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How'd you get hooked on Led?


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I sought them out on my own. I heard their songs on the radio, liked what I heard, and began to collect their material when I could. I don't remember how old I was, but it was a while ago. I know we were still living in our first apartment in Chicago, so it was pre-1998, because that's when we moved a few blocks away. So I was under 16, in any event.

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It was "Whole Lotta Love" playing on the radio when I was a kid and seeing their images in record stores, tv, etc., I just grew to love them. As for bringing the funk, hell yeah, LZ's funky. They couldn't hide it if they tried. But, the one thing that really got me was their full-on appreciation of Blues, R&B, Funk, Jazz, and Soul music unlike many of their American (still until this day) peers.

<----- Plus, damn look at the man.

Edited by Honeybrown1976
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I used to be big into Hip Hop.

I wanted to broaden my tastes.

I tried to get into The Who,Pink Floyd,Cream and Simon and Garfunkal but I was bored of listening to them after an hour and so I returned to my NWA,Eazy E,Eminem and Tupac.

Then I (Out of curiousty)Randomly looked up 100 best songs of all time,Stairway To Heaven was number 1 and it was by Led Zeppelin So I looked it up on youtube.

Words cannot describe what I felt I played it over and over and over again,Then I ran over to my Da and began screaming ''AHHHHH Led Zeppelin !PERFECT!!!!''After I calmed down I asked him''Do you have any Led Zeppelin albums? He told me he had a few and they were in his room I ran into there and looked and looked I found Led Zeppelin I And looked for more but there was no more just Zeppelin I

I listened to it when Your time is gonna come came on I knew that they were the greatest.

Then the next day(Which was weirdly enough my birthday)I said all I want are Led Zeppelin CDS and a copy of The Song remains the same DVD.

After A while I came on here and read all the topics and in particilar Striders posts I didn't join until like 2 months ago though.

I FUCKING LOVE THIS BAND

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^^^Gee, thanks Zeppelin Led. :beer:

I'm curious, are you still into hip hop? I've found in random experiments that listening to Led Zeppelin helps to appreciate hip hop more, and vice versa. I think it has to do with the way Zeppelin maximized and played around with the beat and manipulated sound...it's very simpatico with what hip hop producers do.

That's why I think a lot of hip hoppers can get into Zeppelin while being left cold by other classic rock bands like Cream, the Who, etc. Conversely, I think you'll find a higher percentage of Zeppelin fans into hip hop than fans of other classic rock bands.

Edited by Strider
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One day in the Summer of '69, we were riding around in the neighborhood weed dealer's car, sampling his wares (it was black hash that day) and he pops in this 8-track tape that I never heard. Song after song, it just kept getting better. Finally, when I was able to speak, l asked the dude "who the hell are these guys ? " He says "ever hear of The Yardbirds ? It's the guitar player's new band, Led Zeppelin". WOW, l thought, even the name is awesome ! What l clearly remember being the "hook" was the guitar solo in How Many More Times echoing over & over in my head. It was the coolest, heaviest & most spaced out thing I ever heard, and it still may be. Soon after, l got my first car (66 Mustang) had an 8-track installed in the glove compartment and bought LZ I as my 1st tape.

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One day in the Summer of '69, we were riding around in the neighborhood weed dealer's car, sampling his wares (it was black hash that day) and he pops in this 8-track tape that I never heard. Song after song, it just kept getting better. Finally, when I was able to speak, l asked the dude "who the hell are these guys ? " He says "ever hear of The Yardbirds ? It's the guitar player's new band, Led Zeppelin". WOW, l thought, even the name is awesome ! What l clearly remember being the "hook" was the guitar solo in How Many More Times echoing over & over in my head. It was the coolest, heaviest & most spaced out thing I ever heard, and it still may be. Soon after, l got my first car (66 Mustang) had an 8-track installed in the glove compartment and bought LZ I as my 1st tape.

WOW 8-tracks now that takes me back. Had Zep on 8-tracks, Rush, Sabbath, back then we thought 8-tracks were the coolest thing because we didn't have to get up and flip the album over and we could have them in the car. Except for the big clunking sound when it changed songs it was great. How Many More Times one of the best grooves ever.

Edited by ZoSo1960
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God I'm just loving this thread!

I love hearing stories from all ages and groups as I can really identify with most of the things that have been said so far.

