I was around 11-17 when all of those songs came out. I wasn’t really into listening to classic rock yet, I mostly listened to current music, which was music of the 90s then. So I learned the “newer” versions or heard the samplings before I learned about the originals. So what? Doesn’t seem so odd to me. Seems about normal, actually. And most of those “learning that the newer versions are covers or samplings” came way before today… like, some as old as a decade ago or more…
…it’s just this one, the “Come With Me” background tune being “Kashmir”, it was learned today, the most recent one…and that’s just because I had never HEARD Kashmir before.
So I’m having a hard time fathoming why you’re having a hard time fathoming anything.
I know of one cover of a Zeppelin song that is more than decent. Anne and Nancy Wilson performing at the Kennedy Center Honors. “Stairway to Heaven”. Damned near perfect.
You’ll see lots of familiar faces, of course - both on stage and in the audience.
Apropos of nothing, it was years before I realized I’d been at their very last concert in the USA (Oakland, CA) before Bonzo died and the band broke up.
They were my favorite band, saw them 3 times in concert live, including that last one. I’ve seen Plant a couple of times since, he seems to still be having lots of fun, and always admired him for preventing the band from trying to recapture its glory days.
To the OP: I hope when you’ve completed your education on Led Zep thanks to this thread, you remember to say Thank You.
I’m beginning to wonder if another iconic opening riff, “DING DING DING Da-da DING DING”, might have been used by someone before.
I mean, it’s weird. You grow up your whole life thinking an artist was original, and you come to find out they copied their most iconic track.
I’m calling you out, Jedward. I no longer believe your “Under Pressure (Ice Ice Baby)” was completely original to you Scottish yarbles, if you have yarbles.
That’s the magic of a non-standard tuning, in this case DADGAD, usually referred to as “Dadgad,” strangely enough ;). You can use simple chord shapes to get exotic sounds.
Dadgad is a fingerstyle, open, airy tuning. Players like to hit a chord string by string up the neck that also contains one or two open strings and let the whole thing resonate. All deep and shit for a Sunday morning. One fella, Pierre Bensusan, plays exclusively in dadgad. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CkEisE-QNS8
I hate retuning my guitar to dadgad; simple laziness (Open G I can get to in my sleep and play what I need, thankyouverymuch). So I retune my guitar once every couple of years for shits and grins and relearn it - so yeah, it’s not too tough. Jimmy legendarily plays an old Danelectro, a famously-cheap-but surprisingly-playable guitar that was also sold through Sears. Masonite and plywood, baby ;). And the pickups are called Lipsticks because the founder literally got a great deal on a shipment of lipstick cases and used them to enclose his pickups. Jimmy’s main slide guitar.
I would classify a handful of Zep songs as prog rock: “In the Light,” “Achilles Last Stand,” and “Carouselambra.” They’re structured like prog rock songs, and wouldn’t sound out of place alongside, say, Rush’s “Xanadu” or Tull’s “No Lullaby.” (All songs mentioned are from that 1975-1979 period, BTW.)
There’s a good early “Kashmir” sighting in Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982). When Damone is giving dating tips to Rat, he tells him, “When it comes down to making out, whenever possible, put on side one of Led Zeppelin IV.” Cut immediately to Rat driving down the street with Stacy, “Kashmir” blasting.
Now, “Kashmir” is not on side one of Led Zeppelin IV, nor on side two for that matter, but let’s not quibble.
It just occurred to me that there’s a parallel scene in the 90s film Jerry Maguire, right down to the recommended make-out music (Charles Mingus, in this case) not being the one actually played.* Maybe this was the filmmaker’s deliberate nod to Fast Times.
(*In this case, the discrepancy was dealt with in the film, when the jazz buff neighbor mentions that he also “threw some on the mixtape, too” – X being the music that was actually played. I can’t recall what X was – Ornette Coleman, maybe?)
Two different scenes: in one, Jerry is supposed to play Coltrane to woo Dorothy Boyd, but the scene uses a Springsteen song. In the other, Jerry’s pleased with a meeting and wants to tune up the right song. He tries the Stones’ Bitch, but it doesn’t work. He finds Freefallin’ and is all set ;). Off the top of my head so may miss something.
Okay, thanks! I definitely remember the dude reverently describing a cassette as “Mingus…[some iconic jazz club]…[some circa-1960 date],” and the music the amorous couple later laughs to (“What IS this?”) is some other free jazz – maybe the Coltrane you mentioned.
It occurs to me we may have seen different versions of the film – sometimes they can’t secure the same rights when transferring from cinema to DVD, say.
A couple months ago I was at the home of a friend in his mid-fifties when the Flying Lizard’s cover of Money (That’s What I Want) came up on the mixtape (er, MP3). I was flabbergasted to find out he was totally unaware The Beatles had done it earlier.
Then I was taken down a peg to find out that the Fab Four’s version was itself a cover, the original having been done by one Barrett Strong. And (to close the circle), here’s Led Zep.
