The Adventures of Percy and Pagey - Part 1

Something silly that just came to me.

Learning to play Led Zeppelin

There's a shop in Peterborough, imaginatively called Peterborough Music, that is a haven for musicians and wannabes alike.

After having drooled at the Burns Brian May Red Special for £649, the Jimmy Page cherry sunburst Gibson Les Paul for £369 and various acoustic bass guitars, I perused the music books for something slightly more affordable.

I found a book with around 10 Led Zeppelin songs to learn, accompanied with two CDs of instrumentals and guitar-less tracks but it was nearly £20.... so instead, for £15, I bought this:


It's a guitar 'songbook' of all Led Zeppelin's tracks from their first five albums, excluding those which weren't written by them. Missing are "I Can't Quit You Baby", "The Lemon Song", "You Shook Me" and "Bring It On Home".

The chords appear to be slightly simplified compared to tabs and chords submitted by people online for the same songs but I don't think it makes them sound too different.

There are no tabs apart from on "Stairway to Heaven", which is kind of understandable given the complexity of most of the songs and the apparent level of guitar ability the book is aimed at.

I would highly recommend it to anyone who wants to play along to the best of the first five albums, assuming it can be found somewhere - Amazon says it'll take 4-7 weeks to deliver!

Mr Woo

Talking between songs

I watched the first three hours of the Earl's Court video recently and I noticed how much Robert talks between songs - mostly to himself but occasionally to the band. It's much better than just leaping on stage, whacking out a full set before bowing out for the night. You'd feel much more of a part of an experience if the band actually appeared human during the gig, I think.

My favourite bit, not actually from that gig, is at the end of No Quarter recorded in Seattle in 1977. On this he says:

"Well I guess it's a funny thing to tell you that when you're deaf in one ear, but do you know what's happened? It's clear again! It's the strangest cure I've ever known."

There was also one point I think on the Earl's Court gig where Robert says something about "There's always the Eighties!" - if only he knew...

Mr Woo

Podcast

Last night Miss K and I decided we should record some live commentary along to Led Zeppelin's back catalogue in order of release. However, it quickly descended into a semi-drunken podcast/commentary of The Song Remains The Same film on blu-ray.

Queue over two hours of guffaws, confusion, admiration, buggeration and wine-fuelled adoration of the greatest band there has ever been.

Miss K knows a lot more of the back story and behind the scenes stuff than I do, which is why I'm a bit quieter. We will probably end up doing more podcasts - one per album - and I'll be a lot more involved at that point.

So whether you listen to it along with the DVD or on its own, we hope you enjoy our waffling. Let us know what you'd like from future podcasts as this is a bit of an experiment.

I accidentally stopped the recording about 6 mins in so there are two files here:

Link to Part 1

Link to Part 2

Mr Woo


(Please don't sue us, Jimmy)

Bring It On Home

I think Miss K posted this elsewhere recently but I thought I'd share it on our blog too. This, to me, epitomises what is so amazingly great about Led Zeppelin. Because they started in the 60s I think it gave them that blues base that later 70s bands just didn't have in the same way. Enjoy!

Mr Woo

Newbie

My background as a lover of music comes with a lot of excess baggage. My philosophy is simple and is what I've stuck to for many years: if it sounds good and I like it, it doesn't matter who the artist is. I only ever draw the line at country and western and improvised jazz.

My top five artists/bands before I got into Led Zeppelin were, in reverse order:

The White Stripes // Genesis // Pink Floyd // David Bowie // Queen

Now it's pretty much the same but the top band has been usurped by the gods of rock. The list in its current form:

Genesis // Queen // David Bowie // Pink Floyd // Led Zeppelin

To me, Led Zeppelin musically represents everything I love about every other band in my list. They incorporate every part of rock, blues and prog rock that I crave, all wrapped up into a sublime and unrivalled four-piece.

I still love Queen, still believe Freddie Mercury's voice is possibly the best ever in rock and pop, but for so long it felt as though nothing could possibly better than them. I've been proven wrong with Led Zeppelin.

It's still all new to me, I'll admit, but I can't honestly say I've taken to or enjoyed such a large proportion of a back catalogue of a band so quickly.

I can't get enough of them at the moment!

Mr Woo