I was born 9 years after the group has disbanded so of course never got to see them in the 70's, let alone in any projects after that. I missed all the good stuff I guess^^ Anyways me and my daddy always used to listen to records on our player while I was growing up from all sorts of musical genres. Soul, Jazz, Rock, just about anything. Funnily enough Zeppelin wasn't amongst these things cause my dad, alhough having grown up in London, never got into Zeppelin. He would have had the right age as well to see em in concert, but he somehow just wasn't interested.

Fast forward to 2004: when I was 15 I was a pretty normal girl music-wise, listened to contemporary stuff just like everybody else. That was the time when I recall my first conscious encounter with Zeppelin which was the Immigrant Song. I rather liked the song, but never bothered to sit down and listen to it properly (BIG MISTAKE!!). So a few years passed by until 2008 when I heard the same song again and finally made my mind up that I would go on Youtube, search for the song and listen to it. So I did and I still liked it, but it didn't quite "hit" me if you know what I mean. At that time I was caught up in another passion (or obsession, call it whatever you like) with another group so maybe the time hadn't come yet.

On Youtube you always get these suggestions on the right hand side and the first was Black Dog and the second was Rock N Roll. I listened, rather liked them and put them on my iPod. And then came Since I've been loving you. Don't ask me how I found the song, but I did and slowly but surely the flame inside of me became bigger and bigger, but not quite hitting its pinnacle yet. That was my fav song so far and I listened to it quite a lot, got Led Zeppelin III on CD for Christmas 2010, but never did I dream that Zeppelin would ever explode into my life like it did. I even had a poster of them on my wall which I bought in 2010 while I was in England and still they didn't quite inflame like they did a few months later.

Fast forward again to April 2011: I was going through some turmoil in my life. I was unhappy with loads of things and people (mostly people who called themselves friends but weren't) and I knew that I had to change something but as I'm a little coward I waited a while until I finally did something. What was my incentive to do something you might ask. Well, it was Zeppelin.

One day in April I was still pondering over my next steps and tried to find answers to my questions to no avail so, as always, I put on some music (music is my elixir of life you know). I went on Youtube cause I couldn't be bothered to use my iPod and Since I've Been Loving You was my first choice. Amongst the suggestions was Going to California from the 2003 DVD (which I didn't know then) and, I don't really know how to say it else, I was totally drawn to this video. I'm a spiritual person and I believe in fate and something inside of me just told me to click on that video, so I did. You see the crowd at the beginning, then you see Robert and Jimmy and the Robert starts to sing "Spent my days with a woman unkind, smoked my stuff and drank all my wine"..I had never heard that song before and as Jimmy proceeded into his solo with Jonesy I was in tears. I had rarely in my life heard such a beautiful melody and such beautiful lyrics. Maybe it's because I'm a lost flower-power child born in the wrong decade that this song appealed to me. The final blow for me came when Robert sang "Standing on a hill in my mountain of dreams, Telling myself it's not as hard, hard, hard as it seems"..That did it for me and I never looked back. This line provided all the answers I was looking for, it provided someone who told me not to worry and that it'll all fall into place. And it did. I'm playing the video right now as I'm writing this and it still gives me the same feeling as it did 5 months ago. The same feeling of safety and love.

Since that day I bought all the CDs and DVDs I could get my hands on, spent time trying to find my way through the huge Zeppelin universe. With every day that passed I came to appreciate Zeppelin more and more and with every new song I heard I came to fall in love more and more. There is something very special in their songs that cannot be put into words, a feeling of content and passion for what they do which is conveyed to the listeners. Same goes for their live performances.

There are absolutely no words for all the feelings I have when listening to them, let alone watching them, but I would say that it's a mixture of respect, appreciation and sheer amazement. Since Zeppelin entered my life I feel different, like I've found what I was looking for.

Wow your post brought tears to my eyes. These songs that these four men brought into the world are so meaningful to all of us for different reasons. I listen to Tangerine & Thats The Way, so pretty and sweet, that I've been known to tear up depending on my mood of course. Thats the great thing about this band there is a song for every emotion, mood, event etc.. Jimmy's acoustic work touches me so deep. Great story so glad your a Zep fan now.

:)

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I got hooked on Zep with the song Rock & Roll. It was the ending that I liked. LZ are my favorite band of all time and I like every song. The riffs and the dynamics in the band and the way they change things up live. No other band has been able to do that to me. James Brown is the closest that comes close to tying them in terms of rival artists.

When the levee breaks is my all time LZ song.

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It was the Fall of 1979 while I was a freshman in high school, when I first got into Zeppelin. I knew Stairway, but it was around that time I started listening to FM radio. The band had just released, ITTOD and the first time I heard "In The Evening", I felt it was so powerful with Robert's vocals and Jimmy's solo. This is what captured me the first time about their music. After that, I heard more of their songs on the radio and it was Kashmir and Dazed and Confused as well that completely hooked me after that. The first album I bought was ITTOD and continued by purchasing the entire catalog over the next several months. After that I'd tackle the live recordings as I wanted more and couldn't get enough. I still feel this way to this day.

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  • 2 weeks later...

For me it was when I was a teenager in the mid to late 80s and really into the heavy metal scene at the time. Our local radio station, WBLM in Portland Maine, started playing a "Zep Set" consisting of three songs each weeknight at 10pm. I started to listen. I noticed how diverse the band was, and how they really branched out in several directions from the mothership of heavy blues rock.

I'd never owned any of their tapes or albums, but I began collecting tapes because I hated the massive withdrawal that hit me around 10:20 each weeknight when the radio station stopped playing Led Zeppelin songs.

One at a time, I bought tapes.

I ain't been right since. :blink:

I also read the Davis book, Hammer of the Gods. The weird part about that is, I loved it at the time, but the band members say it's a bunch of hogwash.

This whole Internet thing is something I never even fathomed back then. It's made being a fan way more rewarding for me. Especially Ebay. It's safe to say I have a mild addiction to collecting small bits of Led Zeppelin.

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  • 4 weeks later...

THE LEMON SONG! We had a r&b station where we lived, but it went off the air at 5pm every day. So i listened to my fathers blues records like Robert Johnson, Howlin Wolf, Muddy waters till we would wear the vinyl out back in the day. Well I went over my friends house for a sleepover, i was 13 years old, we experimented on her older sister's herbs and spices( ya know what I mean). So I wanted to hear some music, so she puts on LZ1. We're still doin our herbs and spices thing and i'm dancin to this album i just heard for the first time liking what I am hearing. So it's over and she puts on LZ2. So I'm chillaxin, snapping my fingers , getting higher and higher, kinda really out of it. Then the next song that came on had this bangin guitar riff and I can say took my high away and I got up and we all started air guitaring; playing the song over and over again. Some of the lyrics i noticed were on some of my father's records so I had a sleepover the next week and let my friends listen tho my fathers blues records and now LZ is and is forever in my life. My son who loves rap and hip-hop loves them too. Those were the good old days when you had no worries and ''LIFE WAS GOOD!'' The Lemon Song made me love Led Zeppelin...that's my story, and every generation in my family will listen and learn what real music is!

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By the way, My grand daughter in the pic sings and dances to Led. She loves ''THE OCEAN'' Nikki sings it to her dolls! God love her

Interesting story how you got into Led Zeppelin. The Lemon Song is my favorite off of II. Hope you only use herbs and spices for just cooking now! :o

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I discovered Led Zeppelin around the age of 14. My neighbor (Brian) who was about 10 or 12 years older than me was into music heavily. Every weekend he would be outside washing his new truck, and I would offer to help him. It started to become a weekly ritual, and when I was finished helping him, he would take me around the area we lived and just cruise around. He would turn me on to all this music I had yet to discover. He always had something new playing in his tape deck. My first memories of The Who, Iron Maiden, Rush, Jethro Tull, Motley Crue, Ratt and many others came from the speakers of his truck. I'd always ask ,"who's this??" and he'd tell me the bands name usually followed by a little bit of info on the group. I thought this guy was the coolest. You have to keep in mind that this was the mid-to late 80's and Hair Metal ruled MTV and pop-culture. One day he put a tape in and didn't say a word......."Hey, hey mamma said the way you move, gonna make you sweat, gonna make you groove" poured from the speakers followed by this massive riff that could destroy Satan himslf. I instantly new this was different from anything I had heard in my 14 years of life. I shouted over the music,"Who is this?" Brian answered,"Led Zeppelin, one of the greatest bands ever". I was hooked.

