your three favourite Led Zeppelin tracks

[loveless]

Hearing III for the first time (at 15, I think) is etched vividly in my memory - listening on headphones, every song bar the opener being brand new to me - and virtually every track having some massively unique character to it (the droney, doomy, synth-laden "Friends", the rich Hammond organ and stinging electric work on the unconventional blues of "Since...", the build [and banjo] on "Gallows Pole", the evocative yet vague narration on "That's the Way", the lo-fi mystery of "Hats Off"). It was jarring and thrilling in way that maybe the already-known-to-me Zeppelin albums could never hope to be (even the energy throughout..."Tiles", "Celebration Day"..gave it something that the other records couldn't claim).

[phenomenalcat]

Objectively, IV is the ultimate distillation of all their strengths, but I hardly ever play it.  I play III and Houses regularly.

[loveless]

Well, it's like the thing about "Revolution 9" casting a mighty shadow over all four sides of The Beatles. These Led Zeppelin records all have something or other that really infects perceptions of the whole thing (be it "Dancing Days" and "TSRTS" giving Houses a sort of apparent "springtime" brightness, or the more brutal, frantic, uptempo numbers on Presence making that really look like a hyper-lean, visceral and aggressive experience).

There's definitely something that reaches out of IV and maybe repels a bit (objectively great, but maybe somehow less than the sum of its parts - seems "musty" to me in a way that I can't quite quantify).

[Half Machine Lipschitz]

Oh man...

We're Gonna Groove
Four Sticks
Dancing Days

[phenomenalcat]

I just fucking love "Dancing Days".