“Led Zeppelin”(1969) by Led Zeppelin

The heaviest blues album ever!  Sharp and in your face ”Led Zeppelin” is a revolutionary album and the best the band would ever put out.  Most assume the best Led Zeppelin album is “Led Zeppelin IV”, well they’re wrong.  The Led Zeppelin is one of three bands supposedly responsible for the birth of heavy metal/rock.  The others being Deep Purple and Black Sabbath.  I think that’s true but only because of this album and this album alone.  I like to compare “Led Zeppelin” to Deep Purple’s “In Rock”.  It’s just a very pure album.  Pure heavy blues.  It all has a mood that almost makes it sound like a concept album.  The only track that deviates from this is the pop number ”Your Time Is Gonna Come”.  Certainly the only stinker on the album.

There seems to be four main categories of songs on “Led Zeppelin”, with two in each.  The ballads “Your Time Is Gonna Come” and “Babe I’m Gonna Leave You”.  The latter is perhaps the best ballad the Led Zeppelin would do and the best folk tune.  That’s right, “Babe I’m Gonna Leave You” is better as a whole then all the folk tunes on “Led Zeppelin III”.  The acoustic guitar is technically perfect and Plant’s vocals are human enough but not too much like on later albums.

Another category is the hardcore blues songs.  “You Shook Me” and “I Can’t Quit You Baby” feature some crazy singing from Plant and great guitar licks from Page.  That’s about all there is to the songs.  Except on “You Shook Me” at the end when they do some studio trickery and make the vocals echo backwards.  It’s really cool sounding.

Next is the rockers.  “Communication Breakdown” is a classic that any rock and roll fan should hear.  The first of it’s kind, with Page hitting the riffs as hard as he can.  This song apparently served as inspiration for the guitar players of the early punk era.  “Good Times Bad Times” opens “Led Zeppelin” and it’s a good number.  Another sort of firsts is the drums, guitar ,and bass all coming in at the beginning and jabbing through the silence “Boom, Boom…Boom, Boom”.  Great stuff.

The last category is the epics.  “Dazed and Confused” is another classic song that any fan should hear.  It has an ominous riff on the front and end, but what is really great is the middle section.  With the famous bow solo and then a crazy rave up that threatens to keep talking you higher and higher.  If anyone is a Yardbirds fan they might notice the solo section is very similar to the Page era song ”Think About It”.  The other epic is the closer “How Many More Times”.  It’s basically a blues jam but the main riff is just so catchy, and the little playful interludes in the middle are not as annoying as they easily could have been.  In fact they’re great.  I think the song is pretty much a bunch of stolen/borrowed parts from old Willie Dixon and Howlin’ Wolf tunes.  Just saying.

Lastly is the acoustic tune “Black Mountain Side” stuck right in the middle.  This is really just an early and much shorter version of Jimmy’s famous “White Summer”.  I like it here though because of the congas in the background.  It gives the album a bit of an earthy feel and a break from the regular blues and rock.

This album is definitely a revolution in rock and roll.  Before “Led Zeppelin” you just didn’t hear this kind of unfazed, no bars hold music.  It’s got all the confidence, the discipline, the inventiveness, and the originality all in one.  Something the Led Zeppelin albums after would only have different parts of.  That is the one problem I have with all Led Zeppelin albums besides this one.  They are all pretty much dependent on formulas set on this album, as is much of the heavy metal/hard rock music that comes after.  Unlike The Beatles, Led Zeppelin never reinvented themselves, aside from maybe some superficial differences and if you want to get into it I could argue that The Beatles really started heavy music with “Helter Skelter”.  Regardless, this album is a true masterpiece and deserves the title.

Best Song: Tracks 2,3,4, and 9 are all great.
Album Rating: 10/10