Led Zeppelin - All of My Love

 

Rock music, or Heavy Metal, suffered from the same doctrinal subjection of its followers as Catholicism or Marxism. It had its uniform of tenets, beliefs and dress sense, none of which were to be countermanded by the faithful.

I worked in the same building in Southampton in the late 1980's as a rock disciple who was admired not for his work ethic but for the drum solos he tapped out on his desk. If I had worked in the same vicinity he would either have been taken on with some reggae rhythms taken from Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare or he'd have met an early demise which is what sadly did happen to one of his mates in the club he habitually haunted, presumably an innocent follower of his chosen fashion who got on the wrong end of a drug deal. What was almost impressive about it was the story of how the news percolated through the club and, having no other appropriate response, they 'just boogied'. It was as appalling as the quote attributed to Bill Shankly that,

Some people think football is a matter of life and death. I assure you, it's much more serious than that. 

which was refuted by Brian Clough concentrating on family life in retirement and attending football hardly ever.

Led Zeppelin are exempted from the boycott that covers Black Sabbath, Deep Purple and the further excesses of Judas Priest, Motley Crue and Spinal Tap, though. I was even reminded of an impressive stage performance by Angus Young in his school uniform recently but all that headbanging still didn't equate to the athleticism displayed by Grace Jones when he kept her hula hoop going throughout her performance of Slave to the Rhythm in front of Buckingham Palace in 2012.

Led Zep were certainly any good. Stairway to Heaven was as indisputably regarded as the greatest ever rock track as Eddy Merckx had been regarded as the greatest ever Tour de France rider but now, five decades later, the lambent beauty it was credited with sounds mystical in a way that has lost its mystique. 

It had been possible to stand on the coast of the Bay of Biscay in the summer of 1977, having gone there with a fellow student of 'A' level French to improve our conversation français, and think,

There's a feeling I get when I look to the west,

but there wasn't, it was just an old quote and by then I was more interested in predicting that Never Mind the Bollocks would be the last and only Sex Pistols album, which is really what it was.

Boogie with Stu was the track that I first put in here. Physical Graffiti is surely the magnum opus with its Kashmir and Trampled Underfoot but it's all looked a bit different for a long time since those televisions were so dutifully thrown out of hotel windows, the music was so pompous and overblown and they had an aeroplane with their name written on its side like Donald Trump still does now.

No, Robert Plant was the singer in Led Zep from 1968-1980 and henceforth whenever a reunion could raise a few million quid, and even though for more than 40 years he's been doing other things it's what you make your name by doing that you'll be remembered by.

All of My Love from In Through the Out Door, the last track on the last album, is where they arrived at and effectively stopped, not unlike Abba with The Day Before You Came, almost hinting that they could have gone further in that new direction. I'm not sure that either of them could have but they both ended before showing any sign of decline.