What I Am Listening To

Led Zeppelin seems to be the band that makes up the classic rock background of radio, always there, always consistent, but often forgotten. The Who in their current form still tour, as do the Stones (until Jagger’s recent health issues), but Zeppelin shut it all down with the death of drummer John Bonham in September 1980. Except for a few celebratory performances, Zeppelin’s music is limited to a furious twelve year span from 1968-1980. And it all started with this album, Led Zeppelin, released in 1969. Can you imagine listening to the Beatles’ Abbey Road or the country rock tones of the Stones’ Let It Bleed and then hearing the first few notes of Good Times, Bad Times blast from your speakers? If you made it through that that onslaught, you may have thought you had some time to recover with the acoustic strumming that begins Babe I’m Gonna Leave You. Well, you would be wrong as by the second minute of that song the fury of Bonham’s drums form the platform for Robert Plant’s wailing and John Paul Jone’s bass line. Never mind that it wont be until two songs later when you hear the full brilliance of Jimmy Page in the bombastic, indulgent classic Dazed and Confused. What isnt confusing is the power of this whole album, start to finish. Go back, listen, and I dare you to disagree.