Led Zeppelin is one of those bands, like Pink Floyd, that we’re expected to outgrow.
Every teenage boy has a Led Zeppelin phase, right? But how many listen to the band as adults?
Or maybe I’m just generalizing based on my own experience. I know I gobbled up all of the Zeppelin albums in high school and college but haven’t listened to one of them all the way through since.
‘Footdown’ is the fifth track on Michael Penn’s fourth album, 2000’s MP4: Days Since a Lost Time Accident. And it marks the very moment when he went from one of my favorite artists to an afterthought.
That’s a lot to hang on one song, I know.
Penn’s first three albums were brilliant. 1989’s March was a glistening pop debut, featuring his only true hit (‘No Myth’) and nine other songs even better than that one. In ’92, he avoided the sophomore slump with Free-For-All, an even deeper and more rewarding record. And ’97’s Resigned continued the winning streak.
Benjamin Booker is a New Orleans-based blues-rock guitarist who sounds much older than his 25 years.
As with a couple of songs I’ve featured this week, this genre isn’t among my favorites, but I do appreciate it.
I wasn’t surprised to learn that Booker is touring with Jack White, as this song suggests a definite White Stripes influence.
Thurston Moore, lead singer and guitarist of Sonic Youth, is releasing his fourth solo album, The Best Day, next month.
I’m ashamed to say I know nothing about Sonic Youth. If you put a gun to my head, I’d say they are a tuneful punk-rock band, a precursor to Nirvana.
Am I close?
Speaking of musical genres I don’t get, here’s a dance track.
I completely understand how a song like this works in a club setting. You want background music with a good beat and a good sound that puts you in a particular tuned-out mindset.
There’s a reason they call it trance music.
