First Led Zeppelin Stories

[MadScreamingGallery]

I love this type of tone that teachers take when they pretend to know about something in this manner.

classic.

Yes! Those teachers who try to hang onto that "voice of authority" even when they don't know what the heck is going on. They look especially foolish in front of the students who do know what is going on.

I miss the old psychedelic-mushroom days.

I know what you mean by 'stoners.' Yeah they were always at the back of the class rolling their joints, taking Qualudes (I forgot the spelling) walking around like red-eyed zombies in bell-bottom jeans.

I know why the kids were laughing. The teachers were so ignorant about the drugs kids took at that time. You could pop an ampethamine tab in front of the teachers, and they thought it was cough medicine.

Yeah I remember.

Yep! The teachers totally missed what was going on right in front of their faces. The "old psychedelic-mushroom days" - good times.

[ludwig]

My uncle used to make me compilation tapes of old vintage rock stuff. (I'm not of the generation who got to see them live!!!) Anyway, the frst Zep track I heard was Whole Lotta Love. Funnilly enough, I didn't think too much of it at the time, but as I listened to the mix tape over and over it slowly seeped into my consciousness. I then realised it was something quite different. At the time my musical diet was Cream, a bit early of early queen. I hadn't got into other stuff like Hendrix and the like. Anyway, one day I was staying with my uncle and he was helping m trawl through his extensive library of original vinyl, and I remembered Whole Lotta Love. So he suggested we put on Zep 4...

The rest as they say is history. It is one of the strongest starts to an album you are likely to hear. It had me completely mesemerized as I heard the panning on all the instruments on my uncles well separated large speaker system. I think I was half cut at the time, but for the life of me couldn't work out how the hell JP got his hands round that opneing riff on BD. My mind boggled. It's funny though, I actually rate Physical Graffiti higher than 4, but maybe it's coz I've heard the tracks on 4 so much. When you think about it, BD followed by R&R is some start. Custard Pie, and the Rover is another huge start to an album, but is it better? Probably not...

After I got my dirty maulers on 4, I really got into Zep, but a huge influence on me was Dave Lewis' "A Celebration" book. That really is a fantastic "bible" and would recommend it to anyone.

I would have thought Dave def reads this site. Dave, how about a reissue of Celebration, but fill it out a bit more with some more detail of key live shows and such (if that's possible!!!).

[led_head]

I was going into my second year of university and had just moved into a house with 5 other guys. We all had different tastes in music, most of them listened to classic rock, but I was still listening to grunge seeing as I grew up in the 90's.

Our first night in the house we were sitting around drinking and someone suggested that we roll a joint and another guy suggested we roll a "zeppelin" which I learned at the time was a joint mixed with weed and hash.

Seemed just appropiate to someone that we listened some led zeppelin so someone went upstairs and got their copy of the BBC Sessions and I was blown away. That was 5 years ago and I have hardly listened to another band since.

[JasonTH79]

My dad was a big Zeppelin fan (saw them a few times @ Madison Square Garden) and he used to play Houses of the Holy to me and my sister a lot when we were young. "The Crunge" was my first favorite Zep song.

[guitarmy]

My dad was a big Zeppelin fan (saw them a few times @ Madison Square Garden) and he used to play Houses of the Holy to me and my sister a lot when we were young. "The Crunge" was my first favorite Zep song.

is your sister's name zoey?

anybody get the joke? (besides steve )

[3hrsoflunacy]

It was 1979, and I was into AC/DC and my best friend's bro had a bunch of Zep (vinyl) and I heard The Lemon Song for the 1st time. That song got me into Zep, because I was into playing the bass, and JPJ blew me away.

[BUK]

It's a re-tread, but appropriate,

My earliest memories of music go back to when I was 3 years old when my Dad would put me up on the bar at the local “Gin Mill” as he used to call it, and I would dance to “Summertime, summertime, sum-sum-summertime” by The Jamies (I love the internet, you can find out just about anything! As if I would have remembered who wrote this song and what year it was, sheesh!) Next was “The Twist” which every kid and his hula-hoop was required to do. It wasn’t until 1964-5 or so that I got to listen to my own selection of music. I was given a hand-held AM transistor radio and WABC was in it’s heyday. “Help Me Rhonda” was my first favorite song that I can remember. Love those Beach Boys harmonies. Hang with me here I do have a point to all this.

