Fusion 45

Finally, after 60-some pages of build-up, my good friend Barney Hoskyns finally came forward with the goods on Zeppelin IV, that after which his 170-page tome is named.

Did you know that Rock and Roll was created in about 15 minutes? According to the story, the band was at Headley Grange working on various cuts, struggling to get Four Sticks on tape. When frustration finally came to a head, John Bonham (always good for some outrageous behavior), guzzled down a oil can full of lager and started pounding out the famous opening riff from Little Richard’s Keep A-Knockin‘. From there, Jimmy Page jumped in and 15 minutes later a rock and roll classic was born.

On the other hand, Stairway To Heaven was the product of months (and maybe even years) of work by Jimmy Page. Aiming to build a great epic, hours at Headley were spent on the tune. I didn’t realize that the flute-like solo at :14 was actually John Paul Jones playing three different recorders, each one overdubbbed over the previous track. According to the book, Jones played soprano, alto and bass recorders, overdubbed with playback speakers in the room (rather than headphones, as was customary). I always thought it was some sort of electronics.

Yeah, you can’t swing a dead AOR radio station in any direction without hearing both of these songs. Yeah, they’re overplayed. But, last night as I was drifting off, I gave Zeppelin IV a new listen. And this morning, I woke up with an original (and very Zeppeliny) song in my head.

Led Zeppelin - Rock And Roll

Led Zeppelin - Stairway To Heaven

I didn’t really catch on to Led Zeppelin beyond Stairway To Heaven and the like until I started to do AOR radio in the 1980’s. Even then, I didn’t get much further than Whole Lotta Love.

The blues influence on the boys from the Black Country, the nuances of what made them the biggest rock and roll band in the world for a fair amount of time, is something that I’m just learning about.

Between working with the band on the ass-kicking drum part to How Many More Times and reading Barney Hoskyns 170-page treatment on Zeppelin IV (which gratefully covers more than just that album), I’m opening my ears up to a whole lotta (more) Zeppelin.

Led Zeppelin - Hats Off To (Roy) Harper

Get more Zeppelin on My Mog

Photo: Cover of Roy Harper’s Stormcock album

It seems I spend a lot of my time organizing stuff around the house, a sure sign that I have too many things or not enough organization. Every now and then, a stack of CDs will accumulate from one place and another, without much rhyme or reason.”Stacks of wax” is much more lyrical but this is simply a random desk full of digits.

Steely Dan - Brooklyn One of my all-time favorite Dan’s.
Oliver Nelson - Elegy For A Duck How can you not be intrigued?
Mary Karlzen - Everybody’s Sleeping Ever heard of her? Great record.
Joe Cocker - Feelin’ Alright The classic Mad Dogs And Englishmen version.
New Riders Of The Purple Sage - Glendale Train Somewhere I have a picture of Peter Dawson and me, beer in hand, as I introduced him at club I used to book.
Londonbeat - No Woman, No Cry I kind of like this version.
Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit Smells like a band I never really cared for much. Must’ve been something my wife was listening to.
Robert Randolph - Soul Refreshing Such a happy song.
Nilsson - Subterranean Homesick Blues Great version from the Pussy Cats album, featuring John Lennon and Jim Keltner.
Peter Mayer - The Play A great spiritual folk song, from a guy whom I discovered when he played at our church.
Led Zeppelin - What Is And Should Never Be Everybody has a Zep fave…this is one of mine.

Before and aft of Willie Nelson on my iPod are Willie Mabon and Wille Nix.

Mabon was the more famous of the two. He recorded the original version of I Don’t Know, made famous later by the Blues Brothers. Mabon’s version was a huge hit for Checker Records in 1952, helped usher in the era of rock and roll on Alan Freed’s early radio shows and was covered by another famed white-guy, Tennessee Ernie Ford. The Belushi version is probably better known to my generation, though, if nothing else than for his treatment of the lyric: “If it’s women that kill me, I don’t mind dying”.

Nix was an itinerant tap dancer and vaudevillian before he taught himself drums and played about the south with the likes of B.B. King and Sonny Boy Williamson. He never stayed in one place long enough to make a lot of records but this recording, from The Chess Story, is still readily available. The version recorded by Big Bill Broonzy is thought to have been a big influence on Led Zeppelin.

Willie Mabon - I Don’t Know

Willie Nix - Truckin’ Little Woman

COMMIT WITH CASH: The Chess Story