Results 1 to 24 of 24

Thread: Random Recent Listenings: Led Zeppelin IV

  1. #1
    Estimated Prophet notallwhowander's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2012
    Location
    Coastal California
    Posts
    799

    Random Recent Listenings: Led Zeppelin IV

    I have a particularly brutal commute this year. The up side is more listening time.

    So this week I dusted off the old warhorse Led Zeppelin IV. I haven't turned to this for the greater part of the decade. It's both iconic and overplayed, like most of Zep's catalog, and really, there is nothing to say about it that hasn't already been said, somewhere anyway.

    It is still a monster of a hard rock album, and the band fires on all cylinders. The big impression this time around: Bonham. The guy never lets the music get boring, not to these ears anyway. (Not to say that over-familiarity can't scrub the shine of his playing, but like I said, it has been a while.) Having read Ginger Baker's slagging off Zep, I decided that the old man can go fuck himself. It may not be Ginger's thing, but it is a thing that kicks as much ass as anything in the '70s, and Bonham was doing the kicking.

    I'm sure some folks will jump on this thread just to take the piss out of this album, because nothing can really sustain the sheer amount of veneration this album has commanded. That's fine. However, any band who went for a heavy sound would be under this thing's shadow, and not without reason. IV showed that Zeppelin could sustain its heavy sound, despite their acoustic meanderings on the previous album.

    Back near the turn of the millennium, I had an idea called The IV Project, that I never pursued. The idea is an anthology of nonfiction of people telling stories in which the album, or its music, plays a part. There has to be millions of the out there, and of those some must be remembered clearly, and of those there has to be some good ones.

    I lost my virginity to this album. It was a wholly unexpected affair, and me at the tender age of 13. It was playing on a cassette deck with a perpetually reversing head, so the album just played over and over, side one - click - side two - click - side one again, etc. kind of like an eight-track. I fumbled ineptly, and neither I nor her brought things to a conclusion before we stopped. I couldn't sleep afterward, I was too consumed with what it all meant. So I just lay there, next to her, listening to IV play over and over until the sun rose.

    However, the album doesn't really bring me back there, and hasn't for a long-long time. There are far too many other memories that include the music. It became a ubiquitous part of my adolescent soundtrack, and I still had most of my adolescence left to live.
    Wake up to find out that you are the eyes of the world.

  2. #2
    Boo! walt's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2012
    Location
    Oakland Gardens NY
    Posts
    5,626
    By orders of magnitude,my favorite Zeppelin album.Always has been.

    As with so many classic rock tomes, i first heard IV at college, circa 1972.I was late to discover rock albums, and none made a bigger impression on me than this.I found it excellent from start to finish, which i couldn't say about the first three Zeppelin albums.
    Last edited by walt; 11-08-2015 at 01:24 AM.
    "please do not understand me too quickly"-andre gide

  3. #3
    Member Sputnik's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2012
    Location
    South Hadley, MA
    Posts
    2,663
    Quote Originally Posted by notallwhowander View Post
    I'm sure some folks will jump on this thread just to take the piss out of this album, because nothing can really sustain the sheer amount of veneration this album has commanded.
    Not me, I love this album. I admit I don't play it as regularly as some other Zeppelin albums because I've been a bit overexposed to it. But when it gets a spin, it's tracks like Four Sticks, Battle of Evermore and When the Levee Breaks that make it worthwhile hearing the old warhorses one more time. I agree with you, beautiful balance of hard and soft moments, and for me not a dull moment on the album.

    My memory of this one was sitting in my cousins room in Atlanta in about 1976 or so and listening to this album over and over. I was about 13-14 years old and this was my gateway to rock music. We listened to other stuff, Aerosmith, Queen, Skynrd, Mother's Finest, etc. But nothing quite melted our little pubescent brains like Zeppelin. There was a really magic to that stuff, and this album pretty much epitomized what Zeppelin was about for us.

