Log #156 - Whole Lotta Led Zep

Mouse On Mars Vulvaland

 Emeralds Does It Look Like I'm Here

Cluster Zuckerzeit

Cluster II

John Legend Once Again

Led Zeppelin II

Just the one survivor from last week's log #155: John Legend's growing album Once Again. Growing in this context meaning it's a grower on me.

The early chop fell on Beirut to whom I had promised to give more time but it only confirmed initial impressions: I don't like the singing and don't really like the instrumentation either to be honest (has a ukulele ever made it in rock?); so that's probably it for me and Beirut.

Feed the flowers, cut the weeds. 

I don't really get Wilco either. I do love Americana and Alt-Country but don't appreciate Wilco that much. Again, maybe it's the singing? Or maybe the persistent glum mood. As well as Yankee Hotel Whatsit I have their equally revered Being There double album which will get a spin one of these days.

Once Again Again From John Legend

As for last week's soul boys Anthony Hamilton, and John Legend in particular, I really started to enjoy their albums. The John Legend has some very catchy tunes and even some moments of raw Hendrix like guitar (although Legend's main instrument is the piano as on this lovely tune below). 

Let's go to the park

I wanna kiss you underneath the stars

Maybe we'll go too far

We just don't care

What is PDA (the name of the above track) anyway? It took me a while to figure. In this context it's not "pathological demand avoidance" or a "personal delivery assistant" but a "public display of affection".

Who is the guitarist elsewhere on the album - I assume it's not Legend (real name Stephens)? I can't find out (and not worth trying to read CD inserts is it?).

For this sort of super smooth mega produced soul music the mood and timing has to be right and the underlying songs have to be good enough to carry it off and they are on the whole in Once Again.

Cluster Leap

On to the new entries. Well not really new. As recent readers will have noticed I've been on a major Cluster trip for a month or two now and two of their albums return for further assessment. So this Sunday we have Cluster no. II and the follow up Zuckerzeit. Both excellent, both different. 

Whole Lotta Led Zep 

Why Led Zeppelin now? Well, you know, it's just great stuff and sometimes you just need to rock out. A more specific reason is I heard Whole Lotta Love on the car radio during the week and wow, what a track. I remember hearing it for the first time (even just the curtailed Top Of The Pops version) and it was everything I wanted in rock music. I purchased the live album The Song Remains The Same as it had a 15 minute version of Whole Lotta Love on it, but actually it disappointed. You really did need Led Zep II. 

So my first experiences of Led Zeppelin and Whole Lotta Love would have been around 1980. By then they were pretty much defunct (calling it a sad day after John Bonham died in September 1980, just two months before John Lennon) (Lennon was 40, Bonham just 32). 

I can't remember the order I purchased the Led Zep albums but I guess it would have been something like The Song Remains The Same, II, IV, III, Houses Of The Holy, Physical Graffiti, I, Presence, In Through The Out Door, Coda. Pretty exciting stuff even 10 years after the event but imagine hearing Whole Lotta Love and II in October 1969 on its original release. It must have blown a lot of people's minds.

Sometimes I realise I have 2 of the same albums in my collection. This is the case with Physical Graffiti, not clever...

The cover for Led Zep II was designed by David Juniper, an art school colleague of Jimmy Page's. He took an old German WW1 photo of the Red Baron's Flying Division and superimposed faces of the band and various members of their entourage including manager Peter Grant. The cover also allegedly includes Neil Armstrong and Miles Davis but this is debatable as the faces are heavily disguised. 

Mouse On Mars and The Emeralds

The Mouse On Mars album Vulvaland, their debut, is excellent powerful electronica with heavy beats and bass, and sprinklings of lush ambience too. It's scarcely believable this is music from 1994. The Emeralds album has all the elements I love but somehow doesn't quite float my boat (just yet) in the same way.

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Physical Graffiti - Led Zeppelin's monumental double album serves as a primer of the band's entire oeuvre

By 1975 no one was bigger or heavier than Zeppelin. America was punch drunk after the quadruple whammy of their first four albums, each supported by tours that went from scene-stealing support slots to stadium-filling three-hour marathons, almost overnight. Even the slightly below average (ie. one or two sub-par tracks) Houses Of The Holy (1973) hadn’t dented their reputation one jot. The world, and its attendant pleasures, was theirs for the taking. At this point most modern bands would take 5 years off and forget each others' names. What did Robert, Jimmy, John Paul and Bonzo do? Produced a double album that some still hold to be their best of all time.

