Tuned In #1 - Led Zeppelin

My least favorite thing in the world is work because it is incredibly boring.

So, to make the day go by faster, I’m going to be listening to different music artists' entire discography (if there’s an overwhelming amount, then just their studio albums) and giving my thoughts!

Obviously, I’m not a critic. I’m not reviewing these with any kind of system or scale. I’m just sharing whatever I thought about the music I listened to during my shift.

Also, there’s a good chance most musicians are pieces of shit in one way or another. How I feel about their music does not reflect how I feel about them as people. Most of the time, I don’t know anything about their actual personalities or beliefs. Hell, I don’t even know their names. As a general rule, I try to separate the art from the artist as much as possible… unless it directly bleeds into the art, but you get what I mean.

#1 - LED ZEPPELIN

So yeah… I started with Led Zeppelin. Because nothing says “let’s ease into this project” like listening to seven hours of stolen blues riffs and demonic wailing while stocking shelves.

As a lifelong That 70s Show fan, I was destined to get into Zeppelin eventually. And that did happen, very briefly, when I was like eight or nine.

But then I stumbled across that one YouTube video and found out how much shit they straight up stole from other artists. It’s really an unbelievable amount. So, I decided then and there that I had to become a lifelong Led Zeppelin hater. For the most part, I stuck to it.

Yeah, their songs still caught my ear when they popped up on 70s greatest hits or came through the radio while channel surfing, but I tried not to get too into it. (“Stairway to Heaven” was the exception. I figured it was so mainstream it didn’t count. Let me live.)

Lately, I’ve started listening to them again. Mostly because of Supernatural, if I’m being honest. So yeah, there’s no deep reason I started with them for this project. I just did.

Enough background, let’s get into it:

Look… I like their music. I do.

But listening to every single album, back to back, for 7 hours straight? With one busted earbud and customers constantly bothering me? In a grocery store lit like a hospital waiting room? Absolutely not. Never again.

I went in chronological order, starting with their debut. And I’ll admit that the beginning was actually nice. Their first album? Perfect all the way through. Second album? Just as solid.

Then came the third album... This is where the cracks started to show. I’ll admit now that I’m not huge on their heavier tracks. But not because they’re heavy (the instruments actually sound great), but because Robert Plant’s high-pitched, banshee-like screeching felt like it was trying to exorcise me through my headphones. I’ll give them some benefit of the doubt, because maybe if I was listening in a bar it would have sounded somewhat good. On stage? Maybe even great. But I wasn’t at a bar or concert, I was at work, and it sounded like shit. That said, the softer, more laid-back songs on that album were incredible.

Albums four and five? Way more enjoyable overall. I didn’t care for maybe two or three songs on each.

Physical Graffiti had its moments, about six of the fifteen songs really landed. The rest? Eh.

In Through the Out Door started off promising and wrapped up better than expected, but you could just hear the 80s creeping in. No thanks.

Finally, Coda. The moment Zeppelin fully stepped into the 80s, things went downhill fast. Not a single track on that album did it for me.

Final Thoughts:

After 7 hours of Led Zeppelin... I liked about 40 songs, give or take (half of which were from their first two albums).

Also, I totally get why parents in the 70s thought there were satanic messages in this stuff. The guitar in “Dazed and Confused” alone feels eerily demonic, like I’m about to get sacrificed or something. It’s one of their stolen songs too, so maybe it’s cursed.

Anyways, to repent for the sin of listening to all this stolen music I swore I never would, I’ve been playing the original versions of the songs they ripped off while writing all this. And nine times out of ten, the original is so much better.

So, my workplace might not be the best place for Zeppelin, but I can confirm they sound best when you’re high out of your mind.

Main Takeaway:

Led Zeppelin, unfortunately… rocks.

UPDATE: It’s been about two months since I posted my Led Zeppelin review. Unfortunately, during that time, something deeply upsetting has happened.

I kept listening to them.

Not casually, either. I mean a lot. Sometimes for days in a row. Enough that they somehow clawed their way up to number four on my Spotify Wrapped, which feels incriminating on its own. And that doesn’t even count all the times I listened to them elsewhere.

So yeah. I’m coming out as a Led Zeppelin lover. My official guilty pleasure. Because despite stealing a shit tone of music they unfortunately sound really really good. 

That said, I’m still not buying the whole “greatest rock band of all time” thing. Not when Pink Floyd exists because let’s be for real.

Looking back, I think the reason I didn’t fully love them during that original seven-hour marathon was less about the music and more about the circumstances. I was bored, irritated, stuck at work, listening through “one busted earbud” with awful sound quality, and dealing with a genuinely horrible headache. That is not the ideal mental or physical state to try and get into Zeppelin.

A lot of the songs I couldn’t stand back then? I actually like now. Some of them are even more favorites.

And here’s the most shocking development of all: I like Coda now. Or, at least, the deluxe version. I don’t even recognize myself anymore.