    Bill

  4. #4
    Do not take this as a "piss on the album" BUT...for this young lad, I got turned onto ZEP in late '69 at age 11. I vividly remember getting LZ III for Xmas in '70. I was a big LZ & GFRR fan at the time. When LZ IV came out, I of course immediately got it. Other than Black Dog and a few others, it did not click for me and I remember selling it to a classmate later on......wait a few years......Stairway to Heaven becomes HUGE, everybody and their Brother pile into the "LZ is GOD" mantra, and I was like "Been there, done that". Even years later, it is my least-played LZ album.

    Notallthatwander: your thoughts about the importance of this album is spot-on. I recall getting "real popular" with girls when I arrived at a party and began playing StH on my acoustic. (The "benefits" of that can be discussed in a seperate thread")

    I have to disagree with you on one important point: "...despite their acoustic meanderings on the previous album..." IMHO LZ III is their BEST album YMMV.

    Great thread btw.

  5. #5
    Member Zeuhlmate's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2012
    Location
    Copenhagen, Denmark
    Posts
    7,264
    Taste differs.
    I like I, II, Houses of the Holy a lot, and recognize Black Dog and StH as great (but overplayed) tracks but the rest doesnt click with me, and I have always wondered why IV has such a flat, undynamic sound with no real bottom. III was'nt for me at all.

  6. #6
    Member zravkapt's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2012
    Location
    canada
    Posts
    280
    I was always amused that no one agrees what this album is called. Officially it's "_______" I believe but most refer to it as "4" or "Zoso".
    The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off

  7. #7
    Member Vic2012's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2012
    Location
    La Florida
    Posts
    7,554
    At the end of the day, IV is my favorite Zeppelin album. If I have to pick just one Zep album it's this one. It was the first one I ever owned. And if I had to pick just one Led Zeppelin song that sums them up, for me personally, the song is Black Dog. I've told this story before. I'd never heard of Led Zeppelin until this album came out. I was a 12-13 year old kid at the time. I used to fall asleep to a cheap, clock radio I had back then. One Sunday morning as I was in that state between half-awake/half-asleep, this sledgehammer of a song came on (I'm sure I've got the lyrics wrong but whatever.....hey hey mama, said the way you move, gonna make sweat, gonna make you groove...... It blew my doors off. I soon bought all the previous albums. The first 4 albums were all I ever had by Zep back then. I never moved forward and lost interest. It wasn't until about 16-18 years ago that I re-familiarized myself with Zeppelin that I bought the whole discography on CD (and cassette). I don't play this album regularly, and there are a couple songs (not called Stairway To Heaven) that I've never particularly cared for (Going To California, Rock And Roll). The BIG faves are Black Dog, Four Sticks, Battle Of Evermore.

  8. #8
    Estimated Prophet notallwhowander's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2012
    Location
    Coastal California
    Posts
    799
    Quote Originally Posted by Vic2012 View Post
    I don't play this album regularly, and there are a couple songs (not called Stairway To Heaven) that I've never particularly cared for (Going To California, Rock And Roll). The BIG faves are Black Dog, Four Sticks, Battle Of Evermore.
    Sandy Denny knocks it out of the park on "The Battle of Evermore." Ethereal.

    Quote Originally Posted by Supersonic Scientist View Post
    I have to disagree with you on one important point: "...despite their acoustic meanderings on the previous album..." IMHO LZ III is their BEST album YMMV.
    Yeah, I knew "meanderings" was the wrong word when I wrote it, but I didn't want to completely break my flow to fix it. I meant that III was kind of an acoustic, folk-rock, side-track that they never picked up again in the same way. I spent a lot of time on planet III, too. It's one of those albums that seems to be a favorite of serious Zep fans. Not that a serious fan wouldn't choose a different album, but when I meet someone who chooses III, they tend to be deeply conversant with the entire catalog.
    Wake up to find out that you are the eyes of the world.

  9. #9
    Suspended
    Join Date
    Feb 2014
    Location
    32S 116E
    Posts
    0
    Quote Originally Posted by zravkapt View Post
    I was always amused that no one agrees what this album is called. Officially it's "_______" I believe but most refer to it as "4" or "Zoso".
    I believe the most popular labelling among the fans is "Led Zep 4".

