Led Zeppelin: Houses Of The Holy

THE WAY I SEE IT, if you've been a Led Zep fan since day one, and think that 'Whole Lotta Love' is the cat's pyjamas, then you probably think this album ain't worth the plastic it comes in. If you only got into Zep last record, you probably play Houses loud enough to shake the plaster off the wall. Me? I played the first Zep LP three times a day for three months until I saw them on the second US tour and was so awestruck by it all that I could never bring myself to play the album again. Then I succumbed to John Mendelsohn's specious thinking until it occurred to me that if I was going to go around saying that Jimmy Page was an ace guitarist I better listen to what he was playing. And on Houses he plays exquisitely. Where Clapton plays spaces, Page concentrates on the notes themselves, and has perfected his technique to a fine point, able to rattle off an amphetamine string of notes time after time with such precision that the first time I heard 'The Song Remains The Same' I thought that the record was sticking, not to mention spinning at the wrong speed.