You’re absolutely correct I am - I think LZ 1-3 are mostly trash with a few good tunes here and there. LZ 4 is half great tunes, half trash and is split down the middle for me.
And yes, it is my opinion that Robert was not a very good singer starting out - he had little to questionable control over his pitch and there’s just something about his voice when he goes off pitch in his upper register that just grates on me.
Thankfully, by 1972 he’s figured out how to sing on pitch consistently that everything from Houses of the Holy onward is either great to half decent, with only a few bad tunes.
Jimmy Page… King of Sloppy Guitar Playing. The one thing I can’t stand about Page is he is so inconsistent in his lead work. His rhythm playing, I will grant, is mostly solid.
But as a lead player, he can go from grooving and in time to an absolute train wreck the next and then back in time… It drives me NUTS as a guitar player myself! His intonation on his bends is also highly questionable at times. My biggest gripe with Page is that he’s sloppy, lazy and inconsistent. If he’d bothered to apply himself he could’ve been one of the greats.
To me, he’s a mediocre guitar player who has occasional flashes of brilliance, and always has been. When he’s great, he’s wonderful, and when he’s not, he’s a shambles of a train wreck.
But yeah, Flavio, those first three records are a total train wreck for me. Disaster cats all around!
In particular, I can’t stand LZ2, it’s the worst record I’ve ever heard in my life, from start to finish.
If it’s a major contribution to rock music, then surely, I say, rock music can do so much better than that hot mess!
And yes, I’m being honest, this really is how I feel about and experience Led Zeppelin! I know I have an unpopular opinion here, and I’m sticking to my guns! You’re just gonna have to accept I Utterly Despise those records and the early period of the band.
Go ahead and love them, but they are definitely not for me!
Later period? I fucking love them.
Go figure!
