One thing is for certain...The Doors' "Waiting For The Sun" album definitely would've been better if it had included the title song instead of "My Wild Love."
"HOTH" (song) rocks my world. Keeps me listening to PG on its fumes. "D'yer Maker" is about something besides ladies who are sure about something or whatever the unspcified creatures are doing though "No Quarter". Sounds like someone is having fun. I'm pro-fun. Also pro-funky, so I love "The Crunge". An LZ discography without those three tunes? Hard pass.
My go-to The Song Remains the Same Over the Hills and Far Away Dancing Days Rain Song Houses of the Holy The Rover No Quarter The Ocean
Similar to “The Song Remains the Same” and “D’Yer Mak’er,” I think Robert Plant’s vocal ruins “The Crunge.” The synthesizer doesn’t help, but it’s tolerable. But Plant’s part destroys what is otherwise a pretty appealing little funk tune. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t dislike him in general, but his vocals on the entire “Houses of the Holy” album are kind of annoying.
I think the issue here is one of humour. Zep were not renowned for their sense of humour, or at least for their ability to convey it in music (and they weren’t alone in that - I’d rather pass over ELP’s musical ‘jokes’). The Crunge is perhaps a bit too subtle a joke for everyone to get, but I seriously wonder what the point of D’Yer Maker was/is. Were they consciously trying to demonstrate that white men can’t play reggae? If so, they succeeded brilliantly - but why expose it to the world? Hot Dog is the other ‘funny’ track in the Zep discography. It’s generally loathed, and with good reason.
Yeah, I was gonna say that this particular one was supposed to be tongue-in-cheek, but it just sucks, so who cares? . It's in the same way that I think "In the Evening" was supposed to ROCK but just pointlessly lies there. I do like that the working title of "Carouselambra" was "The Epic". Doesn't make me want to listen to it, tho.
That’s an interesting comment on ITE - I’ve always thought it the best track on ITTOD, but you may have put your finger on my reservations: those synths weigh it down and, yes, it does just ‘lie there’ , as you say. I’d say Carouselambra was a track they didn’t nail in the studio: you can see the potential but it doesn’t come off. This would supposedly have been reworked for the 1980 tour that never happened and it might’ve been interesting to hear the results.
I am definitely intrigued by fans who loath D’Yer Maker. I always viewed it as a LZ's attempt at a commercial pop tune, and never really felt it was "reggae". Jimmy Page has stated they were aiming for a sort of 50s doo-wop vibe which I can hear in there. It is a better song than The Crunge, but maybe too cheesy for a band like Zep? For the record I prefer it to All Of My Love which always seemed to me to be another attempt at a mainstream pop hit that fell rather flat, although I suppose the lyrics and vocal are more heartfelt and meaningful.
Its a joke about it just being a vamp that never makes it to a bridge, I always thought Jimmy and JPJ do a musical joke of a sort of locked repeating section like the record is skipping, you feel the the riff (not the main riff) is about to change but doesn't. James Brown records did have bridges but they came after long periods on just a single groove, so I always thought that was the joke.
Houses of the Holy doesn’t really work as a side closer tho. It works better to open a side, but I like the two that already open both sides. It’s one of the high points of PG. I don’t see The Crunge really fitting in on PG either.
Well, the title wears the reggae on its sleeve, and not in a flattering way (for band or referenced country). But I still hear the song as you do, a catchy little ditty and one that's got a secure place in my heart. Another title ("Baby Please Don't Go"?) would've served its charm better. Guess they were going for a Floyd "Free Four" kinda title, but this one's just cheap.
I have listened to Zep albums so much I find it almost impossible to say which one is better than the other. As soon as I think I have a preference I rediscover one and it goes to number 1! I probably listen to HOFH and PG now more than IV simply through listening to it maybe too much in the day. However for me they are all pretty much 5 star albums with maybe Coda a 3 star and ITTOD a 4 star.
I am the same way with music, but it's the objective thing that I don't understand. Yes, we have all spun IV ad nauseam. And yes, most of us probably reach for something else more than not because of it. But I can still objectively look at that record and categorically see that it's their magnum opus. It's their St. Peppers/Dark Side of the Moon etc, and though I accept that other people don't share that viewpoint, I still can't fathom it. It's (IV being their greatest) that obvious to me.
I'm comfortable with the idea that IV represents their commercial peak; that it has several of their biggest hits (including their biggest one of all); and that it's exceedingly well-regarded. All of those are, as far as I know, hard facts. I'll grant that it's an album where they pushed certain aspects of their sound, or approach, to their logical conclusion or most focused expression. For a certain aspect of Led Zeppelin, it's the Led Zeppelin-iest they ever got. I'm not, however, comfortable with the idea that it can be "objectively" demonstrated that it's their best or greatest album. I don't enjoy it as much as Houses of the Holy, my favorite; maybe not as much as II either. And -- crucially -- I've felt that way from the first time I heard it. So I wonder: what is the basis for your claim of objectivity? What are the criteria? How can it be measured? What happens if someone doesn't rank the album as highly as you -- does it mean that they're wrong, or defective in some way, or aren't listening "correctly"?
Unless you're using an arcane metric which requires a PhD in music theory, your view - and everybody else's - is subjective and is based solely on personal taste. My criteria is this: Which album moves me the most? I've listened to Presence far more often than any other Led Zeppelin album and I never tire of it. I have Zep I and Physical Graffiti ahead of IV also. And when it comes to Pink Floyd, I have DSOTM 5th. I've listened to Piper at the Gates of Dawn far more than any other Floyd record. Zeppelin IV and DSOTM were the "gateway drugs", the accessible, radio-friendly stuff that got me started, while the rest of both band's catalogs expanded my horizons.
When I said objective, I'm talking about the quality of composition, and so its consistency. Stairway by itself is like Bohemian Rhapsody. It's their greatest work, bar none. Then you look at the rest of the album, and every song on their has been played on the radio the point where it's basically a greatest-hits record. I can't think of another album of theirs which is so flawless from start to finish that every single song became a hit on the radio. And even if there was one, Stairway pushes IV over the top, so the argument would be moot for me. As far as people being defective if they can't see any of that... that is way too strong of a word. I would just say that they--for whatever reason--can't see its full merit. And I'm okay with that. But I will reject any notion that IV isn't their best album until someone makes an argument against it that I agree with, and since Zeppelin is finished, I don't see that happening.
