![[hand]](/hs-pics/portraits/hands/morse7.jpg)
![[face]](/hs-pics/portraits/faces/mcbride6.jpg)
The world’s on fire, apparently
The physical single for Lazy Sod was released on CD and vinyl on October 11, 2024, with a whopping circulation of 2,000 copies worldwide (not clear if this is for each format, or combined total). In this day and age, even that landed it in the British charts:
- #21 on the Official Singles Sales Chart
- #1 on the Official Physical Singles Chart
- #3 on the Official Vinyl Singles Chart
All for the week of 18 October 2024 – 24 October 2024.
Thanks to Marcus for the heads-up.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
Way to go!!!!
October 23rd, 2024 at 20:52Yo,
Congratulations & well done DP, along with all relevant people !
Let the good-times keep rolling 🙂 !
Adonai vasu
October 24th, 2024 at 11:20I really hadn’t expected less!
October 24th, 2024 at 14:51It’s a magnificent tune 💜
Awesome!
October 24th, 2024 at 15:41This song is playing in my head!
Times are good for the Purple nation!
Deep Purple’s single being high on the charts is pretty cool.
October 25th, 2024 at 02:52I have a hunch it’s all these fan girls who buy any- and everything, Nino!
https://media1.tenor.com/m/1YT00Vvn69UAAAAC/beatlemania.gif
https://shop.memorylane.co.uk/p/767/bay-city-rollers-fans-outside-odeon-hammersmith-21764486.jpg.webp
October 25th, 2024 at 14:28The fact did not go unnoticed by some serious media:
October 27th, 2024 at 12:19https://www.forbes.com/sites/hughmcintyre/2024/10/25/deep-purple-reaches-a-new-all-time-high-with-their-new-single/
😂🤣😂🤣 … to think I would live to see the day of DP finally hitting no 1 in the fickle UK chart …
Who says the Brits don’t learn – if only eventually – from their mistakes?!
October 27th, 2024 at 20:47And, to not miss a chance… LZ, eat our dust!
October 28th, 2024 at 12:29Yo,
@9 said…
qt.”And, to not miss a chance… LZ, eat our dust” !….
LOL ! The only issue for me with comments like that, is that I end-up playing the full LZ discography & thoroughly enjoying it…The only dust being eaten is by myself from the discs themselves, that gets blown-off when they get placed into service mode again lol !
Adonai vasu !
October 28th, 2024 at 21:53I like the way Georgivs thinks 🥰, an intellectual marksman, no less!
https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/totalwar-ar/images/b/b8/Zeppelin_raids.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20200112202331
Lieber Gregster, as long as you feel at least guilty about it, all is not lost.
October 28th, 2024 at 22:07Yo,
Leiber Uwe stated…( About blasting-out & enjoying LZ )…
qt.”Lieber Gregster, as long as you feel at least guilty about it, all is not lost”.
*** LZ set the stage & pathway for both DP & BS, as all members from both bands openly admit, & then they changed their styles ( & line-up re-DP ) to COPY them in their own way(s)…
LZ ROCK…There’s absolutely nothing to feel guilty about, except for hours of the most excellent music & self-indulgence…
Too bad Bonzo moved-on for sure, but I doubt they had too much left in them imo. They were struggling with the new sounds of the 1980’s for sure, but that doesn’t mean they didn’t deliver the music-of-the-times from their inception to at least the mid-70’s.
Adonai vasu.
October 29th, 2024 at 12:08@12 I’d counter that argument. LZ had their heyday in the 1980s rather than the 1970s. Let me offer you my brief LZ history:
1968 Pagey decides to capitalize on the old Yardbirds glory and starts a band
1969 their brand of muddy guitars and screechy vocals is considered an innovation and attracts some attention
1970 LZ go folk, the public disapproves, the band gets angry and depressed
1971 they finally release an album to speak of, based on the exposure of that song that starts as a ballad and ends as a, well, ballad
In the same year they try to conquer the U.S. but the Stones easily beat them by playing more shows and getting more press coverage
1972 they lie low
1973 LZ release a new album and sort of win the West by playing every village in the U.S. but by…
1974 the competition (wink-wink) trounces them creatively and commercially
1975 LZ make another fairly decent album but the…
1976 live album shows their struggle with doing anything meaningfully and the Eagles are the new kings
1977 LZ play their last concert in the U.S. and their presence in America ends after a conflict with the local promoters
1978 hiatus
1979 they make an attempt to resuscitate themselves
1980 the band is no more
Not much to write home about. The irony is, after their demise and maybe because of it, they had their break in the 1980s. Due to the commercial talents of their management they were considered culturally relevant (they weren’t), at the same time the pioneers of heavy metal (they weren’t) and authentic blues/folk musicians (they weren’t). Heavy promotion and a bit of luck and correct timing made them the stars in hindsight. That’s all there is to them.
