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How did you get into Led Zeppelin


moffo

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I was brainwashed. One of my older brothers used to lock himself in his room and blare Zeppelin when I was like 6. He must have gotten too stoned oneday and played Stairway backwards or something because, I haven't been the same since haha tongue.gif. I used to always want to go into his room and listen with him but, the rule was I had to clean his weed while I was in there or no deal. To this day when he and I chill and listen to music if Stairway comes on we both kinda trance out haha wink.gif.

Oh Kat….been laughing ever since I read your story, that is classic, Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha!

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  • 1 year later...

 When I was 12 (1985) I had a friend Mona Lisa that I talk to for hours on the phone every night. As we were talking one night I told her my mom had lots of rock records and she said name them.  A couple of albums in I discovered an original Led Zeppelin I. She yelled at me "oh you have to put on I can't quit you baby!" When I heard that  primal Percy scream for the first time I was hooks but it took a couple of more years to really understand what it meant to me. Fast forward to just after my 14th birthday my mom threw me in the hospital because she's a whack job. My roommate came back from a weekend pass and brought Led Zeppelin IV with him. When I heard black dog for the first time it completely change my life and I have been obsessed with this band ever since. 

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My father, who was an eye surgeon, but had been a drummer in a jazz band through high school & college, went to a record store in Boston in late 1969. He was tired of working at the hospital and wanted a musical release. This was back when the guys working at record stores were exceptionally knowledgeable about music. The best stores had experts in every genre from classical to blues to rock. So my Dad asked one of the rock experts if there were any really innovative new rock albums or groups he would recommend, particularly if they had a kickass drummer. Immediately the guy said, "Oh you've got to check out these two albums from a band out of England called Led Zeppelin, their drummer is outta sight man!" So my Dad bought the two albums on the spot and brought them home.

I think it was a Saturday, because my 19-year-old cousin, who was a student at Harvard, was hanging out at our house. I was only 9 years old, so my groovy, long-haired cousin was like a demi-god in my mind, and I loved hanging out with my father on the weekends. Anyway, I remember my Dad and cousin talking excitedly about this rock band--they had apparently just listened to Led Zeppelin I and they were putting Led Zeppelin II on the turntable. Being a music nut, my Dad had a killer McIntosh stereo system, with Bose 901 (Series 1) speakers. Although I don't remember much from my 9th year on the planet, I have a vivid memory of standing mesmerized by this powerful, pounding, music blasting through our living room, and my Dad and cousin with the eyes closed, heads moving up and down with the beat, and issuing some sort of exclamation after every song. "I've never heard anything like this!" was the comment I remember. 

After that day, I remember asking my Dad to play "Whole Lotta Love" for me several times over the course of the next year or so--I was not allowed to touch the stereo! By the time I was in junior high, I listened to Zeppelin, on a cassette recorder, every morning before school and in the evening before bed. My favorite album at the time was Led Zeppelin III--even after IV came out--and I listened to it so many times the cassette tape frayed apart. 

I was lucky enough to see Zeppelin live in 1975 and 1977. Hearing cuts from Physical Graffiti live was a highlight of my adolescence. By the time I was 19, In Through the Out Door had been released and it quickly became the album my girlfriend and I would almost always put on when having sex--she called it our "making love album." B)  I was planning my life around the eagerly anticipated 1980 U.S. tour when, like the rest of Zepdom, Bonzo's tragic death shocked and depressed me to the point that one of my good friends suggested I see a grief counselor. I eventually worked through it, mainly by listening to one Zeppelin album after another day after day after day.

Edited by mdwpsyd
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  • 3 months later...

