“God damn!”: the band Jerry Cantrell said never made a bad album
Even though their initial run as a group was considerably shorter than many of their contemporaries, even the most casual onlookers will be able to recognise that nothing Alice in Chains released during this period could be considered underwhelming.
Granted, the band released the same number of albums as Nirvana did, but got nowhere near the amount of commercial attention as the titans of the grunge movement did, with their trio of records frequently being hailed as the masterpieces of the genre.
That doesn’t mean that they were any less significant, influential or lacking in substance. Alice in Chains certainly had plenty to offer as a group, and continued to do so when they reformed several years after the passing of frontman Layne Staley.
However, grunge and the music of Alice in Chains in particular didn’t come without precedent, and there were plenty of acts that they looked up to as their pillars of influence, especially when it came to making rock records that felt complete in their vision.
While several rock groups from the generations before them could be accused of having outstayed their welcome, forgetting that there’s such a thing as a good time to call it quits and releasing things well below their usual high standards, there’s one band that the band’s guitarist, Jerry Cantrell, believes never stooped so low.
In an interview with The Quietus in 2013, Cantrell nominated Led Zeppelin IV as one of his favourite albums of all time, citing it as one of the biggest influences on his own output. However, despite his admiration for this particular album, he couldn’t help but acknowledge that there isn’t a moment in their catalogue that he’s ever been disappointed with, proclaiming: “Led Zeppelin, god damn! I don’t think they made a bad record!”
He continued, citing how culturally important that album has been for rock music in all respects. “There’s that classic line from Cameron Crowe’s movie Fast Times At Ridgemont High where they’re cruising around, talking about how to get chicks,” he added. “And the guy says: ‘If you wanna score with a chick, turn out side two of volume four [Led Zeppelin IV]!’ I’ve used that a few times, actually. It works!”
While his comment about using their music as a means of attracting feminine attention might feel a little dated and crass, his insinuation that Led Zeppelin never released anything bad isn’t far from the truth, with only In Through the Out Door being an album that could be seen as lacking in the same quality as the rest of their catalogue.
However, as far as an influence goes, Led Zeppelin’s existence is invaluable to Alice in Chains, Cantrell, and many members of the wider grunge scene, and in spite of the one blunder at the end of their career, it’s safe to say that they’ve got one of the strongest discographies ever put to record. Led Zeppelin IV, in spite of how astonishingly good the rest of their work is, might just be the pinnacle.
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