no quarter

The 70s were such an explosion of new art, that even those of us growing up then did not realize until later, just how rich a harvest it was. In film from Dog Day Afternoon to Apocalypse Now with Godfather, Taxi Driver, Nashville in between. And in music too much to count: David Bowie, Traffic, Pink Floyd, Genesis, Led Zeppelin, Credence Clearwater Revival…

Even then we had the then twenty-somethings telling us how much better the 60s had been, what we had missed. When I have learned, it wasn’t true. Let me put it this way: the 60s was the experimentation, the 70s the matured, finished work. Even for the survivors of the 60s like the Stones (Exile on Main Street, 1972), Dylan live with his Rolling Thunder Revue, Floyd without Syd. To put it another way: the 60s was the seeding, the 70s the germination. And every new tendril of art bloomed quickly to a replete flowering, as sudden but complete revelation.

Led Zeppelin, Rock and Roll (Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Paul Jones, John Bonham) [via EverSinceDecember]

Consider it a long version of a short song, with Bron-Yr-Aur and Black Dog as the book-end songs. And because nowhere else is captured so well, what it was to be a rock-n-roll band then. From that crowd’s fervid impatience to the sheer sonic impact of the opening chords, out to the liquid, hectic improvisation from Jimmy’s guitar.

It’s been a long time since I rock and rolled,
It’s been a long time since I did the Stroll.
Ooh, let me get it back, let me get it back,
Let me get it back, baby, where I come from.
It’s been a long time, been a long time,
Been a long lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely time. Yes it has.

Seems so long since we walked in the moonlight,
Making vows that just can’t work right.
Open your arms, opens your arms,
Open your arms, baby, let my love come running in.
It’s been a long time, been a long time,
Been a long lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely time.

It’s been a long time since the book of love,
I can’t count the tears of a life with no love.
Carry me back, carry me back,
Carry me back, baby, where I come from.
It’s been a long time, been a long time,
Been a long lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely time.

Bron-Yr-Aur is the name of a small countryside cottage that Jimmy and Robert retreated to, after an earlier US tour. Why that song to begin: emerging out of that peace, the slack to compose, play one’s instrument as one liked. Back to the dynamic hell of touring.

And why a quick, seamless transition to Black Dog: because they had come to play, they were ready. Like the Stones in ‘69, Led Zeppelin in ‘73: at peak, both willing and able at long last to conquer the US.

Led Zeppelin, Whole Lotta Love (John Bonham, Willie Dixon, John Paul Jones, Jimmy Page, Robert Plant) [via EverSince December]

The 3-minute pop song comes from 78s being able to hold about that much music. 3:20 tops, so every recording was timed with a stopwatch, back when the master was cut direct. But it stuck, to this day. Except in the 70s. When every songwriter, at the same time, asked ‘Why?’

Interesting that the result doesn’t fit YouTube. Literally. When Jimmy turns Dazed and Confused into a 22-minute fly by, Whole Lotta Love not much shorter, what’s a guy to do but provide a thin but representative slice. Jimmy, taking it home to the tonic. Closing song.

You can watch the long coda or not. I found it instructive as the rest: Jimmy’s face, sweated and spent as he was but a happy man. And Led Zeppelin was the first band to not only charter their own jet, but paint it in their colors. The 70s were like that: a lot of what you know as facts of life, from trade with China to the Internet, was invented in the 70s. A reason why: because not just songwriters asked ‘Why?’ of any restriction or limitation.

Led Zeppelin, No Quarter (John Paul Jones, Jimmy Page, Robert Plant) [via sinabrigo]

The usually forgotten one, John Paul, I said. Except where the foundation of the band’s sound that he was is allowed a showcase song like this one.

Close the door, put out the light.
You know they won’t be home tonight.
The snow falls hard and don’t you know?
The winds of Thor are blowing cold.
They’re wearing steel that’s bright and true
They carry news that must get through.

They choose the path where no-one goes.

They hold no quarter.

Walking side by side with death, The devil mocks their every step
The snow drives back the foot that’s slow, The dogs of doom are howling more
They carry news that must get through, To build a dream for me and you

They choose the path where no-one goes.

They hold no quarter. They ask no quarter.
The pain, the pain without quarter.
They ask no quarter.
The dogs of doom are howling more!

