Achilles Last Stand 3/18

Playlist:
- Led Zeppelin, "Rock And Roll", IV
- Queen, "Crazy Little Thing Called Love"
- Robert Plant, "I Believe", Fate Of Nations
- Tinariwen, "Tamatant Tilay", Aman Iman
- Led Zeppelin, Over The Hills And Far Away", The Song Remains The Same (2007)
- The Yardbirds, "White Summer", Ultimate
- Robert Plant And Alison Krauss, "Gone Gone Gone (Done Moved On)", Raising Sand
- Led Zeppelin, "In My Time Of Dying", Physical Graffiti
- Led Zeppelin, "Bron-Y-Aur Stomp", How The West Was Won
- Son House, "Death Letter Blues"
- Led Zeppelin, "Whole Lotta Love", Led Zeppelin II
- Led Zeppelin, "Hots On For Nowhere", Presence
- Them Crooked Vultures, "New Fang", Them Crooked Vultures
- Roy Harper And Jimmy Page, "Nineteen Forty-Eightish", What Ever Happened To Jugula?
- Led Zeppelin, "The Song Remains The Same", Houses Of The Holy
- Robert Plant, "Burning Down One Side", Pictures At Eleven
- Led Zeppelin, "Communication Breakdown", Led Zeppelin I
- Led Zeppelin, "Gallows Pole", Led Zeppelin III
- Led Zeppelin, "Hey Hey What Can I Do?"
- Crosby, Stills, Nash, And Young, "Ohio", So Far

It's good to be back after a wonderful Spring Break of nothingness.  Went a little more Zeppelin heavy than normal, but today felt like a good day to do so.  Also threw in a new track from Them Crooked Vultures, who have a hilarious new video with Dave Grohl called "Fresh Pots":

I can certainly understand his addiction since I need my fresh cup of coffee every morning.  Any requests for next week.  Leave a comment and I'll get it on air for you next Thursday.

Album Of The Month For March: Presence

After Zeppelin's quick rise to the top in the late 1960s, the band continued to grow their empire through their 1975 release Physical Graffiti.  At this point the band had it all.  Each of their albums were highly successful and continued to blow away young minds across the globe.  Then disaster struck when the band needed to leave England to avoid heavy taxes on their hard earned money.  During Robert's vacation, he crashed the car with his wife and children (and Jimmy's daughter).  Robert broke his ankle and his wife was seriously injured.  Soon, the band decided to record another album fast to follow up their previous album even with Robert confined to a wheelchair.  Presence became a turning point for the band.  For the first time ever they completed an album with limited outside influence.  The songs were pure rock and left behind a few of their blues roots.  Even while rushing to complete the album and with Robert in his wheelchair, the band completed one of their most unique albums and sent the band in a new direction.

Release Date: March 31, 1976
Highest Billboard Position: 1
Sales Status: 3x Platinum

Track Listing:
1. Achilles Last Stand
The album starts with a slow guitar strum from Jimmy, then explodes into utter chaos to launch into one of Zeppelin's longest songs in their catalog.  The lyrics were inspired by a trip Robert and Jimmy took to Morocco and the folklore they loved to bring up time and time again.  The band, known for being stingy to film makers, allowed the makers of Dogtown And Z-Boys to use it in their movie.

2. For Your Life
For a band well known for their incredible amount of drug use you wouldn't expect them to criticize it.  With this song they went after the Los Angeles music scene for using far too much cocaine and ruining the music scene there.  This would be the first of many songs that detailed the band's personal experiences, something they rarely did in their early years.

3. Royal Orleans
The third track detailed one of the more interesting tales from Zeppelin's wild road adventures.  It described how John Paul Jones took what appeared to be a woman up to his hotel room from the bar.  They smoked weed and fell asleep on top of each other.  The joint, still lit as they entered their slumber, lit the room on fire.  In the commotion, everyone discovered that the person Jones brought to his room was in fact a transvestite.  The story became legendary and is one of few that includes Jones as a part of the band's escapades.

4. Nobody's Fault But Mine
The band never shied away from deep subject and returned to the devil once again on this song that starts with a sharp line from Jimmy.  The only song with source material outside of the band (no one has been credited with writing it, however it dates back to the earliest days of the blues), it sounded much more like the older tracks from Zeppelin.  With one of the more driving harmonica tunes by Robert, the song really feels alive as he describes being introduced to gong, having a monkey on his back, and the devil telling him to roll.  This is the highlight track of the album and one of the few they used regularly in their later shows.

5. Candy Store Rock
Robert's rockabilly style comes out strong as Jimmy pushes the song along with his strong blues riff.  Robert tries out his best Elvis impersonation and really shows how much song writing prowess he owns.  This song rarely hit the stage with Zeppelin, however Robert and Jimmy would use it during their tours in the 1990s.

