Aquarium Drunkard Presents: Zeppelin
Two things that let me know that it is Fall: the smell of burning leaves and and the way early Led Zeppelin sounds. The first is obvious, though not something I happen upon much (ok, at all) here in Los Angeles. The second is a bit more intangible, but I've thought about it a lot over the years and I believe the genesis of this particular sense memory has to do with the 'bargain' bins of cassettes of the early 90s. For those of you who don't recall these, imagine great swaths of 6x6 bins stretching the length of record stores filled with all manner of 60s/70s rocknroll. You had your Dead, your Black Sabbath, your yacht rock, your Simon & Garfunkel greatest hits, your Clash, your Sex Pistols, your Ramones (this is how first happened upon "Mania"), and, of course, Led Zeppelin.
This is how I really dug my heels in, buying up the band's catalog, one at a time, via cassette. And they were those super-cheap looking white cassettes, too. And the early stuff always sounded better as the months got colder. As such, this playlist (mostly) salutes those early days.
Oh yeah, don't miss this: Hi, I'm 13, Or, Led Zeppelin.
ABOUT AQUARIUM DRUNKARD
Based in Los Angeles, Justin Gage is the founder of the long-running, eclectic music blog Aquarium Drunkard. In addition to the blog you can catch his weekly radio show, Fridays, on SIRIUS XMU satellite radio -- noon-2pm EST.
Gage is also the founder of Autumn Tone Records and works as a music consultant and supervisor.
