The Songs Remain the Same

Meanwhile, the house journal of the US political establishment, The New Republic, enthuses over Led Zeppelin. While disagreeing with TNR is something all caring people should try and do at least once a week I can't find too much to disagree with. Heck, I was utterly enjoying Good Times Bad Times driving home from the Wairarapa yesterday - almost 20 years after a music savvy friend of mine put me onto the tune.

I've got a few quibbles of course: it's true that Led Zeppelin did the world favour by not becoming a bloated touring band playing covers of themselves like the Rolling Stones did, but it's nonsense to argue that the Led Zep are in someway more timeless than Jagger et al. (certainly more so than Deep Purple but that's not exactly an achievement).

Also, any honest fawning over Led Zeppelin ought to at least make note of the fact that the band was responsible for some of the worst lyrics of all time. "It was in the darkest depths of Mordor, I met a girl so fair"? Please.

Still I guess it is indicative of how good the songs are: you find yourself singing along fully aware that you are mouthing utter nonesense mascarading as bad poetry. That's pretty good.