Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin II

Atlantic. First release: October 1969 Re-edition CD remastered by Jimi Page 1996.

I really love led Zeppelin I and III and IV. But everytime the question arises 'what is the best Zeppelin album' ? one should listen that Whole Lotta Love' intro

Recorded in July-August 1969, in the middle of a world tour, that record is above all the meeting of the sound engineer of Jimi Hendrix 'electric Ladyland' project, Eddie Kramer, and the British 6 strings sorcerer Jimmy Page. All 'Whole Lotta Love', is a huge musical fire works, based around a killer riff. Mythic, savage, class, and unique at certain moments, I think that it's never been even remotely equalled. Pure Led Zep, period.

The second track, "What is And What Should Never Be' is perhaps the first really good text written by Robert Plant, with that Tolkienesque style of his, that we will discover later on. The tale of an adventure around a misty castle, that will end with an impressive left / right stereo effect. Page had plugged on his Les Paul, and the solo kicks ass. Been recorded live in those same studios where Richie Valens once delivered The Bamba' in the 50's.

The Lemon Song, was a clever remake of Howlin' Wolf's 'killing Floor' mixed with Albert King's 'Crosscut Saw' and bluesy lyrics that could have been borrowed to Robert Johnson. With two breath taking breaks, that'll send the rhythm guitar into an infernal race.

Thank You, prophetised the winter of their lives them song critics, who sit their old bones by the fire, glass of grog in hand, to ease rheumatism, amidst a carpet of organ Hammond played by john Paul Jones.

The real great piece of this heavy weight album, was 'Heartbreaker'; the first track, on the second side of the vinyl album. With that incredible bass line that has made many cracks on many walls. THAT Led Zep waslying on stratospheric heights, and announced that it was goin' to leave no quarters, with a little break, (another one), that will help us to take our breath again, and will give way to a srewed eruption, that will most cleverly blend Bach 'suite #1' and Simon & Garfunkel's 'the 59th street bridge song'. With that long and magnificent solo, so alive and so full of lucidity. To date, no one had ever played so skilfully, so incredibly good Been played live in concerts for al the 1970's, 'Heartbreaker' will be in the led Zep's program till the goodbye tour of 1980.

Living Loving Maid (she's just a woman) is also one great moment whenwe can hear Jimmy Page wiggling and shaking his psychedelic Telecaster. Even today, we won't elaborate much around the lyrics, that told the tale of a tough groupie who had made her mark in the East Coast Of the USA during a world tour that's still famous for it's various excesses.

Ramble On heralds what is to come; the 'Immigrants Songs' Vikings and the gothic medieval visions of 'Stairway To Heaven'.

Another splendid moment of this immortal monument, is 'Moby Dick' (once upon a time called Pat's Delights). It's the special piece of the terrifying John 'Bonzo' Bonham. Hitting his drums sometime bare handed the man reminds of a Grizzly, a wild boar, a cunning clever beast for sure Again, Page delivers one of his high class riffs whose him alone owns the recipe.

Bring it On Home, "stole" the plans of old sonny Boy Williamson for a carbon copy of his song, before throwing back the listener into some sort of electric hyperspace. In a way, it's the only weak point for the final of this tremendous album, that'll become the fav'rite friend of generations of Americans who affectionately will nickname it 'the Brown Bomber'

Never before, a band had taken so little time between the first and 2nd project. The Zeppelin had taken off and erased the options folk and psychedelic heard during the first concerts when they still called themselves 'the New Yardbirds'. In those days, Jimmy Page used to cover Spirit's 'Fresh Garbage' scratching his blues till the bone, suramplifying it and made it sound like rocknroll and will soon be known as 'Hard Rock'.

Surprised and a little irritated, the students of 1969, at first choose to shun this album, preferring the very tidy and neat Mayall / Clapton... But their little sisters didn?t see it that way: so in a few months, the two Led Zeppelin albums received a monstrous bump in the planetary charts: Led Zeppelin II sold for three million copies in the US alone, and stayed or a period of 138 weeks in the British charts.

Even today, it's difficult to realize that a record of this kind had been conceived in such chaotic conditions; during a US tour in random studios, but also in London's Olympic Studios. Miss Pamela des Barres, in her memoirs of a groupie, a book called 'I Was With The Band' wrote about her sleepless nights when Jimmy Page showed her the demos in the course of their progressing, on an enormous reel tape recorder, always asking himself which track to reduce, which riff to cut or reverb, before going back on stage, to test his new ideas in front of violent but consenting crowds. The monster was unleashed...

Track list:

CODE

? Whole Lotta Love
? What Is And What Should Never Be
? The Lemon Song
? Thank You
? Heartbreaker
? Living Loving Maid (She's Just A Woman)
? Ramble On
? Moby Dick
? Bring It On Home

Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin II

Track list:

Index