Like most people in the world, sometimes I really can't help accidentally being a bit Alan Partridge. And whenever I've been asked what my favourite Led Zepplin album is, I'm like Alan when he picks 'The Best of The Beatles', because I have to say... it's the Early Days and Latter Days collections.
Zepplin were always the ultimate singles band for me, with powerful tunes, epic scope and great warbling. Some of the smartest, most chonking drums in history, basslines that were way more intricate than they had any right to be, a freakishly talented guitarist, and one of the great shrieks in rock and roll history.
But I just never had the albums when I was growing up and never got the flow of the things, beyond the way they were chosen for the greatest hits. When I finally got around to listening to the albums, I turned out to be a total fucking fairweather fan because it just seemed like a lot of arsing about between the big tunes.
I'm not a total heathen - obviously I know the first album kicks off with Good Times Bad Times - but I honestly couldn't tell if which of the first four albums all the other big songs come from. (The numbers they used for each album, instead of proper bloody titles, never helped.)
It doesn't matter, I still regularly get caught embarrassingly drumming along to When The Levee Breaks in the car when I'm waiting at a red light and have an unwritten and unbreakable law that if I'm channel skipping on the radio and come across Stairway to Heaven, I gotta listen to the whole damn thing.
I love the concept album as much as the next pretentious wanker, but sometimes, all I need is the hits.
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