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Favorite song off of Presence?


gvhbngh

  

185 members have voted

  1. 1. What's everbody's favorite song off of Presence?

    • Achilles Last Stand
    • For Your Life
    • Royal Orleans
    • Nobody's Fault But Mine
    • Candy Store Rock
    • Hots On For Nowhere
    • Tea For One


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^^ can't stand that one. It's probably the Zep track I've listened to the least.

Tea For One is great, really special. Achilles Last Stand wins it for me, though.

:goodpost:

Completely agree....I would like to add "Royal Orleans" is another highly underrated Zeppelin song, IMO.

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I voted for NFBM but...

It seems like it might be helpful if we used some type of 3 tiered system for these "Favorite album..." and "Favorite song..." types of questions. A "Good," "Better," "Best" system of some sort.

Just a thought...

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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 6 months later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Its the most personal/visceral album of them all.

You got that right...IMO Presence is also Jimmy Page's "This is how great I am" statement...it's the ultimate example of his guitar playing, arranging and production skills.

I voted "Achilles Last Stand", though I pretty much love all seven tracks equally. Presence is the one Zeppelin album I could never get sick of; it's been my favourite from the first listen and I'd love it just as unconditionally if it was by "Joe Blow and the Shmoes". The fact that it just so happens to be by Led Zeppelin is merely a bonus for me.

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It's NFBM stuido and live as my Favorite.

ALS as the "long" track on the album, never was as impressive to me as was D&C from the 1st LP.

Dazed and Confused is a walk in the park compared to the complexity of Achilles Last Stand

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Dazed and Confused is a walk in the park compared to the complexity of Achilles Last Stand

Which is funny considering the "San Francisco" section of the live versions of D & C were the origins of "Achilles Last Stand"!

Arrangement aside, once you actually figure out to play it, "Achilles" isn't that difficult of a song...stripped down to it's bare bones the damn thing's only about four chords! (E, A, B and F# as I recall.) Compared to something like "Ten Years Gone" or "Carouselambra" complexity-wise "Achilles Last Stand" is pretty straightforward. IMO Page's guitar army arrangement is what gives ALS its majesty and has a lot to do with why I feel for the most part -and I know I'm in the minority on this- that the song missed the mark when played live. One guitar, a more or less strummed eight string bass in the verses and a breakneck pace does not do the live versions of "Achilles Last Stand" justice for me, especially when it came near the end of a three hour performance...it takes a lot more than copious amounts of cocaine to get a song like that across live! (again, in my opinion)

Actually, upon further consideration :lol: I'd be inclined to say that if there was one track on Presence where John Paul Jones should have received an additional songwriting credit it would be "Achilles Last Stand" (hell, the argument could probably be made that it should have been a full band credit considering John Bonham's contribution as well!). By JPJ's own account, his suggestion of using the eight string bass to "fill in the gaps" is what essentially brought the song together in the studio- I certainly can't imagine ALS without it, or Bonham's galloping rhythm for that matter. Yet it was "Royal Orleans" -arguably the album's weakest song- that warranted the "Bonham/Jones/Page/Plant" credit...

For Your Life=For the Win

My second favourite song on the album...the way Page layers in the guitars during the solo is probably the high point of the whole damn record for me! An odd choice for a song to make it's live premiere in 2007...I wonder how many folks in the 02 audience were like, "What album is this one from again? Is this a new song, or what?" :lol:

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My second favourite song on the album...the way Page layers in the guitars during the solo is probably the high point of the whole damn record for me! An odd choice for a song to make it's live premiere in 2007...I wonder how many folks in the 02 audience were like, "What album is this one from again? Is this a new song, or what?" :lol:

Man, that really would've been an awesome addition to the 77-80 setlists!

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Having been a Zeppelin fan for nearly 4 decades, I can say that I love, but am rather tired of some of the over exposed material; however, this has led me to re-discover some of the less listened to Zeppelin music, including Presence and ITTOD. I love both albums, but I must say that although Presence is a bit monochromatic, it is truly an incredible album, and it is a virtual drum, bass, and guitar clinic in and of itself. I also love how personal, reflective, and introspective the lyrics are on this album and ITTOD. It is easy to track Plant's feelings toward all things Zeppelin, as these two albums are very much about his thoughts and emotions at the time.

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Of course this is what I was talking about.

Oh I know that :lol:

I always love how Page downplayed how he recorded ALS: "I laid down the basic track, and then just overdubbed the second track" (paraphrase). Yeah, Jimmy, like it was that fuckin' easy!

I still can't believe he did all the guitar overdubs on the album in two days or whatever the old story is. The intricacy of the parts don't sound like something recorded off the cuff.

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I always love how Page downplayed how he recorded ALS: "I laid down the basic track, and then just overdubbed the second track" (paraphrase). Yeah, Jimmy, like it was that fuckin' easy!

:lol:

I still can't believe he did all the guitar overdubs on the album in two days or whatever the old story is. The intricacy of the parts don't sound like something recorded off the cuff.

He did all the guitar overdubs IN A SINGLE NIGHT... he thought it would take him two or even three days, but with time running out before the Stones took over the studio, Page just went into the booth and blazed through the overdubs in one go... astonishing, truly astonishing.

As a Zep newbie, I'm still getting to grips with Presence... didn't know what to make of it apart from 'Achilles Last Stand' and 'Nobody's Fault But Mine', but I took each track by itself and worked on it individually, and it must be working 'cause I've come to love both 'For Your Life' and 'Tea For One' in no small measure... the latter is simply sublime. Is this the way it worked for other listeners too, did you get into Presence immediately or did it take work to finally uncover it's abundance of riches?

My favorite track off Presence would have to be 'Achilles Last Stand' - that song just never gets old - but it's not through lack of serious competition on that underrated gem of an opus...

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