I was probably around 13, in the mid-80's, and I knew I enjoyed music but I wasn't sure exactly what. I'd heard Stairway of course, they'd play it three times at every middle school dance, but I didn't really know who played it. Anyhow, my parents had bought me some Beatles albums, and they were cool, but not really my thing. I spent some time listening to Billy Joel, and again, while it was cool, it just wasn't what I was looking for. I ran through a few other bands but nothing really grabbed me. Then I was at a friend's house looking at his older brother's record collection. He had Led Zeppelin, AC\DC, Ozzy, all that stuff. I asked him to recommend something good, and he gave me Led Zeppelin IV.  That really hit the spot.

Afterwards I went from Zeppelin to Black Sabbath, Rush, Aerosmith, Ozzy, Dio, then onto Metallica, Megadeth, and the other late 80's metal bands, then onto all kinds of modern metal like Opeth and Devin Townsend. I spent a few decades listening to practically everything I could get my hands on. But in the end I came back around to Led Zeppelin, because no matter what I listened to, whether it was thrash metal or prog metal or whatever, in the back of my mind I'd still be hearing hints of Led Zeppelin buried deep within. Like yeah this is cool...but Zeppelin already did this.

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  • 1 month later...

I was on a road trip with my dad, I must've been around 9 or 10, and he always keeps a box with two or so dozen CDs in it for these kinds of long trips. And, he normally would ask me to take one out at random. One of the CDs (or, more correctly, multi-disc digipaks) I grabbed happened to be Mothership. We listened to both discs, and I loved every minute of it. I was young and exclusively listened to rap, then when I was in Walmart a few years later I stumbled across the double-disc remasters. I could only really remember Dazed and Confused, for some reason it stuck with me, so I got LZI. I eventually got all of them the day after they came out, and by now have every commercially released non-compilation and at least 20 bootlegs

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 4 months later...
On May 13, 2008 at 3:13 PM, moffo said:

I've just been wondering, how everyone got into listening to the greatest band in the world and what was the first song you heard??

 

My story is, I was 14 and at my uncles and he was helping me out with a school project, he said to me "Stick that disc there in and put track 4 on" so being the good lad that i was, i did just that... about 5 minutes later i said to him "Is this that same song?" and there it was I was hooked from there on... I know it's their most popular tune, but to a 14yr old back in 1988 when everyone else was tripping to the stone roses and inspiral carpets, Track 4 on Led Zep IV got me... Stairway of course!!!!

I'm fairly young and haven't had the fortune of being around when Led Zeppelin was still touring or putting out new music. But I was first introduced to the Beatles and then shortly Led Zeppelin. Stairway to Heaven, like many, was the first song that I really listened to and enjoyed and before I knew it I owned all the remasters from a couple years ago and listen to Led Zeppelin almost everyday. Though the Beatles are still a close second for me nothing can beat Led Zeppelin.

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It started with Whole Lotta Love, I was just blown away by it.  It kind of went from there, but I became really hard-core after hearing (and later seeing) Song Remains the Same.  I was really intrigued by how well they improvised live the studio songs, they were essentially new compositions.  That was confirmed when I discovered the bootlegs, every concert was almost like a new album release. 

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12 hours ago, JohnOsbourne said:

It started with Whole Lotta Love, I was just blown away by it.  It kind of went from there, but I became really hard-core after hearing (and later seeing) Song Remains the Same.  I was really intrigued by how well they improvised live the studio songs, they were essentially new compositions.  That was confirmed when I discovered the bootlegs, every concert was almost like a new album release. 

I know what you mean, I became a true fan after seeing TSRTS. 

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5 hours ago, Valerie Sunshine said:

I totally agree. Enormous pleasure for the eyes and ears!

 

I gained a new appreciation for their talents when I saw TSRTS (and other live footage).  To witness the connection made between musicians and to watch them play with such passion and at lightning speed is a beautiful and impressive sight.

The fact that they are all gorgeous is a nice bonus!! ;) 

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1 hour ago, Ddladner said:

 

 

I gained a new appreciation for their talents when I saw TSRTS (and other live footage).  To witness the connection made between musicians and to watch them play with such passion and at lightning speed is a beautiful and impressive sight.

