The Zep

So, I'm bumming around my room, listening to Houses of the Holy instead of studying for my Russian test like the conscientious student I aspire to be, and I've come to the startling realisation that all Led Zeppelin songs sound pretty much the same to me.

There are, of course, discernible songs in their oeuvre (and yes, unfortunately, "Kashmir" makes me think of P. Diddy just a little... I hate that man) but for the most part, they all meld into one long progression of sorts. An amazing one, of course, but listening to them too much just vaguely feels like you've been tuned in to one of those musical journey albums. Which I suppose they do, in a way, but they're one of the few bands I know who can make you feel vaguely as though you're stoned, even if you haven't touched a j in months. Not in a crunchy hippie band way (hell, I shouldn't speak. I happily listen to stoner music.) but in their own special way that shows just how it is that people "have, like, a connection, man" to the music."

My father is now spinning furiously in his grave, by which I mean his executive chair in his office. It was he who brought me to the almighty altar of Zeppelin, tiptoeing carefully in through the darkness, looking around uneasily to see if St. Robert of the Plant was in anyway distracted from his hijinks with fish and groupies by the introduction of a six-year old to the adoring masses gathered to worship. At that age, I was heartily convinced that the Beatles and the Rolling Stones were the same band, but I clamoured heartily for "D'yer Maker", chanting along tunelessly with the oh oh ohs.

I never learned how to play Stairway on guitar to perform earnestly at talent shows with stringy-haired boys. My 6th grade penchant for public belting out of the Doors aside, I preferred to cover bands fronted by women, dammit. Lack of public pretention aside, I do confess to long nights up on the phone with my friend Josh counting down so we could press play at the exact same moment and have the music going on both ends while we went "whoa" and analysed it to death. He was a lot more into it than me, but I liked talking to him on the phone and reading into the music made me feel deep, so I didn't really care. I did this later with a whole succession of cute artsy boys, through Pink Floyd (actually, also Josh) to Radiohead to small artsy bands until finally I decided I don't like talking on the phone very much. Come over, I'll make you some tea.

Still, Zeppelin was my favourite band for a long long time, and is still up there in the pantheon. It greatly influenced my love for music from the seventies, and current bands feauturing beautiful-voiced long-haired men. But now I'm listening to them again, for the first time in a little while, and... all the songs are pretty much the same.

The same amazing song, but still the incredibly similar. Sure, they do different things, and the riffs change and come in different part, but they just feel like different stages in some rock operetta.

I think my mind, and my perception of the world, might just have exploded. Not too insightful a post, but mind-blowing, I tell you. Like, woah.