Released: 1970
Tracks: Immigrant Song; Friends; Celebration Day; Since I’ve Been Loving You; Out on the Tiles; Gallows Pole; Tangerine; That’s the Way; Bron-Y-Aur Stomp; Hats Off to (Roy) Harper
Best track: Since I’ve Been Loving You
Track to skip: I don’t care for Hats Off to Roy Harper
Here’s the curve ball. This album is one of the reasons I like actual vinyl records. It’s true that CDs hold twice as much space, and you can have a full concept album without interruption, but there’s still something to be said for 2 (or 4) distinct album sides. In the case of this album, it’s the 2nd side that gives this album the distinction of being Zeppelin’s ‘acoustic album’. The first side starts off with one of the heaviest and most ‘heavy metal’ songs that they’ve yet written. Even with the lyrical goofiness I still like this song. Like I’ve been doing with the previous two Zep albums, I listened with the headphones for this one too. It’s a testament to Jimmy Page’s production skills that I’m still awing over these albums 30 years later. Both Immigrant Song and Since I’ve Been Loving You sound particularly awesome with headphones. Friends starts off the ‘acoustic’ stuff, but takes some surprising turns. It starts off like an acoustic song recorded in some house out in the middle of nowhere, but once the strings come in the texture changes and we find ourselves in the Middle East. Both Celebration Day and Out on the Tiles are pretty rocking and not too far off from what we’ve heard Zeppelin do on the first two albums. Not that they haven’t done blues before either, but Since I’ve Been Loving You is by far the best blues thing they probably ever did. The intensity of this song is incredible. I definitely never get tired of hearing it. Now the second side, this is the real curve ball part. All 5 songs are acoustic and broaden what Zep was capable of by leaps and bounds. The two that stand out in particular for me are Tangerine and That’s the Way, two absolutely gorgeous songs. After going through the pretty rocking first side, and then the acoustic and folksy second side, you really have no idea what they could do for their fourth album. I mean, they planned it perfectly in that they could go in virtually
any direction and it’d not only make sense and be ‘good’, but that it would still be commercially successful. As if the first two albums didn’t, Led Zep III shows that these 4 guys could pull off anything they wanted. I still don’t think III is as good as the previous two, but it’s still essential.
Rating: 95
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