From 65 ‘til about 68 pop music and AM radio really exploded. You had all this old pop music, mixed with 50’s rock’n’roll, mixed with sappy love songs, mixed with the Motown greats Otis Redding, mixed with visionary stuff like Hendrix and Sgt. Peppers era Beatles. We had our proto-MTV shows on TV: Hullabaloo, and Where the Action Is. Very Austin powers-ish, only for real. “Where” was hosted by Paul Revere and the Raiders. All the chicks dug Mark Lindsay. He had to be 25-26 in 67 (we were 12) and a rumor got out that he slept with girls. The Raiders had snuck into that pop radio scene a song called “Good Things’ that had a breathy part that sounded like sex and everyone knew it. I just listened to a clip of it at CD now. Like the Beach Boys harmonies with a sexy singer. I was 12 at the time and lost all respect for him. I swear life as that innocent once. At the same time that this poppy music scene was growing there was the rough underbelly of artists who were doing some revolutionary stuff. The older kids on my block had a garage band and would have their regular Friday night shows in the garage, duh. We would watch from the fence across the street cause my mom wouldn’t let us hang with the older kids. I was 12 or 13 and prime geek material. This band was awesome! Their music was new and powerful. It wasn’t til a year later that FM radio was invented that I realized that the music these guys were playing were the Hendrix, Cream, MC5 tracks that never made AM radio, not their own music!

Being a Catholic school kid, in the late 60’s all the Nuns were trying to do that “reach out to the kids” thing where they’d get us to bring in albums and analyze the lyrics to interpret the artists meaning. I hated that shit, and was turned off to meaningful lyrics for many years, yet look at me now, I’m compelled to decipher meaning in my favorite music today. Be careful, what you hate then, you now become. Actually the tools of analysis have been very helpful in my search for justifying my opinions, however worthless a pastime it mostly is.

By spring ’69 a girl names Kathy Stark, brought in an album called Led Zeppelin. We all hiked on her ‘cause we thought it was a rip off of Iron Butterfly. Y'know "heavy"/"light"...wow what a concept! By Fall of ’69 Zep had released Zep II and the edited version of Whole Lotta Love was on the air. The Zep oozed sex and power. I bought the album for my sister for Christmas, my dad had just bought “a stereo” (I thought it sounded like “restaurant” music, cause that was the only place I had ever heard sound that permeated a room; ie. more than one speaker), and I decided to give the album a spin, with the headphones after everyone had gone to bed. Needless to say, my sister got no present that year, and I have been a Zep-aholic from then on. I have taken music very seriously since then. Even to very silly extremes. I had a fistfight with a guy once because he slagged Zeppelin. I’ve broken up with girls because of their lack of musical taste. And believe me I could not afford to be picky. I have wasted much precious time, even as I do now, pondering the nature of music. And if you’ve been so inclined to read thus far, welcome to my nightmare.

Back in the eighties, I used to play Zep for an old Jewish butcher, Joe Brody, that I bought a store from. He was a big fan of Bucky Pizzarelli, an old jazz guitarist, mostly pre-distortion. He pointed out all the Big-Band, Swing influences found within the Zep sound. I thought he was full of crap, until I realized that half the Zep live show was hyped up Benny Goodman horn licks, twisted through the blues.

Along the way, Punk, Disco, Prog-Rock, Classic-Rock and a million other hyphenated genres labels have blown up. Each phase seems to invigorate some writers mind and a new wave of marketing begins.

I used to muse as a kid, “wouldn’t it be cool if we could hear “our music” playing all over the world”. Now it is, and my Zep is a Cadoo-Commercial! Another fortress of innocence overrun!

[madison]

Pray do tell...please...please. Why? Is the story too raunchy? Were you lumberin-n-sluttin?

Sorry, I'm just catching up with old posts. I can only do a few at a time. I noticed that I was beginning to be a Led-Zeppelin-Website-Junkie.

Now I have to go to a Led-Zeppelin-Website-Junkie Anonymous.

Michelle,

no,,,no,,,no only a member of any sluttin group in virtual world

here's the post updated...jeeze i was 12 (of course we ... my best friend and I thought we looked and acted 16)...but no way...we did see a lot of older girls though including the dark haired girl whom i think married Jimmy later??? (i think she was on the cover of Rolling Stone Magazine if memory serves me well)...anyways we were in awe of them...we only got to hang about. though i must admit they had a tremendous influence on me the rest of my life so far....

here's the post.

In spring/summer of 69 saw LZ for the first time and my life was never the same. This was in San Francisco Winterland and Fillmore West. I was 12 yrs old and tagged along with my older brother and his friends. Back in those days the band was accessible to walk up to and say 'hey'...we did and it was cool.

Saw them many many times after...just wish i were going to see them 12.10 but that concert will be far from the intimate fantastic environment of Winterland and certainly wouldn't be able to say "hey"....

This post has been edited by madison: Today, 11:11 AM

[Michelle of Los Angeles CA]

Michelle,

no,,,no,,,no only a member of any sluttin group in virtual world

here's the post updated...jeeze i was 12 (of course we ... my best friend and I thought we looked and acted 16)...but no way...we did see a lot of older girls though including the dark haired girl whom i think married Jimmy later??? (i think she was on the cover of Rolling Stone Magazine if memory serves me well)...anyways we were in awe of them...we only got to hang about. though i must admit they had a tremendous influence on me the rest of my life so far....

here's the post.

