Led Zep are great in small doses. I already mentioned what I thought of the clip of Immigrant Song in School of Rock. Communication Breakdown, Black Dog, all great. But I can't get to the end of Since I've Been Loving You or The Rain Song — in fact just about all the songs that are longer than four minutes could do with shortening to that length (I include Kashmir and, shudder, Stairway in that) and I certainly can't listen to even one of these chronologically-organised CDs from beginning to end in one sitting.
Robert Plant was headlining the Green Man Festival a couple of years ago. Apparently he loves the Welsh mountains so much that he called the promoters to ask to play. Guy and, particularly, Paul were anticipating and possible secret/surprise reforming of Led Zep for the night, and, when it was announced that Plant's set had been extended by 30 minutes, I even wondered if they might be right. I was looking forward to it anyway: his band are shit hot, and I thought they'd fill that space really well. Actually Zep did play that night, but it was so secret that we all had to sign Non-Disclosure Agreements — whoops! No, I'm kidding, ha, ha; it turned out the extra 30 minutes was just for the interminable fiddly improv bits in the middle of the encore of Whole Lotta Love. Four months later, Guy and Paul managed to blag their way into the Dome for that show, but I did my usual hoity-toity sniff at anything that attracts too much attention to itself, muttering that it was preferable to see Plant's band anyway because they were better rehearsed etc etc. Oh, and Stephin Merritt was playing a DJ set in Shoreditch that night so I went there — definitely the place to be seen.
Final bit of heresy: All of My Love has always been a favourite, and it doesn't matter to me that it sounds like late-period Roxy Music. Would be even better if they trimmed the keyboard solo.
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