"Led Zeppelin" album review

[Cat]

'Led Zeppelin' Stirs Up

Critic On 'More Times'

Pacific Stars & Stripes

Tuesday, March 11, 1969

BY PETE JOHNSON

The Los Angeles Times

Rock music nearly overdosed itself on psychedelia last year during a period when several nonmusic high volume groups monopolized the self-styled underground stations and began making incursions into the top 40. The majority of the psychedelic groups picked up on and elaborated two elements of

a school of rock: density and extreme loudness.

The Cream's brand of improvised blues contains both, but they are regulated by a sense of taste and musicianship, which is also true of the best of the San Francisco groups. When, however, volume and texture became ends rather than means, as they did for Blue Cheer, they can quickly drive a form of music past the point of appreciation or even tolerance.

A new album by a new group has reopened my interest in the sound of feedback. The group is Led Zeppelin, the album is "Led Zeppelin" (Atlantic SD8216) and the sound is fresh and exciting, though it is a permutation of familiar elements. Jimmy Page, former lead guitarist for the Yardbirds, heads the Led Zeppelin and gives them much more vitality than another ex-Yardbird, Jeff Beck, managed to inject into his group.

High point of the album is How Many More Times," a loose, lengthy remake of Howlin's Wolf's "How Many More Years" which also borrows from Albert King and other blues sources.

It is quite loud, but the volume is supported by content. Content seems to rule the LP more than a specific style of delivery. The performances range from subdued acoustic guitar to hyperelectronic

treatments of the songs.

[SteveAJones]

The reviewer is Pete Johnson of the LA Times. I don't think they ever got another favorable review in the LA Times thanks to their arch-nemesis, Richard Hilburn.