•
Rating:
It is well known that heavy metal is a true genre and not just one of the many subplots that exploded with the disintegration of rock&roll.
Clear and irrefutable is the technical and scenic supremacy of something that not only survived the gray dust of time but managed to evolve, giving birth to creatures as monstrous as they are innovative.
It is equally clear that, in an era of ruthless commercialization like the one we are living in, nothing can be beneficial without first carrying out an expensive accounting operation or, even better, formalizing a respectable agreement with the henchmen of the all-knowing and criminal Copyright, the hyper-media filter and superintendent of the modern society of horrors.
If it's true that nothing is created and nothing is destroyed but everything transforms, we could dare say that the scraping and mechanical delirium of Sunshine Of Your Love, the psychedelic cackle of I Ain't Superstitious, and the plutonium blues of Jimi Hendrix (the extraterrestrial) were nothing other than the eviscerated consequence of the biological corruption of the electric sound and a guitar connected to a buzzing amplifier, many years earlier.
Yet, times had definitively changed, in the late '60s a new, dense, claustrophobic, almost sulfurous air was in the air, and that chasm that the aforementioned guitarists had helped to dig with their companies was transforming into a volcano in full eruption. If everything was born with the blues, now of the songs of the slaves, the sweaty suffering, and the bloody pain that moistened the plantations and strengthened the iron of the chains, only a foggy memory remained.
The bright and blurred images of BB King and Muddy Waters, of Sonny Boy Williamson and Howlin' Wolf headed from the tour posters pasted on the walls and bulletin boards. Those dusty and expensive records that marked the childhood and early adolescence of Mick Jagger, Robert Plant, Brian Jones, Eric Clapton, and all other future rock stars were now experiencing dizzying drops in sales and were often left on the offer shelves. The Beatles hadn't just revolutionized the music scene: the "Fab Four" had overturned the world of pop, shaking it to its foundations. And, while the Liverpool quartet frescoed the walls of the "Short Century," a young guitarist named Jimmy Page was cutting his teeth in the recording studios of London, dreaming in the shadow of the immortal melodies of Across The Universe and A Day In The Life.
1970. Times have changed. The Revolution has reached its peak: a better world is not possible. A new world is not possible. Political instability and social unrest bury the positive vibrations and good times of the last decade. A period of transition begins, extending until the complete dissolution of the pacifist dream. Consequently, music changes too. In reality, a slow descent begins. In the impossibility of transforming gold into something even more precious and shining, one is limited to beating the prodigious beaten earth years earlier by the great seekers and extracting it as long as it lasts. But the new seekers are not satisfied with the abundance and riches lying in the underground of Rock n' Roll, they also demand their piece of history, they want to ride El Dorado to the end: there is no room in the carriage for scribblers and jesters, no logbook, legend will speak for them.
The dark tale of Led Zeppelin begins with the implosion of the Yardbirds and a failed coup in the Who. If events had continued along the path of Keith Moon's brilliant joke, today we would know a completely different story. It was '66 when Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker, and Jack Bruce decided to join forces in creating the first "supergroup," the flaming Cream, who at the time did not yet have a name. Around the same time, the doors of IBC Studios in London swung open to five musicians who improvised the assembly of a shocking lineup. The result of that session was the revolutionary Beck's Bolero. Those same musicians, in fact, were supposed to be Led Zeppelin: Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones, Nicky Hopkins, and Keith Moon. Plus a choice that would soon prove impractical, the singer and guitarist of the Small Faces, Steve Marriott.
Today we know that the "Lead Balloon" set out with a completely different crew. Robert Plant and John Bonham were recruited when they had lost all hope, and it is precisely the case to say: the rest is history.
1970 is a year of astounding releases for hard rock. Pink Floyd releases Atom Heart Mother, the Rolling Stones launch Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out, Black Sabbath releases Paranoid, perhaps their greatest success, the Who strikes a deadly blow with Live at Leeds, Peter Green hits hard with his new The End of the Game, the Doors publish Absolutely Live, the The Guess Who churns out American Woman, Jimi Hendrix's Band of Gypsys records its first and last effort, Miles Davis enchants with Bitches Brew and Deep Purple sets the roads on fire with In Rock. Amidst the reshuffle, critics destroy Led Zeppelin III.
The journalists, those from Rolling Stone especially, while the year before they accused them of raping the blues by plundering the repertoire of American authors, now complained about the drastic drop in power that Page and company operated in favor of a delicate acoustic refinement. Up to a few months before, they were nothing more than a loud and flashy band, at times violent, expressing themselves through an exhausting chiaroscuro for the listener's ears. The devilish guru of evil literature, William Burroughs, after attending the group's famous performance at Madison Square Garden in New York, did not fail to highlight how Led Zeppelin's music hit the head, not the legs: "They are not like the Rolling Stones, their music does not make you want to dance, it is not directed at the legs, it hits the temples..."
