Tag: Led Zeppelin
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Led Zeppelin: A Vinyl Buyer’s Guide
The “Do What Thou Wilt” inscription on Led Zep III Want to know why some Led Zeppelin vinyl LPs sounded better than most other rock LPs? Read on… It is received wisdom that the earliest Led Zep UK pressings – with a plum and red label, rather than the later green and yellow label –…
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A Look At Led Zeppelin’s Covers
The forthcoming reissues of Led Zeppelin will probably cost, oh, at least a few pounds. Or something. So before we all trample over London’s tourists like brainwashed consumers in a desperate panic to buy new vinyl in whatever is left of HMV in Oxford St, let’s reflect on whether this is Actually A Good Idea.…
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Led Zeppelin’s Re-Masters: To Buy or Not To Buy?
The news that Jimmy Page has completed his work remastering Led Zeppelin’s back catalogue bodes well for a 2014 release. Page has confirmed this, saying to Rolling Stone Magazine that the first three Led Zeppelin albums will be released in 2014. Each album will come out as a deluxe edition, including alternate mixes and never…
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The Led Zeppelin Controversy: Who Wrote The Songs?
It is easy now to look at the relative fortunes of the likes of Led Zeppelin and The Rolling Stones – who doubtless regularly bathe in asses milk and feast on panda and swan – with the poor, early blues pioneers who struggled to scrape a living, as evidence that the British bands exploited /…
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Ray Gillen and Badlands: When Rock Bands Split Up In Front Of An Audience
Twenty years ago today rock lost one of its finest singers: Ray Gillen. In his all too short career Gillen had the distinction of recording an album with Black Sabbath – only for his vocals to be wiped and replaced by someone else’s, * and to sing with musical collective Phenomena II. In 1988 he…
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Heavy Rockers: Misunderstood Originators Or Blatant Lazy Rip-off Cliché Merchants?
Whatever Happened To My Rock n Roll Part 6 I’m putting heavy rock on trial! Have Your Say! Twenty five years on from the peak of heavy rock’s commercial popularity in 1988, this series asks why heavy rockers no longer dominate the charts and seeks to highlight the crimes that Heavy Rock is accused of,…
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Is Heavy Rock Guilty Of The Worst Lyrics Ever? The Defence
The Accusation: Heavy Rock lyrics are ridiculous and adolescent In my previous post I set out the case for the prosecution: This post sets out the defence: Do you think heavy rock’s lyrics are bad just because these guys were wearing denim and leather? You can’t judge a book by its cover. Those working class,…
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Ten Reasons Why It Was Okay To Like Bon Jovi In The Eighties
If you have been reading some of the rubbish I have come up with over the last eighteen months you may have built up a Sherlockian picture of me, although instead of observing the type of sand on my shoe (mentally noting I must live by the sea), or the bruise on my otherwise clean…
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Rock’s Great “Lost” Albums of the Eighties #3: Sea Hags
Naming a band is a thorny problem. There must be plenty of bands whose fate was sealed the moment they gave themselves a name. Would The High Numbers done as well if they hadn’t become The Who? Would Kiss have become an arena-filling behemoth if they had stuck to Wicked Lester? But it doesn’t seem…
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Sorry, Frampton Comes Alive, But The Best Album of 1976 Was Aerosmith’s Rocks
As expected, Aerosmith‘s ‘Rocks’ did not feature heavily in the BBC’s The Great Album Showdown – a show that sought to identify the Finest Rock Album of All Time. Yet in my estimation it was certainly worthy of a second look… The rise of Aerosmith in the USA in 1975 was stratospheric. Sales of ‘Toys…
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Led Zeppelin: What’s The Most Famous Song You’ve Never Heard?
The trouble with writing about Led Zeppelin is that maybe it has all been said. Mud sharks and groupies? Read Hammer of the Gods. Alastair Crowley? Read When Giants Walked The Earth by Mick Wall. The insidious influence of their music on your children? Read Raising PG Kids in an X Rated Society by Tipper…
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Live Aid – Queen in “better band than Status Quo” shock
Live Aid was the most exciting televised concert there ever was. The thing I was most excited about before Live Aid began was, of all things, watching my favourite band (Status Quo) open the show on prime time TV. In addition to having playground conversations with friends about Status Quo’s superiority to Paul Young, I…
Every record tells a story 