  10. #10
    Member Plasmatopia's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2012
    Location
    Plague Sanctuary, Vermont
    Posts
    2,481
    I don't have anything bad to say about this album. I loved it when I was really getting into rock music in the early '80s and it influenced my guitar playing a lot (along with the earlier LZ albums, although the first two probably most of all). But I wore it out just like I did a lot of stuff that I listened to around that time. I avoided the radio and my musical world was a pretty small one at that time. To this day I am still careful not to open the spigot of new music too many turns to the left.

    At this point if I heard this once every 5-10 years that would likely be enough. That's not the music's fault.
    <sig out of order>

  11. #11
    Member
    Join Date
    Nov 2012
    Location
    Kalamazoo Michigan
    Posts
    9,578
    Still a big fan of this one, although have not listened to it in a long time.

  12. #12
    Suspended
    Join Date
    Feb 2014
    Location
    32S 116E
    Posts
    0
    When I used to see the LP cover in record stores, I always used to mentally confuse it with John Barleycorn Must Die.

  13. #13
    Progdog ThomasKDye's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2012
    Location
    Vallejo, CA
    Posts
    1,012
    I actually agree that Bonham gives 250% to this album, and it's one of the things that makes it work as well as it does for me.

    And "Black Dog" is an awesome number, for sure, though I really dig the strangeness of "Misty Mountain Hop."
    "Arf." -- Frank Zappa, "Beauty Knows No Pain" (live version)

  14. #14
    Member Jerjo's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2012
    Location
    small town in ND
    Posts
    6,432
    It wasn't until college that I got my ashes hauled to side one of IV. Happened a few times which is more than I can say for Yessongs.

    I do remember the first time I heard this album, standing in a local department store where someone had it on repeat in the little section reserved for console stereos. Side one over and over again. I was in my early teens and was just switching from the bubble gum kid stuff to real rock. You can imagine the jolt I felt with those two opening tracks, then Evermore mentioned "ring wraiths" and I lost my fucking Tolkien-besotted mind, and then came Stairway. I got my first stereo soon after that (I had this two-speaker eight track rig that hardly counts) and with it bought five-ten albums. No bubble gum, all hard shit, and you can bet your ass that IV was on the top of the pile.

    A former coworker of mine used to ask me about concerts back in the day so I told her about seeing Zep and others. About a year later she was at a festival where Robert Plant and Alison Krauss played. She said it was pretty good crowd, a little laid back but into it. Then the opening mandolin notes to "Evermore" kicked in and she said all around her was this massive bestial roar. That was the point where she realized what it might have been like back in the day.
    I don't like country music, but I don't mean to denigrate those who do. And for the people who like country music, denigrate means 'put down.'- Bob Newhart

  15. #15
    It's a gem.

    Not unlike most albums I enjoy (Zep or otherwise), I would make a few changes. Certainly on "Battle Of Evermore" there are moments where I wish Plant would just let Denny take the reigns completely. He seems almost in the way at times and the song just wants to breath.

    "Misty Mountain Hop" I just can't quite get into no matter how many times I've heard it. Seems like a boring garage riff with great production and Plant's amazing vocals added. The riff I just don't get basing an entire song on. Not because it's too simple because that part I admire, but because it just doesn't have much meat to it, IMO. It's simply not much of a riff.

    As much as I like "Going to California," somehow it feels maybe just a little too close to West Coast folk to be rated higher than what it is; Zeppelin's great slant on CSNY and so forth. Plant really deserves credit here. You take him off this tune and you kind of have some Stephen Stills/Joni Mitchell outtake. But with Plant, it becomes Led Zeppelin. Extraordinary!

    "When The Levee Breaks" again struggles to have enough of a basis to extend for over seven minutes. I mean, yes, the drum sound is amazing, but the song at hand? The riff is a pretty average blues retread. As a closer this is just a pretty big miss, IMO. "Stairway" would have been a KILLER closer!

    The mention of this album having "no bottom" just totally confounds me. I'd seriously be worried about my playback system if I experienced that anomaly. The way the bass drives this recording is absolutely there and there is nothing remotely "flat" about this album to my ears.

