Zep take a Bath!

[Alanko]

This footage has been rumoured to exist for years. Finally some decent film of Led Zeppelin at the Bath Festival in 1970 has surfaced.








There was a rumour that the camera crew were spiked with some psychedelic treats, which resulted in dark, unusable footage. One camera operator is a bit too interested in the band's shoes, but there is a lot of interesting stuff in there.

[uwe]

I'm not watching this unless there are drowning scenes.

[Basvarken]

No audio?

[uwe]

And all the better for it. Recommended way to experience Led Zep.

[Dave W]

And all the better for it. Recommended way to experience Led Zep.

 

[westen44]

 

[Basvarken]

And all the better for it. Recommended way to experience Led Zep.

Your anti Led Zeppelin sentiments are taking on serious forms Uwe.
Is that a side effect that comes with uncurable Ritchie Blackmore adoration?

[uwe]

Of course, you can either be a mongoose or a cobra, you have to choose sides!



I can't bear pretentiousness and Zeppelin are to me the epitome of that. And I never grew attached to their music because:

- I don't like heavy-handed drumming behind the beat, unless you play with Bob Marley.

- Their music sounds cluttered to me and not "ordentlich" engineered/constructed. I don't hear neat compositional structure in most of what they do.

- Page's playing is a sonic mess.

- I can't stand their production values, nothing ever sounds direct and in your face.

- To this day I have a hard time picking out what the bass does in their mixes.

- Plant's singing made the lyrics incomprehensible and when you did understand them you automatically winced. Fantasy crap, abstract hippie musings or phoney blues lyric clichés. No Zep lyric has ever raised any emotion with me - or cerebral interest. To this day I don't get what Hairwave to Heaven is about. (And I hate that twee intro they swiped.)

- In their grotesque self-importance, they are a humorless bunch and Plant was an aloof poser, but never an interesting enigma like David Bowie.

So yes, I think they are vastly overrated and unjustly revered. But I do love Boogie With Stu!



But of course it is also good fun to be against the grain and defy expectations. Because people seem to automatically assume that if you are fond of harder music - as I have been, still am and always will be - you have Led Zep on a pedestal. Well, I don't, even though - out of scientific interest - I have all their recorded work; I'm an informed hater so to say. 

(Hell, I even went to a Greta Van Fleet gig only recently - my son dragged me. It was a good show if you ignore that they picked the wrong role models.)

Is there a connection to my love for Purple other than incredulous jealousy because their stature is not anywhere near? Well, if you go through the above bullet points, you'll notice that DP is in all cases on the other side of the scale. They are in many ways the musical antidote to how Zep go about things. I guess you could say that to me Purple's music is much more relatable. Perhaps that is because I heard DP first and their music formed my expectations. I remember having a hard time wrapping my head around Led Zep, I found nothing immediately appealing about their music. Listening to Led Zep is for me a bit of an unpleasant cerebral experience, I listen to and analyze what they all do, but fail to hear any magic in it.

But it's ok, sweetie, I know that you have a secret adoration and deep respect for Zep (and most likely for exactly those traits that I despise about their music), and it's always nice that you stick up for them and seem genuinely puzzled how one cannot like them. 

[Basvarken]

Haha, nice one.
Somehow you printed in your mind that I'm a Led Zeppelin fan.
Well, I'm not. I think I told you a few times already. ;-)
I only own a best-of CD (with the grain circles. Is that Remasters?).

I do like Bonham's drums. At least he could swing and groove. And he didn't speed like Cozy Powell.
But Page has always been too sloppy for my liking.

But I honestly see a more fierce anti Zep attitude in your posts lately.
I was wondering where that came from.




Oh and by the way I think Blackmore is equally as pretentious...

[uwe]

Blackmore is just bloody difficult and a pain in the arse, but not really pretentious. He's too blue collar for that.

My overt anti-Zeppelinism is a running joke here, so take everything with a pinch of salt. I think they are ok as a hard rock band just as UFO or Nazareth are ok, nothing more. But I like most of Robert Plant's post-split solo work (especially his work with Frau Krauss) and the Coverdale Page collaboration wasn't shabby either, The Firm had moments too, but Page really needs Zep to make valid music.

It's just the whole Zeppelin mystique that drives me to tears. For the record: Page is a technically average lead guitarist with occasional very good ideas, but I do rate him as a good rhythm guitarist and as creative with alternative tunings etc. John Paul Jones would have benefitted from playing in a band that would have given him sympathetic mixes where you can actually hear what he plays on bass. His keyboard playing is an embellishment with Zep, but I prefer keyboard players that are upfront like Emerson, Wakeman, Elton John, Billy Joel or, yes, Jon Lord. I find organs, pianos and synths fascinating instruments and don't like them relegated to a background or just "atmosphere" role. A good keyboarder who can play freely can elevate a band more than any other instrument in my ears.

As regards John Bonham, I'm with Keith though, "... heavy-handed ... and that's where the lead comes in":



You tell me where he supposedly "swings" on Kashmir. Ian Paice has more Buddy Rich in his little pinky than Bonham had in his two arms and two feet. This prevalent concept that Bonzo was somehow a swinging drummer, I don't hear it. He hammered and nailed Zep's music to the floor - not my concept of drumming. Swinging drumming is for me what Golden Earring did on Radar Love. I dread what Bonham would have done to that song.

[morrow]

Duke Robillard from his Swing LP.
Rhythm changes …

[uwe]

That swings alright!