11. Led ZeppelinLed Zeppelin IV
You have to remember that this came out when I was 10 years old, and my brothers started smoking pot and listening to that all the time. So we lived a lot of our young intense lives with all that cool Led Zeppelin shit playing. But when I hear Led Zeppelin IV, I guess that’s where I discovered that idea of a rock group. So for me, Led Zeppelin never really evokes anything other than these dudes playing this bad ass music.
Of course, it’s impossible to really play like Led Zeppelin. I mean, they’re a total fabrication of sounds and moods and little arranging techniques, little quirks. Jimmy Page is a master of that. It’s a magical combination of, what, eight songs? When you listen to them altogether, which we do quite often, I don’t see how anyone who loves music could listen to that and not think, ‘Fuck, that’s cool’. Such cool drumming, such cool effects on the guitars.
Robert Plant… it’s a weird way he sings. People have accepted it now, but it’s a weird screech. So high, with so much velocity, he’s really singing at the peak of his energy. That is driving the music. You can’t take Robert Plant’s screeching out of that and get the same effect. It’s just what the song is. That song ‘Rock N Roll’ [sings] "been a long time since I rock ‘n rolled"… if you don’t sing it like that, it doesn’t have the same effect. He screams that shit with that freaky echo on his voice, it’s like some truth from beyond. It’s fucking amazing. It’s still amazing.
