I was never a big Led Zeppelin fan, but I always wanted to have some of their albums, just never took the time. So recently I jumped in with both feet and treated myself to their box-set “Complete Studio Recordings”. I had Kashmir playing and my 16 year old daughter perked up and asked, “Hey, what band is that”. I said, “Oh, you probably never heard of 'em - Led Zeppelin”.
Just for a point of reference I got thinking, this came out in 1975 (coincidentally the year I turned 16). That’s 27 years ago. If you went back 27 years from 1975 you’d get 1948.
19 freaking forty-eight??!! I can’t even name a tune from 1948 - was that the year for Benny Goodman or something?
This music can’t possibly sound that old to her. Can it?
I was born in 1975. I love Zep but I didn’t even start listeningto them before 5 years ago. They got played on the “classic rock” stations, so they, to me, always had this inherent dusty covering over themselves, until I moved away from home and saw things from a different perspective.
It was 20 year-old music, but it was all new to me. Now Pearl Jam seems older than Led Zeppelin.
Well, I’m a 16 year old who likes Led Zeppelin, Jefferson Airplane, Frank Zappa, The Grateful Dead, Pink Floys and all the other good bands. There is not much new music that I like
Something along those lines that made me feel real old in 2000. Back to the future was made in 1985 and was 15 years old in 2000. Which is half as long a time period as he went back in time to visit(30 years to 1955)
My take on the 1948-1975 1975-2002 thing is the following. Popular music changed almost beyond recognition between 1948-1975. Bands like Led Zeppelin owe virtually nothing to artists that were popular in 1948, they take their influence from the blues (which was hardly popular music). On the other hand popular rock acts of today owe almost everything to bands like Led Zeppelin. I think Zep was so influential that almost none of their music sounds dated today. Even bands like The Beatles have music that hasn’t aged well (don’t get wrong, I love The Beatles), but to me Zep isn’t like that. It still sounds great after all these years. Of course, I could be talking out of my ass since I started Kindergarten the year John Bonham died, and never listened to Zeppelin until I was about 17. I more than made up for it since then, though.
As an interesting note, my dad was born in 1948 and I was born in 1975, so I’m the same age now as he was then. I’d bet money he couldn’t tell a Led Zeppelin song from a Fuel song.
I did the same thing a few months ago. I heard Sweet Child O Mine on the radio. I started thinking, I remember listening to that tape over and over in the summer of 1988 while playing basketball. That was 13 years ago. In 1988, that would be like hearing something from 1975, which even in 1988 was considered classic rock.
I agree with everything you said except the part about the band owing nothing to the artists of 1948. Actually, John Bonham was very influenced by jazz players, some of which I’m sure were popular in or around 1948. The band was definitely influenced heavily by the blues but Bonham liked his swing and you can hear it in his playing. More information can be found on this in the current issue of Modern Drummer magazine which features an interview with Bonhams drum technician. Likewise, some of Jimmy Page’s chord choices and John Paul Jones’s walking bass lines were definitely influenced by Jazz. And Jazz was definitely the popular music of the time when these artists were in their formative years. Most good musicians (and these guys were) aren’t only influenced by one style of music. They take bits and pieces from everywhere.
I’m reading the book Stairway to Heaven, by Zep tour manager Richard Cole. He reminds us that the critics, especially those from Rolling Stone, absolutely hated Led Zep, not just when they first came out but for many records after that. Times have changed.
i was born in 1982… . started paying attention to what i was listening to sometime in the 90s. and it sucked. apart from a few bands (pearl jam, stp, soundgarden, nirvana, and tool) the 90s were just horrible. so i ventured backwards… discovered and rediscovered much… and for 8 years now led zeppelin has been my favourite band.
I heard some kids talking about Zep, and I told 'em they were my first concert (Day on the Green 1977), and one of the little perps said “I didn’t realize you were so old.” ARGH
A few weeks ago Twisty and I were in a pub where they were showing “oldies” videos - mostly stuff from the 60s and early 70s. But then they showed one from the early 80s. I can’t for the life of me remember what it was, but that doesn’t really matter - just the fact that music from the early 80s now qualifies as “oldies” makes me feel really, er, old.
Here is a list of albums from 1990. Today’s 14-year-old was two when they came out. Shocking, isn’t it?
I know exactly what you speak of, kellymccauley. It hit me a few years ago, when I was thinking of my freshman year in college (1982-1983), which I have very clear memories of. That is now 19 years ago, and 19 years before 1982…I wasn’t even born! So my whole life up to that point (1982) consisted of less time than has passed since then!
Another thing that I find very funny is how the definition of “Classic Rock” has expanded since then. In, say, 1987, Classic Rock stopped at about 1978-1980, although radio stations would play music newer than that but only if it was by certain bands (like the Rolling Stones) who were firmly established as Classic Rock bands. People who were into C.R. then were very dismissive of “New Music”, and were fond of saying stuff like “Rock and Roll stopped in 1980”. At some point, though, the later end of C.R. started creeping later and later, so that now a band like U2 gets its music played on the C.R. stations all the time (at least in Boston)! I guess the funny thing for me was that Classic Rock originally had a very specific time period: music from the 60s and 70s, or by bands that formed and/or became famous in that era. Now it is practically anything more than 10-15 years old.
Not too long ago I was thinking the same thing. A lot of the music I like is from the late 1960’s (Beatles, Who, Cream, and so on). I was thinking for me, a 25 year old guy, to like that music would be akin to a 25 year old in the late 1960’s to like music from around 1934 or 1935.
:o
Anyway, a lot of music from the late 1960’s or early 1970’s doesn’t sound as dated as a lot of 80’s or early 90’s music. I mean the Beatles’ Abbey Road sounds as if it could have been made pretty much any time, whereas a Duran Duran or Human League record screams “1982”.
I went to high school in small-town Iowa. I’m glad to say that our musical tastes were such that we chose “Stariway to Heaven” as a prom theme, at a time when it was fresh. I can remember some guys building a rather elaborate staircase-and-clouds decoration for the hall.
Kelly goes back through his old yearbooks, wipes a tear from his eye
Yeah, the oldies station around here has started playing The Police. This is the same station that plays a lot of Motown and old sock-hop music. It’s the first thing that I can remember coming out being classified as "oldie’ (I’m 33).
I really feel old when I talk about old concerts I’ve been to with younger people. The way I used to react as a teen when I met someone who had seen Hendrix or Zepplin is the same reaction I get when I tell kids that I saw Van Halen with David Lee Roth, or KISS in the 70’s.
Remember Dr Dre’s The Chronic and Snoop Dogg’s Doggie Style? Anyone who went to a mostly white upper middle class college in the 90s does. Now all these kids talk about is Puff Daddy this and Ja Rule that.
I went to high school in small-town New York. For my senior prom, there were four songs nominated as “The Prom Song”: Stairway to Heaven, Dust in the Wind, Unchained Melody and My Heart Will Go On. They settled on Unchained Melody. This was last year.
