Rating My CD's: Alchemy

35. Led Zeppelin -- III


Bands are a product of human alchemy, of a group of individuals offering their talents to make a unified sound. Sometimes, that alchemy mixes individuals who work well together and survive decades of the grind of rehearse-record-tour. The Rolling Stones are still around because Mick Jagger and Keith Richards have an unshakeable chemical bond. In other cases, such as the Sex Pistols, the mixture was inherently unstable, in fact deliberately designed to combust.

Combustion was more or less what Zeppelin was selling on it's first two albums, or more properly combust-a-bility (Bust-a-bility!), as John Adams would put it. Which is why III has always been their head-fake record; their pastoral yawp from the Welsh hill country. They were the biggest band in the world at this point, and they made what's basically an acoustic-electric-folk record. Because they felt like it.



I've had this CD for all of two days, so it's probably ridiculous for me to review it, even after non-stop listening. I'd be doing exactly what Jimmy Page accused the critics of 1970 of doing:

[W]ith hindsight, I can see how if somebody got Led Zeppelin III, which was so different from what we'd done before, and they only had a short time to review it on the record player in the office, then they missed the content. They were in a rush and they were looking for the new "Whole Lotta Love" and not actually listening to what was there.

Such is the swipe the artist always takes at the critic: "We spent months putting this record together; could you take more than two days to judge it?" But since nobody's paying me for my thoughts here (not that I'd mind), I'm gonna operate according to whatever schedule I feel like, and this is Zeppelin Week.

See? I've got the Icarus poster and everything

Now, initially I bought this because it has "Immigrant Song." Which is why statements about how this record didn't have a "Whole Lotta Love, Pt. 2" have always confused me. Isn't "Immigrant Song" exactly the follow-up to "Whole Lotta Love" that you'd want? Or if you wanted a long, deep blues song with good Plant wailing, why wasn't "Since I've been Loving You" sufficient? For that matter, what was wrong with "Out on the Tiles"? It's got the "give me all of your love" refrain in it and everything. Did they need to spell it out for you? I don't get it.

If I had to pick a favorite, at this point, I'd probably go with "Gallows Pole," for it's apt summation of the entire spirit of the album. It's a reworking of a hoary old folk song about hangin' some poor lass, and the lads manage to rework it using modern techniques without crushing the earthy feel of the original. They mix in mandolin, and banjo, and bass, and allow the elements to foam together to a climax, but it feels entirely right and natural.

But I can't think of anything that hasn't gotten better and better by repetition. "Tangerine" slips in some subtle wah-effects on the chorus and other electronica on the bridge, and it fits. "That's the Way" reads like the prequel to "Goin' to California." Even "Friends," which coming as it does immediately after "Immigrant Song," is probably more to blame than any other track for the "huh?" response from critics and fans, is starting to grow on me. It strikes like a subtler version of "Kashmir,"when the Ravi Brahma Hindu influences surprise rather than stamp their mark on the song's whole atman.

So for that reason, I'm going to give you the obligatory Live Zeppelin YouTube Video, not of "Immigrant Song" but of "Bron-Y-Aur Stomp," in keeping with this CD's whole jive. Enjoy, and try to wash all that prejudice, born of too many hearings of Stairway, out of your ears.




Grade: LL