When it comes to descending into the babble and syrup of rankings and genres, even to the discourses of certain deconstructionist philosophy propellants, in the constant search for intellectual approval, it must be taken into account that the ensemble composed of the four British musicians managed to overcome a musical manner before it was paraphrased and interpreted, and to make it an enormously successful business.
The music that Led Zeppelin produced over their career surpasses the limits imposed by classifications, overthrows stylistic canons and reference models, burns any sort of comparison. For better and for worse. In just under a year and a half, Led Zeppelin fueled a creative engine capable of generating diverse songs contained in equally eclectic albums, such as the intense I and the irritable II, the LP of Whole Lotta Love, the first cry of that creature that one day would become famous with the expression heavy metal.
And it's precisely the "heavy" that is the stylistic hallmark of Led Zeppelin, that extraordinary ability to combine the electric solidity of bass and guitar with the distinctive elements of the ensemble: Robert Plant's wild voice and John Bonham's unprecedented power.
Page and company did not invent heavy metal. But that's not important. Nor is it important to try to analyze a perfect work like III. Globally, the third work of Led Zeppelin is the band's best, as well as one of the greatest albums of all time, but it's not even about that.
We all know the songs that compose the work: from the reiterated and driving metal riff of Immigrant Song to the sentimental melancholy of Tangerine; from the lively, exhilarating, and exciting hard of Celebration Day to the granite Out On the Tiles; from the very modern electric blues of the painful Since I've Been Loving You to the mythological Friends, Bron Y Aur Stomp, and Gallow's Pole, passing through the blurred tenderness of That's the Way and the slashed and delirious blues of Hat's Off to Roy (Harper).
We know its songs because they are famous and beautiful, and because -as with every Zeppelin masterpiece- they have been able to establish themselves as true musical standards of the contemporary pop scene.
The Myth.
Led Zeppelin went down in history immediately, perhaps from the very first strokes of their debut, those dry and precise thumps of Good Times Bad Times, the opening track of I and the crash of the Lead Zeppelin.
But what remains of the Myth today?
Listening to III on an old turntable is still a magical, almost surreal experience: one feels catapulted into a sort of no man's land, a place where the boundaries between ancient and modern widen and narrow, where one is unable to grasp the zeitgeist nor to monitor emotions. If postmodernism exists, then it's a Led Zeppelin record on a '60s system in 2020.
The twilight of the gods. Within a few years, bands incredibly diverse from one another would demolish the wall of sound that Led Zeppelin themselves had broken before everyone else. Deep Purple was about to record Made in Japan. The Sweet were starting to experiment with hard, cheeky, and fast rhythms and sounds. Groups like AC/DC, Aerosmith, Kiss, Blue Öyster Cult, Thin Lizzy, Budgie, and Armageddon were about to explode on the threshold of the already inflamed hard'n'heavy scene. Led Zeppelin's mastery risked falling under a loud rain of decibels. Soon it wouldn't be enough to increase the volume knob -again. Live at Leeds by the Who had paved the way for the metallic madness of great live performances, which in the '80s would become the norm for the hard rock/heavy metal scenario. So III remains the last testimony of the raw and dirty sound that made Led Zeppelin immortal, the barbaric residue of an idea as innovative as it is obvious, a synthesized blues elevated to the nth degree.
One year later, everything would change with the Olympic lyricism of IV. Under Jimmy Page's orchestral direction, Led Zeppelin abandoned the ferocity of their origins to embark on a more complex, sophisticated and pop, erudite and catchy artistic path, at times symphonic, but far from the chaos of creation.
Here, probably, of the Myth nothing remains but a ruthless and triumphant commercialization: 300 million records sold forty years after the band's breakup; a historic reunion, with Jason Bonham on drums and 20 million desperate phone calls to attend the show, a Guinness World Record.
Love and hate are two sides of the same coin. Just flip it and wait for it to fall.
Tracklist Lyrics Samples and Videos
01 Immigrant Song (02:24)
Ah, ah,
We come from the land of the ice and snow,
From the midnight sun where the hot springs flow.
The hammer of the gods will drive our ships to new lands,
To fight the horde, singing and crying: Valhalla, I am coming!
On we sweep with threshing oar, Our only goal will be the western shore.
Ah, ah,
We come from the land of the ice and snow,
From the midnight sun where the hot springs blow.
How soft your fields so green, can whisper tales of gore,
Of how we calmed the tides of war. We are your overlords.
On we sweep with threshing oar, Our only goal will be the western shore.
So now you'd better stop and rebuild all your ruins,
For peace and trust can win the day despite of all your losing.
