Word: zeppelined
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...about as popular as a U.S. rock group can be. Prior to its release two weeks ago, Déjà Vu had already earned $2,000,000 in advance orders -an unprecedented feat at Atlantic Records, which has also produced such bestselling artists as Aretha Franklin, Led Zeppelin and Cream. Not only that, the group's first LP won the "best new artists of 1969" award at the recent Grammy Awards, the record industry's version of the Oscars. Where were the boys while all the other new groups were hopefully eying the Grammy gala? Crosby...
...TURNING to Led Zeppelin II we might feel that the bold change in cover art from the phallic to the cenotaphic argues a change for the worse. Dirigibilis mutabilis! The new album contains two of their best songs, two of their clearest failures, a delight in light parody, and an explicit and jocular exhibitionism, verging at times toward crudity, only suggested in the earlier record. This last element is most apparent in the lurid copulative jactitation of "Whole Lotta Love." This very involved song, with its assemblage of background sounds of connubial exertion, reminds one (very hazily) of Southev...
...rhythm. "The Lemon Song" is a tongue-in-cheek medley of blues cliches, even to the point of "down on this killin floor." Although the band is almost as wry as the Beatles in "Yer Blues" or "Helter Skelter," the result here as there does not prove durable. Led Zeppelin's only ostensible love song. "Thank You," is quite frustrating. Page assumes a twelve-string and Plant emulsifies his voice for such less than breathtaking lyrics as "If mountains should crumble into the sea/ There would still be you and me," and "Inspiration is what...
...Heartbreaker" and "Ramble On" perhaps represent Led Zeppelin's finest achievement. "Heartbreaker" reveals the group at its best, integrating creative solos and complex subordinate lines without verbosity, repetition, or loss of outline. "Heartbreaker" takes its place with "How Many More Times" as a genial yet cynical song about the sumptuous and toxic banquet of credulous infatuation. "Ramble On" is the structural successor to "Babe I'm Going to Leave You," in which several sections are unified by Plant's masterful use of slight dynamic and tempo adjustments. "Ramble On," perhaps Led Zeppelin Il's finest song, also affords a good...
...last song, "Bring It On Home," is a humorous comment on the current preoccupation of coming together. Since Led Zeppelin never left home, or wandered into the hell's kitchen of supporting orchestras and electronic accessories, they bring it on home with one last incomparably precise instrumental exposition. Plant gestures toward the return to simple instruments with a wittily languid harmonica part, punctuated by an indolent "Watch out, watch out." Their signature blend of innuendo, vaguely arrogant virtuosity, and exhilarating braggadocio return home with unexpected lightness as the harmonica quietly arrests the song with a sarcastic but still good-natured...