MY VINDICATION
When I was young we used to sit in my front yard between the big oak tree and the huge pine trees that even then towered over our single floor duplex. Out my bedroom window I would prop my giant speakers and the volume would be as high as the neighbors and my parents could stand. Cranking was a continuous flow of '70's rock which included Supertramp (crime of the century), Pink Floyd (dark side of the moon) and led zeppelin (Led Zeppelin IV and Houses of the Holy). The only grievous mark about these teenage gatherings was no one but myself ever wanted to hear Led Zeppelin III.
The feeling was mutual with everyone i tried to convince that this was one of the greatest rock albums of all time. Musically it was the listener everything from amazing vocals, swirling guitar licks that to this day every band tries to emulate, a rhythm section that combined power with earth patterned bass lines.
The cover gave you the feel of the 1960's psychedelic flower power that rock music was beginning to leaving behind. There was a movable inner wheel that when spun would change the pictures that would appear in the cut out circles placed sporadically over the cover. Maybe some fans of led zeppelin found this cheesie which steered them away from listening to the experience within the inner sleeve when you put the needle on the record.
So i took a beating among my friends for even buying let alone keeping the album in my collection. But when everyone went home and i was sitting alone in my room with the led light illuminating from my stereo this was the album that called out to me.
A guitar player I was not I had tried and failed to my mothers expense. When i listen to this album enough over time it lead me to the bass guitar. This was where i excelled. The push that the track "celebration day" gave me to learn the song mistake free kept me tied to my stereo for weeks.
I am reading the august 5, 2010 issue of rolling stone magazine and on page 24 an article appears titled "Robert Plant channels 'Zep III' on latest solo album." my vindication is complete after years of getting slammed by so called led zeppelin fans everywhere for my harsh stance on this album. The craziness I felt inside for my devotion to led zeppelin iii often caused me to hold my tongue when the conversation of music would lead us to the band. I knew it would lead to my argumentative side rearing its ugly head and i would be alone.
Over the years there would be other articles that would talk about led zeppelin iii in a positive light. Finding them few and far between usually meant sifting through pages of a magazine to the articles used as filler within the last pages. Although this story is short and does not fill the full page or consume an abundance of pages it can be found in the beginning.
My thanks go out to David Fricke for giving me redemption as Robert Plant explains his kudos as well to the songs that developed throughout the writing of these tracks. Plant explains "I'd always wanted to go back to the place the third zeppelin album captured." i hope everyone who loves Zeppelin, that may not have found this one part of their greatest pieces of work to pull it out, dust it off and place it on or in the player.
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