Album Reviews
View The Zep, of all bands surviving, are today — their music is as ephemeral as Marvel comix, and as vivid as an old Technicolor cartoon. It doesn't challenge anybody's intelligence or sensibilities, relying instead on a pat visceral impact that will insure absolute stardom for many moons to come. Their albums refine the crude public tools of all dull white blues bands into something awesome in its very insensitive grossness, like a Cecil B. DeMille epic. If I rely so much on visual and filmic metaphors, it's because they apply so exactly. I've never made a Zep show, but friends (most of them the type, admittedly, who will listen- to anything so long's it's loud and they're destroyed) describe a thunderous, near-undifferentiated tidal wave of sound that doesn't engross but envelops to snuff any possible distraction.
Their third album deviates little from the track laid by the first two, even though they go acoustic on several numbers. Most of the acoustic stuff sounds like standard Zep graded down decibelwise, and the heavy blitzes could've been outtakes from Zeppelin II. In fact, when I first heard the album my main impression was the consistent anonymity of most of the songs — no one could mistake the band, but no gimmicks stand out with any special outrageousness, as did the great, gleefully absurd Orangutang Plant-cum-wheezing guitar freak-out that made "Whole Lotta Love" such a pulp classic. "Immigrant Song" comes closest, with its bulldozer rhythms and Bobby Plant's double-tracked wordless vocal croonings echoing behind the main vocal like some cannibal chorus wailing in the infernal light of a savage fertility rite. What's great about it, though, the Zep's special genius, is that the whole effect is so utterly two-dimensional and unreal. You could play it, as I did, while watching a pagan priestess performing the ritual dance of Ka before the flaming sacrificial altar in Fire Maidens of Outer Space with the TV sound turned off. And believe me, the Zep made my blood throb to those jungle rhythms even more frenziedly.
Unfortunately, precious little of Z III's remaining hysteria is as useful or as effectively melodramatic. "Friends" has a fine bitter acoustic lead, but gives itself over almost entirely to monotonously shrill Plant breast-beatings. Rob, give a listen to Iggy Stooge.
"Celebration Day" and "Out On the Tiles" are production-line Zep churners that no fan could fault and no one else could even hear without an effort. "Since I've Been Loving You" represents the obligatory slow and lethally dull seven-minute blues jam, and "Hats Off to (Roy) Harper" dedicates a bottleneck-&-shimmering echo-chamber vocal salad to a British minstrel who, I am told, leans more towards the music-hall tradition.
Much of the rest, after a couple of listenings to distinguish between songs, is not bad at all, because the disc Zeppelin are at least creative enough to apply an occasional pleasing fillip to their uninspiring material, and professional enough to keep all their recorded work relatively clean and clear — you can hear all the parts, which is more than you can say for many of their peers.
Finally I must mention a song called "That's the Way," because it's the first song they've ever done that has truly moved me. Son of a gun, it's beautiful. Above a very simple and appropriately everyday acoustic riff, Plant sings a touching picture of two youngsters who can no longer be playmates because one's parents and peers disapprove of the other because of long hair and being generally from "the dark side of town." The vocal is restrained for once — in fact, Plant's intonations are as plaintively gentle as some of the Rascals' best ballad work — and a perfectly modulated electronic drone wails in the background like melancholy harbor scows as the words fall soft as sooty snow: "And yesterday I saw you standing by the river / I read those tears that filled your eyes / And all the fish that lay in dirty water dying / Had they got you hypnotized?" Beautiful, and strangely enough Zep. As sage Berry declared eons ago, it shore goes to show you never can tell.
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Review 1 of 5
SilverScreen89 writes:
Yet again, Led Zep and a memorable album. They drop a lot of the blues, though retain its influence, and make a chart friendly album that will remain in history, and the album that will be a prelude to...
Oct 15, 2008 06:55:38
Review 2 of 5
misterpfeffer writes:
most people i know of dislike this one-apart from "immigrant song" it's the only track that is reconizably "zeppelin"-what most folks don't know that there's a wealth of brilliant material contained within these grooves-sure the album's opener kicks nordic ass, but then "friends" with it's swirling eastern motifs suggest of what was yet to come five years later with "kashmir"-'celebration day" and "out on the tiles" do the boogie-woogie better than any of their american counterparts without the political posturing-"since i've been loving you" is one of the finest examples of white boy blues ever committed to vinyl-a slow and building jam of monolithic proportions-and when it was performed live you better get back!!!-but then came the "other side"-beginning with "gallow's pole" an old english folk song about a condemned man's plea to live no matter what the cost truly "swings"! then the twin epic of "tangerine" and "that's the way" with pedal steel and mandolin-never have englishmen encapsulated the american south as well as this-the lonely guitar on 'that's the way" truly sound like they're carried on a genlte wind across a distant valley-"bron y' aur stomp" and "hats off" are true examples of white boys trying so hard to be black from a country thry're not even from-and with awesome slides and pickings, i might add-this has always been my favorite of all their albums-this was their most transitional release and combined all of the elements that would make iv the album that it is-to comapre with the beatles-this is their revolver
Nov 11, 2007 17:07:37
Review 3 of 5
Zeupater writes:
For years I have heard the reviews of Led Zeppelin III. Basically, they read 'not another Led Zeppelin I or II' and express some sort of disappointment. But, honestly, I've never really understood the criticism. I love the third album. I will probably finally review all the Led Zeppelin records, but as perhaps my favorite, I am choosing this one to review first.
The opening track 'Immigrant Song' is a driving, pagan chant of adventure. As if to say this record is about to really take you somewhere. And indeed, this is a fitting opener.
'Friends' is a mystical, syncopated acoustic piece, and one of the first indications of the band's preoccupation with eastern music.
'Since I've Been Loving You' is a powerful, soaring, epic blues number that perhaps could have been equally at home on the first album, but sits comfortably amidst this album's diversity, and probably benefits from the the band having a couple more years of experience; Robert Plant is more relaxed here, and more easily embraces this song.
'That's The Way' may be the song that initially confounded the critics. How could Led Zeppelin do a folk/country song? One possibly reply: 'Amazingly'. The song is downright beautiful. A lament of lost, forbidden love.
I prefer to listen to this record under headphones. This album flows well, and here is a complete experience you get only from a real album, something sorely absent in today's music.
Mar 8, 2007 02:58:03
Review 4 of 5
Booberry writes:
Led Zeppelin I and II were simply excellent. III wasn't as good. Celebration Day, Immigrant Song, and Braun-Yr-Aur Stomp(Forgive me for my crappy spelling) are great songs, but this album is...just not as great as the previous two.
Sep 24, 2006 09:40:29
Review 5 of 5
tezken1 writes:
Here is where zep separated them selves from the rest of the pack by saying ok even though whole lotta love was hugely successful we're not going to just try to recreate it through our whole careeer.They took the risk of alienating thier fans by changing thier sound ( for some tracks) and the result was some sluggish sales at first ( by zep standards) but eventually people came around and accepted the changes. And although it was mostly panned by critics, who wanted another zep II album, the fans loved it. It showed that zeppelin was diverse and could branch out into other areas than just hard rock. Although not zeps best effort it is a truly great album that takes from rock, country, blues and folk. Thirty six years later it still sounds great
Aug 15, 2006 06:22:42
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