First Hate/Love

If your going to rip someone off you better do it where they can see you and not notice your doing it front of them.  That's how I feel about Led Zeppelin.  There riffs and playing were unique, but they took old songs and never gave the credit to the rightful performer.  I could talk about this for pages and pages and hours and hours and even point out wrong song writing credits, and even point out the strange similarities between Zeppelin tunes and their original counterparts.  I won't do that.  

I started out as young, impressionable Led Zeppelin fan at twelve years old.  It was a school trip.  I was not a social butterfly, nor was a person who really wanted to hang out with the "cool" people.  I would go on trips to get knick-knacks and items that did not even involve the subject that I was suppose to go ooo and ahhh after.  Getting laughed at or even picked on for coming home from these trips I would buy cassettes and hold them like I was taking care of a baby ferret.  Hearing my classmates poke me and ask what loser tape did I pick up on this trip.  

That one trip was a copy of Led Zeppelin IV.  It was an album that to me then, was like their greatest hits. I did not know it was a regular release, but I knew one song on it and that was my treat for getting it.  It was a few months later that I realized that there was more then the eight tunes on this cassette that Led Zeppelin made and recorded.  So in a spree I bought all the ones I could afford.  To me, they were the coolest ever.  Each time I bought another album, I liked it more then the previous album that I bought.  The song I loved on IV was quickly moved down the ranks by a better and cooler song that was on my newest acquisition.   

When I was a bit older and wiser, I started buying these on LP.  I knew I was playing the cassettes to death and hearing them on a wonderful stereo that my dad owned would make me love them, more.  It took me a while to find their first album.  It was the album that took me longer to find a first pressing because of the high volume of sales that album had.  It was Led Zeppelin I that I listened to more and more.  

Led Zeppelin I was the album that had the most non original material on it.  Later albums had a a few splattering of non Zeppelin originals, but this one was the most obvious.  This is where the hate comes in.  This is where the opening line of this post and title of this post get their feelings out about Led Zeppelin right away. With all the songs supposedly credited to Plant, Page, Jones, and Bonham. There are original tunes, by Albert King, Jake Holmes, Willie Dixon, J.B. Lenoir, Ann Bredon and Bert Jansch kicked in for good measure.  I will give Zeppelin credit for showing their influence, but give credit to who you heard from first.  A little hostile from your writer here, sorry had to be done.

So you may ask, why I picked Led Zeppelin's first album.  Well, the first for me shows the most growth for the future.  It's an album despite all the non original tunes, they do a pretty fine job of rearranging them.  I'm sure back when this album came out, Blues and Rock people alike really loved this album.  It's not my favorite Led Zeppelin, but it's the most cohesive for me.  The only song that bothers me is that Black Mountain Side is edited from the original form from the 1991 Box Set.  Dazed and Confused and How Many More Times are up there with my favorite Led Zeppelin tunes.  They may be "non originals", but they are astonishing for the time this album was out.

With all Jimmy Page's creative licensing Led Zeppelin's first and the rest there after are pretty damn good albums.  The only pet peeve I have is the Classic Rock Stations.  Here is a quick letter to them. Being a former DJ maybe they can relate, or not :)

        Dear Classic Rock Radio, 

I have listened to you since I was ten years old.  I have tried so hard to understand your reasoning for playing some songs over and over.  I'm not sure I agree with hearing Stairway to Heaven ten or even more times in one week.  It's a song that, true, popular and at one time, and might be awe and inspiring to a new listener, but it's got to stop. Zeppelin is not the only guilty band.  You as a radio programmer should be seriously switching it up to one, keep us "rocking out" and two, not from us switching the station back to a satellite radio or even another station as I do so so much.  Your goal is to keep us entertained right?  Well do so by playing a few "deep" cuts of those overplayed bands you make me pull my hair out each time.  Thankfully hair grows back and I'm off to not listen to your station anymore.  

            With love for better Classic Rock Tunes, your friend
                     
                                     Matt 

Well hope they understand my hatred for many reasons and if not play the album out of sequence and see how that works.  Maybe you will find a better understanding.  I hope you understand how I feel. Don't change the dial, when we get back, I will play You Shook Me it's a terrific ripoff but at least and I hope it won't be played more then a gazillion times.  Enjoy!