AboutAmy Maloney Expertise I have studied the band for going on 30 years now. I have met the remaining members of Zep, along with some of their neighborhood friends and some of their family members. My knowledge about them is probably strongest in the area of biography, personalities, song meanings, influences, etc. I may not be well versed in various technical aspects of various recording equipment, instrument details, or any info on how to play the music, as I am not a musician. I am mostly a fan who has been reading about them, collecting, and has met them numerous times in the last 25 years. If I don't know an answer I have lots of resources and references to look up!
Experience Been studying the band since 1977.
Organizations N/A
Publications N/A
Education/Credentials Bachelors of Arts, University of MD.
Writing, Teaching, Travel Agent, Yoga.
Question Hi,
Thanks for your detail on the songs origins. Stairway is the first and only sone I have downloaded from LZ. As a beginner do you have any albums you would be kind enough to recommend?
Cheers, Gordon, Milton Keynes, UK.
Answer Hi Gordon,
It's hard to answer that, because I recommend all of them. I could write a book on this subject. Um, let's see...
First off, The song Stairway to Heaven is lovely, but absolutely does not represent who Led Zeppelin were.
If you are a sensible, pragmatic, cerebral personality you could look at it like a study and start from Zep I up through Coda, and listen to them in chronological order. But how fun would that be?
You could go from the angle of "get all of their greatest hits". But then, you wouldn't get them from all perspectives.
I recommend not downloading songs, but downloading to them album by album. Not necessarily chronologically, though. Listen to a whole Zep album from first song to last. I would say that the two most unique records they made were Houses of the Holy and Physical Grafitti.
These two works encompass almost all of Zep's multi-faceted skills, talent, and vision. Houses of the Holy begins with a quick-footed, ambitious rollicking tune The Song Remains The Same, then in a breath takes a right turn into profound introspection and poetry with The Rain Song (my personal favorite in the whole Zep catalogue). The rest of the record shows that Zep were all over the map - bits of reggae/pop (Dyer Maker), rock and roll (Over the Hills and Far Away and Dancing Days), soul (The Crunge), and gothic cosmic style blues (No Quarter).
Physical Grafitti is great for so many reasons, but it's a 2 record set and has songs that the band worked on as early as 1970, up through to 1974. Some of their most popular songs are on this record (Kashmir, In My Time Of Dying, Trampled Under Foot, In The Light).
My personal favorites, though, are Presence and Zep III. See Gordon, it's really challenging for a Zep fan to give a short answer to which albums she recommends!!
Ok, yes - I've decided: Start with Houses of the Holy, then Physical Grafitti. Then maybe go to an earlier record (I through IV) then Presence. Then, if you haven't done so yet, go out and get the Live DVD that was released a few years ago and be prepared to be astonished.
