#9: Led Zepplin

Power:  Amp Up

If asked whether they'd want $10, $20 or $30, with no strings attached, most sensible people would opt for $30.  In a similar way, Led Zepplin came thundering out of a bluesy sky, flashes of giddy id leading on listeners with the question, Why not the full-on power of pleasure?

For nearly a decade, beginning in '68, most answered, "Why not?"

Unfortunately, Zep has had many would-be imitators who fail in many predictable ways.  They're either bashing brash, overly dark and moody, whippingly thorough thrashers, the wild clothes, the wanton hair....  But every 'heavy metal' band that's followed apace, up those promising stairs, has forgotten the secret ingredient that allowed L.Z. to pull it all off: musical architecture; the sort that leads one to a second storied, sweet heaven of a bedroom.  Otherwise, one is liable to knock oneself out in a sawed-off attic.

So look back in wonder.

....................................

Each band or performer is graded on four things:
  1.  Innovation
  2.  Influence in my life--as a typical American
  3.  Integrity: the band's approach to music (just making a buck or honing a craft?)  
  4.  Immortality--am I, a typical American--still eager to hear their music

10/8/10/7 = 35 out of a perfect 40

....................................

That's Freedom: It's fitting that the music uncorked by Led Zepplin, the full-throated, unbound exhaltation that poured forth, involved a sight-unseen, sound-unheard, no-limits contract that meant choices of style and presentation were theirs alone.  There was never an executive standing over L.Z.'s shoulder; they were complete masters of their fate: 'Singles' were mainly replaced by 'albums'.  Initially, there were no album titles.  One hugely popular album had no readable identification whatsoever on front or back.  And the reaction from music critics was almost always behind the curve.  Success, one imagines, was likely all the more sweet.