Led Zeppelin

Led Zeppelin is back in the news this week with the release of Mothership this past Tuesday (11/13). It’s a 24-song 2 CD set with a DVD reissue of their 1976 concert film The Song Remains the Same. Notable omissions: Your Time is Gonna Come, Bring It On Home, Tangerine, Misty Mountain Hop, Ten Years Gone, Fool in the Rain, and Hey Hey What Can I Do. Their entire song list also just became available on I-Tunes this week, but if you’re like me, you’ve had all this stuff on CD for more than a decade. But, perhaps best of all is the new channel on XM Radio called XM LED on channel 59. All Zeppelin, all the time. Because somebody else choosing the order of the songs is somehow better. There’s also interesting information between songs. Led Zeppelin: my favorite band of all time.My top 5 Zeppelin songs would change weekly if I had time to think about, so here goes this week:

Ten Years Gone - From the double disc Physical Graffiti, an introspective song showing Plant at his best.

Dazed and Confused - From the chromatic bass line to Page's incredible riffs, its complexity is only matched by its power.

Over the Hills and Far Away - Their third album was electric for the first half and acoustic for the second half. This gem from their fifth album House of the Holy goes from acoustic to electric and back again.

All My Love - After a more technical exercise with album number 6 Presence, they returned 3 years later with a more musical set, In Through the Out Door, courtesy of John Paul Jones, who was wielding more influence. Love the guitar breaks in this one.

Hey Hey What Can I Do - Officially released in 1990 as part of their first boxed set, the chords in this one are some of their best. Here's another recording with the Black Crowes.