I think The Replacements count as "classic" — they were brilliant at their best and massively influential, after all. And Don't Tell a Soul DEFINITELY counts as a non-classic in my book, haha!
I'm just around 4yrs older than you, and In Through the Out Door was an event. Mebbe because of my friend who turned ME on to smoking weed and doing acid who picked up the LP. He was a zephead and I recall him marveling at the synth parts on the new record. I think on that record they were finding a new sound for LZ that would carry them into the '80s. They achieved a lot better results, in my opinion, then Bob Dylan did with Empire Burlesque. I think it gets a bum wrap. And I think it gets that bum wrap partly because it was Bonzo's last record, and they never got a chance to tour it. Therefore, it remains sort of a bummer in most rock fans' minds. The songs on it are actually really good. Southbound Suarez, fool in the rain, good grief! Just listen to that shuffle by Bonzo! And Jimmy's weird guitar work on FITR! It's way underrated, in my humble opinion.
At least for me, all I remember is tripping out to it a lot.
Another record from around that time that may strike you as a very non-classic is The Replacements Hootenanny. That was my introduction to the band. It helped if they came through Kansas City quite frequently and when they were still very young. Which made for great concert experiences in very small venues. And Tommy was dating one of the girls that was a hanger on in our scene at the time.
Finally another end of run LP that people seem to love or hate, Sandanista by The Clash. It was a punk rock white album for me. I listened the s*** out of that record. To me it had the same unevenness that the white album had by the Beatles. It was epic in scale and demonstrated why punk rock was much deeper a thing than just anarchy in the UK or blitzkrieg bop.
Yeah, accident of birth can make all the difference - had I been born four years earlier, there’s no doubt I would have already been deep into Zep by the time of In Through The Out Door. And I do genuinely love FITR, but I’ve had enough arguments about it with other Zep fans over the years to know that it’s not universally held in high esteem. I don’t know that the album would be more loved and respected today if Bonham had lived, but I do agree that it was pointing a way forward for the band; it really should have been a transitional album instead of a final one. Also: Hootenanny rules!
I don’t know why “Fool in the Rain” wouldn’t make various “Best of Led Zep” lists: that song is sensational. I think that was the first Zeppelin song I ever heard, listening to rock radio around that time. That song brought me to “Houses of the Holy” and eventually their entire catalog. But that Samba break in “Fool?” Amazing. What’s interesting to me is that I have never seen anyone do it live: not an established artist or band, or any LZ tribute/cover act. Oh, and Hendrix is cool, too! 😜
Yeah, I love FITR - along with Santana around the same time, that’s probably what really opened my ears to Latin grooves. But a lot of Zep fans I’ve known over the years seem to prefer the boys ripping off Black artists to ripping off Brown ones 😝
The two cool things I THINK I remember about ITTOD: (1) the album came wrapped in brown paper and there were alternate jackets; and (2) the inside record sleeve was printed with ink “dots” that were actually water colors that could be painted with a brush dipped in water.
And how about Hot Dog? A precursor, perhaps, of what was to come from Bob Plant some 35 years later….
Great read, Dan! Goats Head Soup was the first Stones album I bought with my own money, so even though Hot Rock opened the door, GHS was my first deep-cut Stones experience, and always has a place in my heart.
I love that '69-'70 period of Hendrix. While Buddy Miles is an amazing drummer, and his solo albums are all great, When Jimi realized that Mitch was his guy and pushed forward with Mitch and Billy as his bandmates, they recorded some fantastic tunes before his death. 'First Rays of the New Rising Sun' (which now compiles everything from 'Cry') is the Hendrix album I return to the most. I often wonder about the killer funky, bluesy, rockin' jams they would have laid down between 1970-1975 had Jimi not died.
With regards to your question...I think the classic artist who immediately came to mind was Curtis Mayfield. I initially came to his music via 'Sweet Exorcist.' Reflecting back, it was most likely the cover art that caught my eye and its title demanded more curious investigation. Nevertheless, that Mayfield LP is rarely mentioned, let alone praised in circles as often as Superfly, S/T, Live, or Roots. But, I adore it.
