Led Zeppelin [Mothership-The Very Best Of Led Zeppelin]Well... just to prove i'm no Classical nut, here's Metal gods Led Zeppelin with their most definitive compilation discs, i got into Led Zeppelin a bit late in their career, in the very late seventies / very early eighties, and yes it was the LP Led Zeppelin IV / Four Symbols, took me a short time to discover Presence, and especially Physical Graffiti were miles better though, they were one of the bands that shaped my love of music, and they were way ahead of their time, however it's my opinion that Physical Graffiti is probably an even better introduction to Led Zeppelin than these discs, that double album has everything you could ask for.
Led Zeppelin started up in 1968, and have grown in stature as one of the greatest bands of all time, in essence they are really a bluesy Hard Rock band, and not Metal in the sense of other acts during the seventies, even today young people first discovering the wealth of material by them, quickly become devotees, and Led Zeppelin continues to create a large crowd of new followers.
On this listen, it was good to get to know disc one, which is culled from their first four albums, early Led Zeppelin [albums 1-3] are not my favourite, it was the mid seventies where they truly defined their music the best, so disc two is excellent, and on this listen it's tracks 6-8 [disc 2] that really got me going, Kashmir is well documented by Robert Plant as their best track, so i feel it's track 6 [disc 2] 'Houses Of The Holy' that i have a strong gravity towards, it comes from the double album Physical Graffiti, so i've played this track a lot, and in closely listening to it today, i realize more than ever what a pure stroke of genius this song is, it's built up from an incredible riff, Jimmy Page's guitar has that lovely hollow echo sound to it, with a double riff and a reply by John Bonham, this is repeated four times, and it's on the third time that Jimmy Page gives a nice embellishment [0:00-0:16], this is the basis for the whole song, these four riffs are interspersed with six verses, each verse by Robert Plant slowly gains in volume and intensity, on the second load of riffs after the first verse, Jimmy Page also now embellishes the second riff [0:38], it's a magnificent tease, on the third verse John Bonham starts adding a tapping sound, a nice added touch [1:21], it's the fourth verse that i think is lyrically the best,
So the world is spinning faster
Are you dizzy when you're stoned?
Let the music be your master
Will you heed the masters call?
I always thought it said 'Are you dizzy when you stop?', makes more logical sense to me, that's what happens when you stop spinning, your head keeps spinning and you feel dizzy, by the fifth and sixth verses Robert Plant is almost screaming, i get a tremendous buzz from this, at the end of the verses there's an extended riff / jam for an outro [3:13+], the whole thing is one humongous tease, it's built up and layered in intensity, it's so musically annoying / satisfying, one of their best songs ever, and a genius of a creation.
Here's Houses Of The Holy being played on YouTube.
