Nearly 10 years since the first listen, it’s still one of my favorite records, a remarkable debut, a perfect work that for me remains the quintessential Hard-Blues album, despite the sublime forays into the electro-acoustic realm (more acoustic than electric) of "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You" or even the acoustic guitar instrumental by Page that ventures into pure traditional British (actually Irish) folk with "Black Mountain Side," which reprises "Down by Blackwaterside," particularly the version given three years prior by Bert Jansch, a tribute from Page to a great master. And "Dazed and Confused," acidic, psychedelic, and luciferian, is "My" Led Zeppelin song, extraordinary. And everything else... Wow, everything else... A masterpiece.
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