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

I sympathize with Led Zeppelin fans being a Beatles fan you get used to people trying to diminish the accomplishments of a great band. Like I have said about the Beatles they had influences like everyone else and developed their own sound. Both bands past their mentors and redefined the genre. Anyone who says Led Zeppelin was not a hugely influential band is crazy.

In my opinion it was the wrong way to start a thread by saying Led Zeppelin II - The Greatest Rock Album of All Time Released 40 Years Ago Today. Truthfully there plenty of albums that you could say that about. Led Zeppelin no doubt is a great band but the facts are they lifted things "Moby Dick" almost note for note copy of a riff which appears in Bobby Parker's "Watch Your Step" and had to give songwriting credits to these songs which in my opinion hurts the records greatness. The facts are you can't ignore it like it never happened. So I see both sides of this argument.

""Whole Lotta Love"
Bonham, Dixon, Jones, Page, Plant

"The Lemon Song"
Bonham, Burnett, Jones, Page, Plant

"Bring It On Home"
Page, Plant, Dixon

 

I saw them at Carnegie Hall in Oct 1969. A few days later this LP came out. I bought it (an RL mastered pressing) on the day of release and have pretty much committed every note to memory and I still don't get tired of it, despite how overplayed it is on radio. Great record, great songs and performances from a great band.

 

The ironic part that's usually lost, ignored or brushed aside in these arguments is that most of the blues artists who've supposedly been so wronged by LZ didn't write the songs for which they're supposedly uncredited. They in turn borrowed them from others. Or they took traditionalpieces of music that had thus far been uncopyrighted and claimed them. That doesn't make LZ's actions right, but it does brand some of those moaning the loudest to be at least a little bit hypocritical.

 

I could have never imagined worrying about any of that (machism, etc.) influencing the way I felt about women (...girls!) for instance, let alone how I was moved by the musical experience in itself when I was a kid. Still can't! (Though I do have issues about some of the things they are rumoured to have actually DONE to women [and men], but that's another story.) But then this might have to do with the fact that I am not an English speaker... even though, at a young age, I did get some of the words and allusions.

 

LZ II

"The ironic part that's usually lost, ignored or brushed aside in these arguments is that most of the blues artists who've supposedly been so wronged by LZ didn't write the songs for which they're supposedly uncredited. They in turn borrowed them from others. Or they took traditionalpieces of music that had thus far been uncopyrighted and claimed them. That doesn't make LZ's actions right, but it does brand some of those moaning the loudest to be at least a little bit hypocritical."

++++++++++++++++

I agree with the above completely.

As for LZ II, it is a great album that I never grow tired of. As to whether it is the best of all rock or the best album of LZ is to me not important.

LZ II stands as one of rocks finest moments.

Scott

 

No, sorry, the music of The Lemon Song is in no way "all Zep".

In case anyone here hasn't heard Killing Floor:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJy9kWfClGM

 

As a naive teen in a small town in the UK in the 70s , Led Zeppelin actually encouraged me to seek out the 'original' blues of Robert Johnson , Howlin' Wolf , Willie Dixon etc . That can only be a good thing if people are still buying what are now in some cases 80 year old records too ! In a lot if instances the artists like Bukka White , Memphis Minnie and Blind Willie Johnson were a revelation and are as good as if not better than the Zep counterpart . Having said that - there are some rather dubious accusations on the album 'Roots of Led Zeppelin' http://www.discogs.com/release/519398

 

Well, then ya just gotta play Led Zeppelin III, dammit!

 

First album I ever bought. Production is good. Playing is good. The songwriting is pretty bad IMHO.

 

While I didn't get it on the 22nd, I did pick it up that Saturday at Korvettes on Bay Parkway in Brooklyn. Now where did I put that receipt?
Believe it I still have the receipt for it, can you say anal?

 

Perhaps is the excessive blues style, perhaps is the dated sound/ production. I don't know but for me (please don't kill me) is FAR FROM BEING even best Zep album.

I've never been impressed with the (inexplicably for me, really) "legendary" Eddie Kramer mixes on this album. For worse, Moby Dick is plain dreadful and boring on the album. Live is where really the song belongs: Lemon song is horrible (sonically and musically). What Is and What ... is also horrible sonically. Thank You is sub-par, and Bring it On Home suffers in studio.

III & IV were HUGE steps forward in songwriting/production/sound

 

Agree 100%.

 

25 million ticket requests for a one off gig 4 decades after the band formed and people think Page/LZ's legacy is hurt?

 

it could have been 35 million!!!

Happy Birthday, LZII. ignore those naysayers...

 

Looks like we could enjoy a short version of LZII.

 

Rolling Stone Magazine has a little write-up on the 40th anniversary of "Led Zeppelin II". It references the magazine's (negative and mean) review of the album from 1969

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

Link to 1969 review of the album:
http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/ledzeppelin/albums/album/204696/review/6068144/led_zeppelin_ii

 

Revolutionary record. Just think that it was recorded in several different studios on 2 different continents while they were touring!

Not my fave Zep record, nor is it their best in my mind, but I'll always hold a special place in my heart for it.

 

Living Loving Maid

I know they never played it live because they didn't like it. Does anyone know why they didn't like it? I think it would've gone over great in concert....especially in the US....

 

Who?

 

John Paul Jones out-Jamersons J.J. himself on "Lemon Song". A great bass player, and almost the only one possible for LZ, IMO. A tremendously sympathetic musician, all around - his abilities on keys, as arranger and on other stringed instruments contributed immeasurably to Zeppelin's sonic signature.

 

This guy.

 

Zep II is a crude sounding album, thats what it is. This is not Aja, or Joshua Tree here, this is down to the floor dirty, ballz to the wallz electric blues rock. Whiners should just go listen to Abbey Road or something else. Jeez!

 

It'll always be close to the top for me, it was the first Lp I ever bought, I guess I was 9 (?). Definitely my favorite Zep album, I agree with those who praised JPJ's playing on this album - superb.

 

I pretty much have the same issues with LZII. The thing I've never been able to "get", is that it sounds like such a backwards step after LZI. The sound is murky, distorted and sleepy. Compared with what Zep accomplished before and after LZII, and compared to what Black Sabbath and Deep Purple were cooking up in the studio at roughly the same time, II sounds like it belongs to the 60s. Heck, compared to what other heavy blues rock bands were doing at the time, I don't hear II as being particularly "revolutionary".

All that said, I really do get enjoyment from a few songs. Whole Lotta Love and Heartbreaker are deservedly legendary. But yes, "The Lemon Song", "What Is and What Should Never Be" and "Moby Dick" bore me to tears.

 

One thing I do find VERY dated about WIAWSNB is the ping-pong mixed stereo effect of the riffing guitar in the last part. This IS so corny!...

I have no problem though with the similar effect in the middle section of WLL because it is rhythmical and much more subtle.