Album of the Month for January: Led Zeppelin I

On January 12th, 1969 an album was released that changed the face of rock and roll. The blues inspired British musicians throughout the 1960s, a list that includes the Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, and Jeff Beck. America knew the blues for a long time, but never like this. The album introduced a new band that took the blues and completely transformed the style into a unique sound of jarring guitar riffs and light ballads. Led Zeppelin was the hot new band coming out of England and their self-titled album turned out to be one of the most important revelations in music and led to a new sound for the 70s.

Release Date: January 12, 1969
Highest Billboard Chart Position: 10
Sales Status: 10x Platinum (66th all-time)

Track Listing:
1. Good Times, Bad Times
With the beating of Bonham's drums, Led Zeppelin took off with a sonic boom. This has all the elements that would end up defining the band for a decade: powerful drums, face melting guitar, and Robert blaring out the words. This is also one of the bands most covered songs (including a new one from Ben Harper).

2. Babe, I'm Gonna Leave You
If you don't know this is a Joan Baez cover. Yes, it's a Joan Baez cover. It in no way sounds like one but it is. Robert has his first chance to duet with Jimmy's guitar and try out some different vocal effect. It's also one of his first ungodly screams. It also is the band's first foray into folk music, Robert and Jimmy both being big American Folk fanatics. TANGENT: Give a listen to "25 or 6 to 4" by Chicago and tell me that isn't the same guitar riff. Just Saying

3. You Shook Me
Here's the first example of the band's reworking of the blues and more specifically the Chess Records blues. In this case it's Muddy Water's "You Shook Me". Robert takes the vocals and gives them an emotion never heard before while the band gives it the Zeppelin "blues treatment". Jimmy's guitar is thick with effects and Bonham's drums drive the point home throughout the whole song.

4. Dazed and Confused
This was the show stopper. It was the song Zeppelin had to play. One of the few songs where Jones' bassline is clearly defined, he creates one of the more unique soundscapes in rock and roll history. Jimmy has his psychedic guitar blaring and Robert gives the vocals so much character. During live sets the song could last as long as a half an hour and Jimmy played with the violin bow (stolen from another British act Jake Holmes when Jimmy was with the Yardbirds) to get the unique blips and other random sounds out of his guitar. If there is a song that must be included in a Zeppelin greatest hits album every time this is one of them.

5. Your Time is Gonna Come
One of the lesser known tracks on the album, "Your Time is Gonna Come" was only played once live. There's not too much to it and acted more as a lead up to the next track of the album. A similar organ would later be used for "Thank You" in Led Zeppelin II.

6. Black Mountain Side
Originating from a tradition British folk tune, Jimmy took this song and put it together with his favorite guitar the Gibson Black Beauty. He took this from his Yardbirds days as well except the name was "White Summer". This is also a track where Jimmy can showcase his folk guitar playing skills which came in handy during later Zeppelin albums.

7. Communication Breakdown
This song originated from the old blues standard (later to be made a hit song for Aerosmith) "Train Kept a Rollin'". Robert's voacls come out strongest on this track and he dominates the song. Jimmy has the fuzzbox on the guitar and does a great job with the overdubs. It is also one of the few songs where Robert required backup vocals (something he still rarely allows today).

8. I Can't Quit You Babe
Here's another blues song, this time from Otis Rush. Bonzo's drums are important yet again and Robert gives the vocals a lot of justice. The band gives it a slight psychedelic twist but for the most part stays true to the blues style with their sound stamped on it.

9. How Many More Times
Zeppelin just couldn't quit the blues songs. This came from Howlin' Wolf's "How Many More Years" and combined "You Shook Me" with "Dazed and Confused". More uptempo than the other true blues tracks on the albums, Jimmy infuses a fair amount of his psychedic style and adds the forgotten violin bow part (everyone forgets he used the same technique on this track). It starts out blues song, turns psychidelic and by the end they sound more like a jam band with the time stamp (8:28) to go with it.

Random Fact
The Led Zeppelin idea came from a conversation Jimmy had with John Enwhistle, Keith Moon, and Richard Cole. Enwhistle and Moon wanted out of the Who and Jimmy wanted something better than the Yardbirds. So they came up with an idea to combine forces along with a bluey singer like Joe Cocker or a lighter singer like Steve Winwood to form a band that created heavy but light music. Someone then blurted out, "oh yeah, that'd go over like a lead Zeppelin" followed by a good laugh and the idea was forgotten for the moment. The name also symbolized the band, combining the heavy blues played by Jimmy and the drums from Bonham with Robert's lighter vocals and Jones' all around musical ability. The cover for the album came from that same idea. The reason why "lead" was changed to "led" was so that Americans didn't mispronounce the name.