Stairway To... Let's Say About The 9th Floor
Everyone who gets hard from being severely disappointed is gearing up for the Led Zeppelin reunion. Arguably the greatest rock band of all time is going to perform on December 10, 2007 with Jason Bonham filling in for his deceased father on drums.
And just to make sure it lacks the fire, intensity, and polish of the original Led Zep recordings, they're making some changes:
Led Zeppelin have been forced to rearrange their hit songs for their upcoming reunion concert - after frontman Robert Plant struggled to hit high notes in rehearsals. . . .
A source tells British newspaper The Sun, 'He and guitarist Jimmy Page have had a few heated discussions about the upcoming gig. Jimmy is a bit rusty and Robert has been struggling with the high notes. To avoid any embarrassing vocal wobbles with the world watching, they decided it would be best to transpose the songs in a lower key.'
Wow. I can't imagine the degree to which Plant's voice has fallen to pieces because even in his prime, Plant could NEVER hit his hight notes live. Go rent Song Remains The Same and fast forward to Ramble On. His paint-peeling shrieks have been replace by a lower octave warble. He sounds like Elvis. Or listen to some of Houses of the Holy (particularly Song Remains the Same) and tell me they didn't speed up the tape. Either that or Alvin from the Chipmunks took some guest vocal spots.
Don't get me wrong. Plant is one of the greatest and most important singers in the history of Rock, but at the end of the day, he's just an accidental genius. Unlike John Paul Jones and Jimmy Page who were trained studio musicians, Plant was some half-wit, squealing in the blues tradition and spouting nonsense lyrics or lines he stole from The Lord of the Rings. And it was great. Zep's first five albums are five of the greatest Rock albums ever made. It just worked, which is odd, because usually it's a bad sign when your frontman takes off his shirt and starts singing about Mordor.
So there you have it. Robert Plant is an intellectually-impaired cheeseball who can't even pretend to cut it live anymore. And, oh, and in case I case I haven't sufficiently enraged die-hard Zep fans, I should mention I banged your mom.
This was f*****g hilarious! I couldn't agree more- Immigrant Song live vs. Immigrant Song album, or "Four Sticks"- definitely sped up the tape. As a guitarist, I'd even say that Page's live performances left a little to be desired; he recycles the same licks from his album solos for his solos live, sets tempos too quickly... But John Paul Jones always ups his game live. His running bass lines from live performances are so much better and responsive to Page's solos than they are in studio recordings. I always get flac for saying this, but I think the concert recordings prove that Jones is the most complete, and therefore best, musician of the group.
ReplyEither way, a good musician shouldn't be worried about changing keys to accomodate vocalists. It happens all the time- so much so it's a non-issue for musicians on the scene. If Jimmy page were a great musician, he would be able to deal with changing song keys seemlessly. If he were a decent musician, he would put in the time to relearn the songs to accomodate the vocalist, without bitching. So Gladstone hasn't just exposed Plant as over-rated.
Black Dog sounded pretty decent but the rest was touch and go. I'm just a bit depressed that we have to get Led Zeppelin to reunite because the vast space they left in Rock N Roll has never been filled and any time someone has come remotely close(Guns N....) shit happens and the band breaks up. The police are doing the same thing. God Damn it!! Can we get some new fucking rock bands please? Some bunch of dude who are actually still young enough to remember how to play the shit they wrote. Zeppelin are so old at this stage that they're quite likely to be offended by the volume of their own music and tell the crowd to get out of their yard before they call the police.
ReplySo, now the concert is some four months gone do we get a retraction Gladstone? Is it in the bag?
Reply30 years plus after Bonzo's death and they still blew the audience away. Can't be all that crap can they?
whoever says zeppelin sucks must have never watch them live in concert before. they can rock you upside down with communication breakdown and bring you do your kneels with Stairway to Heaven! Zep rocks!
ReplyGod, I don't get the worship of Zep. Never mind that about 3/4 of the first album is stolen, but the lyrics blow and the songs trudge on and on. It's not like they were metal like Sabbath either, or great blues rock ala Clapton or Duane Allman.
ReplyTo me they were just the harder rocking Dead. Their songs were long, there were solos for every member, it was pompous dull and boring.
Although, Plant DID produce The Idiot for Iggy Pop and helped Lou Reed with his career, so who am I to judge?
Seriously, I think Zep sucks. There. I said it and I'd say it again if I had to.
•only Page and Bonham soloed
•Eric Clapton isn't blues, he's rock covering the blues. John Lee Hooker is blues.
