Sometimes the sloppiness of the guitar solos is a feature not a bug. It’s like foaming waves crashing over you and often the real killer in Zeppelin is when you emerge from a frothy wave with a killer focused riff like a surfer flying out of a tube.
Not exactly the same thing (coming out of a sloppy guitar piece) but this is the kind of thing I’m talking about - the interlude in the studio version of Whole Lotta Love is tiresome, but without it you don’t really get 2:23-2:26 which is perhaps the most sublime 3 seconds in recorded history.
Like 3:55 in D&C is mayhem. Listen to the drums and base. A clean guitar solo doesn’t work there. It’s pandemonium and that’s what it’s supposed to be. At at 5:10 it’s supposed to be a contrast when things get back under control.
I agree that the ambition and flying by the seat of his pants is what sets him apart from other guitarists with more perfect technique and adds a sense of danger and thrill.
I’m still mad that Trampled Under Foot lost to Black Dog last round, because now I’m going to have to vote for Black Dog over Going to California when I post that one.
Couldn’t disagree more. He pulls out of it great but it’s like 20 seconds of fumbling and mumbling mostly. Drums and bass are burning, what he tried to play would have been better than what he played no question. There’s a difference between looseness and sloppiness. I mean sure I grant you guys there is entertainment value in a soloist walking a tightrope. But this is a burning rhythm section vamping over one minor chord. That’s not walking a tightrope, that’s in the fucking net.
Like this is the perfect example of why studio work is harder than live. Live you would think he killed it perfect solo. And you wouldn’t be far wrong. In the studio every tiny clam is there in perpituity.
That said, sure, picking on the 16 not so great bars in an otherwise epic solo is maybe a bit unfair. I like Page more from a compositional standpoint than technical I guess.
Good points, especially about being a composer, but they rarely did more than 3 or 4 takes, usually choosing one of the early ones.
He could have replaced the part of the solo you take exception to with an overdub but those were kept to a minimum in the early days.
Production values have changed since then towards a much more processed studio sound (actually this started in the early 70s when people went crazy with multitracking) but I still love the live feel of their early studio recordings.
