155. Led Zeppelin — Led Zeppelin I (1969)

Kaboom

1. With one chord strummed twice, Jimmy Page and the rest of Led Zeppelin announce the heralding of a new era of blues rock, a transition from the relatively more gentle 60s to the “classic rock” era of the 70s. “Good Times Bad Times” takes the hard rock started by Clapton and Cream and escalates it to new levels, with John Paul Jones’s bass busting through with authority. Jimi Hendrix got this started with the Experience, but Zeppelin is something else entirely.
2. There’s pretty much nothing weak here, a blend of covers and originals by Jones, Page, and John Bonham (not Robert Plant, interestingly). As much as “Good Times, Bad Times” serves as a wake up call for the rock industry, “Babe I’m Gonna Leave You” may be a cover, but it also serves as a template for everything Led Zeppelin would become. Plant’s wailing voice pierces through, Bonham’s drumming overpowers the simple acoustic guitar into pure riffage, and the loud-soft dynamics would go on to be mimic’d by everyone from U2 to Radiohead.
3. Still, the strongest tunes here tend to be their originals, which constitute six of the nine tracks. “Dazed and Confused” is an obvious classic, slinking along to a creeping bassline by Jones, spacing out through Plant’s vocals and Page’s guitar, before exploding on its back half in a frantic bit of pure rock and roll. “Communication Breakdown” is the flip side of that coin; rather than a slow building six and a half minute track, it’s a pure two and a half minute banger of a pop tune. In these two tracks we have a full thesis statement of Led Zeppelin, a remarkable level of clarity for a band so early in its career that it didn’t have enough originals to fill an LP.
4. There’s another Zep album coming up shortly in this list — they’re just getting started. In the meantime, Rolling Stone’s highly negative review of the album in 1969 is here if you need a good chuckle.

Next up: The Band picks things back up

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