What really shines out is the sheer genre-defying eclecticism of it all.

Admittedly, a fair amount of Physical Graffiti was composed of offcuts and work-in-progress from their previous two albums though these were offcuts of startling quality. But what really shines out is the sheer genre-defying eclecticism of it all. Far more than just a crowd-pummelling hard rock act with the world’s beefiest rhythm section, these boys were able to do everything from folk (Bron Y Aur) and blues (In My Time Of Dying) to country rock (Down By The Seaside) and barrelhouse rock 'n' roll (Boogie With Stu). In fact Physical Graffiti serves pretty much as a primer of the band’s entire oeuvre.

And amongst these flights of dexterity we get some of the band’s best-loved numbers of all-time. Trampled Underfoot, driven by Jones’ stomping Fender Rhodes pulls off the remarkable trick of being both heavy and funky as hell. Custard Pie and The Rover are monster axe workouts, and of course Kashmir is still a juggernaut of incredible power: a blend of east and west inspired by Page and Plant’s mystical wanderings and underpinned by Bonham’s legendary rumble, famously captured in all its ambient glory in the huge hallway of Headley Grange Manor. And it all came wrapped in one of those fabulously intricate die-cut sleeves that make all people of a certain age long for a return to the glory days of vinyl.

A towering monument to the glory of Zeppelin in their high-flying heyday.

Nick Kent’s review in the NME casually mentioned that by this point Zep could seemingly turn this stuff out in their sleep. He was right. Six years of touring and recording had honed them into an unstoppable force, but tragedy lay in wait around the corner in the form of death, drug abuse and changing tastes. But Physical Graffiti remains a towering monument to the glory of Zeppelin in their high-flying heyday.




Review by Chris Jones shared from the BBC website http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/2xrg/

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Log #49 - Grateful Dead in Concert

1. Afro Celts Sound System- I
2. Quantic (Soul Orchestra) - Apricot Morning
3. Led Zeppelin - IV
4. Various - New Orleans Funk 1960-75
5. Grateful Dead - Rockin' the Rhein, Live Dusseldorf 24 April 1972, Disc 1
6. Grateful Dead - Rockin' the Rhein, Live Dusseldorf 24 April 1972, Disc 2

As any "Deadhead" knows The Grateful Dead were one band that actively encouraged the recording and release of their live performances. There are therefore literally 1000s of bootlegs out there, many recorded in high quality right off the sound deck and released as official albums.

The info graphic below taken from Wiki illustrates their fondness for a live recording - in fact they only released a relatively modest 13 actual studio albums across their career.

Their live shows were legendary, often of 3 hours long, with frequent extensions into improvised jazz rock noodlings showcasing Jerry Garcia's liquid guitar (think of Spinal Tap's new direction after the departure of Nigel Tufnel). I'm not an expert deadhead at all but opine that this isn't one of the best. Actually I much prefer the mid 70s "post Pigpen" period Grateful Dead and their even later recordings through the 80s some of which are collected on Without a Net (1990). Of the studio albums my favourite is From the Mars Hotel. Unbroken Chain from that album pretty much summarises the best of Grateful Dead in only 6 minutes!

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Log #48 - IV

1. Led Zeppelin - I
2. Led Zeppelin - II
3. Led Zeppelin - IV
4. Led Zeppelin - Physical Graffiti Cd 1
5. Led Zeppelin - Physical Graffiti Cd 2
6. Led Zeppelin - Houses of the Holy

After several weeks of extensive research I can confirm that Led Zep IV is in fact their best album.

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Log #47 - Led Zeppelin Revisited

1. Led Zeppelin - I
2. Led Zeppelin - II
3. Led Zeppelin - IV
4. Led Zeppelin - Physical Graffiti Cd 1
5. Led Zeppelin - Physical Graffiti Cd 2
6. Led Zeppelin - Houses of the Holy

I was listening to some live youtube footage of Led Zeppelin from the late 70s. Goodness they were rough in those days, especially Jimmy Page. During one clip someone in the crowd shouts out "Jimmy you suck" and to be brutally honest they were right. Apparently young Jimmy was ravaged by heroin addiction and it got me thinking about the celebrated rock 'n' roll lifestyle of drugs and sex and (actually very good) rock 'n' roll. But surely if the rock stars of the era really were living such a lifestyle, all the time, they would never have been able to record music or turn up for gigs, let alone play. And here we do have some evidence, but generally it makes me think the stories are exaggerated.

Not much to add to the much celebrated music here. I think there were only 9 Led Zeppelin albums in all – like Fawlty Towers, a case of quality over quantity! There also hasn’t been a huge deluge of outtakes and re-releases and compilations and live albums (thankfully) to dilute their catalogue in the intervening years since their demise in 1980 (the one official live album The Song Remains the Same recorded circa 1973 isn't that great to be honest - I remember buying it before II on the expectation of a 14 minute version of the Top of the Pops theme tune only to be left underwhelmed by a ramshackle jam of Whole Lotta Love).

From their debut in 1969 the style develops from power blues to sophisticated heavy rock to a sort of funky rock 'n' roll (I was most confused on first hearing some of the stop/start tracks on the later albums but they sound ahead of their time now). Page’s guitar stays just the right side of loose and easy on the recordings.  I prefer Plant’s voice on the debut, and on the latter albums where he calms a little – I know it was the fashion at the time but the heavy rock scream prevalent on most rock records in the early 70s sounds intrusive and dated now.  You can also hear throughout why John Bonham is considered as one of the greatest of rock drummers.

The covers were consistently great too. The top of this post being the haunting Houses of the Holy cover, shot at Northern Ireland's Giant's Causeway. I checked out the cover stars. They were a brother and sister - both now in their 40s.

In those days bands took much care over the presentation of their product. This included gatefold sleeves which ironically Led Zeppelin employed for all their single albums (barring the first) up until their only studio double album Physical Graffiti which was housed in an elaborate single sleeve with inner covers that would show through cut away windows on the front.

Led Zep IV is the one that has achieved mythical status. Whole books have been written on this album alone including this very enjoyable entry in the 33 1/3 series. There has been much analysis on the cover too - famously eschewing either the name of the band or the title of the album except for 4 mysterious symbols:

Without specific permission but with much credit and recommendation which I hope more than compensates I thought I'd reproduce a comprehensive description of the IV cover by Rob Young which appears in his brilliant book on the history of British folk music, Electric Eden:

This artificially aged grain is a common device in the film stock of this period. It is most effectively utilised on one of the best-selling rock albums of the time, which dates from the epicentre of the period.

The famous layered image, which uses the gatefold format to intensify its play of close-up and distant zooms, is also a near-perfect visual counterpoint to the opening of T.S.Eliot's Four Quartets, where the poet meditates on time past and time present being both perhaps present in time future.

No textual clues, just a haggard, bowler-hatted Victorian labourer in a field, stooped with the weight of the faggots bundled on his back. He rests for a moment on a gnarled staff, the ghost of a vanished rural peasantry, now the subject of a kitsch painting that's nailed to layers of faded, peeling wallpaper on a damp cottage wall.

With the wings of the gatefold spread open, we see that the cottage wall is half demolished, and it now stands on a vacant lot overlooking a grimy row of deadbeat, red-brick terraced houses, over which a dove-grey tower block stands monolithic.

The unknown photographer has captured one of those English summers where the clouds never quite let the sun through; even though the bushes are clearly in leaf and flower, the sky is stained with the threatening pink of impending hail.

The tower block is Butterfield Court in Dudley *, one of Birmingham's many suburban outcrops. Birmingham is a creation of the Industrial Revolution, a massive manufacturing city planted in the heart of what was rural England, and which sucked the agricultural workforce into its factories and cramped housing. Positioned on a hillock, Butterfield Court's twenty storeys can, on a clear day, be seen thirty or forty miles away, from the tranquil meadows of Worcestershire and Shropshire: an ever present symbol of urban encroachment. IV's cover illustrates an ongoing social, historical and environmental process.

Someone dies from hunger nearly every day...

