Led Zeppelin song by song thread

Welcome to the career song by song thread, featuring the mighty Zeppelin!

We only have 2 rules:
1) Please don't skip ahead. Stick to songs that have been posted.
2. Please: No talk of plagiarism. It's a legitimate subject to discuss, but let's stick to the music itself.

And on we go...

Good Times Bad Times


What a way to introduce a band. I hadn't listened to this in a while, and forgot how good it sounds.

Bonzo has a (well-deserved) reputation as a guy who pounds the drums hard, but this song shows how skilled he was at more nuanced drumming (bonus: cowbell!). The drums are the highlight for me on this great song.

Love Page's guitar tone, and he mixes his technical prowess with a little rock and roll sloppiness - the short solo is down and dirty. I also love JPJ's little bass fills. They squeeze a lot into less than 3 minutes.

 

Good Times Bad Times
What a great way to kick of their career. I love the way Led Zeppelin just blasts the doors in right from the get-go with that punching riff. This is just a fun, suitably dynamic heavy rock song that is a great album-opener and gets the energy going right away.

 

Great thread idea.

 

Sorry, but this made me “lol”. Great thread btw.

 

About time too, for the greatest band the world will ever see!

Having said that, this is one of my least favourite Zep tunes, principally because of the lyrics and chorus melody. But it's still a far better song than just about anything anyone else ever recorded. 11/10

Good luck with the 'no plagiarism talk' request by the way; although the saddos will find it hard to find anything to complain about with GTBT, I predict that, within 48 hours, this thread will have been soiled by their customary snail trails

 

This song must had a big impact in 1969, what a way to start! It sounds so physical and in your face , almost three-dimensional. Nothing had sounded like that in 1968

 

Good Times Bad Times:
Right off the bat, Jimmy Page lets out a stomping riff mixed in with Bonham’s nuanced and creative yet intensively powerful drums, John Paul Jones pulsing subliminally and Robert delivering a swaggering vocal on top of all this excellent music. Simple yet complex, the track takes you by the nuts and lets you know these guys mean business, and this is a fantastic opener to the album.

 

Live in 1970:

 

Page and Plant in 1995:

 

O2 Arena Reunion (2007):

 

One of the greatest opening songs ever. No doubts.

 

I think my son (19) likes GTBT, because I often catch him playing the riff when he doesn't know I'm listening, LOL. (His band's first 'single' is due to be played on BBC Radio tomorrow...and no, it's not a Zep ripoff. Only losers write Zep rip-offs!)

 

Good Times, Bad Times: There is something about Plant’s delivery that is really exciting in this cut. I like his voice in this register- he’s so soulful.

Everyone gets a little bit to shine... the bass drum rabbit fills, the bass guitar breaks, and Pagey’s sweet sweet solo on the outro.

My favorite band of all time!

 

Great album and starts with a great song, but my cassette from the '80s starts with Your Time Is Gonna Come. For years I thought that was the first song, and still kind of do. I actually think the album flows better like that. The organ intro just fits it so well.

 

First of all I love the sound of this album, so fresh and live in the studio sounding. Later Zep sometimes has sounds that are just a little too dry (nitpicking I know). I find it similar to Sabbath's debut- it's like it's still straddling the line of the last of the 60's wall of sound reverby techniques (and in Zep's case psychedelia) but has that fresh "newer" heavy sound that reaks of the 70's hard rock to come. Bonhams drums clearly sound ahead of their time IMHO-even Gingers Cream stuff has that kind of one dimensional paper thin sound (not a knock on Ginger, more the production) at times where as Bonham's is fully dimensional in fullness and depth. While the rest of the band still sounds a bit dated the drums sound like they could come from any future era IMHO.
GTBT is a phenomenal debut song. I only wish I was there at the time to hear it for the first time...

 

Good Times Bad Times, shows the sound of a supergroup, but two of the members were unknowns. I don't think drums were ever this big and upfront on a recording before this
Good guitar lick on the main riff, nice technique of bouncing the bass drum pedal to create triplets. Plant belts the verses out and slips into a sort of baritone on the choruses. One of the 3 songs on the album that are truly great IMO.

 

I thought it was very fitting that they opened the O2 reunion concert with Good Times, Bad Times as well.

 

Good Times Bad Times
Killer opening track for a killer career. I agree that Bonham shines especially on this song, but it's a great catchy rock song and everyone chips in well. Plant sounded so good on the debut. I've always thought the first five seconds of this song sound like a song by the Cars. Every time I heard it on the radio as a kid, I always thought it was going to be a Cars song for those first five seconds.

 

"Good Times Bad Times" contains a fantastic intro and is tremendous through the solo. Bonham is the star of this track. After the blistering solo, the song loses a bit of its definition. Never loved its coda. Still, overall, it is a high quality track with virtuoso musicianship throughout.

 

I’m a big Glyn Johns fan and he was great at capturing vocals. He does really well with Plant on this album. Too bad this is the only lp where the group and Glyn teamed up!

 

Great song on any level, great recording/performance. There was "heavy" music out there prior to this but this-to this day-feels like the very promising introduction to something creatively different, altogether. While the actual chord progression (verses and chorus) wasn't anything overtly "new", the way in which it was "presented" here-the overall sound, the musicianship-*was*. And above all other comparable music of the time, this was actually highly memorable, melodically; a quality that would grow in their songwriting as they progressed, again, putting them (IMO) in a class of their own.

 

Good Time Bad Times

Opens up with a heavy E chord and it sounds great on the Tele. The drums kick in and the chord progression goes to the somewhat cliché' pop E Mixolydian progression of E-D-A but listen to how Jimmy makes it bluesy and jazzy with the chromatic turnaround at :23. Plant sounds amazing double tracked. The melody is straight Mixolydian and not too bluesy. Listen to those incredible triplets from Bonzo at :30 The chorus at :45 goes to A Mixolydian with A-G-D and then at :50 to B Mixolydian with B-A-E. Same progression intervals just different modes. Brilliant use of mode mixing. JPJ plays a little transition line and then a bridge enters in F # minor. The minor based melody gets more somber to match the lyrics getting shafted story. The bridge is pretty much a vamp on F # minor but with some great bluesy pull offs. The chorus returns at 1:19. At 1:31 the guitar break is based around E minor pentatonic and does not overdo it with blues clichés'. Wicked bend at 1:36. The ascending run is a repeating triplet line between seconds and thirds and rhythmically displaces.....translation to bad as hell sounding. Jimmy may have gotten this from the guitar line at the end of the chorus in the Blues Magoos song We Ain't Got Nothin' Yet.....has become a kind of rock guitar cliché'. Maybe not but they are similar. Guitar tone is amazing thru the Leslie......correct me gear guys if I am wrong on that. The chorus follows and everyone is blazing. At 2:03 the outro starts and Jimmy plays part of the solo section in reverse. Call and response sounds amazing. Little picks scrapes make it sound more edgy. The song fades.

Amazing opener that floored me from the first time I heard it. Brilliant use of a simple chord progression over different modes. Still sounds great today IMO.

 

Go to :45. Maybe Jimmy got the idea from this song for part of his solo.

 

One of the greatest debut albums of all time...scratch that...simply one of the greatest ALBUMS of all time.

 

This thread is gonna rock.