Man, you must really be OLD! I'm getting old and I was just a little kid back in those years. I didn't start getting into music until my early teens, around '78 and '79. But my older brother had all the early 70s classics so I got familiar with those albums by 1980.
I can't say I'm huge into Zep, there's just something about them that's a little "off" to my ears (same as Rolling Stones). But, that said, I do get into Zep moods from time to time and really enjoy any of the first 4 albums immensely. It's a hard decision as to which one's best, but I think I've gotta go with IV. That album featured some of their greatest songs and not a clunker in the bunch.
YEP ! (unfortunantly) soon to be 51. My friends were 2-3 yrs older than me, small town boy, and my cousin who lived in Florida was 3 yrs older too and they were more advanced on the current music scene, word and trends traveled much slower back then, he turned me on to Zep II and I was hooked. Later he also turned me on to Ted Nugent and the Amboy Dukes, Journeys first album, Golden Earings Seven Tears album, Uriah Heep - Look at Yourself, Black Oak Arkansas - Raunch n Roll, Humble Pie - Rockin the Filmore. We already knew about Hendrix of course because he broke thru in the late 60's.
As for the Stones - Beatles - Sabbath thing, I was never much of a fan of any of them, Sabbath the most. Select Beatles and Stones songs we livable on the radio. I was actually the first in my area to discover Sabbath because I listened to this college FM station that had one night a week when some student would come into the studio and play something new they discovered. I had Sabbaths first album recorded from the air waves on one of those old small cassette players, via microphone in front of my AM/FM "transistor" radio....
"hey guys you have to check this shit out"
So I would disagree some on this scenerio. The Beatles and Stones were old hat and people older than us were more fans than we were. The "new" sound was Zep, Heep, Purple and Sabbath. We were also into more commercial bands like Grand Funk, James Gang, Mountain and the Guess Who. Cream was old by that time too but acceptable for those of us who liked heavy.
Plants vocals - That was part of the catch back then, his amazing wailing on the early albums was what I wanted to hear, it was harsh and powerful. He also sang that high without the falsetto sound, it was just amazing. IV was the last of it, starting with Houses of the Holy we heard a new vocal sound, one which he could do without destroying his voice and most any high stuff was falsetto. I would disagree about him being not a great vocalist too, though I felt he mostly sucked live after I saw the movie. Any singer will tell you that early stuff is hard to pull off and if you listen to songs like Since I've been Lovin You, The Rain Song and Stairway he did have great expression, feel, presentation and dynamics. Granted those that didint like "shrieking" vocals didnt like early Zep or Rush for that matter... lol. But in the days of early hardrock the rest of us loved it. Zep didnt have "hooks" because they
were not a commercial band. They became very popular after everyone else caught on but they did not write songs for "hits", but they did write songs that were too good not to get airplay, the rest is history, they changed the music scene, not entirely alone but their impact is undeniable.
IV - I never really liked When the Levee Breaks, Four Sticks, Going to Cali and whatever others, they were not up to par with earlier "lesser" Zep songs and therefore disappointing, it however contained the two gems that did exemplify as well as progress Zep, Stairway and Black Dog. Houses of the Holy carrys many good memories too but had a learning and accepting curve that we would never hear the old band again. My recollection is that the song Dyer Maker is where they gained more attention and acceptance from a broader audience.
