In 1969, Led Zeppelin gave us a debut album and Led Zeppelin II. Isn’t that weird that today it takes years to get another album from all artist and in the 60s and 70s they were so prolific. Will this album be any good, since it was in the same year? Or will it be like most sophomore slump and fail to live up the their debut?
The album rips into your soul with “Whole Lotta Love“. It is considered one of the best songs in history. It is definitely a rockin’ song. Jimmy Page came up with one of the best guitar riffs ever, Robert Plant vocals are incredible and John Bonham drums pulsate into your body and do not let go. Lyrically, it lacks imagination, but who cares.
The guys have grown a lot from the first album to the second one. I think it is due to Plant doing his part and writing lyrics with Page. They are the new Lennon/McCartney or Jagger/Richards. The rock is harder than the blues on this album, except for “The Lemon Song“. It is a bluesy sexual song.
“Thank You” was the first song that Plant wrote all the lyrics for on the album. It is a love song to his wife and it is one of my favourites.
“Ramble On” is a great song influenced by J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. Plant and Page use the character Gollum in the lyrics,
“When magic filled the air
‘T was in the darkest depths of Mordor
I met a girl so fair
But Gollum, and the evil one
Crept up and slipped away with her”.
I am hoping for more albums of Led Zeppelin’s to be on this list. I am near the end of the 60s and I have some disappointments that I have noticed are excluded. Possibly those artists only had great songs, but not great albums. A great album is not easy to achieve, but Led Zeppelin did it with this one. 8.9/10.
an ocean roars 