6. Hots On For Nowhere
This is the most underrated Zeppelin song ever.  I mean it.  No one knows it.  Jimmy's groovy guitar with Jones' bass combine well with Robert's strong singing.  It rambles along well and is easy to rock out too.  I'm still confused why no one picked up.

7. Tea For One
This is a tough song to get in to.  I needed a few years to really give it a good listen.  It follows the guidelines of their normal ballads and lengthier song.  It builds up slowly, has a fairly good riff, and blues structure as a base.  Truthfully, Robert's voice doesn't cut through like it once did and it lacks the same punch it did on songs like "Dazed And Confused" and "Since I've Been Loving You".  If they recorded this before Robert's voice weakened, maybe it could sound better.

Random Fact:
The band finished recording the album in a mere 18 days.  They originally had two weeks, which included poor Robert confined to a wheelchair.  As their time started to run out, mainly because the Rolling Stones needed the studio next, Jimmy took on a heavy load of working on his overdubs.  He spent two straight days without sleep making sure the album was perfect.  When the Stones arrived, they were shocked to find that they actually finished the album.

This Month In Led Zeppelin For March

Every month I have a monthly update on what happened in Zeppelin history. The first show of the month will include a This Month in Zeppelin feature where all of the important events of the month are announced. If there's an extremely important date (i.e. big album releases, deaths, births, ect.), I will talk about it as close to the date as possible. So, without further ado, this month in Led Zeppelin...

• March 1969: The band performs for TV audiences. After many issues with the studio setups the band decides to never perform on TV again.
• March 5, 1971: The first live performance of "Stairway to Heaven" is in Belfast, Ireland.
  
• March 25, 1973: Houses of the Holy, the band's 5th album, is released.
• March 15, 1975: The Earls Court shows sells out in four hours
• March 31, 1976: Presence, the band's 7th album, is released.
• March 4, 1985: Jimmy Page's album with Roy Harper "Whatever Happened to Jugula" is released.
• March 22, 1985: Plant releases his first single from Shaken N' Stirred "Pink and Black" and John Paul Jones releases the soundtrack for the movie Scream for Help.
  
• March 14, 1986: The Firm begins their second tour.
• March 17, 2005: Plant is the speaker at the SXSW Festival and performs with the Strange Sensation later that night.
  

Listen for more info on these events along with the same great Zeppelin goodies only on Achilles Last Stand 4-6pm Thursdays on WECB (wecb.emerson.edu).

Achilles Last Stand 3/4

The Playlist:
- Led Zeppelin, "D'Yer Maker", Houses Of The Holy
- Robert Plant, "Burning Down One Side", Pictures At Eleven
- Robert Plant, "Darkness, Darkness", Dreamland
- Led Zeppelin, "Hats Off To (Roy) Harper", Led Zeppelin III
- Jimmy Page Ft. Robert Plant, "The Only One", Outrider
- Them Crooked Vultures, "Elephants", Them Crooked Vultures
- Led Zeppelin, "Misty Mountain Hop", IV
- Led Zeppelin, "Lemon Song", Led Zeppelin II
- Robert Plant, "If I Were A Carpenter", Fate Of Nations
- Led Zeppelin, "Night Flight", Physical Graffiti
- Robert Plant, "Big Log", Principle Of Moments
- Steve Miller Band, "Jungle Love"
- Led Zeppelin, "Nobody's Fault But Mine", Presence
- The Firm, "Fortune Hunter", Mean Business
- Led Zeppelin, "The Ocean", How The West Was Won
- Led Zeppelin, "Ozone Baby", Coda
- Robert Plant And The Strange Sensation, "Shine It All Around", Mighty Rearranger
- Led Zeppelin, "In The Evening", In Through The Out Door
- Robert Plant And Jimmy Page, "Yallah", No Quarter
- Heart, "Crazy On You"

Achilles Last Stand 2/25

Playlist:
- Led Zeppelin, "Communication Breakdown", Led Zeppelin I
- Robert Plant And Jimmy Page, "Rude World", Sixty-Six To Timbuktu
- Led Zeppelin, "Bron-Y-Aur Stomp", How The West Was Won
- Led Zeppelin, "Darlene", Coda
- The Firm, "Dreaming", Mean Business
- Pink Floyd, "Have A Cigar", Wish You Were Here
- Led Zeppelin, "Foll In The Rain", In Through The Out Door
- Led Zeppelin, "Friends", Led Zeppelin III
- Them Crooked Vultures, "Scumbag Blues", Them Crooked Vultures
- Robert Plant, "Tall Cool One", Now And Zen
- Buffalo Springfield, "Bluebird"
- Bad Company, "Can't Get Enough", Bad Company
- Led Zeppelin, "Dazed And Confused", The Song Remains The Same
- Elvis Presley, "Burning Love"