Baker's Dozen

Artists discuss the 13 records that shaped their lives

5. Led ZeppelinPresence

In high school I used to put my semi-hi fi speakers facing each other about two feet apart with a pillow on the floor between them, turn the volume really loud and lay on my back with my head on the pillow. This, I called “concert volume”. Might well be a contributor to my current deafness. Rolling Stone magazine never cared much about Led Zeppelin (I never cared much about Rolling Stone), but they used the word ‘puissant’ to describe the album Presence. Led Zeppelin was the first concert I ever attended ($9.85, I still have the ticket stub) so I had no point of reference, but I was completely impressed! My ears rang for days!

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