Open Letter to My Guitar Player
by mikeyk
[In response to said guitar player's being rebuffed after asking to add Led Zeppelin songs to the band's repertoire, he replied, "How can you detest zep? Heard too much or something?" And so it began...]
Yep, heard too much. Gotta remember that that crap was prevalent thru
my jr. high, high school and college years. Everyone had Zep
albums and played them and played them. It would be like Britney
Spears or one of those lame-arse boy bands are now. You couldn't turn
on the radio without hearing Stairway or Black Dog or some of
that Aaaaaa-aaa! Aaaaaaa-aaa! shit. Chicks writing "Zeppelin" on
their tight bell bottom jeans with a ballpoint pen. Writing Zeppelin
all over their lockers. Notebooks. Frisbees. Art projects.
Maaaaajor overload for a guy who never thought they were that great
in the first place.
I mean, look at the movie, "The Song Remains The Same". They had
their own jet, ferchrissakes. And, judging from the film, and
assuming that the film would be assembled from the *best* outtakes of
live performances, they must have sucked live, because most of that
film's performances are barely watchable. Not that anyone would admit
it to you now. The truth...and I'm being dangerously and brutally
blunt here...the truth is that the fact that everyone was so
stoned in the 70's is what enabled Zep's rise to power. Once everyone
crashed and slept off the decade-long buzz...well there wasn't much
left. Hey, how else do you explain disco? We went from smokin' dope
and listening to Zep, to snorting coke and dancing all nite to Yvonne
Elliman. Neither of which stands well on it's own musically or over a
test of time.
Which explains by and large my total elation when the Ramones and the
B-52's and the Pistols emerged. Finally! Some
Ok, now that I've got that off my chest, yes, I'm fine with a Zep
song, as long as it ain't any of that woo woo woo shit. Really. I'm
fine.
©2001 mikeyk