Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin II

Hailed as one of the greatest rock and roll albums ever, Led Zeppelin II would peak at number one on most charts around the world when it was released, and would go on to sell more than 12,000,000 copies in the US and just shy of a million here in Canada.

My earliest memories are hearing this constantly on my cousin's record player. "Whole Lotta Love" would be confusing to me for years as I had no idea Robert Plant wasn't saying, "You need Kool-Aid." It was awesome, but it was too weird for me at the same time. When Houses of the Holy came out, my cousins tacked the cover to their bedroom wall. This was the album with "D'yer Mak'er," a song that to this day makes me throw up a little in my mouth when I hear it. This was essentially what I thought Led Zeppelin was ... and it wasn't good. My cousins were cool.

When the band released In Through the Out Door in 1979, it was a perplexing record, as "Fool in the Rain" was irritating, and any song that used a coach's whistle was stupid. I had also gotten it into my head that Jimmy Page was a shitty player who was messy, sloppy and sounded like a twelve year old kid who'd gotten his fingers caught in the strings. The first time I heard "Stairway to Heaven" was at my best friend's house. We took his older sister's album and played it. When we got to the recorders we started giggling. What the hell was this? I don't think we made it to the end. Yeah, for decades I'd more or less constantly shit on Led Zeppelin as the most overrated and bloated band to ever grace the land.

So it was no surprise that back in the day, I never had anything by the band. Of course over the years there would be songs I thought were kind of cool, but I would never consider myself a fan. Things started to change when I picked up Mothership back in 2007, and shortly after that I would end up with all of the band's albums. It was a lot to digest, and frankly I did cherry pick. I never really spent a lot of time with the individual albums. There were a lot of cherries. Still, it was "Whole Lotta Love" that brought me full circle. I was older now, and I had figured out Robert Plant was singing, "You need cooling," which made a lot more sense. Even with the hippy dippy theremin meanderwanking, this was a killer song. Classic rock radio didn't hurt either, and the sheer number of killer tracks from the band was astounding. Like I said, a lot of cherries. Oh sure, I still feel that Jimmy at times has the worst case of sausage fingers in the game, but my goodness the man knew how to pull things together.

So what does all this have to do with Led Zeppelin II? Nothing, but if you'll allow me a little leeway I'll eventually tie things together. If I don't, you won't know until the end anyway. Take a chance, bear with me, I'm as curious as you are as to where this goes. It may be worth it.

For a band who sold so many records you would think it would be easy to find their stuff in the used shops. Nope. You don't often find their records, which is cool and weird considering how many albums they sold. My guess is they tend to get snatched up as quickly as they appear.

So it was a surprise to me when I found a copy of Led Zeppelin II in decent shape for less than I expected. This was something I was looking forward to spending some time with. After all, since its initial release back in 1969 the album has been remastered and re-issued in various deluxe editions, but I was regressing and going back in time. Oh, I'm sure what I have is nowhere near being an original release, it was in print a long time before vinyl was phased out.

For fun I'm going to run down the songs as they play. I'll come back later and fix things and maybe edit ... or not. I am a fundamentally lazy person.

"Whole Lotta Love" Boom. Mic drop. The album would be considered a classic with this one song. Keeping in mind this was 1969, it has managed to span generations now, and is still an unbelievably awesome song. Robert Plant was the shit. Jimmy killed it, and his solo influenced generations of players and is still being copied and replicated. This is to say nothing about the two Johns.

"What Is and What Should Never Be" The slow groove at the start with a phased Plant vocal erupts into the chunky riff, and then goes on to build throughout the song. The soaring backing vocals and the wicked slide work are awesome. It ebbs and flows, taking the listener on a frenetic journey. Besides, any song with a gong by default is going to be huge. The song is all sweaty balls and swagger. The fact it fades out is besides the point. Most fades are lazy. Figure out an ending.

"The Lemon Song" clocks in at over six minutes, and the meanderambling blues jam and riffage is meant to be listened to in a dark and smoky room. For me the playing within the 12 bar blues model is kind of cool, especially when they break out and go double time like they're playing in an old rock and roll revue show before dialing things back. Of course hearing Robert sing about lemon juice running down his leg and getting his lemon squeezed makes it a little harder to take seriously. Honestly this isn't one of my favourite tracks, but it's delivered so earnestly it's hard to ignore, and frankly in context with the rest of the album this is too good to skip.

"Thank You" this song is absolutely jaw dropping. The combination of the slower pace, the jangly guitars anchored by John Paul Jones on bass, and John Bonham's heavy metronome is so good. The acoustic guitar solo was the right call. There's a reason Robert Plant is revered as a rock vocalist. The guy really laid out the blueprint, and after all this time he's still held up as one of the best ever.

What a killer first side. Side two here we come.

"Heartbreaker" Okay, this is where things are a little more complicated for me. First the good. Holy shitballs, the riff and groove here are just crazy good. The guitar solo falls into two parts for me. The good. The structure, the energy and the way Jimmy tortures the notes is sheer ecstasy. Those first pull offs are just so goofy they work. Now the bad. This is also the song where much of my long held bias originated, as much of the second half of the same solo sounds like Jimmy got his fingers stuck under the strings. This is a fantastic song, and as I've played the album over and over, even the perceived sloppy bits seem deliberately crafted. There are no wrong notes. If anything was to be cut and removed, things would fall apart. It all needs to be there. It shouldn't work ... but it does.

"Living Loving Maid" abruptly starts right on the heels of "Heartbreaker" and is another riff heavy classic.

"Ramble On" Yeah, hippie dippy silliness ensues. Yeah, this is great. I'm guessing you thought I'd have more to say about one of their classic songs ... sometimes less is more. I seldom opt for less. Think of it as a sign of respect. That, or I was at a loss for words.

The last two tracks are essentially the same thing, cookie cutter blues based rockers - so I'll smush them together: "Moby Dick" is a classic deep cut and probably one of the few songs with an extended drum solo that gets played on classic rock radio. "Bring it on Home" is a straight ahead blues rocker, and seems tame and paint by numbers by today's standards. However, it's those same standards that have turned "Johnny B. Goode" into a musical footnote.

I have to say, spending a few days really settling into this album has been a treat. More than once my wife has come down while this has been blaring away, and stayed to listen for a bit, often commenting, "My goodness this is so crunchy and heavy, I love this."

The sheer number of classics here is kind of mind boggling. I don't know if there's a perfect album, but this is pretty bloody good. Hard to believe this was released in 1969. This is an album of the times that has also somehow managed to transcend them.

Nice trick if you can pull it off. I suppose this is why they're revered as one of the greatest bands ever. Maybe it took me a few decades, but I finally get it.