It is no big secret that Led Zeppelin got many of their ideas
\nfrom the blues legends they had grown up listening to. It even hit
\nthe point where the late Willie Dixon sued the band – and won –
\nclaiming plagiarism of his song “You Need Love” on Led Zeppelin’s
\nhit “Whole Lotta Love”.<\/p>\n
So what would happen if some of today’s blues artists –
\nincluding some living legends – stole the music back and returned
\nit to its roots? It’s an intriguing concept, and one that has been
\nturned into reality with the release of
\nWhole Lotta Blues: Songs Of Led Zeppelin<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Zep purists, be forewarned: while there are similarities between
\nthe originals and the cover versions presented here, the format of
\nmany of them is going to be radically different. It may shock some
\npeople – it may even offend some. But there’s no denying that many
\nof these artists have found the heart of the songs themselves in
\ntheir translations.<\/p>\n
Just listen to the way that Otis Clay tackles “Since I’ve Been
\nLoving You” and hear the spin that the vocalist puts on this track.
\nWhile the original version was bluesy enough, Clay and the backing
\nmusicians make this one burrow even deeper into the vein of the
\nblues, and it becomes a track that just pours out emotion from all
\ncorners.<\/p>\n
The same could be said for Robert Lockwood Jr.’s take on “Bring
\nIt On Home,” starting out the piece with an acoustic Delta blues
\nsound, then kicking things up a little more with the full band
\n(though it should be noted that Lockwood does not play guitar on
\nthe second half of the song). Likewise, the duet between Otis Rush
\nand Eric Gales, their take on Willie Dixon’s “I Can’t Quit You
\nBaby,” just throbs with power, and should not be missed.<\/p>\n
There are a few tracks that might take a couple of listens to
\nreally get into. Once you’ve spent some time wih Clarence
\n“Gatemouth” Brown’s take on “Rock N’ Roll,” or even if you have
\nsome knowledge of Brown’s blues style, you’ll appreciate the new
\nlevels he tries to take the song to. It’s intriguing, to say the
\nleast – and, for the most part, it works well. Chris Thomas King’s
\nversion of “Hey, Hey (What Can I Do)” is one that I had to listen
\nto several times to really appreciate, but it did grow on me.<\/p>\n
I can’t say the same about a few takes on
\nWhole Lotta Blues: Songs Of Led Zeppelin<\/i>. The original take
\nof “Custard Pie” by Gales proves to me that this song was never
\nmeant to be done in a Delta blues style. I also found I couldn’t
\nget into the version of “When The Levee Breaks” by Magic Slim,
\nBilly Branch and James Cotton. (For that matter, did we really need
\nmore than one take on some of these songs? And why were some songs
\nbroken up into two distinct tracks?)<\/p>\n
For the most part,
\nWhole Lotta Blues: Songs Of Led Zeppelin<\/i> is a pleasant
\ncollection that pays tribute to the roots of the music without
\nsacrificing much of the original sound (if not the bombast).
\nAlthough some diehard Zep fans might need to spend the better part
\nof a day with this one, it will prove to be a disc worthy of their
\ntime.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25083,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5827],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-36288","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-various-artists","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36288","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36288"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36288\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36288"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=36288"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=36288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}