October 29th, 2024 at 14:44I’m once again the contrarian: I much preferred In Through The Outdoor to the lackluster Presence, I liked the mounting JPJ influence on ITTO. Other than that I value Physical Graffiti for its sheer variety.
Other than that they both play variations of blues-based Brit heavy rock, I don’t hear to much of a commonality between Zep and Purple. Purple has more in common with bands like Vanilla Fudge, Iron Butterfly, Uriah Heep, Atomic Rooster and even Grand Funk Railroad and Black Sabbath than Zep. That is not to say, however, that Led Zep I & II were not pivotal records of their time who made people stand up and really listen.
October 29th, 2024 at 14:56@ 13 -nice to see your dedication to Led Zeppelin & how much time you spent there, well done. However just a few reality pointers for your sad comments. In 1977 LZ were or rather Robert Plant & his wife & family were dealt a savage blow. Their young son Karac passed away suddenly in England. The end of that rather ‘successful’ 1977 LZ tour. Before that in 1975/6 era Plant & his wife are involved in a serious car accident & injured, Led Zeppelin were put on hold for an indefinite hiatus. The Eagles ????? now that is hilarious indeed. Also the comment “1973 LZ release a new album and sort of win the West by playing every village in the U.S. but by…1974 the competition (wink-wink) trounces them creatively and commercially”, ha ha ha, if only. Now back in the real world again,”1969 their brand of muddy guitars and screechy vocals is considered an innovation and attracts some attention” sounds a bit like DP In Rock then, nice one, good comedy & I like it! There is more “1970 LZ go folk, the public disapproves, the band gets angry and depressed”, yes I bet they were. We will finish with this one “1971 they finally release an album to speak of, based on the exposure of that song that starts as a ballad and ends as a, well, ballad. In the same year they try to conquer the U.S. but the Stones easily beat them by playing more shows and getting more press coverage.” Are you sure about that, now I am not up on all the statistics etc, but The Stones? Well we will leave that one for the pundits. Hang on there is one more “Due to the commercial talents of their management they were considered culturally relevant (they weren’t), at the same time the pioneers of heavy metal (they weren’t) and authentic blues/folk musicians (they weren’t). Since when has Zeppelin management labelled them as ‘heavy metal”. That is news to me, you surely would mean the press wouldn’t you? Finally the absurd ‘authentic blues/folk musicians’ ?????? Thanks again for the comedy. Cheers.
October 29th, 2024 at 22:47Yo,
Tony Iommi qt.”We’ll be heavier, a lot more heavier than LZ”…And the band went on to change its name from “Earth” to Black Sabbath, & produced some most excellent heavy blues, & then progressive rock, & has survived for decades…
Even DP disrespectfully dropped Rod Evans & Nick Simper in an effort to follow in LZ’s wake, & Mk-II was born…RB qt.”I said to Jon, we should try the heavy-blues-thing out on the next record, & if that fails, I’ll play with orchestras the rest of my life”…
At the end-of-the-day, both bands were chasing success in the US-of-A market-place, as once you have that market, “you’ve made it”…( Whatever that means ) Cough, cough))…
LZ were filling 50,000+ seat arenas & had sold-out shows everywhere they played State-side before the turn of the decade into the 1970’s.
Respect. They led the way.
Adonai vasu.
October 29th, 2024 at 23:31😂🤣😂
Georgivs @13 has become THE INCREDIBLE ANTI-ZEPPELIN-HULK !!!
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/89/4d/c3/894dc374e272542f0ec3c7dff16fd77f.gif
I feel dethroned, but I’m loving every minute of it!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOfbSx4Sie0
October 29th, 2024 at 23:31(Not a bad version actually, “Stairway Down Telegraph Road”!)
@17 Herr Uwe, I really appreciate your compliment. A Hulk I’m not. I’m just someone who’s happy to come up with some good natured and positive if slightly critical analysis and share it with everyone.
