Any Zep fans out there?
Do you find yourself vaguely dissatisfied and uncomfortable when listening to Houses of the Holy? Is this unease mostly due to two infamous tunes of dubious quality?
Well, can I recommend you rush immediately to the site in the link and consider your position?
I would only make one alteration to the suggested (and much improved) running order which the Site-Meister has suggested: Page originally wanted the album to open with an instrumental overture which he called The Campaign. Plant got wind of this and quickly wrote some words. We get an idea of what Page had in mind from the Guitar Mix of Song Remains the Same, which appears on the “companion album” with the recent remaster. I prefer the song without the vocals and I prefer the album starting as nature and Page intended – with an overture.
Thoughts?
https://falsememoryfoam.blogspot.com/2022/02/holier-than-thou.html#comment-form
I should have flagged our very own @h-p-saucecraft (for it is he) to the table…
Thanks I’d forgotten about the blogspot so I’ve just had a revisit.
Well for what it’s worth I think the article is a pile of crap.(Apologies if a relative wrote it)
D’yer maker is my favourite thing on the album.
There I have said it,
I like it too. And the confounded bridge song. The problem with that album is not the music….
Confounded bridge song is admittedly better than D’yer Maker…by a mile…
The Crunge was good enough for De La Soul…
Yup. Can you imagine that cover getting past the record company lawyers now?
Houses of the Holy was the first Led Zepp album I bought with my own money, so obviously I had to think it was a work of genius. But lurking in the back of my head was this little voice pointing out that it was a definite fall-off compared to what came before, and, as it turned out, what came next.
FWIW I have always disliked D’yer Maker – and no: it wasn’t a relative that wrote the article. I found that I enjoyed the suggested track sequence better than the original – there, I have said it!
Anyway, just pointing out another site which might be diverting and entertaining…if I’d known it was going to be controversial, I’d have done it days ago…
Nah not controversial – I like the look of the site.
That site confuses and infuriates me. I went for some serious, chin stroking Zep pontification and all I could see was lists of breakfast pastries.
*lol*
Breakfast Pastries – TMFTL…
I like Ashpay’s re-arrangement – he’s correctly identified the two duffers on the album, and the replacements make sense. If I can track down my copy of the HOTH remaster companion disc, I’ll try shoving that guitar mix up front too.
I never really spent too much time listening to this particular one of theirs. I do remember exactly where I was when I heard my first taste of the LP though – Fluff played ‘Dancing Days’ one Saturday afternoon a week or two before the album came out, and we all got excited to know it was imminent. When I did get to have the LP, I immediately became obsessed with the chord sequence of ‘The Rain Song’ – a masterpiece – and ignored pretty much everything else on the thing for years.
I guess if they had agreed to keep The Campaign as an instrumental, Page would have built up a few more guitar layers. But even as it stands, the “guitar mix” of SRTS is pretty good – it does work as an instrumental and I don’t miss the vocals one bit!
FWIIW, I have always loved D’yer maker.
Yup, agree with that. A very sensible swap. Prune Physical Graffiti down to a single album and you start to approach a more consistent body of work (ignoring the last album of course).
D’Yer Maker was my definite first experience of a crack in Zep’s armour. At the time of the 1990 box set I knew and loved the second and fourth albums, and was keen to see where they went next… I chose a random track to play from the box and unfortunately it was this stinker. For a minute I was worried that they went totally cod reggae after 1971.
Zep’s worst ever song?
TBH, I think their worst ever was Hot Dog…
“prune Physical Graffiti down to a single album”
I second that motion
While you are it, do the same for Quadrophenia?
No pruning needed … perfick!
Can’t we have half of a single album for Quadrophenia? Maybe a 12”?
I’d make it a single with The Real Me and 5:15.
The drop between Who’s Next (the greatest ‘Rock’ album of the 70s) and Quadrophenia is extraordinary. The sad thing is that if Townshend had had his way, Who’s Next/Lifehouse would have been a bloated, self important rock opera, same as Quadrophenia.
My love of The Who rests solely on Who’s Next, Live at Leeds and a smattering of early singles.
You need to get to know Sell Out
I quite like Sell Out. I don’t like Tommy.
This ⬆️
Perhaps a 12” e.p., with 5:15 as the a-side and The Real Me and Love, Reign o’er Me as the two on the b-side…I’d buy that.
That would be to ignore the best song on the album
Opens up beautifully when the band comes in on my original vinyl.
Fair enough – add that in and you get one of those “+fours” four track 12” eps like Steely Dan released.
I like it as it is, and I like The Crunge.
Houses Of The Holy had big shoes to fill coming after the near un-impeachable I, II, III and IV.
On the whole, it didn’t fill those shoes, but it tried
(My favourite Zep album is In Through The Out Door, so you may want to take the above with a pinch of salt, pepper, and any other condiments to hand)
I too really like In Through The Out Door over many of the mid 1970s Zeppelin albums but I think 2,3 and 4 are the best.
