“Stories of Songs of Stories”, written on Wednesday, May 10, 2023
The Led Zeppelin – Ubiquitously known, loved and respected in every music community across the world, from their birthing past till the forever-future. I recall reading about Jimmy Page, the guitarist, for the first time during middle school, when I came across Rolling Stones magazine’s top 100 guitarists, coming in at 3, behind Hendrix at 1 and Eric Clapton at 2. I wondered why Page, from Led Zeppelin (of whose work I had then known one of – Stairway to Heaven. That’s all I knew about them). In a few months from then, I explored their catalog and loved their album work. I came across few of their live work but, as I had heard and read about, Jimmy Page seemed both incredibly sloppy when playing live and or coked out of his mind. From then till around just after Bellevue, I had restricted LZ to their studio work. Since Seattle, I’ve been listening to their live work, atleast what survives of it. Having beheld some of their live work when “there”, I instantly saw the reason why their coming-together was as miraculous as the sheer talent that each member uniquely brought in themselves:
Plant, a wailing, pleading, powerful vocalist who knew how to be that perfect elegant rock frontman, as opposed to a typically uniquely-flamboyant rock frontman.
John Paul Jones – the most formally, technically and theoretically educated of the bunch for whom it’s easier to maintain of list of instruments that he doesn’t play. Jazz, blues, fusion – he’s trained in it all.
Jon Bonham – the heaviest and on-time drummer that rock has ever seen. Not a single class taken, not a measure of formal training nor formal practice – 100% talent, can be called the Hendrix of classic Rock drums.
Page – “Essentially LZ”, the man with the guitar who writes, produces and plays complexities and draws out colours with his guitar in ways you’d have never have heard of before – a self-trained session guitarist who first made his living by being paid for notes to play, which means he had no freedom for deviation let alone improvisation; if he couldn’t play something perfectly and on cue, he couldn’t have stayed a (great and well-known) session guitarist, especially one that played in a previous, legendary band called The Yardbirds (more on that later), now set free in his own band of choosing with 3 other similarly powerful (though, not equaled) people.
However…. What made the band unique was their desire to serve the song and not themselves nor their craft.
What made LZ a particular spectacle was getting to watch 27-something year-olds play to crowds filling Madis Square Garden, pioneering instruments (no one played the Les Paul “this” way before), pioneering genre (rock, blues, psychedelia and sometimes jazz), and pioneering music craftsmanship (here’s where I get to the song shared).
Living out music, live
Link: Led Zeppelin – Dazed And Confused Live
The song is called “Dazed and Confused”. Apart from the song and the album track being a legendary piece of work by itself, I’m instead looking at what they did in this song, during a live rendition of in 1973 in Madison Square Garden. LZ improvised… a lot. Their shows were a dance of intricate music sportmanship interplayed between 4 seasoned players often playing 5 instruments, who worked together to serve a higher purpose – the live birthing of moving music.
The song is called “Dazed and Confused”. Apart from the song and the album track being a legendary piece of work by itself, I’m instead looking at what they did in this song, during a live rendition of in 1973 in Madison Square Garden. LZ improvised… a lot. Their shows were a dance of intricate music sportmanship interplayed between 4 seasoned players often playing 5 instruments, who worked together to serve a higher purpose – the live birthing of moving music.
To be able to appreciate the contrast, first notice how the song’s actual feel is – it’s very sinister, threatening, powerful: Listen to the first 2 minutes. That’s how the song sounds like on the album, along with some other parts.
Improvisation begins at 4:00:
Notice how the Plant (the vocalist) starts off by going “ma ma ma ma”… Bonzo (short for the drummer, John Bonham) then imitates that in the next repetition, then Plant stops and Page (the guitarist) continues it… You’ll notice that Page seemingly sounds sloppy at times. Bonzo and Page then keep going at each other until around 5:30. You can see the concentration in Bonzo’s eyes and he looks at Page to follow Page’s guitar. You can see at 5:55, JPJ (bassist) and Bonzo make a mistake and their laugh about it. You can see them politely offer for the other to lead at 6:02. You can see Bonzo take it at 6:06 and you can see JPJ acknowleding it. All this … live.
The familiar unfamiliarity bit:
… and what’s most amazing bit of it all? This is a complete departure from the actual song. At 6:18, he plays this beautifully melodic bit. At 6:34, Plant starts improvising vocals. The first time I heard it, it made my hair stand – the lyrics were from one of the earliest songs I’ve ever heard my father play growing up, which he probably heard growing up, a (hippie) song called “San Francisco“. It’s a happy-sounding, major-keyed song. But, Plant puts this here in such a haunting way. LZ has brief portions of live songs in which they’re all playing their bits in minor contributions (no single person’s leading, essentially). That happens for some time onwards from 7:00. It’s absolutely glorious….
The song they cover – San Franciso, is one of the few songs I don’t recall hearing for the first time. I grew up listening to songs my parents played at home, this was one of it, and was permanently etched into my memory as a happy-go, lovely, warm song. The explosive unfamiliar familiarity I felt, when I realized that the lyrics were simply wearing an unfamiliar melody; a minor key instead of a major one. I recall sitting in terrified silence as a whole new meaning of that song (quintessentially part of my upbringing/being), got written a new face onto my flesh.
I had heard (and seen) clips of Page doing, what I then thought was only a gimmick, with his guitar. It didn’t really sound consistently great (the clips that I had heard him do it)… I had last seen this in high school. Watching this “barely in my own head”, I saw him pull out the bow… and do his thing, live… still improvising, which means he’s adept at it in general and not just for trained performance. Keep watching it from 7:00 till then end. Overlook portions which were perhaps artifacts of improvising with this extent of novelty:
