If you read my "The Most Overrated Bands in Rock Music" column, you know I'm not a big Led Zeppelin fan. I recognize the talent, but they just don't connect with me. So when the whole Zeppelin reunion thing happened back in 2007, I didn't really care. I knew I had zero chance of seeing them (of course, if I did have the chance, I would have gone), and it all just seemed over-hyped.
Now we have Celebration Day, the movie and CD of that concert, and I get to review the CD. Does it change my opinion any? No. In fact, it just helps me clarify what I dislike about them. Right from the opening version of "Good Times Bad Times," the performance is bombastic and overblown, and it only gets more so through the first half of the concert. It is so overdone that I actually found it tiring to listen to.
It's as if Zeppelin decided that, if they were the biggest band in the world (not the best, just the biggest), they should sound bigger than everyone else to suit. Listening here, they've certainly accomplished that. The irony is that Zep fans often defended the band from its detractors by pointing to its acoustic numbers with the words, "See, they can play gentle too. They can rock hard, and then show some finesse." There is no finesse on this album.
But it's not just a problem with this album. It's a problem with Zeppelin in general. And it got worse as they developed as a band. Sure, they started out heavy, loud and big, but they had some taste, some subtlety – look at Led Zeppelin III. That was tolerable, but their sound just got bigger and denser (and, to my ear, less interesting) as they went along. On Celebration Day they have applied that evolution retroactively. Even many of their earlier numbers get the overdrive treatment. As proof of such overblown huffing, take "Black Dog," for example. Rather than honor the rhythmic challenges of the original, Page, Plant and Jones (with Bonham Jr. on drums) just power through the song; substituting blast and bluster for subtlety. Even "Since I've Been Loving You," which starts out slow and bluesy, quickly builds into another attempt to overwhelm us with everything they have. It's not until they slide into the piano intro to "No Quarter," about halfway through the concert, that things finally let up. Of course, that song also builds to excess but, in this case, that's the key to song itself. And at least in this case, they let it build – it doesn't start out at full roar.
Ironically, "Stairway to Heaven," the song which stands at the epitome of Zep's excess, is performed as mellowly as anything here. Perhaps that is because, as their biggest hit, they play it the straightest and closest to the original which just reveals how much their style changed in later years. It may once have seemed so excessive – but now “Stairway” sounds toned down.
And then there are "Dazed and Confused" and "Whole Lotta Love," which manage to straddle the line. Both of them wander off into spaced out jams, but still provide some of the most satisfying moments of the CD. Besides, that (the spaced out jams) was always their role in Zeppelin concerts. "Dazed and Confused" gave Page a setting for his famous play the guitar with a violin bow trick (and you can tell, from the applause, the exact moment he pulls out the bow here). In fact, they used to wander way farther afield than anything here. Go pull out How The West Was Won, the live triple CD set from their 1972 U.S. tour. Both songs go well over the twenty-minute mark and incorporate a number of other songs before they return home – need you question which performance was more satisfying?
Speaking of How the West Was Won, it also includes a nice acoustic interlude, including "Going of California" and "Bron-Yr-Aur Stomp." There's no moment like that here. As I said, it's pretty much full bore all the way through. I have no idea why they decided to eliminate the acoustic set. Maybe they didn't think the fans wanted it, or maybe they decided they didn't have time, but its absence epitomizes the direction they chose for this show (and, as I said, the direction they took in much of their later career). Such an interlude would have been a very pleasant break here.
Now, you may well ask (and I did ask this of myself as I was writing this), “How can I decry the excess here, while I love it in bands like King Crimson and Sonic Youth?” The difference is that, with those bands, the noise and excess is essential to their sound. Here, it is unnecessary – and that is the key to my problem with it. They don't need it. Again, go back to How The West Was Won, and listen to the versions of "Black Dog" and "Since I've Been Loving You" on it. They have taste and finesse, and are much better performances for it. If you're interested in live Zeppelin, you should definitely pick that set up long before you even consider this one.
Artist:
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Watch:
Led Zeppelin – Celebration Day – “Black Dog”
Album:
Celebration Day is out now. Buy it here on Amazon .