This was much appreciated! As an only child I was SOL when it came to discovering music if it wasn't on the radio. When I was 12, Gloria Nelson's older brother bought "Presence", the cover of which freaked the hell out of me and I gave Zep a wide berth until I inherited Mom's station wagon with its 8-track player and someone gave me a tape of "Houses of the Holy". I loved that album (with the exception of the"cluclunk" during "The Rain Song") and learned to appreciate the band. To this day, "In Through the Out Door" remains the only Zep album I ever purchased. I love that fluffy warm sense of nostalgia whenever I hear a cut from it, and the performances are stellar (Bonham's drumming on "Fool In The Rain" still gives me goosebumps). Great songs on both sides (including "Hot Dog" - fight me)!
Growing up the only thing I knew about The Kinks was "Lola" but when I discovered "Something Else..." I couldn't believe it was the same band. As you know, they have a LOOOOONG career so there's a lot to chew on, but that mid to late 60s output is perfection to me
Let's hear it for Low Budget, too. If you remember the Arab oil embargo, and sat in gas lines as a teenage driver... you couldn't have been more on the nose.
Okay here’s a few: the Ian Gillian Black Sabbath album, Animalize by KISS, and Done with Mirrors by Aerosmith. Not quite the exact same because as a little kid I had heard other albums by these artists, but these were albums I purchased as opposed to listening to my parents or cousins. Thank you Columbia House Record Club!!!
Moby Grape’s Truly Fine Citizen, solely because of the cool cover shot. Through the years, I still like it as much as their earlier, more celebrated stuff.
One of the most influential albums of my youth was the 1970 Fill Your Head With Rock. It was a sampler, but every track was awesome, and I wore a couple of needles playing this as I entered my teens. It drew me into many artists I didn't know or didn't know well. A couple of examples would be the beautiful harmonies of Trees in The Garden of Jane Delawney, Tom Rush' Driving Wheel, and A Small Fruit Song by Al Cooper, with that Am progression that all guitar players mess with once in a while. I would go on to buy albums of virtually every band on the sampler.
Fascinating topic! As for ITTOD, while it's never been my favorite Led Zep album, I absolutely love In The Evening, FITR, and All My Love and like everything else fine. And there's nothing as bad as The Crunge on it! Cry Of Love on the other hand is a 5-star album. The only weak track is Astro Man, just a little throwaway, and while later CDs perhaps approached Hendrix's concept a little more closely, everything on Cry was treated with respect without any post-production fiddling like Midnight Lightning or War Heroes. The closest experience I can relate to this idea is that my introduction to The Who was through the Tommy soundtrack, just a dog's breakfast of a collection with an unconscionable amount of songs featuring Oliver Reed and Ann-Margaret, fine actors who couldn't sing a lick...oh well! I was soon set right by Meaty Beaty Big And Bouncy.
Fair enough, Dan. That reminds me of that story that Ray Davies tells about the guitar solo in “You really got me” which was sometimes claimed to be from session god Jimmy Page. Ray refuted that, saying that it was definitely the work of brother Dave, further adding, “he doesn’t have a lot going for him so we can’t take that away from him.” 😆 Classic Ray.
I liked In Through the Out Door -- it was accessible for me because I was 14 and a pop fan (Bee Gees, Beach Boys, Elton John) when it came out. It was a decent gateway drug.
Like a lot of people my age, I got to the Beatles via the Red and Blue albums. I've been loving the new version of the Red one in particular. Sounds so good.
I might be pushing the definition of "classic artist" here, but my on ramp to The Replacements was "Don't Tell A Soul." A record I still love, fwiw.
I think The Replacements count as "classic" — they were brilliant at their best and massively influential, after all. And Don't Tell a Soul DEFINITELY counts as a non-classic in my book, haha!
All Shook Down for me. One Wink At A Time, love that song.
I love that record too, but saying so usually sets a couple of people’s hair on fire.
Same! I remember it being derided as a Westerberg solo album and thinking that was just fine by me.