@15 Your humble and obedient servant, Sir. Glad you showed some interest in my comments. Let me emphasize that I’m not commenting on the private lives of our heroes. I only focus on the musical and business sides of their careers. I may be a bit subjective towards LZ music, but my comments on their career as a band are fully justified if a little metaphoric. Their struggles are documented in multiple credible sources. You may want to check out these and find much more:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/music/artists/airborne-sex-parties-zsa-zsa-gabor-stones-upstaged-led-zeppelin/
https://www.loudersound.com/features/the-last-days-of-led-zeppelin-very-very-hard-to-say-goodnight
My point stands. They were a great and influential band but not as influential as some people make them to be. They did give some initial momentum to the development of heavy music along with Iron Butterfly and Cream, but other bands like DP and BS quickly developed their own style and continued without staying in LZ shadow. Most of LZ influence dates to the 1980s due to the retro fashion and bands like WS, Scorpions, Aerosmith, Kingdom Come etc.
October 30th, 2024 at 13:07I take national issue that the Scorpions ever sounded remotely like Led Zep, Georgivs! 😂 If anything Klaus, Rudolf & co patterned themselves after DP, in Germany the much more influential band. (As Rudolf once said: “Deep Purple always do these great verses, but then forget about the chorus!”). Led Zep’s music doesn’t really speak to the German national psyche, it is not nearly enough a clever and neat design for us.
For the record: In 1973, DP did indeed outsell any other band in the US record market, including Led Zep and The Rolling Stones. Machine Head, MIJ and WDWTWS were selling shitloads. Machine Head, by then hardly a new release, was selling more copies in a week than the Stones did at the same time in a year (they were still a force to be reckoned with, but that has always been the case, the Stones are more a live attraction than consistent album sellers).
And I do remember that Led Zep III was perceived as a letdown by Zep fans at the time of its release because it only featured one solitary rocker – the album was really re-appreciated only much later. Houses of the Holy (the album) did not have a rapturous reception either and Physical Graffiti was deemed too long by many critics (I liked it, but that is possibly because it was the first Zep album I really heard in depth at the time.)
The Zep live outing ‘The Song Remains The Same” was widely panned and rated anticlimactic upon release – billowing acoustics fest that it was. It met a lot more disdain than Made In Japan which even from its detractors elicited a grudging: “OK, they DO KNOW how to play.” I knew absolutely no one who thought TSRTS special, even the few existing Zep fans in Germany were muted and defensive about it.
Of course Led Zep were an influential and relevant band in their time musically. (Do we really want to discuss their lyrics? I think not. Those were somewhere between Foghat and Uriah Heep in poetic class.). And a huge concert draw, smartly and ruthlessly managed by Peter Grant. But Hulk is right that they have been mythologized no end since their tragic demise in 1980.
PUBLIC SAFETY WARNING: Beware of how this MacGregor type insidiously roams this honorable forum of fora as a “Led Zep Tasmanian Tiger falsely disguised in a Deep Purple Aussie sheepskin” predator!!! When he takes his reinvigorating power naps, he always puts on Led Zep III first because that album puts you to sleep 😴 pronto! 🤣 Led Zzzzzzzeppelin indeed.
October 30th, 2024 at 16:24Here is a littel LZ gem for feinschmeckers…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPAc8WO6Mi8
October 30th, 2024 at 18:11Is that really Zep? To my ears the drummer doesn’t drag behind the beat enough. Other than that it is pretty close. 😎
When Herr MacGregor, that shameless Zeppelin floozy, has finished his nap, his just wrath will be upon us all!
October 30th, 2024 at 23:13Thanks for the Led Zep III potential insomnia cure Uwe, I will try that as lately I haven’t been able to fall asleep during my afternoon siesta time & have been wondering why. Yes TSRTS in’t a good recording in many ways, however at least it was filmed to an extent as some other Zep gigs were. That has always been a big regret for DP fans with MIJ & that MKII era. A real shame that that wasn’t filmed, a grand opportunity missed there. Easier said than done though. Yes the media always blow things out of proportion to sell their story, again & again. The Rolling Stones ‘the greatest rock ‘n roll band in the world’ yeah right, not! ‘Eric Clapton is God’, taken from a fans graffiti on a subway wall. Bob Dylan ‘the greatest songwriter ever’ now that is funny! Elvis Presley, ‘The King of rock ‘n roll’ oh dea!. On & on we go, or they go I should say. Have to keep selling those magazines & newspapers. Led Zep included along with ACDC & others. I ignore it all as best I can, media hype. ‘a LZ Tiger disguised as DP sheep’s skin clothing, not a bad idea & very surreal too. Cheers.
October 31st, 2024 at 07:06Seriously, Led Zep III was a brave record in how it defied convention and expectations. Zep were always good at this, that was the positive side of their grandeur, they did what they fucking wanted. No Zep album follows the mold of its predecessor.
