"Falling Skies", Led Zeppelin 1

Hello,

I'm still on a high from America's amazing comeback win in such dramatic fashion at the Women's World Cup yesterday. I watched "Falling Skies" until 9:00 and then turned over to ESPN, where they showed the amazing highlights again. America's amazing victory is truly goosebump worthy. I usually work Wednesday mornings, but I'm trying to get this Wednesday off so I can cheer on America in the WWC Semifinals against France.

But on the other hand I'm very use to my teams being on the losing end as well. I understand that Brazil is probably hurting a lot. They played a hard fought match and I think they'll win titles in the future. I tip my hat to the hard playing, gutty Brazilian team.

For those of you who are wondering why so much fuss has been made about this match, here are some reasons. 1) It's the World Cup! 2) These are the world's best women's soccer players. 3) That was one of the most exciting soccer matches, indeed sporting events, ever. That's not hype either. ESPN named it to it's Top 10 exciting sports moments as well. In a match where one team was playing short handed scoring on a near second last goal. That was only a couple of things that was part of all the drama in the match.

I thought last night was another great episode of "Falling Skies". I'm really liking this show after a few weeks. Last night the first 50 minutes were taut, but the last 10 minutes was pure filler. I was waiting for the characters to discuss why the skitter was gently stroking the hair of "its" harness kids. I thought that was interesting and wondering why the skitter seemed to feel such genuine emotion for the harness kids. Is it because the harness came from that specific skitter?

I know it sounds weird that I cared about Dr. Glass killing the skitter. I was getting attached to it. Is that why they didn't give the skitter a name to help prevent being attached? There seemed to be some true humanity in it's eyes. I thought the skitter was on the verge of spilling some secrets. I also thought Dr. Glass was getting attached as well. I do wonder how much the skitters are willing participants in taking over the world. I know Dr. Glass had the 24 hour deadline placed on her, but I didn't think she'd be the one to do the killing. (The killing, not to be confused with a very disappointing show on AMC.)

I'm still wondering who or what are putting the harnesses on the kids. Neither the mechs nor the skitters seem to have the ability to install harnesses. Where do the harnesses come from, it seems they could have been part of a skitter's body. Do the harnesses self attach to the back of children? Or was Dr. Harris the one that originally installed the harnesses? That would explain why he knew how to take them off. It could also explain why he survived when Tom's wife died. Did he make a deal with the skitters? If he did though, how did they communicate? What am I missing here?

Did the skitter kill Dr. Harris out of revenge? Or is it because Dr. Harris was possibly a traitor to the skitters? Perhaps that radio static was a skitter leader telling the skitter to kill Dr. Harris if it got a chance. I don't think we can accept Dr. Harris's death at face value. I have so many questions I hope get answered.

Along with reading Brady Udall's "The Lonely Polygamist" and Ted Bell's "Warlord", I've started reading Mick Wall's "When Giants Walked the Earth". It's a biography of the greatest band of all-time, Led Zeppelin. I've read the first 53 pages. So far the band formed, toured under the name The New Yardbirds and started working on Led Zeppelin 1. The mighty Zep made the CD in 30 hours studio time spread over 9 days. Both John Paul Jones and Jimmy Page had a lot of session work at that point. They were very familiar with working in studios. They definitely knew what they were doing, but still it's amazing that they were able to put together such a great CD in only 9 days. It takes Axl Rose that many days to decide on a song title.

Mick Walls also said that only 3 of the 9 songs on that CD were originals so that helped. Led Zeppelin did "borrow" from many other artists on several of their songs. To fulfill a contract and possibly generate some excitement for the new band they did those few tour dates. However a lot of people still weren't very familiar with them. Let's say you are in 1968 England and you hear about this new and upcoming band. They intrigue you enough that you go to the local record store (do you remember those?, if not watch "High Fidelity") and buy it. You have to take it home, you just can't start listening to it in your car on the way home. You get home and put it on your record player and the first few notes comes out at you. What do you think? I think that's a pretty amazing first song.

It's generally not the best idea to buy a CD because the band intrigues you usually. I was very intrigued by Oasis and bought "What's The Story Morning Glory". That was a piece of crap. Thank goodness we live in the internet age. Many times I'm able to listen to a CD on napster.com (maybe Spotify soon enough) before buying it. I would have never bought that craptastic Oasis CD if I had actually heard it before buying.

When one thinks of Led Zeppelin classic songs, "Good Times Bad Times" has to be on that list. Also "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You", "Dazed and Confused" and "Communication Breakdown". Personally I think that nearly every Led Zeppelin song is a classic. Can you imagine a current band having that many classic songs on their first CD? In fact, here's a challenge question for you, name the last musician that had 4 classic songs on their first CD. Off the top of my head the last band I can think of doing that is Guns N' Roses. I know there will be some argument about this but I think "Appetite for Destruction" has at least 8 or 9 classic songs on it.

In answering my question please do not suggest Radiohead, Oasis, Nickleback, Kid Pebble or any of the other allegedly fantastic modern bands. In fact, of those 4 musicians mentioned, none of them have 4 classic songs by themselves. I'm sure there are probably a few musicians who's first CD has 4 classic songs on it, I just can't think who that would be right off.

Led Zeppelin's "Good Times Bad Times":



This is Led Zeppelin 1's track listing.

1. Good Times Bad Times 2:46
2. Babe I'm Gonna Leave You 6:41
3. You Shook Me 6:28
4. Dazed And Confused 6:26
5. Your Time Is Gonna Come 4:34
6. Black Mountain Side 2:12
7. Communication Breakdown 2:27
8. I Can't Quit You Baby 4:45
9. How Many More Times 8:28

themusicaddict