02 Friends (03:52)
Bright light, almost blinding
Black night, still there shining
I can't stop, keep on climbing
Looking for what I knew
Had a friend, she once told me
"You got love, you ain't lonely"
Now she's gone and left me only
Looking for what I knew
Mmm, I'm telling you now
The greatest thing you ever can do now
Is trade a smile with someone who's blue now
It's very easy just
Met a man on the roadside crying
Without a friend there's no denying
You're incomplete, they'll be no finding
Looking for what you knew
So anytime somebody needs you
Don't let them down, although it grieves you
Someday you'll need someone like they do
Looking for what you knew
Mmm mmm, I'm telling you now
The greatest thing you ever can do now
Is trade a smile with someone who's blue now
It's very easy just
Ohh, yeah
I'm telling you now
The greatest thing you ever can do now
Is trade a smile with someone who's blue now
It's very easy
It's very easy
It's very easy
It's easy, yeah
03 Celebration Day (03:25)
Her face is cracked from smiling, all the fears that she's been hiding
And it seems pretty soon everybody's gonna know
And her voice is sore from shouting, cheering winners who are losing
And she worries if their days are few and soon they'll have to go
My my my, I'm so happy
I'm gonna join the band
We gonna dance and sing in celebration
We're in the promised land
She hears them talk of new ways to protect the home she lives in
Then she wonders what it's all about when they break down the door
Her name is Brown or White or Black, you know her very well
You hear her cries of mercy as the winners toll the bell
My my my, I'm so happy
I'm gonna join the band
We gonna dance and sing in celebration
We're in the promised land
There is a train that leaves the station, heading for your destination
But the price you pay to nowhere has increased a dollar more
Yes, it has!
And if you walk you're gonna get there, although it takes a little longer
When you see it in the distance you will wring your hands and moan
05 Out on the Tiles (04:01)
As I walk down the highway, all I do is sing this song
And a train that's passin' my way, helps the rhythm move along
There is no doubt about the words are clear
The voice is strong, is oh so strong
I'm just a simple guy, I live from day to day
A ray of sunshine melts my frown, and blows my blues away
There's nothing more that I can say, but on a day like today
I pass the time away, and walk a quiet mile with you
All I need from you, is all your love
All you got to give to me, is all your love
All I need from you, is all your love
All you got to give to me, is all your love
Ooh yeah, ooh yeah
Ooh yeah, ooh yeah
I'm so glad I'm living, and gonna tell the world I am
I got me a fine woman, and she says that I'm her man
One thing that I know for sure, gonna give her all the loving
Like nobody, nobody, nobody, nobody can
Standing in the noonday sun, trying to flag a ride
People go and people come, see my rider right by my side
It's a total disgrace, they set the pace, it must be a race
And the best thing I can do is run
All I need from you, is all your love
All you got to give to me, is all your love
All I need from you, is all your love
All you got to give to me, is all your love
Ooh yeah, ooh yeah
Ooh yeah, ooh yeah
06 Gallows Pole (04:51)
Hangman, hangman, hold it a little while
Think I see my friends coming, riding a many mile
Friends, did you get some silver?
Did you get a little gold?
What did you bring me, my dear friends, to keep me from the gallows pole?
What did you bring me, to keep me from the gallows pole?
I couldn't get no silver, I couldn't get no gold
You know that we're too damn poor to keep you from the gallows pole
Hangman, hangman, hold it a little while
I think I see my brother coming, riding a many mile
Brother, did you get me some silver?
Did you get a little gold?
What did you bring me, my brother, to keep me from the gallows pole?
Brother, I brought you some silver, yeah, I brought a little gold
I brought a little of everything to keep you from the gallows pole
Yes, I brought you, to keep you from the gallows pole
Hangman, hangman, turn your head awhile
I think I see my sister coming, riding a many mile, mile, mile, mile
Sister, I implore you, take him by the hand
Take him to some shady bower, save me from the wrath of this man
Please take him, save me from the wrath of this man, man
Hangman, hangman, upon your face a smile
Tell me that I'm free to ride
And ride for many mile, mile, mile
Oh, yes, you got a fine sister, she warmed my blood from cold
She brought my blood to boiling hot to keep you from the gallows pole
Your brother brought me silver, and your sister warmed my soul
But now I laugh and pull so hard, see you swinging on the gallows pole, yeah
But now I laugh and pull so hard, see you swinging on the gallows pole, pole, pole
Swingin' on the gallows pole
Swingin' on the gallows pole
Swingin' on the gallows pole
Swingin' on the gallows pole, pole, pole, pole, pole, pole, pole
07 Tangerine (03:09)
Measuring a summer's day
I only find it slips away to grey
The hours, they bring me pain
Tangerine, Tangerine
Living reflections from a dream
I was her love, she was my queen
And now a thousand years between
Thinking how it used to be
Does she still remember times like these?