The lyrics are simple, the music is not. Jimmy and his wah-wah, and his other ‘custom’ pedal, being only the half of it. What I watched: John Paul creating a musical space for Jimmy’s guitar and Robert’s voice to roam in, with keyboards and bass pedals. Flawlessly.

Led Zeppelin, Stairway to Heaven (Jimmy Page, Robert Plant) [via aiosilver27]

Since I teased above with half that long sung opening. When the resolution of this song, musical, emotional, spiritual, is that solo. As perfect a catharsis, descent then rise to as free soar and flight, in few other songs besides Layla.

There’s a lady who’s sure all that glitters is gold
And she’s buying the stairway to heaven.
When she gets there she knows, if the stores are all closed
With a word she can get what she came for.
Ooh, ooh, and she’s buying the stairway to heaven.

There’s a sign on the wall but she wants to be sure
‘Cause you know sometimes words have two meanings.
In a tree by the brook, there’s a songbird who sings,
Sometimes all of our thoughts are misgivings.
Ooh, it makes me wonder,
Ooh, it makes me wonder.

There’s a feeling I get when I look to the west,
And my spirit is crying for leaving.
In my thoughts I have seen rings of smoke through the trees,
And the voices of those who stand looking.
Ooh, it makes me wonder,
Ooh, it really makes me wonder.

And it’s whispered that soon if we all call the tune
Then the piper will lead us to reason.
And a new day will dawn for those who stand long
And the forests will echo with laughter.

If there’s a bustle in your hedgerow, don’t be alarmed now,
It’s just a spring clean for the May queen.
Yes, there are two paths you can go by, but in the long run
There’s still time to change the road you’re on.
And it makes me wonder.

Your head is humming and it won’t go, in case you don’t know,
The piper’s calling you to join him,
Dear lady, can you hear the wind blow, and did you know
Your stairway lies on the whispering wind.

And as we wind on down the road
Our shadows taller than our soul.
There walks a lady we all know
Who shines white light and wants to show
How everything still turns to gold.
And if you listen very hard
The tune will come to you at last.
When all is one and one is all
To be a rock and not to roll.

And she’s buying the stairway to heaven.

Some just don’t get this song. ‘Best song ever? Whaa…?’ Which is to say, I suspect they don’t get others’ reaction to the song. What is being woken…

It is a song of hope, with both the music and the lyrics blending Celtic and Saxon, both rebel peoples, the lilt of one to the storm of the other, with as pure electric blues, born in the bone rebel music itself. And rebellious for what is most dangerous to rebel for, why it is the solo that must balance and resolve this song, its free flight to return as thunder at “When all is one and one is all/To be a rock and not to roll.” What this song is really about, which is about being free.

Understand, in the 70s every ‘power that be’ there was, from multinationals and bankers to governments and armies, took hits. Inflation, stagflation, ‘oil shocks’, deficits and defeats and declines. Revolutions and nationalizations, rebels winning or losing but being rebels still, sensing that weakness.

It was chaos and uncertainty and doubt about every held certainty. It was also remarkably peaceful: airplanes blown up not against buildings but in the middle of a desert, and with passengers and crew all disembarked beforehand. As a gesture instead of a crime against humanity.

There were ‘dirty wars’ with crimes on both sides. Gangsters and terrorists and gangster terrorists and as brute secret police, and the ‘crime rate’ rising. It wasn’t so nice as that, just ask Chile or Northern Ireland. But these were not what those times were about. War was over, or at least didn’t work as planned. While so many ‘dominoes’ fell and the world did not come to its predicted end because Vietnam or Mozambique or Angola went ‘red’. No one knew anything is the point.

What killed the 70s? My vote is Mr. October, homering the damn Yankees to the ‘78 World Series. One could sense it: the empire about to strike back. Punk, screaming about “God save the Queen,/the fascist regime.” Because they could sense it too.

I knew it was a done deal when Reagan claimed “Morning in America”. Getting it exactly backwards. Because the 70s in their explosion of art and invention had been the morning, the 80s the fall back into night.

It’s been 28 years since of “It is glorious to be rich” and “Doesn’t matter if the cat is white or black, so long as it catches mice.” Or more succinctly, “Greed is good.” To bring us to this unique juncture which must remind me because no one knows anything again.

Why that explosion then and of complete, complex works, why the opportunity if we are only brave enough. Because this chaos and uncertainty and doubt about everything must remind me of that last time when we were most free.