== Led Zeppelin saves the world = By Mark Morford

[madokie]

Because your kid deserves 'Kashmir' as a ringtone. Hey, at least it's not the Beatles

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2007/10/19/notes101907.DTL&nl=fix

There's this moment in "The Song Remains the Same," the often wildly cheesy yet still utterly groin-tingling epic 1976 Led Zeppelin concert film/fantasia where a reed-thin, black-clad, heavily sequined Jimmy Page is so violently violating his Les Paul with a shredded violin bow it sounds like demons f-ing in a hurricane.

Meanwhile, Robert Plant is swaggering in skin-tight bell-bottoms and stack-heel boots and a massive mane of blond curls with his spine arched so far back and his bulge so prominent it surely inspired a million fertility rites, as late Zep drummer John Bonham beats the meaning of life out of his kit and bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones looks like Jesus rising from the dead and pretty much the entire sold-out Madison Square Garden crowd is lost in some sort of deep mystical hard-rock trance the memory of which will certainly be burned deep into their very cells forevermore.

If you've seen this concert footage, you know. It is, I have to say, one of those images, one of those seminal moments in recorded music history where it does not matter what your gender or what your age or what level of teenage sexual neurosis you might've suffered back then.

Because if you claim to enjoy hard rock music in the slightest, you witness something like this and the divine forces of sex and god and fire and electricity all come together to stab you straight in the gut of your id, and suddenly it all makes some sort of perfect cosmic rock 'n' roll sense and you go oh oh OH, this is how it's supposed to be. ...

[jpgray]

1. Every middle-schooler should have a Zep phase. And it's true we're low on rock gods

But I can't fucking -stand- Robert Plant anymore. Zep had mediocre melodies, but great playing and great atmosphere.

[Sugar Smack]

4. jgraz! What's up?

I'm with you on the overplayed thing.B-) :hi:

[jpgray]

5. ...

:P

[Rock_Garden]

2. Led Zeppelin certainly saved my soul!

:headbang:

[Bassic]

3. I never understood why that song became so popular.

Same for Stairway. As far as I'm concerned those are _not_ their best material.

[VWolf]

6. Led Zep certainly saved MY world

I grew up on the stuff. I was 7 years old when Houses of the Holy came out. My sister bought it and I'd become familiar with all of the songs within a week. I remember going to the midnight showings of The Song Remains the Same at the Hyway Theater in Fair Lawn, NJ. I think I was about 13 at the time. Never got to see the band perform live, but I managed to see Plant on a solo tour in the late 80's and Page when he was with The Firm.

A few months ago, I saw a Zeppelin tribute performed by the former lead singer of Zebra (can't remember his name), backed by a guitarist, bassist, drummer and classical orchestra. Good show.

Of course, Stairway was the first song I ever learned on guitar, but my favorites have always been Achilles Last Stand, Ten Years Gone & I'm Gonna Crawl.

[Sedona]

7. My 12 yr old daughtyer is into the Who at the moment

and has "Who are you" as a ringtone.

She's a CSI fan.

Go figure, at least she not bitching for Hannah Montana tickets.

http://www.reuters.com/article/entertainmentNews/idUSN1731159520071017