He then played The Rover and once again, the riff blew me away. It was so heavy and musical. I subscibed to one of those music companies that sold tapes and cd's (BMG music). You paid for the first tape and then the others were free and you paid for shipping. Anyone remember? I ordered a few from Rush and ZZ Top and Led Zeppelin IV. I recieved them in the mail a week later and played the hell out of Zep IV until the felt started to fade on the bottom of the tape. Brian also gave me Led Zep II on vinyl around this time. I didn't have a state of the art record player, but there was my little brothers Fisher Price record player with a mini speaker in it, used for playing childrens records, etc. Once I put on the first track I was hooked. The Fisher Price record player was transformed into my own personal escape. Markings of " Zeppelin Rulez" were written all over the tiny white record player. It was now mine. My friends at the time were all into the fad, fashion and music of the day. I tried to turn them on to Zeppelin , but it was over their heads. They didn't understand the musicality of this new band I was introduced to. I slowly became an outsider to my pack of friends and was lightly joked uopn because of my taste in music. But I knew deep down that what I liked was truly music. I knew it was good and it had meaning, passion and soul-which the music of the day lacked completely. Zeppelin was like a revelation to me.

Soon after I started to study and read about them through books and magazines. I would travel 5 miles round trip on my bike to the closest music shop called Acorn Records and Tapes. Every week I would by a new Zeppelin or Zep related album unil my collection was complete. I became obsessed with them. They were all I listened to. My parents told me it was okay to listen to music but to be that much into just one band all the time was little over the top. I didn't care. I couldn't get enough of them, and with each album and song I became more fixated on their whole purpose. I bought Hammer of the Gods like every other fool and believed it all, until I realised it was mosltly bullshit years later. With all of this going on at one time, I took an interest in playing guitar. My mom bought me a $99 guitar with a built-in speaker from Sears or something. It took one 9V battery. I joined a music class as an elective in High School and met a bunch of cool guys who were moslty into the same stuff as myself. There were a few Hair Band activist, who I was cool with but never had any real communication with. They didn't like Zep a whole lot, so I didn't care much for them. It's almost as if I didn't really trust or respect them because they didn't like Zeppelin. How could these guys not care for Zeppelin??? Were they insane?. We would have arguments about who was the best band and all that jazz - and at times I became very defensive. I held them very close to my heart. They were in a way my savior from all the trash on the radio/TV.

I soon noticed that my talent for playing guitar came very natural to me. I never learned to read music, but I could hear something once or twice and figure out the chords and play it. I formed a band with two other classmates and ironically called the band "Achilles"...go figure. After playing the guitar for a few months , I gained interest in the drums and managed to get a hold of an old Rogers drum set. This was my position in the band. Again, my co-ordination was natural. I became quite good in a short period of time. We wrote our own music, which to this day sounds pretty good. It was more on the metal side of things - like Metallica or Iron Maiden. Achilles did a few talent shows for school and a few parties here and there.

It was now 1989. There were two Classic Rock radio stations at this time who basically played the same stuff. 92.3 "Classic Rock" and WRNO 99.5 "The Rock of New Orleans" On weekends and school nights when I had nothing to do, I would glue myself to the radio and just listen, I would spend hours engulfed in the music coming into my room. As time passed, I was able to name any song on the radio, the artist, the year, the album, etc. You name it, I knew it. This was my HOMEWORK.

A few years passed, as the routine continued. Around the age of 19 or 20 I started to collect bootlegs and managed to aquire a nice size collection. I had boots from every year. Probably 40 concerts in all. By this time my entire room was covered with Zep posters, memorabilia, etc. (which I have all lost since then, due to Hurricane Katrina in 2005) My band had split up and I was looking for a new project to get into. I knew my talents would take me somewhere, and most of all I enjoyed it. A friend of mine was looking to join a group but they needed a bass player, not a drummer. I had always had an interest in bass and now was a good time to try it out. I borrowed a bass from a musical friend and it was just as natural as any other instrument. I was new to the instrument, so I wasn't all that flashy yet, but I knew the notes, which was good enough for now. I was also singing a bit at the time. After a few jam sessions, a new band was formed called "DeJa Vu". We played top 40 classic rock and a few originals.

My love for Zeppelin was still strong, even though I had managed to appreciate other great bands like Rush and Pink Floyd, none of the new music was of interest. Everything I liked was considered "old". (Classic Rock) I also aquired a love for the blues, which again was inspired by my love for Zeppelin. They opened my eyes to how music should be composed and arranged- not only how to play.

I was born on October 23rd, 1973. The year Houses of the Holy was released, almost to the day. What better way to celebrate my love, than a permanant mark? Me and a few buddies of mine decided to get a tattoo one evning...Mine.....We'll I had the indide cover of HOTH engraved on my left arm. You know, the pic of the guy holding the adolecent child over his head. Looks exactly like it, except bigger. I brought the album with me that night so the artist couls sketch it out on paper...It looks beautiful to this day...Another reminder of The Zeppelin.....

