Day 39 – Black As A Dog
The continuing adventures of “Eric’s Trip Around the Sun”. One final trip with the iPod.
Where do you start with Led Zeppelin?
Led Zeppelin IV (as it is commonly referred to) was my first purchase into the Zeppelin catalog. Thinking back at that purchase, getting close to almost 30 years ago, I realize that at the time, it was the appropriate starting point for any novice to the band.
At the time, it was just a cassette on a novice boom box. The Zoso on the label with the man hunched over carrying sticks on his back. Unlike some of the controversy when it was released, i.e. without an album title because of course the band was dealing with the commercial disappointment of Led Zeppelin III.
I was merely buying the album because ‘Stairway to Heaven’ was a great song. I did not grow up in the 70s. I did not have to deal with the song being overplayed on the radio. I really didn’t know what I was getting into.
The moment for me is the opening track.
Hey, hey, mama said the way you move
Gonna make you sweat, gonna make you groove
Cue the guitar riff.
Having purchased and eschewed several heavy metal/hair band albums for what I had felt was something saccharine, this felt real, a little dirty. The closest example at the time for me would have been Diamond David Lee Roth, and I am sorry but Plant and Page just pissed all over the faces of both Roth and Eddie Van Halen.
It’s ear candy. It’s metal before metal could ruin itself. It has it’s epic moments, even if ‘Stairway to Heaven’ is overplayed. It has it’s delicate acoustic moments with ‘Going to California’.
Black Dog contains everything that Van Halen and others failed to achieve. Authenticity.
After listening to the album only a couple times, I realized that this was not the only purchase that I would be making. There would be others.
• Led Zeppelin – Black Dog
• Yo La Tengo – Black Flowers
• Olivia Tremor Control – Black Foilage Animation
• Spoon – Black Like Me