I am the anti-Wheaty! My favourites are Graffiti and Presence (although I like all of them, really…)
Nurse!
A word from the Ning-Ning-Nang-Ning-Ning-Nang-Nongggg Hitmaker…
PS. It’s not Spike Milligan, alas
That’s brilliant, even better than Dread Zeppelin.
The “bing-bing-bingity-bong” in the drop before the key-change/outro is the best bit.
I don’t know if he’s taking the piss or not. Not sure I want to know either.
I might have to buy a copy for when I DJ.
And build one of those chicken wire cages around me, like they had in the Blues Bros.
It’ll sound smashing in between Chain Reaction and Dancing Queen.
Better than the original, Moose?
Better yes, because whatever else you think about Led Zep’s version it does have a recognisably human voice on it.
Watching people’s faces as the alien nasal stylings of the Eekmeister snake their way around the room would be somewhat irie.
When I was getting into Zep as a kid in the 80s and trawling through the albums it seemed very obvious to me that they had a career of two halves, with the first four studio albums being quite distinct from the last four. At the time I couldn’t put my finger on it and I’m still not quite sure I’ve got it nutted out, however the distinct change in Plant’s voice that came between IV and Houses (and reached its final form with PG) is perhaps the most obvious checkpoint.
This is why Physical Graffiti always sounded schizophrenic to me, as the earlier tracks stood out obviously among the newer offerings. I also suspect there were changes in recording/production that made the earlier albums sound a bit warmer.
I quite like Houses as it is, and while stealing songs from PG seems a bit unfair (as it needs all the help it can get) I would take HOTH to replace The Crunge. I have a soft spot for D’Yer Maker (mainly because I love hearing Americans demolish its pronunciation) but if forced, I’d replace it with Bron-Yr-Aur, Page’s loveliest acoustic offering. Having Bron-Yr-Aur run into Over The Hills would be a thing of beauty.
“stealing songs from PG seems a bit unfair”
It’s the other way round. PG stole tracks from HOTH.
Yes, but if we were rearranging the albums as published we would be stealing from PG. I think Bron-Yr-Aur actually dates from LZIII, so we would actually be stealing from that, if you want to get strict about it.
No we wouldn’t, because the two tracks I chose are from the HOTH sessions. I’m not going to steal Bron-Yr-Aur from III, because I chose two replacement tracks from the HOTH sessions. There are others but I wanted to limit it to album length.
Page and Plant stole everything from somewhere, anyway.
Donovan, probably.
When was Poor Tom? I love that one, and I can’t believe they left it until Coda to release it.
Intended for III, I believe – one of the batch written at Bron-Yr-Aur…so, 1970?
I’d switch Dancing Days and Black Country Woman in the alternate tracklist suggested. Mix it up a bit.
That’s swell. It’s only a serving suggestion.
I’m reading the epic “Led Zeppelin” by Bob Spitz, who cites contemporary criticism of the two joke songs and adds his own. There will always be those who cry “The Crunge and D’Yer Mak’er are my favourite tracks!” But as I said in the piece, I didn’t do it for them, because it should be obvious I don’t care what they think.
Listening to the album now. I like the idea of the instrumental SRTS, mainly because I’ve never liked Plant’s vocals on this. They sound speeded up and he’s so far down in the mix it’s just odd. .
I refer you to the OP – it stands up well because it was intended to be an instrumental. I suspect the vocals and lyrics had less attention than usual because Percy was in a hurry to get them added, to head Page off at the pass.
Having said that, I hadn’t really considered swapping it out and trying the guitar mix until I read Mr Saucebox’s piece on his site…Tigger’s got form in this area too, his suggestions for Toy improved on the released version, IMHO…
My take on HOTH is that it marked an unwelcome move towards prog rock; long songs, arbitrary changes in time signatures, songs written in segments, pretentious lyrics etc.
The first 4 great albums were made by a rock band. This was not.
Pretentious lyrics? Arf! I refer you to Stairway…(and Ramble On, and Immigrant Song, etc).
Long songs, arbitrary changes, etc? Dazed and Confused? Stairway again?
You must have an interesting take on prog rock…
Long Zep songs?
I remember seeing the band on two successive nights at Earls Court in May 1975.
Moby Dick on the first night went on so long that on the second night I went down to the bar, drank two beers and Bonzo was still playing when I got back to my seat.
I think that must be the night I attended. God, it went on didn’t it?
20 minutes. I went three times!
I think Bonzo would be proud.
That’s an hour of your life you won’t get back.
The brilliantly atmospheric No Quarter has always been my favourite track on this album. Surprised it doesn’t get more love.
I’d agree with that.
The version on Song Remains the Same has one of Page’s most sublime guitar solos. On the original release, that is. On the remaster they did 10-15 years ago they changed the edits and ruined it.