I had no idea Plant and Page had been cranking out all these albums in the 80’s. 90’s and aughts.
I must have played Houses of the Holy over 1K times.
The last Zep album I recall getting would probably be
Physical Graffiti, from 1975. My favorite on that one being Kashmir. That one where Jimmy plays the Mellotron, that sounds like a sitar or a cello, as needed.
There was an article written about Robert Plant, saying he stayed up all night and part of the next day thinking of the lyrics in Kashmir, until the words balanced just right.
Don’t tell Robert Plant, but all I know, is I don’t recall a single word of the lyrics on that song at all. I was listening for the total musical sound , the force of a strident, unstoppable dirge. I was not listening for poetry.
“I had no idea Plant and Page had been cranking out all these albums in the 80’s. 90’s and aughts.”
I saw Page and Plant on the ‘Walking Into Clarksdale’ tour in the late 90s, good album btw. Plant was still in his rock god mode, tanned, shirt unbuttoned to navel, etc. A lady up front held up a sign that said ‘Jimmy Page is the sexiest man on earth’. Plant read the sign out lout to the crowd, then said, deadpan, ‘that is a rather bold statement madam’, but then he laughed and carried on.
Physical graffiti is probably one of the greatest double albums ever released
Presence has some magnificent tracks on it as well, Achilles last stand and tea for one being two of them.
I learned every single note Jimmy page ever played. We used to do a Led Zeppelin set. He always had better hair than me though lol…
And he also had that wasted, starving, heroin, junkie, look… but that skinny little bastard could play, good Lord, could he play…
He used the drop-D tuning for Kashmir on the guitar… it is just relentless and crushing, and completely magnificent.
Joe Bonamassa does a magnificent rendition of “Tea For One”.