This is a great movie if you haven’t seen it, but I have a question about something. One of the characters is listing the reasons he doesn’t like “Rolling Stone” magazine, he and makes the following three charges (to the best of my memory):
They trashed “Layla”
They caused Cream to break up
They panned every album Led Zeppelin ever made
My questions: what exactly did “Rolling Stone” do to cause Cream to break up? And does anyone know of any links to those original album reviews? I think they’d make for fascinating reading.
Thanks,
Amazingly enough, Rolling Stone appears to keep all their back reviews online. Here’s the page for Cream:
http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/recordings.asp?oid=2512&cf=2512
Bill_H
March 16, 2001, 4:55am
3
Wow, I just read the review for Led Zeppelin’s first album (one of my faves for the era). It’s got such quotes as:
Unfortunately, he (Jimmy Page) is also a very limited producer and a writer of weak, unimaginative songs, and the Zeppelin album suffers from his having both produced it and written most of it (alone or in combination with his accomplices in the group).
and
“Babe I’m Gonna Leave You” alternates between prissy Robert Plant’s howled vocals fronting an acoustic guitar and driving choruses of the band running down a four-chord progression while John Bonham smashes his cymbals on every beat. The song is very dull in places (especially on the vocal passages), very redundant, and certainly not worth the six-and-a-half minutes the Zeppelin gives it.
and
The album’s most representative cut is “How Many More Times.” Here a jazzy introduction gives way to a driving (albeit monotonous) guitar-dominated background for Plant’s strained and unconvincing shouting (he may be as foppish as Rod Stewart, but he’s nowhere near so exciting, especially in the higher registers).
and concludes with
In their willingness to waste their considerable talent on unworthy material the Zeppelin has produced an album which is sadly reminiscent of Truth. Like the Beck group they are also perfectly willing to make themselves a two- (or, more accurately, one-a-half) man show. It would seem that, if they’re to help fill the void created by the demise of Cream, they will have to find a producer (and editor) and some material worthy of their collective attention.
Bill_H
March 16, 2001, 4:58am
4
But back to the OP, it looks like they liked the second Zep album beginning with this:
Hey, man, I take it all back! This is one fucking heavyweight of the album! OK—I’ll concede that until you’ve listened to the album eight hundred times, as I have, it seems as if it’s just one especially heavy song extended over the space of two whole sides. But, hey! you’ve got to admit that the Zeppelin has their distinctive and enchanting formula down stone-cold, man. Like you get the impression they could do it in their sleep.