My All-Timers: 41. Led Zeppelin — Houses of the Holy
Most American boys go through at least a short phase where they grow their hair long, part it down the middle, and decide that Led Zeppelin was the greatest band that ever existed. And if they don’t go that far about it, they at least own a couple Zeppelin records and give them their fair share of respect.
But I didn’t, and I blame punk rock. I also blame my own dumb self for going so deep into the rabbit hole of underground music that I missed the monolithic towers above. Not until well after high school did I listen to a Led Zeppelin record or a Rolling Stones record, and only in my senior year did I check out The Beatles. I think I took for granted that those bands had just always been, had just always owned the culture, and that the underground bands who never got their due deserved more of my time. Once I had spent what felt like an appropriate amount of time with bands that made divisive, harsh music (and also The Doors, for some damn reason), I was able to come back up to the surface and find what I had been missing.
This will explain why my favorite Led Zeppelin record isn’t one of the first four (and I listened to Led Zeppelin IV yesterday too, and you’re right, it’s pretty incredible). My only pre-existing relationship with Led Zeppelin was through classic rock radio and the Zeppelin songs that were mandated to be played nearly every hour. IV has “Stairway to Heaven” and “Black Dog” and “When the Levee Breaks,” and those are all tremendous songs, but it didn’t feel like my record, made for my sensibility.
I found that Led Zeppelin record in Houses of the Holy. Sure, “D’Yer Mak’er,” “Over the Hills and Far Away” and “Dancing Days” received their share of radio play, but not to the degree of their biggest hits. I didn’t feel like I had been inundated with the very idea of Houses of the Holy. As a 25-year old finally digging into Led Zeppelin, I had to feel like I was doing something worth my time, and I got that from spending hours with this record in my earbuds, swirling around and blowing my mind as if I was stepping into a time machine and living my early teenage years a little more correctly.
This is the first Led Zeppelin record that contained all original music — no ripoffs from old blues guys. And if you know me, you know that I worship a few old blues guys, but that liberal musical borrowing is one of the rightful criticisms that always come toward Zeppelin. They took music while only slightly giving credit, and that sucks. So Houses of the Holy is their first step toward actually making something from their own minds with no eye toward the past, and it shows. The attitude is very forward-thinking — it does sound like the Zeppelin of old, but there are new sounds and ideas that got them from a dependable formula to something that helped them last creatively for a few years longer.
The main difference is that this record is not as dirty and nasty as past Zeppelin records. The guitar is not as crunchy and distorted. Jimmy Page is trying a blend of different tones in order to produce a similar but distinct effect. “The Song Remains the Same” shows this — a frantic strumming of a tone that sounds more like The Byrds gives way to a galloping drum and bass combo, and Page doesn’t get much thicker than that throughout the song. But he relies on John Bonham and John Paul Jones to provide the heaviness, and he’s lucky that those guys had no problem doing that. This same philosophy goes for most of the songs — they aren’t heavy in tone, but they are played really hard.
I also am wholly obsessed with “No Quarter.” I think it’s one of the best songs they ever recorded, if only because it’s one of their few rock songs that never gets to a big moment. It’s not loud or bombastic, it just moves along at a slow pace that keeps you wracked with anticipation. I just learned that the whole song is pitch-shifted down a half-step, basically meaning that it’s just barely slower and bassier than how they actually recorded it. I don’t mind that they cheated with a studio trick — the result is heavenly. John Paul Jones is the hero of the song, doing almost everything on electric piano and synthesizer bass, coming up with haunting melodies that seep through that weird filter. I love Page’s main guitar riff on this song, as it’s played almost lazily, but that’s probably because it’s so good it requires little effort. And Robert Plant, as always, is a goddamn star on this one, but this time he does that by pulling back and letting his voice act as a background instrument.
Anyway, I probably didn’t need to tell you a whole lot about how great Led Zeppelin was because you must already know this. But an essential band like them begs to be occasionally revisited and reconsidered, just so you can try to comprehend how four unassuming British guys made music that can completely envelop the minds of young people even to this day. And Led Zeppelin should still be enveloping your mind for as long as you live.
