Anyone else notice, that no one cares about new music? With the entire history of music at our fingertips, a band needs to be abso-friggin’-amazaballs for anyone to give a damn!
I’m always a bit of a late adaptor. Got my first iPod in 2002-ish. Everyone I knew, including myself, were completely blown away that we could keep our entire library of music in our pocket! Being a bit of a music historian, I immediately dreamed on the future. “Wouldn’t it be cool, if this also played video?” Can you imagine not just having your own library in your pocket, but a music video library too?! I’m not talking about cheesy MTV stuff, I’m talking about Chuck Berry or Bo Diddley in their prime. Seeing how Muddy Waters grooved while singing so very deeply and seriously. Can you imagine how awesome that would be. Got a friend who never heard of Bo Diddley? “Oh, let me just pull up a video on my video iPod!”. Yes, I dreamed it up. Years later it’s a reality! Thanks to iPhones and YouTube, that is the world we live in now. It’s a great time to be alive!
Led Zeppelin. That band was a self contained music history lesson. Anyone who really believes they maliciously stole music is clueless about the british bands in the 60’s. These guys knew more about American blues and country than any American did! They loved it! They only wanted to share their favorites with fans. Jimmy Page even backed Sonny Boy Williamson when he was in England. Can you imagine Sonny Boy, missing teeth, in his 50’s, backed by a bunch of white, clean, British kids! I think most of that band was The Yardbirds. But, Led Zeppelin also had two very important qualities. I have another rant about this. They were both Familiar and Different at the same time!
I didn’t actually care about Led Zeppelin until ‘License To Ill’ came out. It was my brother’s 6’4 black friend Clint, who turned me onto Zeppelin. ( Only mention he’s african-american, cause that somehow gave Zeppelin some cred to me. If he was a stoner/hippie, I never would have given them a chance) He told me, “You realize all the Beastie Boy songs are just Zep songs, right?!” Judging from posters on people’s walls, I thought Zep was an acoustic band. But, I listend to Clint and borrowed his Physical Graffiti cassette. He didn’t get it back. The Wanton Song hooked me deep! Thanks Clint! In addition to my brother, Clint also gave me the confidence to start playing guitar. So, thanks for that too!
Zeppelin was all over radio, so by the time I got into them, a lot of the songs were “familiar”. But there were also enough “different” songs that I got obsessed. No one else sounded like that. One band that could enjoy Blues classics and pump out totally unique originals. One source of lessons. One source for variety. One place to go to learn so much. Everything from songwriting to the music bizz. There’s a reason they are still worshiped years later. Now that internet-fast, on-demand content is at our fingertips, you better beat Led Zeppelin or no one is going to care. You are directly competing with them!
rePtile like Me 