Led Zeppelin III (1970)

Led Zeppelin III (1970)

There are acoustic songs on the first two Zeppelin records, even on Led Zeppelin II, which is primarily remembered as the band’s most thoroughly rock-oriented album. But after that record, the band took a left turn and delved deeper into their folk influences for Led Zeppelin III. Similarly to how it’s easy to misremember Led Zeppelin II as being entirely made up of rockers, it’s also easy to misremember Led Zeppelin III as being entirely acoustic (at least, after the initial wallop of “Immigrant Song”). The acoustic stuff was certainly brought to the forefront, but the record still had “Celebration Day,” “Out On The Tiles,” and “Since I’ve Been Loving You,” which means that Side A was actually entirely electric aside from “Friends,” the album’s gorgeous second track and another one of those “Best Led Zeppelin Songs You Might’ve Forgotten” candidates.

From there, the record commits to folk in a way that was new territory for Zeppelin when sustained to this extent. The first four songs on Side B — “Gallows Pole” into “Tangerine” into “That’s The Way” into “Bron-Y-Aur Stomp” — is one of the strongest runs on any Zeppelin record. Especially because “Tangerine” and “That’s The Way” are both flat out mind-blowingly beautiful in a way Zeppelin had never allowed themselves to be (aside from “Thank You” on II), and rarely would again. There are Zeppelin songs that are beautiful all over their catalog, but there’s a restraint and an introspection here that’s far different than much of what appeared elsewhere, even their mellower songs on other albums. The only thing that wrecks the flow is that the whole thing ends with “Hats Off To (Roy) Harper,” and there’s little you can do to convince me that is anything but a quirky tribute that functions as anti-climax coming on the heels of some of the band’s most powerful songs.

Even the rock songs had a different vibe about them. “Celebration Day” and “Out On The Tiles” are both wirier than any of the thunderous stuff of II, and when they return to blues on “Since I’ve Been Loving You,” they manage to craft a slow blues jam that’s far more memorable than those they’d done in the past. (These kinds of songs are perhaps my least favorite classic rock trope, aside from when rock bands decided they could/should include a reggae song on their mid-’70s records, but “Since I’ve Been Loving You” crushes.) In truth, Led Zeppelin III was my favorite Zeppelin record for years, and some days still is. It seems repetitive to call a Zeppelin record dynamic — they pretty much all are extremely dynamic — but III in particular showed the different sides of this band operating at their peak level. It’s a testament to the shadows cast by some of the other band’s records that Led Zeppelin III isn’t ranked higher.