In spring/summer of 69 saw LZ for the first time and my life was never the same. This was in San Francisco Winterland and Fillmore West. I was 12 yrs old and tagged along with my older brother and his friends. Back in those days the band was accessible to walk up to and say 'hey'...we did and it was cool.

Saw them many many times after...just wish i were going to see them 12.10 but that concert will be far from the intimate fantastic environment of Winterland and certainly wouldn't be able to say "hey"....

This post has been edited by madison: Today, 11:11 AM

HOLY SMOKIN PSYCHEDELIC MUSHROOMS! No wonder we easily get along.

[Older than Dirt]

Ah.... this takes me back...

I was a Combat Marine in Vietnam (1969-70), I was 18. My platoon was a re-enforcement unit for a week or two so we had alot of time on our hands. I was listening to AFVN (Armed Forces Radio Vietnam) on my transistor radio, this band came on playing a song with the main lyric being 'Whole lotta Love', however my battery crapped out before I got the bands name. I was so rocked by these guys I had to find out who they were!

I, later had a chance to go to a large PX in Da Nang. Music was EVERYTHING to us, it kept us sorta sane. Anyway, I asked one of the people in the music section about the song. He said it was done by a band called Led Zepplin. There was only one LZII album left, I bought it without question, I had nothing to play it on. Kinda hard to carry a phonograph in the bush. I treated it like a precious jewel. I finally got some duty at a base near Da Nang, a Medical Center, and was able to listen to the whole Album, I was totally blown away!

My only regret is that I never got to see them in Concert. I did see Robert Plant when he was promoting Now and Zen, Jimmy page wasn't with him, this was years after Bonzo died...

I really hope they do a live CD/DVD from the concerts in London in November and December.

I did buy the Collecters addition of Mothership, the DVD is amazing!

-OtD

[Michelle of Los Angeles CA]

My boyfriend had the first album; he saw them in the sixties in San Francisco and met Jimmy Page then.

Please tell more.

[eternal light]

Please tell more.

Women were falling all over Robert Plant during the show, too, according to what I have been told.

[MadScreamingGallery]

It's a re-tread, but appropriate,

<snip>

By spring ’69 a girl names Kathy Stark, brought in an album called Led Zeppelin. We all hiked on her ‘cause we thought it was a rip off of Iron Butterfly. Y'know "heavy"/"light"...wow what a concept! By Fall of ’69 Zep had released Zep II and the edited version of Whole Lotta Love was on the air. The Zep oozed sex and power. I bought the album for my sister for Christmas, my dad had just bought “a stereo” (I thought it sounded like “restaurant” music, cause that was the only place I had ever heard sound that permeated a room; ie. more than one speaker), and I decided to give the album a spin, with the headphones after everyone had gone to bed. Needless to say, my sister got no present that year, and I have been a Zep-aholic from then on. I have taken music very seriously since then. Even to very silly extremes. I had a fistfight with a guy once because he slagged Zeppelin. I’ve broken up with girls because of their lack of musical taste. And believe me I could not afford to be picky. I have wasted much precious time, even as I do now, pondering the nature of music. And if you’ve been so inclined to read thus far, welcome to my nightmare.

Retread or not. That's always a great read! Sorry for not quoting everything you wrote. Have you added stuff or did I miss stuff the first time around?

Well, I never got in a fistfight about Zep but I have uttered a few epithets under my breath and walked away.

Hey, I get you on musical taste and partners! My husband and I have very similar tastes in music. We both love Zep (and we love it LOUD) but I am the one who has taken it to a fanatical level. Thank God the man has always been cool with it.

Back in the eighties, I used to play Zep for an old Jewish butcher, Joe Brody, that I bought a store from. He was a big fan of Bucky Pizzarelli, an old jazz guitarist, mostly pre-distortion. He pointed out all the Big-Band, Swing influences found within the Zep sound. I thought he was full of crap, until I realized that half the Zep live show was hyped up Benny Goodman horn licks, twisted through the blues.

OT. Bucky Pizzarelli! Well, that's a name from the past. I had a friend who dated John back when Annie was dating Storm Field. Can the world of Zep fans get any smaller?

[MadScreamingGallery]

Ah.... this takes me back...

I was a Combat Marine in Vietnam (1969-70), I was 18. My platoon was a re-enforcement unit for a week or two so we had alot of time on our hands. I was listening to AFVN (Armed Forces Radio Vietnam) on my transistor radio, this band came on playing a song with the main lyric being 'Whole lotta Love', however my battery crapped out before I got the bands name. I was so rocked by these guys I had to find out who they were!

