With the reissues of the first 3 Led Zeppelin CDs, the mighty Zep is back in Billboard's Top Ten. Not only are they in the Top Ten, but they have 3 CDs in the Top Ten. At #7 is "Led Zeppelin 1", at #9 is "Led Zeppelin II" and at #10 is "Led Zeppelin III". (For those of you wondering the #1 CD is Miranda Lambert's "Platinum", a CD I wrote about in my May 5th, 2014 blog.)
My all-time favorite band is Led Zeppelin and this is my second in a series of blogs about their greatest CDs. This is also part of my Greatest CDs of All-Time blog series.
"Led Zeppelin II" was released on October 22nd, 1969- which according to Wikipedia is when the first single was released, which doesn't make any sense. Obviously I'm missing something there, I just don't know what. This album also has the mighty Zep's biggest hit "Whole Lotta Love", it peaked at #4. This album is also Led Zeppelin's first album to go to #1. As of now over 12 million copies have been shipped.
"Led Zeppelin II" was conceived and recorded while Led Zeppelin was in the midst of extensive touring January through August 1969. (Which includes the "Don't Mess With Texas" concert below.) Led Zeppelin was never much of a singles band and only 3 singles were originally released from the original version of this album. (One of my sons asked me the other day if Led Zeppelin had many hits, I had to explain to him that they didn't release a lot of singles.)
Interestingly enough the first single from the CD is the John Bonham centered track "Moby Dick". I'm sure when people first heard this on the radio, they were taken back a bit. This isn't the kind of song that's usually released as a single. The second single was "Whole Lotta Love/ Living Loving Maid (She's Just A Woman)." Then "Heartbreaker" was the third and last song released as a single in May of 1970. The "Whole Lotta Love (Rough Mix)" was released as a single on May 5th, 2014.
Also while both "Heartbreaker" and "Living Loving Maid" are both on "Led Zeppelin II", originally they weren't paired together as they are typically played on the radio now.
(Thanks to Wikipedia for much of the biographical information in this blog.)
Strangely the Youtube video for the original "Led Zeppelin II" isn't available, but someone has been nice enough to make a video for the deluxe edition bonus CD of this amazing CD. Here's that video:
Thanks to Wikipedia, these are the tracks on that bonus CD.
| 1. | "Whole Lotta Love" (Rough Mix with Vocal) | Bonham, Dixon, Jones, Page, Plant | 5:38 |
| 2. | "What Is and What Should Never Be" (Rough Mix with Vocal) | Page, Plant | 4:33 |
| 3. | "Thank You" (Backing Track) | Page, Plant | 4:21 |
| 4. | "Heartbreaker" (Rough Mix with Vocal) | Bonham, Jones, Page, Plant | 4:24 |
| 5. | "Living Loving Maid (She's Just a Woman)" (Backing Track) | Page, Plant | 3:08 |
| 6. | "Ramble On" (Rough Mix with Vocal) | Page, Plant | 4:43 |
| 7. | "Moby Dick" (Backing Track) | Bonham, Jones, Page | 1:37 |
| 8. | "La La" (Intro/Outro Rough Mix) | Jones, Page | 4:07 |
Here's a concert from about that time, this is titled "Don't Mess With Texas", the concert is taken from the Texas International Pop Festival on August 31st, 1969. I love the guy that introduced the band referred to them as The Led Zeppelin.
1) "Whole Lotta Love" This is my all-time favorite Led Zeppelin song and one of the greatest songs of all-time.
Nina Persson with Soundtrack of Our Live's cover of "Whole Lotta Love" with Plant, Page and Jones in the house. I love Persson's husky voice:
2) "What Is and What Should Never Be":
For being such an influential band I find it strange how few people have covered their music. As I'm looking for covers, I'm finding a lot of covers. However not many of the covers have broken out into the mainstream. Here's one of the few famous covers I can think off right off the top of my head, Haley Reinhart's cover of "What Is and What Should Never Be":
3) "The Lemon Song":
Jimmy Page and The Black Crowes singing "The Lemon Song" live:
4) "Thank You":
"Thank You" (Live):
Chris Cornell singing "Thank You" live:
5) "Heartbreaker":
The 2014 release of "Heartbreaker" (Rough Mix):
"Heartbreaker" (Live):
The Distributers singing "Heartbreaker" (Live):
6) "Living Loving Maid (She's Just a Woman)":
The kids have some chops, the students of Oak Park School of Rock:
7) "Ramble On":
Robert Plant is one of the greatest vocalists ever, he's up there with Frank Sinatra and a few others. However there's just something magical about a woman singing a Zep cover. I love this cover, Amanda has an intriguing voice. Amanda Lee Peers and the Driftwood Sailors singing "Ramble On":
8) "Moby Dick":
"Moby Dick" (Live):
The sad news of John Bonham's death, which happened a few years after the recording of this CD:
9) "Bring It On Home":
"Bring It On Home" (Live):
themusicaddict
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