I have finally cracked open my "Coda" box, I can honestly say this is the least interesting song on the Coda companion discs. There's a reason it was left off of I, II, and even the original release of Coda. The song goes nowhere...it's generic blues boogie.

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Now that I have finally cracked open my "Coda" box, I can honestly say this is the least interesting song on the Coda companion discs. There's a reason it was left off of I, II, and even the original release of Coda. The song goes nowhere...it's generic blues boogie.

While its a great peak in the box as to what else they were working on at the time, I don't think it stands up to the other monster tracks they put on the OG album. Don't get me wrong, as I'm very glad to have it!

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Now that I have finally cracked open my "Coda" box, I can honestly say this is the least interesting song on the Coda companion discs. There's a reason it was left off of I, II, and even the original release of Coda. The song goes nowhere...it's generic blues boogie.

I have to respectfully disagree with your assessment of 'Sugar Mama' there, Strider good sir, I think it's a riotously great bit of blues-boogie riffing that is catchy, memorable, and above all, FUN, although I wholeheartedly agree that Jimmy was right to drop it from the first album.  But I do think Jimmy was dead wrong to leave it off Coda  in 1982, dead wrong, Jimmy himself said recently that album was "an attempt to make something out of very little or nothing", yet he inexplicably left off two rare and great studio tracks readily available to him at the time - the aforementioned 'Sugar Mama' (which was even remixed specifically for that album) and the sublime 'Hey, Hey, What Can I Do' - in favour of two lesser live tracks overdubbed long after the fact and erroneously passed off as studio recordings - 'We're Gonna Groove' and 'I Can't Quit You Baby' - thereby making the final released Coda  less than essential in the process, in my opinion.  If the two former tracks had been included over the two latter tracks, Coda  would have automatically become an essential purchase, no question, and a more fitting end to the Zeppelin recording saga... even more so with the inclusion in 1993 of both 'Baby Come On Home' and 'Travelling Riverside Blues'.

A different cover would have helped too, that horrible Coda  sleeve does the album and band no favours whatsoever, although the recent black/grey negative cover for the remastered Coda  is actually quite nice; spartan but also dignified, and a much better-looking cover than the vomit-coloured 1982 release.

Just my own humble opinion, of course... and I'll always defer to anyone who was lucky enough to see the Zep live in their prime, you lucky devil you!

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I have to respectfully disagree with your assessment of 'Sugar Mama' there, Strider good sir, I think it's a riotously great bit of blues-boogie riffing that is catchy, memorable, and above all, FUN, although I wholeheartedly agree that Jimmy was right to drop it from the first album.  But I do think Jimmy was dead wrong to leave it off Coda  in 1982, dead wrong, Jimmy himself said recently that album was "an attempt to make something out of very little or nothing", yet he inexplicably left off two rare and great studio tracks readily available to him at the time - the aforementioned 'Sugar Mama' (which was even remixed specifically for that album) and the sublime 'Hey, Hey, What Can I Do' - in favour of two lesser live tracks overdubbed long after the fact and erroneously passed off as studio recordings - 'We're Gonna Groove' and 'I Can't Quit You Baby' - thereby making the final released Coda  less than essential in the process, in my opinion.  If the two former tracks had been included over the two latter tracks, Coda  would have automatically become an essential purchase, no question, and a more fitting end to the Zeppelin recording saga... even more so with the inclusion in 1993 of both 'Baby Come On Home' and 'Travelling Riverside Blues'.

A different cover would have helped too, that horrible Coda  sleeve does the album and band no favours whatsoever, although the recent black/grey negative cover for the remastered Coda  is actually quite nice; spartan but also dignified, and a much better-looking cover than the vomit-coloured 1982 release.

Just my own humble opinion, of course... and I'll always defer to anyone who was lucky enough to see the Zep live in their prime, you lucky devil you!

Good points.

Frankly, I find the song to be inconsequential in the Zeppelin catalogue, and the lyrics are definitely very rudimentary, but at this stage of the game I am not about to look the gift horse in the mouth. Any truly new material, 35 years after the band's demise, is welcomed in my books. We live in times where everything is so accessible, but I try to imagine receiving this track back in the early 1980's, when any morsel from the band would have been devoured with enthusiasm. I like the tune, for what it is, and it really harkens back to The Yardbirds, with a Little Games, Happenings Ten Years Time Ago type feel to it.

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Led Zeppelin's version of "Sugar Mama" is a good song to boogie and chill out to, but it does seem to be one of those songs that you listen to in the background and then quite quickly, forget about! It has the same quality as songs such as "We're Gonna Groove". Also, being a Blues enthusiast, I have heard better versions of this particular tune such as the two versions recorded by Tampa Red and the version by John Lee Hooker.

But it was the swamp blues version by Lightnin' Slim (called "Sugar Plum") that really wowed me for some reason and remains my favourite version of this song even today!

 

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  • 4 weeks later...

I'm with the non-believers and skeptics about Sugar Mama. It's a throwaway track; some good moments cos it *is* Zep after all. But the actual mix is a disaster because the vocals are waaaaaaay too high in the mix. Should've been dropped 8-10dB at least. Shame, cos it ruins the track for these ears. Anyway...

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