I, later had a chance to go to a large PX in Da Nang. Music was EVERYTHING to us, it kept us sorta sane. Anyway, I asked one of the people in the music section about the song. He said it was done by a band called Led Zepplin. There was only one LZII album left, I bought it without question, I had nothing to play it on. Kinda hard to carry a phonograph in the bush. I treated it like a precious jewel. I finally got some duty at a base near Da Nang, a Medical Center, and was able to listen to the whole Album, I was totally blown away!

My only regret is that I never got to see them in Concert. I did see Robert Plant when he was promoting Now and Zen, Jimmy page wasn't with him, this was years after Bonzo died...

I really hope they do a live CD/DVD from the concerts in London in November and December.

I did buy the Collecters addition of Mothership, the DVD is amazing!

-OtD

Bless you. That's an incredible tale!

During the Vietnam War years, I lived in a working class ethnic neighborhood that sent more than its fair share of kids to Nam. I remember the night before the kid next door to us shipped out. There was a party in the little backyard and they blasted LZ I and II all night. I climbed up on my headboard and pushed the little window above my bed open so I could hear the music.

OT, one of my teachers had a son who ran an orphanage in Da Nang.

[SteveAJones]

I used to own a small studio rehearsal space at 39 Gerrard Street in London. On August 12th 1968 a certain Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Paul Jones & John Bonham arrived on the premises for their alloted time. It was apparent to me that they were not overly familiar with one another, as if they had only recently met.

The young man who booked the session, Jimmy was thinking out loud as to perhaps what their first number would be. I was a huge Yardbirds fan at the time, and I immediately thought of a suggestion. I turned to them and said Why not try Train Kept A Rollin' ?

The rest is history.

NEXT INSTALLMENT:

A chance meeting at a McDonalds on Oxford Street leads to an idea for the fourth album.

[ludwig]

Is this for real Steve????

[SteveAJones]

Is this for real Steve????

No. I'm just trying to lighten up an otherwise dull Monday morning.

(Edit: The dates, location and first song rehearsed ARE factual; I made up the rest!)

[ludwig]

Lol. Nice one. Had me suckered anyway...

[madison]

Ah.... this takes me back...

I was a Combat Marine in Vietnam (1969-70), I was 18. My platoon was a re-enforcement unit for a week or two so we had alot of time on our hands. I was listening to AFVN (Armed Forces Radio Vietnam) on my transistor radio, this band came on playing a song with the main lyric being 'Whole lotta Love', however my battery crapped out before I got the bands name. I was so rocked by these guys I had to find out who they were!

I, later had a chance to go to a large PX in Da Nang. Music was EVERYTHING to us, it kept us sorta sane. Anyway, I asked one of the people in the music section about the song. He said it was done by a band called Led Zepplin. There was only one LZII album left, I bought it without question, I had nothing to play it on. Kinda hard to carry a phonograph in the bush. I treated it like a precious jewel. I finally got some duty at a base near Da Nang, a Medical Center, and was able to listen to the whole Album, I was totally blown away!

My only regret is that I never got to see them in Concert. I did see Robert Plant when he was promoting Now and Zen, Jimmy page wasn't with him, this was years after Bonzo died...

I really hope they do a live CD/DVD from the concerts in London in November and December.

I did buy the Collecters addition of Mothership, the DVD is amazing!

-OtD

Imho.........you deserve front row tickets to the 12.10 concert if i had any say....but darn i do not

[MadScreamingGallery]

Imho.........you deserve front row tickets to the 12.10 concert if i had any say....but darn i do not

What you said.

[guitarmy]

No. I'm just trying to lighten up an otherwise dull Monday morning.

(Edit: The dates, location and first song rehearsed ARE factual; I made up the rest!)

so what's the real story then?

...that's what I want to know

[zigrick]

My mate was (and still is) obsessed with them, so I heard a few classics: Kashmir, Stairway, Immigrant Song, Whole Lotta Love. However It was only a yeat ago when I really got into them when I brought a second hand I pod with their albums. OH MY GOD WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN ALL OF MY LIFE!! was my immediate reaction. Now I have all the CD's and constantly talk to my mate about Zepp.

SHAKE WITH ME BABY!

[Michelle of Los Angeles CA]

Women were falling all over Robert Plant during the show, too, according to what I have been told.

That's it? Darn.

[SteveAJones]

so what's the real story then?

...that's what I want to know

All in good time...I've been meaning to put it into words...

[BUK]

MSG,

Thanks as always.

I love these stories. Old or new I love to see the amazement when someone gets bit.

I am particularly fascinated with the younger gen adopting the majesty of the Zep. I always wonder if it's nostalgia trip (y'know pining for the '70's) or is it true musical attachment?

Not questioning their sincerity, just curious about the nature of their attraction.