All Time Top 1100 Albums (Aerosmith - Big Ones) P265

Onholiday(somemightsay) said:
In other threads, whilst everyone has been arguing who's better out of The Who, Zep, The Beatles, The Stones or Simply Red etc and it suddenly occurred to me that The Who couldn't soften or go more acoustic (because of the 4 huge personalities and the equal spread of talent throughout the 4-piece version of the band) - i.e. you can't be writing albums that aren't going to harness the brilliance of Moon and Entwhislte, there'd be a fucking riot!!!
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I'm not a big fan of any of these bands although a do like musical from all of them. However, ANY band should be able to adapt to the material at hand. If a song means the bass is relegated or the drummer has to knock out something that he could do in his sleep, then so be it. Excessive drums or guitar or any other instrument for the sake of it is a bit daft IMO. It should be all about the song.

Of course why some people deem excessive may make the song for others. We all like that guitar riff or those slabs of Hammond from time to time.
 
RobMCFC said:
I'm not a big fan of any of these bands although a do like musical from all of them. However, ANY band should be able to adapt to the material at hand. If a song means the bass is relegated or the drummer has to knock out something that he could do in his sleep, then so be it. Excessive drums or guitar or any other instrument for the sake of it is a bit daft IMO. It should be all about the song.

Of course why some people deem excessive may make the song for others. We all like that guitar riff or those slabs of Hammond from time to time.
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100% agree - but don't you write for the band members that you have or want to have?

Leaving a lot of people's favourite drummer on the shelf seems a bit out of whack to me.

Surely you progress together or you go your separate ways.

As I said, I do love lots of their acoustic output.........
 
Onholiday(somemightsay) said:
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin III
@Bill Walker what is that effect that they put on Plants voice on Hats off (makes it sound like a really really really old blues recording - almost kind of gramophone)? Sorry to make you listen to it again so soon ;-)

I couldn't decide why I am slightly less familiar with this Zep album of the 1 through 4 - its got some decent songs on it, but I also honestly couldn't tell you the last time that I put it on.*

Immigrant song is decent riff (but I think people like this song a lot ore than I do) and Friends is great, I love the orchestral movements in it great but I am now already seeing the first problem on the horizon with this album - its the very highly thought of tracks in 3, 4 & 5.

Not fussed about Celebration Day, never have been - the guitaring feels a bit like a poor Rory Gallagher impersonation to me (no-one else ever get that vibe from Page some of the time)?

Since I've been loving you 7 minutes of decent-ish blues - leaves me cold. Not sure I can necessarily explain it away, there is absolutely nothing unlikeable about it but I never ever put it on. I never crave to here it.

Out on the tiles - its ok but aren't they now just plagiarising themselves?

I really like Gallows Pole (but why oh why does Plant need to start singing 'Seesaw Marjorie Door' towards the end of the song? Sounds like the latest scary chant from our Trafford neighbours ffs.

This is continued into Tangerine and Thats the way, both likeable additions to the album.

Bron Y-Aur Stomp and Hats off I can generally leave.

I'm going 6/10 (probably feels more 6.5 but I don't want to level up going off previous scoring again - there's some really good stuff, but I genuinely don't think they put as much leg work into preparing for this album than they had with others (and they were always incredibly quick to get it down on tape anyways). Its quite the hybrid album for me where they are trying to harness their 'new' sound.

Onholiday, why have you highlighted some of the songs you have detailed above?

Good observation and question Bluemoon music heads! ;-)

Well, its because I am about to make potentially the most ridiculous observation and / or complaint across all of these music threads to date (this does influence my thinking on the review of this album but is also a bit of a side note to the above).

They are mainly decent tracks, and I really do enjoy most of their acoustic work (see Going to California et al and being highly influenced by the West Coast sound and the likes of CSN-Y), but they are borderline mis-using / under appreciating the inputs of JPJ and Bonham who I believe we can all pretty much acknowledge are a huge huge part of what makes the band brilliant.

View attachment 30713

I sort of want that as a separate line-up (Like Page & Plant), I mean what was Bonham doing for circa half the album?

In other threads, whilst everyone has been arguing who's better out of The Who, Zep, The Beatles, The Stones or Simply Red etc and it suddenly occurred to me that The Who couldn't soften or go more acoustic (because of the 4 huge personalities and the equal spread of talent throughout the 4-piece version of the band) - i.e. you can't be writing albums that aren't going to harness the brilliance of Moon and Entwhislte, there'd be a fucking riot!!!

Townshend has spoken and written about this at great length that he felt they couldn't digress and as a result it held back his own guitar progression.

Does that make sense to anyone else?

So to a point, I'm saying that I really like Zep's acoustic stuff but I also find it really frustrating that certain band members have been marginalised;

Could the Beatles marginalise Ringo - easily, not even a debate
Could the Stones marginalise elements of their varying line ups - easily
Could Zepp marginalise elements of their line ups - seemingly so, but I'm not happy with it
Could The Who marginalise the elements of the band in its original format - no chance, wouldn't have work

There is no right or wrong in picking any of the above 4 bands, they are all outstanding in their own right and have all changed and influenced music for all eternity.

Enjoy the rest of your weekends Blueooners, hopefully no-one is suffering frostbite after todays game.............. :-)

* I have never actually bought one of Zeps albums, when I left home I ahem acquired all of my mothers versions of them (and then replenished them for her however many years later for Christmas).