•Duane Allman is Southern Rock, influenced by the blues, but distinct from it
•I study music improvisation. Zeppelin has solos within the form of the song. The Dead's songs hinge on improvisation. The songs are there to advance the solos, whereas LZ uses solos to advance the songs. The harder rocking Dead would be the Allman Brothers. Maybe Skynyrd, but not LZ.
Also, they aren't metal- but they did influence metal ("Immigrant Song"). So I agree that they're overrated as musicians. But you sound like a dumbass (seriously- Clapton played blues licks, but he isn't someone a true blues fan would list in the genre's top ten).
I am not related toobert Plant, but I love the man dearly. Stairway to Heaven is a very groovy song. It's about a spirtiual journey and the path we all must choose. It's about life.
ReplyWhat a fantastic metaphor!Good job Robert!
Layla Plant
Age 15
hater
ReplyIts about heroin, or acid or something, probably.
ReplyTwo words; "Zeppelin Rules"
ReplyYeah, and in a call in show someone asked him why way he asked the audience "do you remember laughter" after the "echo with laughter" line in a famous live stairway recording.
ReplyHis response?
"I heard it on the record."
But it's not on the record. Read, he was just saying some stuff.
He claims Stairway is about some girl who doesn't always get what she wants. I can understand the first section of the song, but what about "and as we wind on down he road? etc. etc."
ReplyYes, Josh. Stairway means nothing. That's what i was thinking of when I wrote "nonsense lyrics." Ever hear Plant try to explain his lyrics? Ouch.
ReplyHuh, I guess I'm not that late.
ReplyAnyways, I just thought I'd throw it out there that I've seen this Led Zeppelin tribute band called "Zoso" twice...and I can definitely predict they put on 10 times the show that this "reunion" could hope to achieve. They actually look and sound like the part too. The guy who does Plant actually sounds like Plant. Actually scratch that...he sounds like Plant sounds in the studio! Either that or I was totally caught up in the moment both times.
John Paul Jones may have been the unsung hero in Zeppelin, but there's a reason for that. Yess he wrote the riff to Black Dog, but he also put those annoying pauses in the song because "he didn't want people dancing to it." WTF?
By the way...enough about how bad the lyrics are in "Ramble On." I'm so sick of hearing that. How about the fact that the lyrics in "Stairway to Heaven" make no fucking sense?
Yes, I meant "ton" not "tone."
ReplyY'know what's really depressing about blogging? Reading comments from people who can't hold more than one thought in there head at a time.
I can't call Led Zep one of the greatest bands of all time and still castigate Plant for his inability to hit high notes live either then or now? I can't say Zep 1 - Houses of the Holy are 5 of the greatest albums ever and still say that Page and Plant were money-grubbing cheap bastards for excluding John Paul Jones from their Page Plant tour?
That's not a sense of entitlement I'm displaying; it's an ability to think in gradations.
In the future, I'll try to stick to Murder = Bad, Angelina Jolie = Sexy.
Apologies to all you readers to whom this vent does NOT apply.
Piss off floatfish.
ReplyDude, you display that ugly sense of entitlement that seems to be unique to most Americans- namely, "Well... that was pretty good, ya got anymore? What, that's it? What a ripoff!" Did you somehow get shortchanged by Zep? I'm thinking when it comes to Zeppelin you need to grateful for what you got.
ReplyOh, and Jesus loves you.
Just kidding, he dosn't like you at all, you used the f-word in the same breath as Robert and Jimmy.
do you mean ton? or tonne? cause tone maybe shouldnt be used in that sentence. anyways forgive me if my english is bad, im just a humble engineer.
ReplyWell as long as this has turned into a Led Zep chat room, let's say it: John Paul Jones deserves A TONE OF CREDIT for making Zep one of the greatest bands of all time and Page and Plant can go fuck themselves for going on tour without him several years ago.
ReplyIf I'm not mistaken, and I know someone will correct me if i am, Jones wrote the riff to Black Dog, Fool in the Rain, and All of My Love. Bam!
I very much doubt that Zep is doing this gig for any other reason but to have fun and throw us diehard fans a tasty bone. I saw the Page/Plant band (No Quarter thingey) half expecting a CSN&Y style nostalgia show and I was totally blown away. Robert was great and Jimmy pulled out some guitar stuff I've never ever heard any musician do, on any instrument. So you just never know. I'm reminded of what Jimmy once said about "Stairway to Heaven", that "you don't spend the rest of your life trying to eclipse it." It's like saying to Albert Einstien "Uh, yeah, Theory of Relativity, that's pretty cool... so what else ya got?"
Replynice, Ian...walked right into that one...
Reply