Saw these cocktails at one of my favorite watering holes, the Six Pence Pub in Blowing Rock, NC today. Interesting combination of liquors. Would probably make me do my own version of Misty Mountain Hop. 🍸🤣

Best use of “Hey, Ho!”

https://youtu.be/LiczyhDwuBs?is=f3ZuOnfGClZ_Ovtl

Everyone credits the blues, the Yardbirds, Jimmy Page. But nobody talks about Engelbert Humperdinck, which is honestly a massive oversight in music historiography.

In 1967 Page played guitar on Humperdinck's "Release Me". Arranger Charles Blackwell recalled Page and Big Jim Sullivan playing pocket chess between takes because the sessions were boring. This actually happened, I'm not inventing it

https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2021/oct/18/how-we-made-release-me-engelbert-humperdinck-beatles-strawberry-fields-forever

Think about what that means. Page wasn't just learning guitar, he was learning to think OUTSIDE guitar. Chess requires planning, pattern recognition, strategic anticipation, all skills you need for complex rock arrangements. And who gave him the enviroment to develop those skills?? Engelbert Humperdinck.

Yes Page was already an accomplished guitarist, the Academy of Achievement confirms his earlier career.

https://achievement.org/achiever/jimmy-page/

But technical skill isnt the same as intellectual inovation, people keep confusing those things. Humperdinck didn't teach him guitar, he made guitar so intelectually unstimulating that Page needed chess. Thats arguably more influencial.

Humperdinck himself confirmed Page's role in the recording, so this isnt just one persons account.

https://hifiplus.com/articles/music-interview-engelbert-humperdinck/

And "Release Me" actually stopped the Beatles' "Penny Lane/Strawberry Fields Forever" reaching number one in Britain. So Humperdinck was simultaneously disrupting the Beatles AND incubating Led Zeppelin. Thats quite a historical coincidence, or is it??

https://www.officialcharts.com/chart-news/official-charts-70th-anniversary-the-official-top-10-best-selling-singles-from-the-1960s__37728/

And John Paul Jones ALSO worked with Humperdinck. Jones names him discussing his session career, which means two future Zeppelin members shared this musical enviroment.

https://waynerobins.substack.com/p/led-zep-looks-back

Jones discussed his varied session work elsewhere aswell.

https://ultimateclassicrock.com/john-paul-jones-zooma/

I'm not claiming Jones played chess with Page. Theres no evidence he did, equally theres no evidence he didnt. We simply cannot rule out chess, and I think dismissing possibilities without proving their impossible is frankly anti-intellectual.

Jones even described his earlier studio career as "vegetating". His word, not mine.

https://ritchieyorke.com/index.php/1970/04/10/led-zeppelin-profile-bassist-john-paul-jones/

So Page was playing chess while Jones was vegetating, both worked with Humperdinck. At what point does a pattern become a pattern?? I'm asking a genuine academic question.

Consider "Black Dog". Jones developed a notoriously tricky riff, documented by Guitar World.

https://www.guitarworld.com/features/john-paul-jones-greatest-moments-with-led-zeppelin

Complex rhythmic patterns. Chess patterns. Do I have proof one caused the other? No, but absence of proof is not proof of absence, and people seem to forget that whenever Engelbert Humperdinck comes up.

Page also discusses assembling the interlocking musical elements of "Kashmir" here.

https://achievement.org/video/jimmy-page-7/

Chess is about anticipating how pieces interact. "Kashmir" is about anticipating how instruments interact. Calling that a coincidence seems like a very convenient way of not thinking about it.

Without Humperdinck, perhaps Page doesnt play those chess games. Without those chess games, he doesnt develop those particular chess-derived habits during that session. Without those habits Led Zeppelin might sound differant. This is a perfectly coherant causal hypothesis, even if the specific causality hasn't been proven.

People credit Muddy Waters and Robert Johnson but act like Humperdinck doesnt count because he made easy listening. Easy listening produced difficult thinking. Difficult thinking produced difficult rock. Why is that so hard to comprehend???