What a wonderful son I am ;-)

Edit: For clarity, the song titles in bold should be all of the predominantly acoustic ones, for some reason it is not particularly clear on my laptop
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This is a great write-up and lots of fun to read. I missed Bonham and JPJ on this record too, but even as effective duets go, I did enjoy a fair amount of III.

OT, what do you think about Townsend’s solo output? I always like Empty Glass and some of White City, and I like his acoustic version of WGFA on that Secret Policeman’s Ball record.
 
FogBlueInSanFran said:
This is a great write-up and lots of fun to read. I missed Bonham and JPJ on this record too, but even as effective duets go, I did enjoy a fair amount of III.

OT, what do you think about Townsend’s solo output? I always like Empty Glass and some of White City, and I like his acoustic version of WGFA on that Secret Policeman’s Ball record.
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Would you believe, I actually haven't extensively worked through his stuff to be honest. It's alright but I don't warm to him as a lone front man (and unfortunately it's always going to be a step down).

I completely understand how and why he wanted to venture out on his own, it was inevitable.

As I've written about previously, the way that the rest of the band would basically tear up his carefully balanced compositions that he had slayed over for months within about 4 seconds of being in the studio together would have driven him absolutely mental (but also drove the band to their very heightened performance ceiling)...........
 
FogBlueInSanFran said:
for a good portion of their early life they were like most other bands a singles band. With their genius was some outright dross that was included on their records — Pepper has some and The White Album has plenty.
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I think you have to remember that everyone was a singles band back then. In the early 60s, pop music was catchy singles. If you listen to pretty much any pop album from around the time The Beatles started, they were the same.

However, their singles blew everyone else out of the water. Songs like She Loves You, Hard Days Night etc at the time were so full of energy, inventiveness and catchiness. Every year that passes, their music becomes much more complicated than pretty much anything their contemporaries could do and they introduce ideas that transform pop music.

The idea that you'd make albums with a theme just wasn't there in pop music - it had to be invented. I'd say that in Sgt Pepper you've got the first transition from pop albums to a full-blown concept album. They made that transition in a few years! Listening to Abbey Road and Help is astonishing - it's 3 years but the difference is 100 years.

They took pop from something for kids to being a full blown art form to be taken seriously. Albums like Sgt Pepper, Revolver, Abbey Road, The White Album hold some of the finest music recorded in the 20th Century. You can easily make the case they were THE greatest musicians of that century - better than Stravinsky, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Schoenberg, Glass, Cage, Stockhausen etc. No historian will ever look back and disregard them because their influence on every single band who comes after them is enormous.

I think labelling them as a singles band it a bit harsh :)
 
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I had a listen to Led Zeppelin III and it's just a superb rock album. I don't think there's anyone better than Jimmy Page at writing riffs and in Immigrant Song, and Celebration Day you've 2 corkers.

I love the acoustic numbers on here though and Gallows Pole, That's The Way and Bron-Y-Aur Stomp are masterpieces. His ability to switch between hard rock and folk is just amazing and shows what a talent he is.

I honestly don't think they did anything like a bad album, they were just a class act. If anyone wanted to an example of a top rock n roll band playing top class riffs, you start - and probably end - with Led Zeppelin.

It's a great album, simple as that :)

8/10
 
GoatersLeftShin said:
I think you have to remember that everyone was a singles band back then. In the early 60s, pop music was catchy singles. If you listen to pretty much any pop album from around the time The Beatles started, they were the same.

However, their singles blew everyone else out of the water. Songs like She Loves You, Hard Days Night etc at the time were so full of energy, inventiveness and catchy. Every year that passes, their music becomes much more complicated and they introduce ideas that transform pop music.

The idea that you'd make albums with a theme just wasn't there in pop music - it had to be invented. I'd say that in Sgt Pepper you've got the first transition from pop albums to a full-blown concept album. They made that transition in a few years! Listening to Abbey Road and Help is astonishing - it's 3 years but the difference is 100 years.

They took pop from something for kids to being a full blown art form to be taken seriously. Albums like Sgt Pepper, Revolver, Abbey Road, The White Album hold some of the finest music recorded in the 20th Century. You can easily make the case they were THE greatest musicians of that century - better than Stravinsky, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Schoenberg, Glass, Cage, Stockhausen etc. No historian will ever look back and disregard them because their influence on every single band who comes after them is enormous.

I think labelling them as a singles band it a bit harsh :)
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Terrific post mate. one Thing you raise and most miss is the timescales between beatlemania and their revolver/ Sgt pepper/ white album. Their transformation was unbelievable.
 
Saddleworth2 said:
Terrific post mate. one Thing you raise and most miss is the timescales between beatlemania and their revolver/ Sgt pepper/ white album. Their transformation was unbelievable.
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Totally, it's beyond staggering.

To think a band can go from Help! (a great pop song) to Sgt Pepper in about 2 years or so astounds me. I don't think we'll ever see anything like it again.

I remember listening to Revolver for the first time when I was about 13 and I loved every track on the album. When Tomorrow Never Knows came on, I was completely gobsmacked by it. I listened to it 10 times one dinnertime I was so mesmerised by it. I still to this day can't imagine how that sounded in 1966 if you'd had been a fan of "All My Loving" in 1964 or so!
 
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