![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Led Zeppelin re-evaluated
Sep. 3rd, 2008 09:30 pmToday I picked up a Led Zeppelin "Best Of" compilation at a used CD store near work. On a recent car trip with my sister, we listened to a few Led Zeppelin songs and I was surprised to find out that I really liked them. My relationship with Led Zeppelin has changed a lot over time.
When I first seriously listened to them back when I was in high school (I think it was the album "Houses of the Holy"), I admit that I wasn't really that impressed. In fact, I was pretty underwhelmed and even bored. I just didn't hear what was so great. In retrospect, I think the problem was that I grew up in the 1980s, when the rock music world was suffering from a glut of hair-metal bands that were slavishly copying Led Zeppelin and not doing a good job of it at all. So hearing way too many cheap, fifth-rate imitations on the radio during my early teens pretty much ruined my ability to really listen to what Led Zeppelin were doing. Between then and now, there were a few moments of appreciation, like falling in love with "Immigrant Song" after watching School of Rock, and being able to feel the immense charisma of Robert Plant when seeing parts of The Song Remains the Same on some TVs in Eli Cannons (sans sound). But those moments never developed into real interest.
Now, some twenty years later, the hair-metal bands and their music are thankfully long-forgotten and I can listen to Led Zeppelin with fresh ears. So I could finally understand what was so great when I heard those songs during that car ride. And seeing a clip on the news of Robert Plant singing "Black Dog" with the revived Led Zeppelin, I fully recognized both the visual and musical charisma oozing from him and his bandmates. And now I'm home listening to this double CD set and I finally get what is so damn compelling about Led Zeppelin.
When I first seriously listened to them back when I was in high school (I think it was the album "Houses of the Holy"), I admit that I wasn't really that impressed. In fact, I was pretty underwhelmed and even bored. I just didn't hear what was so great. In retrospect, I think the problem was that I grew up in the 1980s, when the rock music world was suffering from a glut of hair-metal bands that were slavishly copying Led Zeppelin and not doing a good job of it at all. So hearing way too many cheap, fifth-rate imitations on the radio during my early teens pretty much ruined my ability to really listen to what Led Zeppelin were doing. Between then and now, there were a few moments of appreciation, like falling in love with "Immigrant Song" after watching School of Rock, and being able to feel the immense charisma of Robert Plant when seeing parts of The Song Remains the Same on some TVs in Eli Cannons (sans sound). But those moments never developed into real interest.
Now, some twenty years later, the hair-metal bands and their music are thankfully long-forgotten and I can listen to Led Zeppelin with fresh ears. So I could finally understand what was so great when I heard those songs during that car ride. And seeing a clip on the news of Robert Plant singing "Black Dog" with the revived Led Zeppelin, I fully recognized both the visual and musical charisma oozing from him and his bandmates. And now I'm home listening to this double CD set and I finally get what is so damn compelling about Led Zeppelin.
