# 107 - Led Zeppelin - VI

So this is the last of the Cambridge Three. I've got two more albums lined up though, so fear not reader, should you actually exist. Am I right in thinking that, without any links leading to this site, no Google search will actually find it? Never mind though, after I build a colossal empire of withering criticism, you faithful few/none who read this when it first gets posted will be able to say that you 'read him before he got big'. Actually, the lack of withering criticism that may be apparent on this blog is due to the obvious fact that I don't buy music I don't like just to trash it; especially when considering that at roughly an album a week I would spend about £500 a year on this blog, assuming I'm that committed and honest enough to pay for it, so I don't want to end up with a load of albums that I don't like. So many critcs, mostly in the NME, feel the need to prove, presumably to themselves, that they are qualified to write up one band by, as a snarky little aside, sticking a knife into another less favoured band in the same article. Music criticism, as implied in the name, should define what's bad from what's good; but that's just insecure bitchiness.

So what can I say about this, an album that's 37 years old and has sold more than 30 million copies? Obviously I'm not going to try to add to the critical pantheon; that would be stupid. I bought this album really to take back to uni because it's got the highest concentration of my favourite songs on it from my Dad's copy of Early Days/Latter Days (Black Dog, Rock And Roll, Stairway To Heaven, When The Levee Breaks, plus The Battle Of Evermore, which I don't really like). Why buy an album that you could just copy the best bits of? Considering that, to be honest, even the greatest hits has some crap on it, why take a chance on three unknown album tracks? I suppose I've always wanted to own this album because it's just a cool album to have. Shallow and materialistic I know, but there's the truth of it. I suppose the passage of time and homage payed by grunge bands has severed the group's music from all their biographical baggage (crazy debauchery, Aleister Crowley etc.) and made them, maybe not hip, but non-hippy and just pure rock, so that you can feel comfortable listening to them if you don't give a fuck about Lord Of The Rings. As an example of this, there's a Facebook group I've joined called Since When Did Indie Rock Refer To Pussies Afraid Of Amps?, which pillories the current lack of interesting and compelling electric indie rock in comparison to 15-20 years ago, when Sonic Youth, Big Black, Dinosaur Jr et al. were at their zenith. To close off the statement describing his group, creator Paul Haney writes a wickedly straightforward snub to the Pitchfork crowd: 'Led Zeppelin is better than your favourite band and always will be.'


The cover art is great though, isn't it? If you were going buy an album for aesthetics alone, this would really rate highly. People think of Led Zep as this really mystical, weird band, but it's only a couple of photos taken from inside a half-demolished house. Wistful, austere, a beautiful picture of urban decay; but not mad or Tolkienesque or anything, though I suppose it is the exception to both the rest of the album's artwork and that of a lot of the other albums though. And of those three songs, Misty Mountain Hop and Four Sticks are good and Going To California is really quite beautiful, stretching the boundaries of acoustic rock even by today's standards. I especially like the line about him smoking his stuff and drinking all his wine. And When The Levee Breaks kicks arse more than anything else in the world, despite it being the most inapropriate song to play in New Orleans since, I don't know, Riders On The Storm. I think I got my eight quid's worth here.

Apologies for the fragmented nature of this post. I guess I don't have enough time to order it all properly because I'm going to ITALY TOMORROW!!! Yessss!