Published on Oct 30, 1999
If there is any one studio album in Led Zeppelin’s catalog that
seems to be the most maligned, it is their third album, released in
1970. After two albums of bombastic rock and lightning-tinged
blues, Jimmy Page and crew were suddenly throwing an album at their
fans where almost all of the previous roads were left unwalked.
It seems like only in recent years have some people been able to
appreciate what Led Zeppelin was trying to do on
Led Zeppelin III. If anything, this disc was a sign of the
direction the band would work to the best of their advantages on
discs like
Physical Graffiti – and I can’t remember anyone rip
that album that badly.
All of this said,
Led Zeppelin III is good, but is a disappointment – not
because the band didn’t follow the same musical patterns they did
on their first two albums, but because the music doesn’t always
hold up as well. Still, there’s more good than bad that I hear.
One quick criticism, totally unrelated to the music: This is an
album that
must be experienced on vinyl just for the wheel you could
rotate in the cover. It’s just not the same looking at a flat CD
booklet, knowing that I can’t help to shape the artwork. Maybe
someone can look into restoring the CD packaging to the album’s
style?
It would be wrong to say that Led Zeppelin totally ignored the
roots they laid down. “Immigrant Song” is a two-and-a-half-minute
blast of adrenalin that seems to speak volumes for everything that
Page, Robert Plant, John Paul Jones and John Bonham had
accomplished to that point. It might be suffering from overexposure
these days, but it’s still a killer track. If anything, it might be
time for some people to rediscover “Out On The Tiles” for the same
kind of vibe.
And the blues are just as vibrant on
Led Zeppelin III as before; just listen to “Since I’ve Been
Loving You” as proof. Page’s stacatto guitar solo is incredible; it
might not be the neatest guitar work in the world, but it makes up
in emotion what it lacks in organization. Frankly, I’ll take that
any day.
I think the heads of listeners started turning on the track
“Friends,” which is a bit of a departure for Led Zeppelin in that
the focus is less on bombast than it is on melody. It’s not a
terrible track, but it’s very much a first stab at the style. They
would accomplish it much better on tracks like “Kashmir” and “Down
By The Seaside”.
If “Friends” was the first shoe hitting the floor, the other
shoe smashed down with a whisper on side two of the vinyl – or, for
the CD generation, track six. The entire second half focuses more
on the acoustic side of Led Zeppelin, and allows the band to break
out into new musical styles for them. Some of these experiments
work (“Gallows Pole,” “Bron-Y-Aur Stomp”), some fall short of the
mark (“Tangerine,” “That’s The Way”) – and some of them are way out
in left field (“Hats Off To (Roy) Harper”). If you don’t know who
Roy Harper is, go dust off Pink Floyd’s
Wish You Were Here, and listen to the vocals on “Have A
Cigar”.
It’s not that acoustic Zeppelin was unheard of; “Black Mountain
Side” and “Thank You” had each touched on the subject. But to hear
country overtones in some of the songs I think scared the hell out
of some people. To me, it just doesn’t sound natural, and is
thankfully a portion of Led Zeppelin’s history that was quickly
left behind.
There’s no denying that
Led Zeppelin III is a mixed bag, and this could well be the
most subjective album of their career you’ll listen to. Is it as
bad as some people would like you to believe? Absolutely not.
There’s plenty on this disc to celebrate, and to listen to over and
over again. But is it a masterpiece? Sadly, no – though I do
believe it’s something that Zeppelin
had to experience to lead them to their glory days that made
up their untitled fourth album.