...reads the faintly discernable text of a billboard poster for Oxfam, plastered on the side of a terraced house. Elsewhere in the world, famines and hardships continue to blight the lives of millions of feudal workers, even as the fungus of new towns extends its gentrifying footprint. The cottage, the terrace and the tower block: three generations of workers' housing. Even here, the dialogue between country and city, progress and conservation, hangman and daughter is being perpetuated - a "battle for evermore" - in a single, mass-marketed image.

It's a brilliant cover and as Rob Young shows above there is a lot of information that can be gleaned from this picture. A+ for one of those English Language exercises where you had to so describe such a picture.


*Debate has been had at Bamyasi HQ. On checking the location of said Butterfield Court and obtaining photographic evidence it would appear there is a strong case for the infamous block of flats actually being Salisbury Tower in the Ladywood district of Birmingham. Salisbury Tower is clearly a better match:

The original shot

Salisbury Tower today

Butterfield Court today

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Log #40 - Ravi Shankar

1. Ravi Shankar & Friends - Towards the Rising Sun
2. David Bowie - Black Star
3. The Whitest Boy Alive - Dreams
4. Radiohead - Best Of
5. Talk Talk - Spirit of Eden
6. Led Zeppelin - III

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Log #39 - A Rediscovery of Radiohead

1. Matthew E White - Fresh Blood
2. David Bowie - Black Star
3. The Whitest Boy Alive - Dreams
4. Radiohead - Best Of
5. Talk Talk - Spirit of Eden
6. Led Zeppelin - III

A rediscovery of Radiohead this week on account of their televised set at Glastonbury. I haven't heard them since the much acclaimed OK Computer which I didn't like much actually, but the set at Glastonbury showed they have matured very nicely over the years although I still struggle with Thom Yorke's very depressing wail.

Cover shot is from Matthew E White's second album with fave track Rock N Roll is Cold. He is appearing locally in a few months and a few months ago I would have jumped at the opportunity but having committed too early to a few recent gigs which have turned out to be slightly disappointing (Gilles Peterson, The Orb, Arbouretum) I'm keeping my powder dry.

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Log #37 - Kraftwerk in Brighton!

Kraftwerk returned to Brighton this week for the first time in 36 years. Playing at the Brighton Centre the "group" "played" a crowd pleasing set of greatest hits from Computer World, Man Machine, Electric Cafe, Tour De France, Radioactivity, Tran-Europe Express, and of course Autobahn - the original 1974 album that really announced their arrival.

Kraftwerk land in Brighton

So what of this? Well a number of things spring to mind...

It was an event! The "event of the season" as Buffalo Springfield once said? Possibly, although here in Brighton we are spoilt with many events. Kraftwerk concerts (and appearances of any sort) have been rare over their career although recently with their 3D tours and residences at various art galleries they have become a little more common place perhaps diluting the significance. It is still super hard to get a ticket though. I had failed a number of times before securing a side circle seat for this event.

Kraftwerk are one of those groups universally admired, not just for their music, but for their influence. In this way they are a bit of a sacred cow, immune to criticism. Listening back to the music they created in the 70s it really is remarkable - so different to anything else at the time and, although it is a cliche, still sounds as if it could have been produced yesterday. I was at school at the time and although the first pop synthesizer bands were starting to emerge in the wake of pioneers like Kraftwerk my interests remained firmly rooted in rock music. I didn't get these new synthesizer bands (Depeche Mode, OMD, Gary Numan etc) or Kraftwerk at all. But oddly Kraftwerk were one of the few electronic bands that many rock fans did like. Apparently it was not uncommon to see fans in denim jackets with Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin patches at Kraftwerk concerts. Apparently they were really loud too...

...which is why I was surprised that the music was quiet at the beginning as the house lights dimmed and neon green numerals danced across the backdrop and the band started with three numbers from Computer World. It was almost like it was still the background house music.  Later on people started shouting out that it was too quiet and amazingly someone must have heard as the volume was turned up from Radioactivity onwards.

Having got a seat to the side (it is a case of first come first served with seat selection on the internet for such a popular event) I was also wary of the effectiveness of the 3D. As a green number 4 launched towards my head at the start these fears were allayed. The crowd cheered. Later on a satellite floated above me during Spacelab from Man Machine (one of the musical and visual highlights). A UFO hovered in front of the i360 and the Brighton Centre before moving off to the Pavilion - nice local touch. More cheering.

However I continued to wonder if the 3D graphics would have been more impressive or evident from front on. I think probably not as I did have a look on my way to a bathroom break. Also, surely, they would have checked these things, and there were many seats much more to the side than mine.

Boom! Boing! Tschak!

I say "played" but that's a relative term. The four musicians (they are no doubt consummate musicians, not just technicians, having written the music at least in the case of original member Ralf Hutter, even if it is debatable how difficult it is to "play" it on computers) stood mostly motionless behind four stands and you could not see what they were doing from my angle. But their arms were moving up and down (punching some drum pads and things) or from side to side (keyboards), and Hutter (far right) was "singing" (speaking) in German and heavily accented English into a head mic. The screen helpfully showed the words to many of the "songs".

The Man Machine robots play to a full house at The Brighton Centre

At the start of the extended "encore" the real musicians were replaced by the famous Kraftwerk robots from Man Machine and "played" Robots. Humourously one of the robots wouldn't move at first. Eventually his arms rose - more crowd cheering. At the end the robots were unceremoniously pulled off stage by crew. This could have been more slick - for instance I did think the robots could have done a bit more visually although their virtual playing was exemplary. The humans returned and finished off, leaving the stage one at a time to tumultuous acclaim.

One frustration I find with a lot of concerts, especially ones like this, is the insistence on seating only. Although there are great visuals to watch, it's not a classical concert. Standing (and dancing) would have been much more exciting - I know the band are too big for such a venue but a Kraftwerk DJ set at the Concorde2 for instance would be immense! Health and safety is important of course, and in the circumstances the increased airport-like security on the door was welcome, but I do get a bit annoyed when the bouncers ask you to return to your seat if you go walkabout. Some brave souls did dance a bit in the aisles before the inevitable.

Over 2 hours of Musique Non Stop

But what of those tunes? They are all very familiar. I don't have all the Kraftwerk albums but reckon I recognised 90% of the set list. The music is simple yet perfect  - chunky repetitive bass lines and hypnotic drum beats overlaid with catchy 4 bar melodies. The tracks played live were respectful to the originals - perhaps slightly beefed up in places more akin to the remixes in The Mix album. The more recent (still old but relatively recent in Kraftwerk years) tracks from Tour De France and Electric Cafe (or Techno Pop as it is now renamed) sounding particularly current. Autobahn was the slightly edited version which appears on that album - the opening car door slam and horn receiving one of the loudest cheers of the night. Greatest hit The Model was welcomed with glee and accompanied by the original black and white video - Hutter's voice equal to the original single which strangely was officially only the B side to a track from Computer World not released until 1982. Pete Paphides explains -

Though it originally appeared on 1978's The Man Machine, The Model made more sense in a pop scene reconfigured by a rouge-streaked generation of androgynes who paid as much attention to the mask as to the emotions that it sought to conceal. In the world of Spandau Ballet, Gary Numan, Duran Duran, Visage and Scary Monsters-era Bowie, some people called themselves futurists; others preferred the term New Romantic. In terms of sound and subject, The Model was the exact point where the two intersected.

Kraftwerk at the time were a secret known only to the cool kids at school. The Model became a no.1 hit and blew that cover.

My choice from Kraftwerk this week is the Trans-Europe Express album - one of their best from their 70s hey day/decade. The music sounds fresh and vibrant, mathematically perfect, and decades ahead of its time.  Showroom Dummies is the consummate Kraftwerk tune (one of the few favourites missing from the Brighton setlist actually). The full log this week:

1. Henryk Gorecki - Miserere
2. Kings of Convenience - Quiet is the New Loud
3. Kraftwerk - Trans-Europe Express
4. Talk Talk - Spirit of Eden
5. Led Zeppelin - Physical Graffiti CD 1
6. Gorillaz - Plastic Beach

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Album Cover Friday Fun Challenge! (Difficult) - ANSWERS REVEALED

Here again are the pictures for my earlier Album Cover location challenge. The initial collage below shows the locations as they are today where the original famous (or not so famous in some cases) album photos were shot.

