Why Led Zeppelin

[shaps]

I've been listening to LZ for more than 30 years and still feel the pleasure of their music. Why, I ask myself?

In my opinion, the main difference between LZ from other groups, both from the past and the present ones, is in their «symphony». What do I mean by this word? First of all, this is the structure of their composition that runs the whole mechanism of creation of their music. It is known that in a symphonic opus two themes are often developing, in the simplest case the theme of good and of the evil, which evolve, overlap, compete and in the end ... the good one triumphs. Both themes are enriched by using different musical forms and methods, e.g. tempo, sound (loud, quiet), various complications (musical effects, complexity, etc.), and this happens according to the law of the genre - because they need to develop. And an internal drama is created once both themes put together in parallel.

All this is present in LZ music. In simple terms, Jimmy Page is one theme, Robert Plant is the second. The remaining members of the “orchestra” certainly do not stay aside, starting from John Bonham, who deserves a separate theme, and of course, John Paul Jones (not to offend anyone), but according to the law of the genre there could only be two themes. So they create the themes. And there is a symphony. We call it hard rock (ballad, blues, etc.), but the underlying structure is symphonic. Since there are two threads it becomes polyphonic, and polyphony is Bach and the sound becomes deep. Then, the threads are to be developed, and the talent and instrumental skills of Page and Plant, this is done brilliantly and we get the pleasure from the drama that they create. It is the sound and the melody that tell the story and create the plot in their compositions while songs' text is only playing the second role. The words are not important's - they are there only to awaken the imagination ...

I do not think that anyone else has it, neither the Beatles, nor the Rolling Stones nor any of the successful modern musical bands. In the overwhelming number of cases, vocals are always suppressing the instrumental: in my opinion Jazz is not that dramatic, while Blues is rather monotonous and its rigid canons restrict development. LZ has achieved a wonderful balance of vocal and instrumental parts which formed a perfect ground for their symphonic nature...

PS "People always ask me: 'When is the new Pele going to be born?' Never. My father and mother have closed the factory."

[Rock Historian]

Good post my friend. I enjoyed reading that.

[TashaZoso16]

Such a quality post right there. I couldn't agree more!

[Walter]

Very well put, welcome to the forum!

[Anjin-san]

Hi all,

Shaps,welcome!

Well stated!

"Here is the music."

KB

[MINI_Zoso]

Welcome shaps!

What a first post. Very deep. Well thought out and expressed.

My thoughts on Led Zeppelin are drastically simpler than yours but, at the end of the day...remarkably similar.

[Kunke1]

Welcome shaps! I enjoyed your first post, keep it up!

[Rock Historian]

[dazedcat]

Nice post shaps, welcome to the boards.

Jazz is dramatic though if it's good, you just have to develop an ear for it.

[shaps]

Many thanks to your “good, consonant, recommendations, etc.”, especially from “veterans” . In gratitude, I will tell you something interesting and it might help to start a discussion about one theme...

Stanislav Lem (Polish writer) has written a remarkable story «Odyssey iz Itaki» (or "Odyssey from Itaki"), the story is as follows (a fantastic one). A certain Mr. Odysseus had organized a fund called "Going for the golden fleece of the spirit", raised the money and started the search for the "geniuses of the 1st class". In his classification, the geniuses of the third class are those who do not see much far beyond the horizons of the human era they live in. Their life is relatively easy as they are discovered and valuated (both in terms of money and fame) during one's lifetime. Geniuses of the second class, more farsighted, live much tougher life. In Ancient times they were beaten with stones, and in later centuries "in connection with a temporary softening of manners, they were allowed to die a natural death from starvation, and sometimes they were kept at public expense in shelters for the half-witted." Yet, ultimately, the geniuses of the second class awaited recognition, that is the triumph of life beyond the grave. Odysseus himself was concerned about finding geniused of the 1st class, who would not be even discovered by the next generations because their ideas are so revolutionary and out of the scope of today's general knowledge that no one could appreciate them.

After a long search he came to a startling conclusion - geniuses of the first class are not lost for humanity, they themselves left it. In one sentence, if the human race paves track of its own history in certaine direction, the ordinary geniuses are those on the edge of the mainstream, while the geniuses of the first class are not among the front ranks and not even one step ahead of them, but they are somewhere far far away. And if the flow of the human thought had been paved in their direction, the genius would turn up on this way. That means that when the human race overlooked such a genius, it is not just that it left undiscovered an unusual personality, but with these it missed one possible way of future development, and there is nothing to be done.

That prelude is finished...

So, I would like to provoke a discussion (in the context of that story by S. Lem) – is LZ genius of the 3d, 2nd or 1st class? Can be mixed – more first, less second, etc., what is their significance (by value and scale) to the music, what they changed in the musical culture? … Or maybe they are of the “first class”?

[joe (Liverpool)]

For me as a Beatles fan since they started ( in my case I was 7 it was 1962) When the Beatles were virtually finished I heard an album called simply

[joe (Liverpool)]

Sorry I pressed the wrong button.........called simply Led Zeppelin and I was hooked, I have been lucky enough to see them three times at Liverpool Stadium, Liverpool Empire, and Earls court London which for me was an experience. I was working as a postman at the time, so I had to do my round on the Saturday morning, go home get changed and me and my mate Christy, hitch-hiked from liverpool to London,he had managed to get hold of two tickets the previous week, we only paid the ticket price price for them (£1.00). I know it's not much of a hike compared to America's size but we ended up getting a final lift on the M1 from a travelling puppet theatre, we were in the back of a furniture removal van, with all these puppets and a few scotsmen who happened to have a couple of cases of Mckewans export which they gladly shared with us. (If I recall I remember that England were playing Scotland at wembley the same day). Anyway after many rides and lots of walking we managed to get to Earls Court about 2 minutes before Zep came on stage and over 3 hours later we came out numbed with the experience and deaf too!! Unfortunately it took us over a day to get back I remember we were at Watford Gap services (made famous by Roy Harper) for hours, it was the coldest I have ever been in my life the only thing I had to keep me warm was my hair it was down to my waist, hence the lack of offers from drivers to offer us a lift, still a great time that I will remember for the rest of my life.

[McSeven]

One thing about Zeppelin is that on may song. You can drop the needle so to speak on certain parts and you feel you are in a different song. STH/Kashmir/HMMT/NQ/WLL.

I also feel like Zep songs are like stories. They do have movements that are similar to classical music. Its almost like Zep too the blues and structured certain songs to emulate clasical music.