Re: PRESENCE

["Josh Messerly (Chemistry stud.) " <messerly@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

I have also said before that I didn't like the order of the songs on
Presence.  For a long time I didn't listen to the album much.  I didn't
know why I liked it less than the others (but still more than any album by
any other group).  It took a while before I realized that each individual
song was good, it was just the order that was not tripping my trigger.  
	I got a car CD player to attach to my tape deck for Christmas.
That led to be buying the boxed sets I & II. (I had all the albums on tape
but not CD) For anyone who doesn't know (including myself when I bought
them) the playing order of the songs is different. Jimmy put most of the
"hits" on the first boxed set and mixed them up. I really enjoy disc three
on Boxed set I (the one that starts with Kashmir).  It is like a Bonzo
tribute CD.  Most of his finest non-solo studio moments are on this CD:
Kashmir, Trampled Underfoot, Achilles Last Stand, When the Levee Breaks,
In My Time of Dying. I get pumped up before work by putting in IMTOD and
concetrating on the drum part.  
	But the main thing that I was happy to discover was that the songs
from Presence worked very well in helping change up moods on the discs.
Dispersed in the two boxed sets they help provide shade for the light that
other songs provide.  The boxed sets proved what I had suspected all
along.  The songs aren't bad (Zep didn't make a bad one in my opinion).
They just are put together in such a way on Presence that I don't like the
album as much as the others.  
	Yet this is understandable from the viewpoint of where this
recording came from.  It was during a time when one of the band members
was injured.  When there was some doubt from the future.  Jimmy is quoted
in the material from the boxed set I as saying that Presence is the most
important Zep album.  They were running on heart and soul.  If you are in
that sort of dark mood, Presence is great.  I have listened to the album
when feeling down.  It really resonated with me then.  I don't like to
feel that way most of the time so that down "vibe" kind of made me stay
away from the album.  Mixed in with the boxed sets, the down songs from
Presence give a good change of pace.  
	Finally, I don't think that the order of Presence should be
changed.  It is fine the way it is.  The thing to remember is that it is a
down album, a blue album.  Yes there are up moments but after I listen
to it I am filled with a wonderfull meloncollie. You should listen to
Presence if your girl took your car and ran off with your best friend.
Presence is a good album for what it stands for, The Shade.

	-Josh Messerly

"Women are a lot like beer. They look good. They smell good. You'd step
over your own mother to get one. But you can't stop at one! You want
another and another....<procedes to get very drunk>" -Homer Simpson

On Sun, 25 Jan 1998, OUTRIDERJL wrote:

> 
> As for JR's request to "redo" the running order here's a thought: Although I
> feel it is perfect as is, try listening to it this way: