The Song Remains the Same?

Have you ever had that experience of hearing a song on the radio, or even a favorite song of yours, that just sounded completely completely different from what you typically associate with it ? even when its a song you've basically heard countless times? ....many times we tend to listen to songs without really paying much attention to them. We hear and enjoy catchy melodic guitar riffs, but sometimes ignore the rest of the band...We sing along to the lyrics of song, but we hardly expend an extra breath towards deciphering their deeper meaning.

 

This has happened to me on many countless occasions, and since this is led zeppelin blog i feel it would be most appropriate if i gave an example from their catalogue (Damn i gotta lay back on all the English stuff like zeppelin and top gear, or else you'd end up seeing more things like colour and bloke in my ramblings lol). The particular song in mind is called "Achilles Last Stand" off their Presence album, this song was one of the first zeppelin songs i heard outside of the usual selection of songs regularly played on radio stations, i really liked the song but back then i mostly overlooked it, because in my then view it "was very long". A few years passed, i started collecting zeppelin bootlegs, and as i sat listening to many of the live counterparts to the studio versions i developed a appreciation for the little nuances in those recordings, and a understanding of how much of an effort it took to pull off those numbers on stage.



So when i eventually found myself pressing play on Achilles Last Stand i had no idea of the surprise that was in store for me. Right away i knew their was something different about this recording, jimmy's delicate little intro guitar riff seemed to fixate me with its mysterious, repeating pattern. This riff grew louder and louder until, without warning....BAM! the rest of the band kicks in, John Paul Jones with his thunderous galloping bass and John Bonham with his powerful, commanding drumming. They lay down a very dramatic background to which Robert Plant comes in, singing...

It was an April morning when they told us we should go
As I turn to you, you smiled at me
How could we say no? 

and so begins the ten minute epic that is Achilles Last Stand. From just casual listening the lyrics of the song seem to be nothing but rambling, but on a closer inspection one sees Led Zeppelin's obsession with mysterious, far away places "...with he mighty arms of atlas, hold the heavens from the earth..." (reference to north africa's Atlas mountains) and "...wandering and wandering, What's the place to rest the search...".  Also evident to me upon a closer look is the layers upon layers of guitars overdubbed on the recording. Jimmy was known for employing his "guitar army" on many Led Zeppelin songs, but here on Achilles he employed tens of guitar overdubs to really give the recording a Herculean feel and a sense that one is hearing part some colossal saga. Even when played live Led Zeppelin managed to retain most of the song's energy and power, a large feat given the technology of the day and the fact that he was the only guitarist in the band. This was really evident in jimmy's solo, as in many live renditions jimmy would sometimes struggle with trying to recreate the intensity and tension of the album's solo.



Also worth mentioning is the rhythm section of the song, along with John Paul Jones' galloping bass there is also John Bonham's thunderous wallops, a powerful display of drumming from one of rock's most legendary drummers. Bonzo (Bonham as he was known) also had a real knack for subtlety in his drumming, for at any given moment he could go from delicate jazzy hi-hat work to loud powerful thumps of his huge bass drum. But what made him so revered was the fact that he made complex rhythms and subtle changes in dynamics look like child's play and the fact that he could throw in extra fills with relative ease. Not surprisingly Achilles is no exception to his fantastic drumming, a careful listening to his part reveals the scope of Bonzo's drumming repertoire, from jazzy hi hat rhythms, to disco-like syncopated beats, to monstrous pounding triplets, Bonham along with John Paul Jones, provide the foundation and driving force that the other two band members build upon. Not worth forgetting is John Paul Jones, this very highly skilled multi-instrumentalist shows us that there is more to this shy, church organ-playing, and humble looking man than meets the eye. Not many people notice that a great deal of zeppelin's catalog started as ideas in Jonesy's head. The riffs for songs like Black Dog, In the Light, Celebration Day among others were of his invention. The amazing bass line on this song is no exception to that, time and time again Jones shows what a dynamic bass player he is, among the likes of his contemporary John Entwistle of The Who, whom both share an affinity for lightning-fast articulate playing and a larger than life sound. His galloping bass line was one of the more striking things i experienced during my re-listening of the song, and as soon as it kicked in i was taken back by how powerful his Alembic bass was. Also, instead of just simply sitting idly by playing one thing over and over, Jonesy really goes out of his way to really make his Alembic bass stand out by playing along with jimmy on the part with the ascending and descending guitar riffs and also, by pummeling along with john Bonham on those epic metal-esque triplets. Finally by the time the song concluded, pretty much the same way it began with that mysterious repeating guitar riff, ten minutes and twenty-five seconds later i was left on the edge of my seat. I felt like the song had taken me to that far away place and back, i soared high over the atlas mountains, flying higher and faster over the earth like the Icarus of greek mythology. All the emotions, and all thoughts racing around my head, they all simply left me wanting more, and so i listened to the song ten more times, still equally amazed at what i had blindly over looked before. To summarize the song up this tour-de-force is simply the epiphany of all that Led Zeppelin stands for, the light and shade, the delicate and the powerful, both the very essence that characterizes their music.





But enough with Zeppelin, to concur, what an amazing amount can be learned from simply taking time to really listen to one's music and get the grey matter working inside one's noggin. So go out and find a song you've felt like you know by heart but this time really play attention to what you hear, for you may be pleasantly surprised by what you find. Sure some may not feel the same way as i do but that the thing about music, as it is open to anyone's interpretation. Whether it be a simple or thorough listen, just as long as music remains more than just catchy tunes or meaningless melodies that none give a second thought about. Just remember that the song never really remains the same. Anyways i finish this post with these juicy pieces of zeppelin candy, enjoy!

Play Achilles Last Stand (Studio version)
Play Achilles Last Stand Live 1977