I'm just around 4yrs older than you, and In Through the Out Door was an event. Mebbe because of my friend who turned ME on to smoking weed and doing acid who picked up the LP. He was a zephead and I recall him marveling at the synth parts on the new record. I think on that record they were finding a new sound for LZ that would carry them into the '80s. They achieved a lot better results, in my opinion, then Bob Dylan did with Empire Burlesque. I think it gets a bum wrap. And I think it gets that bum wrap partly because it was Bonzo's last record, and they never got a chance to tour it. Therefore, it remains sort of a bummer in most rock fans' minds. The songs on it are actually really good. Southbound Suarez, fool in the rain, good grief! Just listen to that shuffle by Bonzo! And Jimmy's weird guitar work on FITR! It's way underrated, in my humble opinion.
At least for me, all I remember is tripping out to it a lot.
Another record from around that time that may strike you as a very non-classic is The Replacements Hootenanny. That was my introduction to the band. It helped if they came through Kansas City quite frequently and when they were still very young. Which made for great concert experiences in very small venues. And Tommy was dating one of the girls that was a hanger on in our scene at the time.
Finally another end of run LP that people seem to love or hate, Sandanista by The Clash. It was a punk rock white album for me. I listened the s*** out of that record. To me it had the same unevenness that the white album had by the Beatles. It was epic in scale and demonstrated why punk rock was much deeper a thing than just anarchy in the UK or blitzkrieg bop.
Yeah, accident of birth can make all the difference - had I been born four years earlier, there’s no doubt I would have already been deep into Zep by the time of In Through The Out Door. And I do genuinely love FITR, but I’ve had enough arguments about it with other Zep fans over the years to know that it’s not universally held in high esteem. I don’t know that the album would be more loved and respected today if Bonham had lived, but I do agree that it was pointing a way forward for the band; it really should have been a transitional album instead of a final one. Also: Hootenanny rules!
I don’t know why “Fool in the Rain” wouldn’t make various “Best of Led Zep” lists: that song is sensational. I think that was the first Zeppelin song I ever heard, listening to rock radio around that time. That song brought me to “Houses of the Holy” and eventually their entire catalog. But that Samba break in “Fool?” Amazing. What’s interesting to me is that I have never seen anyone do it live: not an established artist or band, or any LZ tribute/cover act. Oh, and Hendrix is cool, too! 😜
Yeah, I love FITR - along with Santana around the same time, that’s probably what really opened my ears to Latin grooves. But a lot of Zep fans I’ve known over the years seem to prefer the boys ripping off Black artists to ripping off Brown ones 😝
❤️
Ripping off? That is the same nonsense that gave us cultural appropriation. I would prefer to think of paying homage.
I mean, Led Zeppelin DID quite literally rip off a number of artists without giving them credit, and not just Black ones (https://www.rollingstone.com/feature/led-zeppelins-10-boldest-rip-offs-223419/). But the above comment was meant as a joke; I know my pal Mick got it.
The two cool things I THINK I remember about ITTOD: (1) the album came wrapped in brown paper and there were alternate jackets; and (2) the inside record sleeve was printed with ink “dots” that were actually water colors that could be painted with a brush dipped in water.
And how about Hot Dog? A precursor, perhaps, of what was to come from Bob Plant some 35 years later….
Are the Old 97’s considered “classic”? If so, I was about a decade late to the party with them when I picked this one up:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satellite_Rides#
It’s decent, but isn’t quite up to their 90’s stuff.
Great read, Dan! Goats Head Soup was the first Stones album I bought with my own money, so even though Hot Rock opened the door, GHS was my first deep-cut Stones experience, and always has a place in my heart.
We must be the same age. Also my initial Stones experience
I love that '69-'70 period of Hendrix. While Buddy Miles is an amazing drummer, and his solo albums are all great, When Jimi realized that Mitch was his guy and pushed forward with Mitch and Billy as his bandmates, they recorded some fantastic tunes before his death. 'First Rays of the New Rising Sun' (which now compiles everything from 'Cry') is the Hendrix album I return to the most. I often wonder about the killer funky, bluesy, rockin' jams they would have laid down between 1970-1975 had Jimi not died.
With regards to your question...I think the classic artist who immediately came to mind was Curtis Mayfield. I initially came to his music via 'Sweet Exorcist.' Reflecting back, it was most likely the cover art that caught my eye and its title demanded more curious investigation. Nevertheless, that Mayfield LP is rarely mentioned, let alone praised in circles as often as Superfly, S/T, Live, or Roots. But, I adore it.