TSRTS sounded a bit shambolic, yet going through the motions and saturated in places. As if the band had other things on their minds at the time (I hear that with Blackmore on Made In Europe too).
Led Zep‘s horizons and ambitions in the studio were never limited by the reality check of „Can we do this live and how will it sound with our small line-up?“ That really differentiated them from Purple who from 1970-75 basically never committed anything to vinyl they could not easily reproduce live. Purple made records to demonstrate how they sound live, Zep otoh had this filmmaker‘s approach. That gave Zep an artsy edge and Purple more of a working man’s band image. It also made Zep‘s live gigs more fickle/risky, there was no possibility of hiding behind that well-oiled Purple wall of sound even on an off night.
I believe that the difference in today‘s popular perception of Zep vs Purple has a lot to do with that. Zep saw the creation of records in the studio as a separate art form to playing live (much like The Beatles), to Purple it was an addendum to being on the road (much like the Stones). Purple recorded 10 studio albums in not even 8 years first time around, Zep only 8 in 12 years of existence. Had Purple continued to exist until the end of 1980 like Zep did, we would have seen at least another three studio albums by them, likely even more.
October 31st, 2024 at 14:30@ 23 – Good points Uwe in regards to the differences between Purple & Zeppelin. TSRTS was filmed on a not so good night performance wise, that happens & that is that old conundrum with any concert I suppose. Will we get the performers on a good night or a bad night. I read a little yesterday about Page & how he deliberately set out for a total opposite approach as to being in the studio compared to a live concert. In regards to Deep Purple with Blackmore at least, it is sort of amusing though as Blackmore loathed being in the studio didn’t he? Get in & get out as quickly as possible. However for DP to last until 1980 & churn out a few more albums at that time would have meant him not being, so yes that could have possibly occurred. I listened to Sgt Pepper’s yesterday, a joy it is when in the mood & I still do really enjoy a quality studio album from any of my favourite artists. However as we know, pulling that off live on stage is the bigger deal in so many aspects. So yes a good live performance should have more oomph to it & also some possible improvisation at times, depending on the material & the performer(s). Such a shame the late 1960’s era Beatles never attempted that, with a little help from a few friends. Cheers.
November 1st, 2024 at 06:39@23 Good points. I can also suggest a comparison with the 18th century baroque scene. LZ were akin to Venice opera composers and entrepreneurs who would stage a really grand show, which would then run for some time and be quickly replaced and eclipsed by another grand show. And DP are not unlike Vivaldi or J.S. Bach who would concentrate on writing instrumental music to be performed in different settings settings: a court party, public holiday, church fest etc. They were churning out new music very quickly because they had to earn money off the performances. Ironically, this approach also works for DP in the 21 century, when records don’t sell but concerts do.
Oh well, and the DP family tree a.k.a. as jungle is somewhat similar to the Bach family tree: J.S., Johann Bernhard, Johann Ludwig, Carl Philipp Emanuel etc. etc.
November 1st, 2024 at 07:27@ 25 – talking of Vivaldi & him possibly being the ‘first rock star’, Rick Wakeman did a wonderful documentary on the maestro. Cheers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMq9iEP9Zuk&t=7s
November 1st, 2024 at 20:49For a group that looked on making records as a separate art from playing live, it’s odd that probably half of Zeppelin’s records don’t sound all that great.
LZ III is brittle and hissy. LZ IV is muddy. “Physical Graffiti” overly low-end heavy. And the guitar on “ITTOD” at times sounds puny relative to the huge drums and prominent keyboards.
On the other hand, the first LP sounded great, right out of the starting gate. Second LP also powerful-sounding, though a little bassy.
“Houses of the Holy” may be the best-sounding of them all – clear but punchy, bright but warm. Combined with its excellent musical content, it’s a record that has aged really well. “TSRTS” and “Rain Song” in particular breaking new compositional ground for the band.
It was the first LZ album with no plagiarised material (ITTOD being the only other). And the one where Jimmy really attained mastery of 3-beat / one-and-a-half beat figures, spread around the songs in various riffs and solos.
If only they had dropped “The Crunge” and included the title track, had it been mixed at the same time as the other songs… What a desert island disc that would have been.
“Presence” also one of the better-sounding LZ records. It could have been a monotonous album, with no acoustic guitar, no keys, just electric guitar, drums and bass. And harmonica on one song. But instead comes across sounding powerful and focused. Their most underrated record?
Nothing wrong with Purple’s approach of mostly trying to approximate their live sound. All those 1968-75 LPs sound pretty good to this day. “In Rock” rather harsh, but it works. Better signal to noise ratio than LZ III, at any rate.
