Led Zeppelin II - The Greatest Rock Album of All Time Released 40 Years Ago Today

I always thought these were the II album tapes but I don't see a Hawaii date in my Zep Live book. Just found a May 13 Honolulu date on line though. Thanks for that.

 

Not on LZII, but "Dazed And Confused" from LZI is difficult to defend. Song and riff come from Jake Holmes' original tune. The Yardbirds played it with Holmes' title and lyrics, Plant made some very minimal lyrical changes, and they changed the title.

 

hell yeah to post 100!

wow just strutting around with the masters loosey goosey... different times i guess.

 

That's nice. Too bad this is a Zep II thread. Oh wait it was and now its a Zeppelin rip off thread.

Eddie

 

Looks like they are holding them tight to me.

Agree on post 100. It should be a sticky.

One thing I always heard though is that the Moby Dick riff (and the Beatles "I feel fine" for that matter) was inspired by "Watch your step" by Bobby Parker. Still there was no doubt when Zep got done with a tune or a riff who's it had become.

 

I still love the Whole Lotta Love and Heartbreaker riffs. They always get me going.

I was given this lp as a gift from my secret Santa in grade school. My friend went over the budget by about $4 but he said he knew I liked Zeppelin and wanted to buy it for me. I was well chuffed.

Before I had the lp I had a tape I made by playing my friends copy on our stereo and putting my boom box next to the speakers and pressing record! The boom box didn't have a line in so it was the only way. I listened to that tape for most of the summer and winter until I got the lp as a gift. Great memories.

Eddie

 

From RS.com

http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/index.php/2009/10/22/led-zeppelin-ii-turns-40/

“Led Zeppelin II” Turns 40

10/22/09, 4:50 pm EST

Forty years ago today, Led Zeppelin released Led Zeppelin II just nine months after unleashing their historic debut. Produced by guitarist Jimmy Page, II laid the groundwork for heavy metal with its classic “Whole Lotta Love” and firmly established Zeppelin as one of the loudest and greatest bands in rock at the time. II also boasts Robert Plant’s unparalleled vocal prowess on hits like “Ramble On” and “What Is and What Should Never Be” and John Bonham’s still-unmatched drum solo on “Moby Dick.”

Led Zeppelin live: photos from their legendary reunion show.

When the album came out 40 years ago, Rolling Stone critic John Mendelsohn wasn’t exactly glowing in his 1969 review of the album, writing tongue-in-cheekily, “I’ll concede that until you’ve listened to the album eight hundred times, as I have, it seems as if it’s just one especially heavy song extended over the space of two whole sides. But, hey! You’ve got to admit that the Zeppelin has their distinctive and enchanting formula down stone-cold, man.” Of course, Mendelsohn’s opinion turned out to be the small, small minority, and Rolling Stone went on to place Led Zeppelin II on our 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

The New Rolling Stone Album Guide awarded Led Zeppelin II the five-star review it rightly deserves, adding that “Whole Lotta Love” “became a starting point for Aerosmith, Guns n’ Roses and Van Halen, among others. It’s an amazing song not just for its seismic riff and bingeing-on-lust vocal performance, but for its mind-bending midsection, in which Page orchestrates the aural equivalent of an orgasm (Theremin included.)”

So bust out your old II vinyl or eight-track or CD, crank up your stereo volume high and celebrate the album’s fortieth birthday.

 

Been listening to this album since it came out (I was 12!) Still love it, my 'RL' copy really slams! Too bad they did'nt release an anniversary edition.

 

Is this really what you think this record is about?

 

Am I the only one who find it hard to listen to this or the first album, due to the levels of Bonhams drums being in the RED for most of the recordings? Seems they didn't get the production right until the 3rd album.. Songs are great for sure but I rarely listen to it due to the distortion.

 

There are not too many albums that I can reference as a life changer, and this is one of them.

 

A mover! From the first day I heard this album in 1970/71, I thought there was something magical about that sound, something I couldn't explain, of epic proportions! I was already a bigger Black Sabbath fan, but still I was so impressed... For a very long time after that I remained unaware of some of the British scene that contained parts of this mystery sound (Yardbirds, Beck's Bolero, etc.). Not to diminish the contributions of the other three (and especially of John Paul Jones!!), but this sound was Jimmy Page for me. I wasn't so much THAT impressed with his lead guitar playing as I was with those guitar sound sculptures he built, those massive army of guitars... that still remained soulful and expressive... Of course I didn't think any of that at age 13, but this is how I see it today.

Probably my favorite Led Zeppelin album!

