Hats Off To Led Zep 3............

It’s taken quite a few years to come to this conclusion, but ‘Led Zep 3’ is probably my favourite Led Zeppelin album and therefore deserves the questionable immortality an entry in the blog.
Up until the Summer of 1979, when a friend at school lent me his copy of Led Zep 4 (the one with ‘Stairway’ on it of course) in order to try and broaden my horizons beyond The Beatles, Bowie and The Jam, Led Zep (in my opinion at the time) belonged to an older generation altogether, namely the greatcoat and granny specs wearing prefects of the Sixth Form at the all boys Catholic school I was attending at the time - basically 17 year old oiks given some degree of authority by teachers who preferred to spend cold break times in the staff room drinking coffee and chain smoking their Embassy Regal. Said prefects would admonish The Jam, Clash, Pistols and Stranglers in favour of the ‘real music’ they listened to; Led Zep, Deep Purple, Genesis, Floyd, Mike Oldfield, hell, probably even a bit of Gentle Giant and Van Der Graaf Generator too. Although this did lead to some puerile but still vaguely amusing playground urban myths being created by us ‘punk’ kids concerning these so called figures of authority indulging in meticulously choreographed and impeccably timed acts of self abuse to the accompaniment of the whole of ‘Supper’s Ready’ by Genesis, somewhere between finishing their physics homework and supper being, indeed, ready.
But Led Zep 4 weaved its magic nonetheless – specifically I recall over the weekend of the 1979 FA Cup Final (as a Spurs fan I will still begrudgingly admit it was a thriller of a final) In fact ‘When The Levee Breaks’ is as inextricably linked to Arsenal’s admirable comeback against Man Utd in my head as REM’s ‘Murmur’ album is to the 1986 all Merseyside final. Strange. But True.
This opened my eyes and ears to this so called ‘older boys’ music – although I would never have admitted this to the ‘prefects’ of course and I was to be converted to Led Zep instantly (with Floyd, Genesis, King Crimson etc etc etc to follow), slowly acquiring their back catalogue over the next few years. I finally got around to buying a copy of ‘3’ on one of the many trips to the record stall at the indoor market in Watford sometime in the early 1980s – a nice original pressing too with the revolving wheel in the front of the sleeve, from the £1.00 box. I suppose my initial reaction was much the same as that of a lot of contemporary critics when the album was first released in 1970, ie a bit of a let down, way too acoustic and folky, but with perseverance it grew and grew over the years until my £1.00 second hand album became a CD and ultimately an intangible computer file stored on a small and extremely precious little gadget I take with me everywhere I go.
One of the most endearing qualities of ‘3’ is the variety within. For those who like their Zeppelin super heavy (and who doesn’t after all) there is the rampant Nordic plunder and pillage of ‘The Immigrant Song’ the jubilant ‘Celebration Day’ and the more ‘traditional’ Led Zep sound of ‘Out On The Tiles’. You also have the beautiful and melodic ‘Tangerine’ the plaintive ‘That’s The Way’ and of course the incredible ‘Since I’ve Been Loving You’ – I’m a bit wary of the lengthy slow blues work out, but this is just incredible in its performance and delivery and possibly my favourite Zeppelin track of them all. But perhaps most of all it is the acoustic / folky stuff that initially met with, well, if not sneers and derision then at least some scepticism, that ultimately makes the album so special. There are the sinister eastern flavoured strings on ‘Friends’, the urgent, mandolin driven gallop of ‘Gallows Pole’ and the foot tapping hoedown of ‘Bron Y Awr Stomp’. Wrap this all up with the sheer insanity of ‘Hats Off To Roy Harper’ that concludes the proceedings and the package is complete.
As tranquil as it is intense, Led Zeppelin 3 is a perfect accompaniment to the (hopefully) warmer, sunnier days to come. Well worth revisiting if you haven’t heard it in ages, equally well worth investigating if you have never heard it at all. After all, why should the prefects have all the fun.
More to follow………..