Both bands called it a day at probably the exact right time. Zeppelin would have tarnished their legend had they replaced Bonham. And it’s hard to imagine Purple making much more good music in the late 70s given all the drug abuse that was going on.
Probably better that Coverdale went solo and started working towards the excellence that he eventually arrived at with 80s Whitesnake. At least we had the three Rainbow with Dio records to enjoy in the meantime.
Sabbath was the band that overstayed their welcome somewhat. Those last two 70s Ozzy albums were pretty dire!
November 2nd, 2024 at 01:22Scorpions is a group in whose work one can hear a Purple influence, especially in the Roth era.
And a touch of Zeppelin in some of their 80s stuff – the “Kashmir”-ish “China White”, for example.
But they were great at absorbing influences and using them to create something unique. Whenever you hear those ultra-crisp guitars and Klaus’ distinctive voice, there’s no mistaking Scorpions for any other band.
I well remember the day a record store owner said, “You kids like hard rock, right? This is a new group you will love!” and put “In Trance” on the turntable. When we heard “Dark Lady” our jaws dropped. By the time Klaus did his big scream in “Top of the Bill” we were reaching for our wallets!
November 2nd, 2024 at 01:31@26 Thank you, Sir. It’s a great documentary. In addition to the story of Vivaldi, I liked how Rick compared the change in trends from baroque to classicism to the shift from prog to punk.
I like Vivaldi a lot. Everyone knows his ‘Four Seasons’, but it is his sonatas for violin that show the best of his talent as a composer. Producing a complete work for just one instrument is a true accomplishment.
November 2nd, 2024 at 14:30Skippy, you’ve made a nest for me to bed in!
I never liked the production of the Zep albums, but always thought that something must be wrong with me! Jimmy Page had this mythical producer status and I just sat there and wondered: there is too much echo, the bass doesn’t sound crisp, the drums are too loud and clobbering, you can’t understand the lyrics and the guitars are this billowing wall of sound everywhere, but not really tight. 😂 With Purple everything was neatly in its place, with Zep everything was all over or missing. I really find the sonics of the Zep albums difficult for me, they are like some artsy, slightly out of focus photograph that you vainly try to get sharp.
I never liked the production of the early Sabbath albums either, too coarse and raw. Sabbath didn’t sound good to me until Sabbath Bloody Sabbath (the album), that is for most Sabbath fans the album where they were beginning to lose it! 🤣
Like you, In Rock sounds garage band-harsh to me – I really liked the way Machine Head and WDWTWA sounded, those albums were for me benchmarks how properly recorded rock music of the harder kind should sound in the early 70s. No Zep album had remotely that faithfulness of sound, Zep always sounded indirect to my ears. I understand that this is why many people consider Jimmy Page’s production jobs art and Martin Birch’s knob-twiddling workmanlike “simply getting the band down on tape”, but the latter appealed to me more.
And then you sing the praises for ze Scörps! 😘 That is a strange sensation for me as a Kraut, because I’m always torn between cringing for the Scorpions (zzzeir bäd Eeeenglich, the horrendously dumb sexist lyrics with none of the packaging charm and warmt, say, David Coverdale affords, their clownish stage act) and being proud of them for how far they got and their longevity. In a way they are to Germany what Golden Earring are to The Netherlands, but GE aren’t embarrassing and never dumb.
Anyway, I get your comparison of Blackmore with Uli Jon Roth. Though UJR never cites Blackmore as an influence, they both came from the same place: A sense for Teutonic structure, a classical influenced melodicism and lots and lots of Hendrix, especially his drama and frenzied inspiration.
I do remember the first time I listened to In Trance too. It wasn’t my first Scorpions album (I had bought Fly To The Rainbow before, which had more of a mellow-melodic, dreamy Wishbone Ash’y quality to it), but hearing Dark Lady, the title track, Top Of The Bill and Robot Man was eye- and ear-opening. For the first time there was a German band that actually played hard rock as convincing as the international acts of the genre.
November 3rd, 2024 at 00:11I have never thought it a good idea that Page was Zeppelin’s producer, too close to the music & too much say. However it was ‘his’ band so to speak, so the ego then becomes a problem. Remember that he didn’t like In Through The Out Door either, not enough control over proceedings. That is one of the good things about that album, less cocaine & ego on it. Cheers.
November 3rd, 2024 at 21:48In Through The Outdoor surprised me pleasantly BECAUSE of its production, for the first time you could hear everything properly on a Zep record! 😁
November 4th, 2024 at 21:39