Re: More Mixer Ramblings

[Jeremy Mixer <mixer@xxxxxxxx>]

On Sun, 3 Jun 2001, The Gore-met wrote:

> I was thinking that they were recorded in the 60's and rooted in
> psychedelic blues, and hence are dated in their musical content. 
> That is
> nothing but an observation. Apparently you missed my follow-up 
> comments.

I had no idea who even made the original post, as I stated in my 
post. SO
how was I to know that they were follow up comments? :)

I have a hard time saying that songs like "Dazed" "WIAWSNB" CB, etc 
(the
list goes on) are dated because of their musical content, it's an 
opinion,
and I respectfulyl disagree with you. I personally feel that several 
of
the songs on the first two albums are timeless. Hell, those two albums
plus the fourth album have mroe songs on them that get airplay on
corperate rock radio then any other album on a regular basis. 
Corperate
Rock radio is based on all kinds of research and studies. Most of the
other albums only have one or two songs that get regular airplay on 
radio,
3 has Immigrant song, PG has Kashmir and Trampled. ITTOD has FITR and 
All
My Love and In The Evening. Presence is pretty much just NFBM,
occaisionally some cool stations will play Achilles, which really 
seems to
get mroe airplay now then it did 5 years ago.

Add Houses onto the heavy airplay list too- TSRTS, OTHAFA, D'yer 
Mak'er,
The Ocean, Dancing Days....this and the second and fourth albums are 
the
most successful and timeless obviuously by the public's standards

In comparison, the first album- Good Times, Bad Times, Babe I'm GOnna
Leave You, Dazed and Confused, and Communication Breakdown- all songs 
I
hear regularly on rock corperate radio. From the second album- WLL,
WIAWSNB, Thank You, Heartbreaker/LLM (ussually together), and Ramble 
On.

The fourth album has Black Dog, Rock and Roll, Stairway, Misty 
Mountain
Hop, and California. Once again, all songs that get regular corperate
airplay on rock stations. It's all based on research, surveys, and
millions of dollars have been spent to determine "This is what the 
people
want to hear the most."

Just to even the score, the station I work at, which is a successful 
local
station that breaks the rules of what  you can play and what people
supposedly don't like- this is the songs we have in our computer 
(although
every song is accessable by CD, but these are the Zep songs in regular
rotation)- All My Love, Babe I'm..., BD, D'yer Mak'er, Dancing Days, 
Fool
in.., California, GTBT, Heartbreaker/LLM, HHWCID, Hot Dog (!), Immi 
song,
In the Evening, Kashmir, Misty Mountain Hop, Over the Hills, Ramble 
On,
Rock and Roll, SIBLY, STH, Tanhgerine (!), The Girl I Love, The 
Ocean, The
Rover (!), TSRTS, Trampled, Levee (!), and WLL. For solo material, 
Plat:
29 Palms, Big Log, Hurting Kind, In the Mood and Tall Cool One (CD's 
are
all heretoo). For Jimmy there is the Page/Plant Gallows Pole, HHWCID 
with
the Crowes, and Page/Plant's When the World was Young. Once again, all
these CD's, plus COverdale Page, are in our library....the computer 
holds
the main songs and the library is there for the other stuff that 
people
like but don't hear as much. The Knebworth 90 album is also here. And
several other goodies if you look hard enough. And that's just in the
on-air studio, who knows what is in storage. Also got some live stuff 
too.
Plus TSRTS and BBC.....

Most modern radio stations play everything from a computer, and have 
no
CD's in their studio. That's the sad world we are living in now, 
folks.

> Heavy is relative. I've heard albums I consider far, far "heavier" 
> than
> any Zeppelin album, both in musical and lyrical content.

This is where engineering comes in.....heavy is not necesarrily just 
the
music and lyrics, the mix and the EQ have something to do with 
heaviness
too, and I honestly think if something has a heavier sound from the 
mix
that constitues it being heavy. I think that the engineering on 
Houses is
absolutely horrible, and that is why it is my least favorite album. 
While
"The Rain Song" "No Quarter" and OTHAFA stand out, everything else, 
while
still great songs......have a very thin sound to them to my ears. One 
with
a different ear might say that they think that TSRTS is very heavy, 
the
thing that makes things heavy to me is the music and the engineering. 
I
don't think modern digital technology can capture heaviness like old
analog equipment could. Ironic that Eddie Kramer worked on btoh the 
second
album and HotH. Maybe it was the two other jokers on Houses that made 
the
thin sound.

Black Sabbath is much heavier then Ozzie solo, and once again, that 
is the
sound of the music, the mix, the EQ.......

In A Gadda Da Vida to me is much more heavier then much of the modern
music that comes out today, as is Zep II, as is Sabbath. I could 
continue
to make a list....Cream....etc......

> I "didn't like the sound"? That's pretty lame, isn't it? I made no
> comments in regard to the quality of anything. I didn't toe the 
> line,
> 'tis all.
>
> There is nothing wrong with the first two albums, they just don't
> contain material that has the timeless qualities of, say, "Ten Years
> Gone", "Four Sticks", "The Ocean" or "In The Evening", for examples.

I disagree strongly, I think that the only song as timeless as the 
songs
on the first two albums in your above list is TYG. "In THe Evening" 
sounds
so 80's (like most of ITTOD) (even though it was 1978 when it was
recorded) I think that the earlier stuff is what will stand out.

Closing off, I do love each and every Zeppelin song, and probably 
always
will. Like anyone, I have my preferences and some songs that I like 
better
then others and my personal reasons. Feel free to disagree. Flames 
will be
ignored if posted to the list unless they are constructive.

I feel bettter now :)

Jeremy Mixer