    Being as objective as I can and just sticking to "Classic Rock," I think Who's Next slays this even if my overall appreciation for Zeppelin probably exceeds that of The Who. I wonder if the success of this album was part of what caused Townsend to develop such a distaste for Zeppelin?

  16. #16
    Oh No! Bass Solo! klothos's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2013
    Location
    Here
    Posts
    308
    I need to revisit LZ IV myself......although i like them, I was overexposed to them decades ago and i really havent listened to much of them in the past decade with the exception of random playings of II, which is the album i like best......

  17. #17
    That's Mr. to you, Sir!! Trane's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2004
    Location
    in a cosmic jazzy-groove around Brussels
    Posts
    6,091
    Though I had become sick of hearing Zoso (and Zep in general), for two decades, when I bought those mini-Lp replica in the early 00's, , I chose the first five (no way I was going beyond >> just did a Cdr comp from the rest, and couldn't fill the disc up)

    Runes' A-side is probably the best Zep ever got, but I still can't hear much of the flipside... Too heavy and clunky (except for GtC, of course). So one 5* side and one 2* side ... Certainly not any worse than HotH, which has four brillant songs, one average/OK and three horrors (Ocean/Cringe/Dancing Days)



    So overal, I'd rank Zoso about the same as their other albums, with a slight preference for their debut
    my music collection increased tenfolds when I switched from drug-addicts to complete nutcases.

  18. #18
    Member Oreb's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2012
    Location
    Brisbane, Australia
    Posts
    80
    Hidden title is "Sabbath Breaker"

    The character on the cover is the Man in the Moon - sent there for collecting sticks (four of 'em) on a Sunday - according to folklore that I'm sure JP was familiar with.

    Great album.

    Does it matter that this waste of time is what makes a life for you?

  19. #19
    Member eporter66's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2012
    Location
    Upstate NY
    Posts
    169
    This is a great album.....period, end of story. Overplayed, yes, but how is that a fault? As with you, many memories of this one. Me and my childhood buddy discovered this one, along with The Beatles, Chicago and a host of other great albums from that era by raiding his older sisters record collection. I love this record, and though it has been years since I've listened to it, I am sure I know every nuance of it.

  20. #20
    Besides Physical Graffiti, Zeppelin IV is my favorite from the band. Nothing so defines the term "progressive blues" as what Zeppelin did to transform "When the Levee Breaks", Memphis Minnie's acoustic Delta blues tune, into something almost Beatlesque as far as studio achievements. Top it off with the nod to Tolkien, "Battle of Evermore" with Sandy Denny's ethereal vocals, the awesome, confoundingly effortless riff on "Black Dog", not to mention Bonham's ferocious drumming, and you have an album for the ages. And if "Stairway to Heaven" is playing on the radio, I....still....can't....change....the....station.
    "And your little sister's immaculate virginity wings away on the bony shoulders of a young horse named George who stole surreptitiously into her geography revision."

    Occasional musical musings on https://darkelffile.blogspot.com/

  21. #21
    "Four Sticks" is a really great overlooked song. I especially like the parts with the electric twelve string guitars and the synths. "When the Levee Breaks" amazing and not just for the drums.

  22. #22
    Member Jerjo's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2012
    Location
    small town in ND
    Posts
    6,432
    The version of Four Sticks recorded with the Bombay Orchestra is one of the best things on the remastered Coda

    I don't like country music, but I don't mean to denigrate those who do. And for the people who like country music, denigrate means 'put down.'- Bob Newhart

  23. #23
    Member
    Join Date
    Nov 2012
    Location
    Parlin, New Jersey
    Posts
    2,631
    my least favorite LZ album. perhaps if Down By The Seaside & The Rover were included instead of Battle... & 4 Sticks, i would have liked it better. those tracks were originally recorded during these sessions.

  24. #24
    Quote Originally Posted by BravadoNJ View Post
    my least favorite LZ album. perhaps if Down By The Seaside & The Rover were included instead of Battle... & 4 Sticks, i would have liked it better. those tracks were originally recorded during these sessions.
    I'd maybe swap 'Going To California' for 'The Rover'.

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •