It started with a babysitter. In 1969, my parents went out of town and left me and my brother with one of my father’s graduate students. I was almost 11. She was fun and attractive and quickly figured out that we were young rockers. One night she had to go to her house to feed her dog. She took us along. I remember she cut up a couple of hot dogs for her German Shepherd, and then went over to her record collection and pulled out something she was excited about. “Have you heard this yet?” She brandished an LP with a black and white photo of the Hindenburg going down. I knew all about the Hindenburg because of an LP called I Can Hear It Now, a compilation of news clips that included that famous breathless reporter describing the giant airship bursting into flames and crashing in 1937. I was immediately intrigued. She put it on, and like much great music, it scared me. It was heavy with intense guitar and the singer actually seemed to be screaming. It was very different than most of the stuff I was hearing on the radio. Within a few weeks my brother had procured his own copy of Led Zeppelin I. We listened obsessively. This stuff was earthy and exotic at the same time. The music actually matched that incredible image on the cover-especially the side A closer “Dazed and Confused” which defined heavy to my ears. It was the sound of “gee-wiz” popular music crashing and burning on the ground.
Not
too long after, Led Zeppelin II was released. Amazingly it had that same image
of the burning Zeppelin on the cover again. This time with a sepia-toned photo
of the band dressed as World War flying aces superimposed over it. I couldn’t
believe their audacity and their confidence. When I heard the single “Whole
Lotta Love” on the radio, I just about shit. It once again pushed the
boundaries of heavy-with the most punishing opening riff of all time, and a
multi-part epic that covers so much ground it feels like you’ve traveled the
world in 5 and a half minutes. Led Zeppelin II perfectly describes the
end of the 60’s and beginning of the 70’s to me. It has the color and mystery
of much of the best stuff of the 60’s but it takes a giant, thudding step
forward to a new heaviosity. Years later, when I owned a record store, I
learned about and actually got a copy of the rare “Sterling RL.” copy of the
album. With recording engineer Robert Ludwig’s initials carved into the
trail-off wax, this version of the album is cut much louder than a normal
record. It is a profound listening experience.
I
can only think of one or two other bands that changed the way Zep did
musically. Like The Beatles, every one of their subsequent albums was
completely different that the others, and they always seemed to break some new
sonic ground. Led Zeppelin III had one of the greatest covers of all
time, Houses of the Holy felt like an invocation to a witches ritual, IV
contained anthem after anthem, and Physical Graffiti was so full of
amazing songs and different styles you just couldn’t believe it was one band
doing all this. It still seems like some huge career-spanning best-of instead
of just another album in their catalog.
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| Jimmy Page at Led Zeppelin's first American show-Denver Auditorium 1968- with the fated Stratocaster |
And
then there was the time I had a whole convention’s worth of record store owners
in my living room sometime in the early 2000’s. At just the right moment, when
everybody was lit up just bright enough, I slipped in disc 2 of The Led
Zeppelin DVD set (possibly the greatest selection of live performances ever
assembled of any band) and cued up The Ocean from Madison Square Garden
lou-ow-d. A room full of 30, 40 and 50 something hipsters all dropped their
jaws and collectively reveled in a moment of pure rock and roll bliss. It was
great and to a person everyone came up to me and said some variation of “OMG, I
forgot how great Zep was.” It never fails.
Paul Epstein
The film really has two components. The first is the time they spent together on the soundstage rapping with each other and showing off licks. For instance in one scene (actually found in the bonus material) White teaches the other two one of his signature licks. It is totally simple, but both Page and Edge mutter “brilliant” as they try to play it along with White, who looks like it is not lost on him that he is teaching Jimmy Page and The Edge one of HIS songs, and they are hanging on his every word. The second component follows each guitarist individually as they retrace the steps of their own development as musicians. These moments hold the greatest treats as Page air-guitars to a Link Wray single in his very own man-cave, or The Edge shows us the bulletin board in his high school where U2 drummer Adam Clayton put up a notice for “bandmates wanted” or when Jack White, with the aid of a young actor, teaches himself at 9 years old what the blues are all about. Through deft editing and unprecedented access to the musicians, we get a view of some very famous people as they have never been seen before. They appear, for all the world, to be exactly the same kind of fanboys that those of us who love them actually are. The thrill of seeing Jimmy Page teach the riff from “Kashmir” to two other rock stars is really cool, but to see him as a vulnerable teenager talking about his love for skiffle music and hopes to one day be a medical researcher really opens your eyes to how human these guys are. Yes, Page is the wizard, the most devilish man in rock history, but really, he’s just a kid with a handful of 45’s and a dream to play guitar, and that makes this an incredibly insightful film for people who like their Gods to have feet of clay. I have not enjoyed a movie about rock music as much as this one - maybe ever.