1. Good Times Bad Times
Good song. I probably heard this one before. Fucking awesome drums.
2. Babe I'm Gonna Leave You
Wasn't expecting things to slow down so soon. Not a bad song at first, but Jesus, it goes on for about 3 minutes too long.
3. You Shook Me
Fucking unbearable. Listening to this all the way through was torture. That it, until I got to the last 45 seconds of the song, where it just became so ridiculous and self-indulgent and over the top that I started to get a kick out of it. Still hate it, though.
4. Dazed and Confused
Okay, I know this one. This is one of those songs that I'm already sick of because I've heard it a million times, but at the same time I feel like I've never bothered to pay much attention to it, so I'm trying to listen to it now as though I'd never heard it before. It's definitely a cool song and I can imagine how much it would blow my mind if I was hearing it for the first time in 1969. It's such a weird riff, and the whole slow/fast, loud/quiet dynamic thing is effective. That guitar solo is really awful, though. Yeesh.
5. Your Time Is Gonna Come
I don't really have anything to say about this one. It's all right, I guess. It kind of just leaves me completely indifferent.
6. Black Mountain Time
What the hell just happened? Whoa. One song fades into the next. Bongos! Guitar goes crazy around the 1:30 mark. This is a nice little interlude. I can dig it. From what I know of the rest of the band's catalogue, it seems to foreshadow a whole other phase of their career or something.
7. Communication Breakdown
See, this is what I'm talking about. This and "Good Times Bad Times" are my two favourite songs so far, and they're both under 3 minutes. Of those three 6-minute-plus songs on side one, only Dazed and Confused really deserves to stretch out that long. This is straightforward and to the point. And it ends before I get sick of it.
8. I Can't Quit You Baby
The blues. I really hate Jimmy Page's guitar solos on this album. Except for John Bonham's drums, there's not much I like about this song.
9. How Many More Times
Of all the blues riffs on this album, this might be the coolest one. Nice fuzzy guitar sound, too. Even the guitar solo is kind of not as terrible as all the other ones. And then, what the fuck, there's a bolero beat all of a sudden. Then the song's over, except that it's not. It's not even halfway through. Oh, I get it. It's another one of those long indulgent songs. All right, I'm gonna stop making fun of it now. It's actually kinda cool. That reverb on the guitar is awesome. Oh, is this the part where Jimmy Page famously bows his guitar? I guess it must be. The beat that follows this part is pretty amazing, too. Then it stops. Then Robert Plant screams. And now we're back to the cool opening riff. Yeah, this is a cool song. I like it. I'm glad the album ends on a strong note, 'cause the previous song was a real bummer.
That's it for first impressions. I wrote this while listening to it for the first time, with headphones, while sitting on my bed in my underwear in the dark past midnight. I'm going to post this and then go to bed. I'll give the album a few more listens this week and then see if I have anything more to say about it.
Even though I may sound pretty dismissive of some of these songs, I'm going to try to keep and open mind and see if my opinion changes after a few more listens.
Wasn't expecting things to slow down so soon. Not a bad song at first, but Jesus, it goes on for about 3 minutes too long.
3. You Shook Me
Fucking unbearable. Listening to this all the way through was torture. That it, until I got to the last 45 seconds of the song, where it just became so ridiculous and self-indulgent and over the top that I started to get a kick out of it. Still hate it, though.
4. Dazed and Confused
Okay, I know this one. This is one of those songs that I'm already sick of because I've heard it a million times, but at the same time I feel like I've never bothered to pay much attention to it, so I'm trying to listen to it now as though I'd never heard it before. It's definitely a cool song and I can imagine how much it would blow my mind if I was hearing it for the first time in 1969. It's such a weird riff, and the whole slow/fast, loud/quiet dynamic thing is effective. That guitar solo is really awful, though. Yeesh.
5. Your Time Is Gonna Come
I don't really have anything to say about this one. It's all right, I guess. It kind of just leaves me completely indifferent.
6. Black Mountain Time
What the hell just happened? Whoa. One song fades into the next. Bongos! Guitar goes crazy around the 1:30 mark. This is a nice little interlude. I can dig it. From what I know of the rest of the band's catalogue, it seems to foreshadow a whole other phase of their career or something.
7. Communication Breakdown
See, this is what I'm talking about. This and "Good Times Bad Times" are my two favourite songs so far, and they're both under 3 minutes. Of those three 6-minute-plus songs on side one, only Dazed and Confused really deserves to stretch out that long. This is straightforward and to the point. And it ends before I get sick of it.
8. I Can't Quit You Baby
The blues. I really hate Jimmy Page's guitar solos on this album. Except for John Bonham's drums, there's not much I like about this song.
9. How Many More Times
Of all the blues riffs on this album, this might be the coolest one. Nice fuzzy guitar sound, too. Even the guitar solo is kind of not as terrible as all the other ones. And then, what the fuck, there's a bolero beat all of a sudden. Then the song's over, except that it's not. It's not even halfway through. Oh, I get it. It's another one of those long indulgent songs. All right, I'm gonna stop making fun of it now. It's actually kinda cool. That reverb on the guitar is awesome. Oh, is this the part where Jimmy Page famously bows his guitar? I guess it must be. The beat that follows this part is pretty amazing, too. Then it stops. Then Robert Plant screams. And now we're back to the cool opening riff. Yeah, this is a cool song. I like it. I'm glad the album ends on a strong note, 'cause the previous song was a real bummer.
That's it for first impressions. I wrote this while listening to it for the first time, with headphones, while sitting on my bed in my underwear in the dark past midnight. I'm going to post this and then go to bed. I'll give the album a few more listens this week and then see if I have anything more to say about it.
Even though I may sound pretty dismissive of some of these songs, I'm going to try to keep and open mind and see if my opinion changes after a few more listens.
Nice commentary, Yan. I agree with a lot of what you say here. Zep definitely improves over the course of their first four or five albums; would be interested to see what you think of any of the rest, especially the fourth.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Alan. I'm kinda shocked that anyone would consider this midnight rambling of mine a nice commentary, but thanks anyway.
ReplyDeleteI'll get to the rest of those albums eventually.