Led Zeppelin is the sound of white conquest. The music bends to make sweet, sweet love even as the sound of it makes war in your bed-head. They’re kind of eclectic. The blues are milked such that the sex and violence of the rhythms become a manifesto — a propulsive power-grab. Rudiments of the blues give a sort of tribal heft to the whimsy, the Nietzschean overtones of being white and British (i.e., the Delta blues of the druids). You can hear it in the vocal — the joining of tropes — the spade and the banshee. And the result is a strapping plan to rule the world, the best ham-hock. With a mat top and a huge bottom, the band cuts the waffle: Robert Plant is the mover, John Paul Jones is the shade, and Jimmy Page is the catalyst. Everything is fixed to John Bonham’s galloping swing (the kick-drum from hell). And you laugh with it.
Led Zeppelin – Achilles Last Stand
Posted in: Song Review
– December 22, 2004