A hover over will reveal the actual album covers.

Admittedly some of these pictures were obscure or just plain difficult unless you happened to have had the particular albums. Some of the albums are not even that famous and may not even be recognisable from the hover over! For example how many people had the Blue Oyster Cult live double album On Your Feet or On Your Knees with it's very spooky gothic church cover (2,2) actually located in up town New York? I was a great fan of their brand of sci-fi rock and in particular Buck Dharma's excellent guitar evident in extended glory on this album, but I don't think many of my contemporaries, even my rock fan friends, ever shared my enthusiasm, which is a shame as some of their early albums in particular are quite unique.

Speaking of gothic churches the San Franciscan turquoise church door was the backdrop for Van Morrison's split trouser shot for his St. Dominic's Preview album (1,3), an album that I personally think is right up there with his magnificent Astral Weeks.

The location for Black Sabbath's debut album cover shoot was not a gothic church but actually a water mill on the Thames in Oxfordshire (4,3). Of course the mysterious black figure adds some sabbath menace to this otherwise idealic country setting. Urban myths abound that the figure was an apparition that only appeared when the film was developed! Bassist Geezer Butler said such a dressed figure attended a gig many years later claiming to be the girl on the cover.

Who but the most avid and observant Mike Oldfield fans would get the aerial shot of the Welsh/English border especially without the glider (1,2)? Oldfield had retreated to the Hertfordshire region, known as Hergest Ridge, to live and record an album of the same name following the success of Tubular Bells.

Famous music locations, hover over to reveal the albums

Some of the remaining pictures are more famous and I was surprised no one got Pink Floyd's Hollywood studios Wish You Were Here shot (4,2), or Led Zeppelin's New York apartment block featured on Physical Graffitti (with actual cut out windows in the sleeve)(1,4).The other Led Zeppelin shot at (3,2) is a bit of a cheat as it is actually the back portion of the Led Zep IV cover which was shot across a park in Birmingham - quite a drab location relative to the Lord of the Rings flavoured delights inside.

The Who's obelisk from Who's Next (2,3) was taken at Easington Colliery, a former mine in County Durham in the North of England, and both the Oasis cover for What’s The Story (Morning Glory)? (1,4) and David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust cover (1,3) come from London's Soho. The famous K.West sign in the latter belonged to a long gone fur clothing company and is absolutely nothing to do with a premonition Bowie had about Kanye West. Another London shop long gone is Axfords Clothing in Vauxhall, South East London, as pictured on the Ian Dury album New Boots and Panties!! (3,4). If you look closely at the album cover you can also see the reflection of the Woolworths shop front across the street, another British institution no longer with us. Moving north of the river again you can find the less than exotic tower block in Islington which provided the night shot for The Streets' Original Pirate Material album.

Across the pond we have three New York street scenes used respectively for Bob Dylan's Freewheelin' (1,1), Neil Young's After the Goldrush (2,4) and the Doors' Strange Days (4,4), and finally Eric Clapton's 461 Ocean Boulevard (3,3) which is literally a shot of his home of that very address, Miami, in 1974.

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Frankly Bonkers - But an Entertaining Take on an Established Classic

These little books are a great idea and make lovely companions to the albums in question. Most readers will have the album already, particularly so for such a monumental classic as Led Zeppelin IV. Thus I think this must have been one of the most difficult ones to write in the series. What else can one say that is not known already? The approach is therefore original, as I think it has to be, and I think it succeeds.

What's in it? At 177 pages this is possibly the thickest book of the series. The detail is staggering; there's a bit on the imagery of the cover, the science of recording, an interesting section on the physical concept of an album (as opposed to the digital download), and a lot on Aleister Crowley and Satan, and the obligatory backward messages hidden in "Stairway to Heaven"; we don't even reach track 1 until page 75 and then the author even discusses the gaps in between the tracks! It concentrates very much on things magical, pagan, phallic, mythical, and (middle) earthy (even the spelling of author "Erik" conjures up visions of black magic!). Therefore we learn quite a bit about Page and Plant, but not much on the other two. A lot of it is frankly bonkers, but who cares, it is thoroughly entertaining and I devoured it!

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