Analysis of Led and Youth

Daydream Nation- Sonic Youth 33 and 1/3-Matthew Stearns

I bought this book to learn a little more about a band that I always thought should be bigger but never were. They have all this alt-Rock indie cred but that’s not mainstream success. The music is loud and abrasive, but I discovered that when you lower the volume, there is a melodic beauty. There are swirling and ringing guitars. Kim Gordon’s breathy sighs and Thurston Moore’s voice mixing but not overpowering the music.

What did this author have to say?

Skip the first chapter. The writer is proving he can write. He goes on these tangents of scary music like he’s writing about KIng Diamond instead of an avant-garde-guard rock band. I’ve listened to Sonic Youth for years and I never really dove into the songs on this album except for side one. I really appreciated the story behind “Eric’s Trip.” I never listened enough to Kissability or Eliminator Jr. to realize what they were about. Glad this author did. There is more feminism and struggle on this album than a casual listener would get.

The real success of the book is that I’m going to go back and listen to this album. I’m going to listen through this lens of what I’ve learned.

Four Candles.

Led Zeppelin - All the Songs- Guesdon and Margotin

Led Zeppelin is always considered the hammer of the gods metal. There is so much more. I like the funk, and the ballads. Led Zeppelin 3 was considered a weak album, but I love the delta blues influence. This gigantic book promised to tell the whole story.

What a great find. This book has every song and every outtake performed. There is a section on a song summary, what instruments used, who was in the studio, and release date info. How did the songs chart?

I tried to read this straight through and I couldn’t possibly retain all this information. I had been told that Robert Plant was a big Tolkien reader. I had no idea other than “Ramble On” just how often Tolkien shows up in lyrics. Sometimes as a simile sometimes direct references. Led Zeppelin was known as power heavy metal, but there is a lot of folk music, a lot of funk, and Candy Store Rock as a 1950s throwback. To read this all in one place changes how I view this band.

This gigantic book will stay on my book shelf as a reference to anything I need to know. It’s that complete.

Five Houses of the Holy