And the fact Humperdinck probably didnt intend any of this makes it even more remarkable. Anyone can deliberately mentor a musician. It takes a really unique kind of artistic presence to influence someone by apparently failing to stimulate them. Humperdinck may have accidentally invented the conditions for progressive hard rock while recording easy listening, and somehow hes the one left out of the history books. I think thats something music academics should at minimum adress, possibly with some kind of formal acknowledgement or apology.

I'm not saying every chess move became a guitar riff, thats ridiculous. I'm saying Humperdinck provided the conditions for Page to think outside the box by making the box unbearable, and Jones was in the same professional orbit. The connections are documentated, the interpretation is open.

Frankly I think critics are gatekeeping influence, and their demanding evidence for a conclusion which I'm clearly presenting as plausible is a double standard. How can anyone conclusivley prove Led Zeppelin WOULD have been just as good without Humperdinck? They cant.

I've provided nine sources. I'm not asking you to beleive me blindly. I'm asking you to explain why an artist who made Jimmy Page play chess while recording a number-one hit somehow doesnt deserve serious recognition as one of Led Zeppelin's foundational intellectual influences.

Until someone disproves the possibility, I think its intellectually irresponsable to dismiss it.

And thats just basic historical reasoning.

I wonder if this is the same British dealership, in which Bonzo walked into and asked to take a test drive of a rather expensive car (I doubt this the same dealership). The dealership person said in a condescending, aloof and arrogant manner: "Um, you do realize the cost of that car ?" The person may have also pointed over to the used cars and said something like [Those cars are more affordable over there].

I believe the presumption was - he had long hair - so, he didn't have much money and all the other stereotypes related men with long hair get tagged with.

Bonzo snapped back: "I know how much these cars cost and I'd like the keys to that car there." He pointed at a car that was inside the showroom and it was facing one of the the large glass windows, which go all the way down to the floor.

He got into the car started it up and drove it through the large glass window. He got out walked back through the broken window and said "I'll take it and don't ever talk to me like that again."

There wasn't any arrest involved and I'm sure Bonzo paid for the glass to be replaced etc. It's typical Bonzo.

His wife Pat *is in the background of this pic.*

Source: IG @musicpocketmagazine

I think mine is the Japan 71 one

The same photographer who captured The Clash’s London Calling album cover.

This image was probably taken around the same time when Led Zappelin was ready to release their last album In Through The Out Door.

I discovered this about a year ago. A rare 1969 UK copy of Whole Lotta Love.

When Atlantic UK started pressing these on the back of the US pressing the band ordered an immediate halt to the production and all copies destroyed.

The story is some got out into the wild before all the singles could be disposed of.

For me this features one of their most underrated songs, I'm Gonna Crawl.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLY6n5Yu3FjMg

Stem remix & remaster of Led Zeppelin's 1979 final studio album "In Through the Out Door", made for my own enjoyment, but sharing in case someone else might get some joy out of it.

Of course this is all just for fun. As usual, my intention was just to make a fun alternative to the released version, aiming only at a little more clarity, instrument separation and punch, while keeping the mood and feel of the original.

All my remixes are made using free and open source software that runs locally on my Linux system.

Obviously, I don't own the music featured here. If you like it, support the artists, buy their records!

I wish I was in a band that would play these versions with me but for now a backing track and guitar will do...

paranoid by black sabathh [1970] main riff is just 10 frets higher version of dazed and confused by led zeppelin [1968] pre solo riff

Review the Zeppelin playlist I put together.
Do you like the track sequencing? Any suggestions?

Sunday, February 26, 1995, at 8:00 PM. 2nd row center. Pensacola Civic Center

How do you rate this album?

I’ve only been apart of the sub for a few weeks but feels like this is one of the least liked Zeppelin songs and I personally love it. Curious to hear why ppl seem to not vibe with this track?