Hots On For Nowhere - Led Zeppelin

Hots On For Nowhere - Led Zeppelin

4:44

Presence, 1976

Written by Jimmy Page and Robert Plant

This is a really pleasant surprise from the small batch of Zep songs I'm not familiar with!  It's a funky Zep track!  Of course the lads always experimented with a fusion of styles, from Middle Eastern to blues, but this song. I think, stands out as unlike almost all their word.  It's a stuttering, lurching track with start-stop rhythms, a great guitar solo with whammy work.  Bonham's drums start relatively restrained, but keep building in muscle and momentum.  The lyrics are reportedly about the anger Plant felt at the time about  drug use affecting the band's ascendance, and they reflect the starry-eyed poet he was: "As the moon and the stars call the order / Inside my tides dance the ebb and sway / The sun in my soul's sinking lower / While the hope in my hands turns to clay."

Sick Again - Led Zeppelin

Sick Again - Led Zeppelin

4:42

Physical Graffiti, 1975

Written by Jimmy Page and Robert Plant

This song, about teenage groupies ("Said you dug me since you were thirteen / Then you giggle as you heave an' sigh") has some hard-rocking blues licks, bending notes, and a crashing rhythm section that's pure muscle.  I am not a Led Zep superfan by any means, but I think for the most part their studio work represents the work of the greatest rock band in terms of pure talent.  For me, this track is one of their weakest.  A lot of "Ooh yeah, that's right" and the subject matter aren't helping, but really I'm just not engaged with the music here.  Blues rock, drooling over teens.  Been done.