The song every member of Led Zeppelin wished they’d never made
When Jack Black gave a speech about how much he loved Led Zeppelin, he also gave listeners advice on how they should be listening to the band.
“Led Zeppelin… the greatest rock and roll band of all time,” he said. “Better than The Beatles, better than The Stones. And if you don’t agree with me, that’s because you haven’t done the Zeppelin marathon. It’s when you sit your ass down and listen to all nine Zeppelin albums in a row.”
Jack Black has been known to exaggerate a fair bit when he speaks, but the one thing which is consistent throughout his career is his adoration of Led Zeppelin – whether we’re talking about his film career or his life as a musician, that love for Zeppelin has always been there, and so there’s no one better to take advice from when it comes to listening to the great band.
So, why should you listen to all of their songs one after the other? It sounds like a tall order, as you’ll have to set aside a whole day to get through everything, but my word, it’s worth it. The band have always been celebrated for their range, as they were able to play around with a number of different genres, completely twisting the shape of rock music and injecting various styles and sounds into their playing, creating something entirely unique in the process.
When you listen to their music, one song after another, the range of different genres which are present within their sound becomes clearer than ever. Despite not being a prog rock band, Ian Anderson from Jethro Tull said that they helped pave the way for prog because of how well they could maintain a decent amount of cohesion in the face of these sporadic sounds.
“I think what they showed to all their peer group as musicians was that there was, first of all, a very powerful and dramatic way to perform simple, direct rock music and also to introduce elements of more eclectic music,” he noted. “Because Zeppelin, near the beginning, there were a lot of elements of folk music, and Asian music, and African music that crept into their stuff.”
This is all very impressive, but the fact of the matter remains, when you’re writing so much versatile music, you’re eventually going to stumble upon some songs that you simply can’t stand. That’s what happened to Led Zeppelin, as every single member had songs that they weren’t fans of, and now look back on with scorn.
For instance, Robert Plant grew to loathe the track ‘Stairway To Heaven’, despite the fact that it’s one of the band’s most popular. Meanwhile, both John Bonham and John Paul Jones despised the track ‘D’yer Mak’er’. However, there was only one song that the entire band detested, and it came on their record Led Zeppelin II.
‘Living Loving Maid’ wasn’t really a song that Jimmy Page put a great deal of effort into. The album needed another track, and so he knocked this one out without so much as a second thought. Because of his blasé attitude towards the track, he grew to hate it, and the rest of the band did too. Each member of Led Zeppelin heard the song and thought that it was horrible, to the extent that it never featured on the band’s setlist, and it’s currently one that they’d rather people just gloss over.
So, if you’re going to take Jack Black’s advice and listen to every song that Led Zeppelin have ever made, do it, but this might be one that you’re better off missing.
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