Led Zeppelin, Album by Album: Houses of the Holy
 

Houses of the Holy: Released March 1973

Personnel:
John Bonham – drums, backing vocals
John Paul Jones – organ, Mellotron, bass guitar, backing vocals, piano, synthesizers, harpsichord
Jimmy Page – acoustic, electric, and pedal steel guitar, production
Robert Plant –lead vocals and backing vocals.


Track listing:
The Song Remains the Same (Page, Plant)
The Rain Song (Page, Plant)
Over the Hills and Far Away (Page, Plant)
The Crunge (Bonham, Jones, Page, Plant)

Dancing Days (Page, Plant)
D'yer Mak'er (Bonham, Jones, Page, Plant)
No Quarter (Jones, Page, Plant)
The Ocean (Bonham, Jones, Page, Plant)


This is the first Zep album to have all original songs. (Plus we get an actual album name!)

Re: Led Zeppelin, Album by Album: Houses of the Holy
 

Hmm... yeah this album is near-perfect (The Crunge is bizarre, albeit fascinating filler). Every other track is an absolute killer. TSRTS and Rain Song constitute one of the greatest album openers in rock history. The former is all power, the latter is all reflection, and both are magnificent. Except for Crunge, every other song is top notch. No Quarter is a Top 5 LZ song for me, easily JPJ's crowning achivement with the band.

Probably LZ's finest album, although III is my nostalgic favorite.

Re: Led Zeppelin, Album by Album: Houses of the Holy
 

You do mean "original" songs, right? Har har.

This is probably my favorite Zeppelin album. It has a lot of variety on here which makes into the only non-boring Zep album for me.

Re: Led Zeppelin, Album by Album: Houses of the Holy
 

May be my favorite Zep album. Rain Song is definitely my favorite Zep song.

Re: Led Zeppelin, Album by Album: Houses of the Holy
 

Always loved "Over The Hills", especially the distant harpsichord part.

"The Crunge" was unseemly at first, but I love that they tried something new. Probably paved the way for them to do rockers with more groove later like "The Wanton Song" and "Trampled Under Foot".

Re: Led Zeppelin, Album by Album: Houses of the Holy
 

I hate Dancing Days - probably my least favorite Zeppelin song, besides that, the album's aces, though really played out.

Re: Led Zeppelin, Album by Album: Houses of the Holy
 

No Quarter is my second favorite Zep song. We won't get to my favorite till the last album.

Re: Led Zeppelin, Album by Album: Houses of the Holy
 

Definitely Zep's best album. Everyone's in top form here, the songwriting is stellar, the musical styles are varied, it's a blast. And it's hard to beat an opener like The Song Remains the Same and a closer like The Ocean. They'd never be this focused or this good again.

Re: Led Zeppelin, Album by Album: Houses of the Holy
 

Yep, my fave Zep album as well. Hell, if i ever decide to get married, i would try to talk my then wife into slow dancing to 'the Rain Song'

Re: Led Zeppelin, Album by Album: Houses of the Holy
 

Funny... I want Rain Song to be played at my funeral. Or should I say, "Schwarma?"

Re: Led Zeppelin, Album by Album: Houses of the Holy
 

Isn't The Crunge supposed to be a James Brown knock off? I always thought it was pretty cool. According to Wikipedia, it uses the following different time signatures:

Time signatures
Some of the humor of the song derives from the juxtaposition of James Brown funk against shifting time signatures. One way to count out the song is as follows:

Intro measure:
1 x 9/8

Part 1:
7 x 9/8 (or 4/8 + 5/8)
1 x 8/8 (or 4/8 + 4/8)
Part 2:
3 x 4/4
1 x 5/8
1 x 2/4
3 x 4/4
1 x 5/8
1 x 2/4
3 x 4/4
1 x 2/4
1 x 2/8

then return to "Part 1", play through pattern two more times, end with roughly
23 x 9/8 (last one ends in the middle of the measure, with drums ending on the 5th beat and the synth continuing for a beat or two).

Re: Led Zeppelin, Album by Album: Houses of the Holy
 

I was wondering too, kind of anyways. If the song Houses of the Holy been included (and the other songs from that session that ended up on physical grafiti), would the album still hold the high esteem it does now

Re: Led Zeppelin, Album by Album: Houses of the Holy
 

Love this album - not my favorite - but damn the opening few songs just sucks me right in.

Re: Led Zeppelin, Album by Album: Houses of the Holy
 

I always thought that "HoTH" should have been put where "Dancing Days" was put on the album at the start of side 2. It would have made Physical Graffiti less interesting if they'd have swapped the 2 and "DD" was put on PG, but I'm happy the two ended up where they did.

"Where's that confounded bridge?!"
 

Houses of the Holy... was a really bitchin' album.
Rugburns - "Me and Eddie Vedder"

My first CD player had a favourite track playlist that you could program by CD. I think I omitted "No Quarter" at the time -- probably too slow -- but I gave the song a better listen in college and it is one of my favorite Zeppelin songs now.

"The Song Remains the Same" is a great opener for the many classic tracks on this album.

Re: Led Zeppelin, Album by Album: Houses of the Holy
 

I haven't participated in any of the Led Zeppelin "Album by Album" threads but I thought I'd chime in to say that this is my favorite Zeppelin album. I believe that this is their peak.

Re: "Where's that confounded bridge?!"
 

I've never tried it, but "No Quarter" sounds like the absolute perfect toking song