To think of us again, and I do
Tangerine, Tangerine
Living reflections from a dream
I was her love, she was my queen
And now a thousand years between
08 That's the Way (05:36)
I don't know how I'm gonna tell you
I can't play with you no more
I don't know how I'm gonna do what mama told me
My friend, the boy next door
I can't believe what people saying
You're gonna let your hair hang down
I'm satisfied to sit here working all day long
You're in the darker side of town
And when I'm out I see you walking
Why don't your eyes see me?
Could it be you've found another game to play?
What did mama say to me?
That's the way, oh, that's the way it oughta be, yeah yeah
Mama say that's the way it oughta stay, yeah yeah
And yesterday I saw you standing by the river
And weren't those tears that filled your eyes?
And all the fish that lay in dirty water dying
Had they got you hypnotized?
And yesterday I saw you kissing tiny flowers
But all that lives is born to die
And so I say to you that nothing really matters
And all you do is stand and cry
I don't know what to say about it
When all your ears have turned away
But now's the time to look and look again at what you see
Is that the way it oughta stay?
That's the way, that's the way it oughta be, oh don't you know now
Mama said, mama said that's the way it's gonna stay, yeah
09 Bron-Yr-Aur Stomp (04:17)
I caught you smiling at me,
That's the way it should be,
Like a leaf is to a tree so fine.
Ah all the good times we had,
I sang love songs so glad,
Always smiling never sad so fine.
As we walk down a country lane,
I'll be singing a song,
Hear me calling your name.
Hear the whisper in the trees,
Telling mother nature bout you and me.
Well, if the sunshines so bright,
Or on our way it's darkest night,
The road we choose is always right so fine.
Ah can your love be so strong,
When so many loves go wrong,
Will our love go on and on and on and on and on and on.
As we walk down a country lane,
I'll be singing a song,
Hear me calling your name.
Hear the whisper in the trees,
Telling mother nature bout you and me.
My my, la de la, come on now it ain't too far,
Tell your friends all around the world,
Ain't no companion like a blue eyed merle.
Come on now well let me tell you,
What you're missing missing round them brick walls.
So, of one thing I am sure,
It's a friendship so pure,
Angels singing all around my door so fine.
Yeah, ain't but one thing to do
Spend my natural life with you,
You're the finest dog I knew so fine.
When you're old and your eyes are dim,
There ain't no old Shep gonna happen again.
We'll still go walking down country lanes,
I'll sing the same old songs,
Hear me call your name.
10 Hats Off to (Roy) Harper (03:40)
When I done quit hollerin' baby
I believe I'll shake 'em on down
Get me baby, won't be late
You know by that I mean seconds late
Ah, must I holler, must I shake 'em on down?
When I done quit hollerin' baby
I believe I'll shake 'em on down
Well I ain't no monkey
I can't climb no tree
No brown skin woman gonna make no monkey out of me, yeah yeah
I ain't no monkey
Sure can't climb no tree
I been mistreated babe
I believe I'll shake 'em on down
Well I've been mistreated babe
I believe I'll shake 'em on down
Listen mama, put on your mornin' gown
Put in your nightshirt mama, we gonna shake 'em on down
Must I holler?
Must I, must I, must I shake 'em on down?
Ooh well, I been mistreated baby
I believe I'll shake 'em on down
Gave my baby
Twenty dollar bill
If that don't get her
I'm sure my shot-shot-shotgun will
Yeah, I gave my baby
A twenty dollar bill
If that don't get that woman
I'm sure my shotgun will
Loading comments slowly
Other reviews
By ROCKER88
Page achieved his dream: to make the listener compare the sound of the guitar to the relentless advance of an army.
'Since I've Been Loving You' is a blues masterpiece with Plant's voice erupting thundering after the initial sweetness.
By Alchimista
"Since I’ve Been Loving You is a cornerstone of the Dirigible’s discography. No more words are needed."
"Tangerine is the best fusion of the whole band in the entire discography of the Dirigible. A must-have piece."
By macciopiccio
"Among the top ten most badass riffs in the history of Rock."
"'Since I've Been Loving You' is a piece to fall in love with, like becoming enamored with a woman or a man and remaining indissolubly tied for eternity."
By claudio carpentieri
Immigrant Song, a musical monolith in which Plant’s cries of invasion propel an invincible shock wave.
Gallows Pole intensifies the narrative of the condemned prisoner escaping his unhappy fate with an ingenious blend of instruments.
By James Patrick
"Immigrant Song" is an indescribable bomb that will inspire more than half of Heavy Metal.
From this album onwards, there will be a turning point: new melodic choices, new rides, different ways of interpreting rock.