In 1997, I formed a trio with my brother on drums, a guitar player and myself on bass/vocals called "Three Piece White Meat". The name was hilarious, but we were hungry musicians who played around town consistantly. We did originals with a mix of Zeppelin, Rush and Black Sabbath. We were all heavy into Zeppelin and the guitar players father owned a record shop. The next few years of my life would be spent in and out of this shop, buying anything available from Zeppelin. My collection was getting bigger and bigger. It was good to finally realise at this point that the path I had chosen (musical preference) was indeed a good one, because my like-minded friends all had good taste and had been through that same phase in life. My friends had good taste, and I suppose so did I. It all made sense. All the years I had been teased because of what I had listened to, didn't matter anymore. I knew from an early age that what I embraced was going to shape my life and it did.

In 2000, I had the pleasure of meeting one of my idols. Mr. JPJ at the HOB in New Orleans. He was supporting his Zooma LP. After a fantastic show, I waited outside for 3 hours to meet him. As he came out, I got nervous. I didn't know what to say!!!! After he signed a few autograph I asked him to take a few pics with me and sign a few things. I told him what an impact he had on my life growing up and he seemed really humbled by my comments. He was very polite and easy going. After the pics he said to me "good luck with your music, I hope you do well out there" and he disappeard into the dark ally. I was speechless for days. I couldn't believe I actually met JPJ. It was incredible. My brother and some friends (who also met him that night) were all in a daze for a week or so. Did we just meet The Master of Bass??? Yes, we did.

A year or so later, I formed another Trio called "Endora's Mask" which still exist to this day. You can check out a few tunes at:

Edited by Rock Historian
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  • 4 weeks later...

I got curious when hearing Communication Breakdown, which I heard on a Ramones documentary (I used to be a huge Ramones fan, still think they are underestimated by the way).

I'm 23 so, by the time I got familiar with their work, about 4 years ago, it was just a matter of downloading their stuff...

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So what is it like to experience the reverse...to not hear Zeppelin until AFTER hearing all those late-70s- early 80s hard rock/metal bands? And what is it like to hear Led Zeppelin not among its natural peers of the time such as the Who, the Stones, Deep Purple, Yes, Black Sabbath, etc., but among the new wave and hair metal bands of the 80s or the techno, hip-hop and indie-rock of the 90s?

Probably like not hearing Elvis Presley, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry or even Robert Johnson, Howlin' Wolf or Muddy Waters until the 1970s. In the case of Chuck Berry, one of my first 45s was a copy of "My Ding-a-Ling" b/w "Johnny B. Goode" which I bought in the early 70s. It was the novelty of the A-Side ("My Ding-a-Ling") that drew me in, not "Johnny B. Goode", so it was years later before I started to appreciate music from the 50s and earlier. To bring this back to Led Zeppelin, it was their early records (as well as Lynyrd Skynyrd and others) that sent me in search of my first blues albums. When Plant cut the Honeydrippers EP in the 80s, that is what further piqued my interest in 50s music and sent me flipping through my parents' old Chubby Checker, Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis Presley albums.

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It's hard to say at this point, but they were always on the air while I was a baby, and growing up with a radio on, I'm sure I was weened and lulled to sleep on their first three albums. Later, as a pre-teen I got my fist AM/FM radio and tuned in 102.7 WNEW in NYC. Once I realized it was Led Zeppelin I had heard as a kid, I was quickly hooked. Their music took me places, and some tunes haunt me still. They are still my fav band, and always will be. I took my bro to see Page & Plant in the Meadowlands, here in NJ, years ago. It was like a dream come true. I hope I'll catch the remaining members live again, this side of heaven.

Edited by 40yearsgone
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  • 2 weeks later...

I was 11 yrs old in 1975-6 and for Christmas I received three records that year, KIZZ Alive, Rush-Caress of Steel and Led Zeppelin Physical Graffiti. What an album P/G is! Still my favorite....The Zeps have been a huge part of my life. Jimmy Page is the reason I started to play guitar back then and still do to this day as a 47 yr old. Led Zeppelin showed me so many different styles of music and how they should all be respected and enjoyed. I met Robert Plant in Toronto back stage at one of his shows a few years back and managed to get an autograph. I was so star struck and hardly said a word to him but he smiled at the picture I asked him to sign. I will post that story and photo asap.....here is a version of Dancing Days from my band Fish Head if you would like to check it out....the sound is not 100% but it is audible...cheers Zep Heads....Rich

Edited by fishhead
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