 

There are lots of things to say about LZII but for me the defining point of Led Zeppelin II is the sound of that guitar riff in Whole Lotta Love, not only the way its actual level of distortion of frequency, but the way Page slightly bent the A string fretted to D to ring in unison with the open D string. The way that big, deep drone interacts with the sound of that Black Beauty Les Paul (sadly stolen on the subsequent tour and never recorded) through a Marshall Plexi. To my ears, it's the perfect rock guitar sound. It sounds huge whether coming through an old tube table radio, a tiny transistor, on cassette, a cheap record player, a CD player, or an audiophile LP. The rest of the album is at times stunning and still sounds mostly like a fresh new album recorded last week, but ultimately, it's that one riff, followed closely by Robert Plant's original vocal performance on the track that sounds like the riff personified, the mammoth bass foundation that gives the riff the weight and that slinky, irresistable groove.

 

When John Paul Jones joins Jimmy with the Whole Lotta Love riff.....oh yeah!!!!! Still gets me going.

 

Re; 'Whole Lotta Love' I've always wondered [two things really] The premier pop music show in the UK in the 70s 'Top Of The Pops' used 'WLL' as it's theme tune but opted to use the [at the time] lesser known version by C.C.S. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SzQ7MGhgp8&feature=related . And why was it hardly [if ever] played live as it was on the album , I've never really liked that silly medley thing that was inserted into the middle as a filler , it ruined the hard rock powerhouse song imo . Great album though *HAPPY BIRTHDAY* !

 

Good job!

 

What makes Zepp ll stand out is that it was recorded while the band was on the road touring. Their Debut album was released on January 12 1969, and ll was released ~ 9 months later. Whole Lotta Love was a great guitar sound but it should be noted that there was great bass playing on that album. The bass line in What is and what should never be, and in Ramble On stand out. However, I think Jimmy's best solos overall are on the first album using a telecaster through the supro; a rig that page would use once more for his solo in Stairway to Heaven..

 

Cream didn't take songwriting credit for songs they didn't write. Led Zeppelin did.

See previous posts regarding how "different" The Lemon Song is from Howlin' Wolf's Killing Floor.

 

Right! Reading your post made me pinpoint more precisely those special moments of the album where, for me, the magic and mystery of it were concentrated. It was not so much that riff as that weird answering pick-on-string slide note, that was SO fascinating to me... I couldn't understand how it was done, and was not even sure it was guitar! It sounded human, like a moan, or maybe a devilish, mocking reply to the refrain...

And to this day I don't understand why they seem to have always left this bit off the live arrangements of the song! For me, this is the song!

Then you had What Is..., which I thought had everything electric, romantic rock music should be about... (even though I still kept after that edgy, doomy Sabbath experience for a good while!), and boasted that gorgeous, perfect slide solo...

 

>but it should be noted that there was great bass playing on that album<

There was SUBLIME bass playing on that album!!

In terms of jazz-blues improvisation on the electric bass (The Lemon Song), I personnally have never heard anyone coming close to that... Not even The Ox! (>ducking under chair<) Though in his case, this might be a question of context - I have just never heard him play in that particular style.

 

My two cents -
Obviously, listening to this album is a formative experience in any teenager's appreciation of hard rock music, especially if you sat diligently, like I did, learning all the incredible riffs. And it's vast influence and enduring appeal are beyond question. But when you start calling it the best rock album of all time, I think we need to look a little bit closer. My problem with Zep, as I've gotten older, is that the things that make them great are things that mainly appeal to teenage boys - the potent male agressiveness, the mythological mumbo jumbo, the refusal to deal with women on any level that resembles reality, the bombast, etc. And so, as an older guy I'm looking for things that their music doesn't give me. Don't get me wrong, I like some chest-thumping as much as the next guy, and their raw power is still undeniable and invigorating. But the "greatest" or the "best" has to do more, IMO. They never approached the gravity of Son House, the rage of Charlie Patton, or the tragedy of Robert Johnson. They were great at what they did, and II is probably their best album, but nowadays they always leave me wanting more.

 

You guys never heard the MOVE "Shazam" then......

 

All valid points, but can't you just appreciate the sound? Led Zeppelin was more about that than anything else.

 

I believe I have read somewhere that it was just a simple descending slide riff, but treated with some backwards echo.

But I agree.... WLL w/o the signature descending riff does sound like something is missing, because something important IS missing.

The only time I have heard it done correctly live was not with Zep but with Robert Plant's band during their Soundstage appearance. They have two guitarists, and IIRC, one did the descending riff.

Brian

 

That's exactly what I do appreciate. And yes, I love it! I'm just saying it doesn't go much deeper than that. I think the "greatest" should.