I love Sweet Exorcist, too — but yeah, that one's generally overlooked.
This was much appreciated! As an only child I was SOL when it came to discovering music if it wasn't on the radio. When I was 12, Gloria Nelson's older brother bought "Presence", the cover of which freaked the hell out of me and I gave Zep a wide berth until I inherited Mom's station wagon with its 8-track player and someone gave me a tape of "Houses of the Holy". I loved that album (with the exception of the"cluclunk" during "The Rain Song") and learned to appreciate the band. To this day, "In Through the Out Door" remains the only Zep album I ever purchased. I love that fluffy warm sense of nostalgia whenever I hear a cut from it, and the performances are stellar (Bonham's drumming on "Fool In The Rain" still gives me goosebumps). Great songs on both sides (including "Hot Dog" - fight me)!
Growing up the only thing I knew about The Kinks was "Lola" but when I discovered "Something Else..." I couldn't believe it was the same band. As you know, they have a LOOOOONG career so there's a lot to chew on, but that mid to late 60s output is perfection to me
Let's hear it for Low Budget, too. If you remember the Arab oil embargo, and sat in gas lines as a teenage driver... you couldn't have been more on the nose.
And while I'm at it, let's hear it for In The Evening, the opening track of ITTOD. It's classic Zep.
Yeah, that’s a stunner.
Okay here’s a few: the Ian Gillian Black Sabbath album, Animalize by KISS, and Done with Mirrors by Aerosmith. Not quite the exact same because as a little kid I had heard other albums by these artists, but these were albums I purchased as opposed to listening to my parents or cousins. Thank you Columbia House Record Club!!!
Moby Grape’s Truly Fine Citizen, solely because of the cool cover shot. Through the years, I still like it as much as their earlier, more celebrated stuff.
One of the most influential albums of my youth was the 1970 Fill Your Head With Rock. It was a sampler, but every track was awesome, and I wore a couple of needles playing this as I entered my teens. It drew me into many artists I didn't know or didn't know well. A couple of examples would be the beautiful harmonies of Trees in The Garden of Jane Delawney, Tom Rush' Driving Wheel, and A Small Fruit Song by Al Cooper, with that Am progression that all guitar players mess with once in a while. I would go on to buy albums of virtually every band on the sampler.
Wow, that's cool — I don't know the comp, but it sounds awesome!
You can find it on Discogs. I couldn't tell you how often I played it, but probably in the hundreds of times :) https://www.discogs.com/release/491589-Various-Fill-Your-Head-With-Rock
Fascinating topic! As for ITTOD, while it's never been my favorite Led Zep album, I absolutely love In The Evening, FITR, and All My Love and like everything else fine. And there's nothing as bad as The Crunge on it! Cry Of Love on the other hand is a 5-star album. The only weak track is Astro Man, just a little throwaway, and while later CDs perhaps approached Hendrix's concept a little more closely, everything on Cry was treated with respect without any post-production fiddling like Midnight Lightning or War Heroes. The closest experience I can relate to this idea is that my introduction to The Who was through the Tommy soundtrack, just a dog's breakfast of a collection with an unconscionable amount of songs featuring Oliver Reed and Ann-Margaret, fine actors who couldn't sing a lick...oh well! I was soon set right by Meaty Beaty Big And Bouncy.
The only good things about that Tommy soundtrack are Tina Turner and Elton John — and I have both of their songs on the same promo 45, so I'm good!
Haha! I know! But that was a lesson I learned the hard way. I then I heard the original Pinball Wizard on the radio and was like, oh damn...
Fair enough, Dan. That reminds me of that story that Ray Davies tells about the guitar solo in “You really got me” which was sometimes claimed to be from session god Jimmy Page. Ray refuted that, saying that it was definitely the work of brother Dave, further adding, “he doesn’t have a lot going for him so we can’t take that away from him.” 😆 Classic Ray.
Hahaha!
I liked In Through the Out Door -- it was accessible for me because I was 14 and a pop fan (Bee Gees, Beach Boys, Elton John) when it came out. It was a decent gateway drug.
Like a lot of people my age, I got to the Beatles via the Red and Blue albums. I've been loving the new version of the Red one in particular. Sounds so good.