The fact that they are all gorgeous is a nice bonus!! ;) 

You are right, I have never ever witnessed such a connection onstage ! Unfortunately I came to this world too late to see them live :'(

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At age 12, I had the opportunity to listen to Black Dog for the first time, in the car. I was due for a dental appointment and I was scared out of my wits (as I had to get a filling) and to cheer me up, my dad played IV! :D 

I started to get really serious about the band from the age of 16. Till then, I was a fan but a rather casual one, because of the entire gamut of Teenage Awkwardness and peer pressure to listen to what was deemed cool and current! :slapface:  Luckily, I came to my senses, eventually! :P 

Edited by Kiwi_Zep_Fan87
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  • 1 month later...

Break up with a girlfriend, as a shy kid in high school who already suffered from angst.  Just happened to hear "Ten Years Gone" on the radio late in the wee hours as I was sulking.  Oddly, the song didn't make me sad but came across as hopeful, just a powerful impression of humanity and I found a hobby, listening to other Zeppelin songs and chasing down their cassettes.  Couldn't believe how many songs were theirs, had no idea.

 If you love great music and musicians, you will invariably find it.   To quote someone famous, "That Cosmic Energy" :D 

Edited by Canadianzepper
repetition, worded weird
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In 1977, when I was 11 , my dad took me to see the The Song Remains The Same at the Carnegie Theater in Chicago. I was mesmerized from start to finish , especially with the haunting chords and riff of No Quarter. I got home and looked through the Zep Lps we had at home until I found that track. I played drums since I was 5 and after seeing the film I became obsessed with learning every note Bonzo played and trying to emulate his sound and feel. 

Edited by porgie66
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I'm from Detroit and in 1969 started listening to the new rock station at the time WABX.  It was cool to do that...  They basically played all album oriented rock and of course constantly played Zeppelin.  Just really drawn to their music...and of course like most young teen females at the time, Robert Plant. ?

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On 26/05/2008 at 7:17 PM, Lilith said:

Around 1975, I think. My mum and dad had some friends whose two kids (a girl and a boy) were a few years older than me. We used to go to each others houses for dinner etc, and whilst the adults were nattering over gin and tonics or whatever, us 3 kids used to sit in the front room, usually in the dark, and listen to music. One evening at their house the lad put on LZII, III and IV and I was intrigued. He lent me the albums for a couple of weeks and I played them to death. I specifically then remember PG being released and listening for the first time to Ten Years Gone in that same room. All the details of the room are still crystal clear in my mind - even down to the colour of the sofa - and every time I hear TYG, it's like I go whooshing back in time and I'm sitting on that sofa again, awestruck by this amazing music.

 

(Just for moffo and hammerhead - all of this happened in Shevington!)

My favourite Zep tune. Still blows me away when I hear it. 

I picked up my dad's LZII when I was  14. I was hooked after the opening riff

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7 hours ago, Xolo1974 said:

My favourite Zep tune. Still blows me away when I hear it. 

I picked up my dad's LZII when I was  14. I was hooked after the opening riff

I used to put my dads Zeppelin records on when he went to the ASDA .  He had 1 to 4 on vinyl . I made sure I put them back as if nothing had happened, just before he was due back. This would have been about 25 years ago . I remember trying to explain to my class mates what I'd discovered but at that time I couldn't find a single kid who knew em!!!!! 

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6 hours ago, JAP said:

I used to put my dads Zeppelin records on when he went to the ASDA .  He had 1 to 4 on vinyl . I made sure I put them back as if nothing had happened, just before he was due back. This would have been about 25 years ago . I remember trying to explain to my class mates what I'd discovered but at that time I couldn't find a single kid who knew em!!!!! 

 "The" ASDA !!!!!. so do you also say the Tesco or the Saiinsburys, the Morrisons, bet you say Home "and" Bargain too... :D

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