Bizcocho Borracho

Hey Seaver... you're on your way to redeeming yourself since the Friday debacle. You might have been a little early tonight (though I was looking at my car clock and not my geek nuclear time watch)... but that was some good rocking tonight, dude.

You know, I think this little experiment is therapeutic. You used to make me so mad, but since I've created a forum to get it all out there... you're kinda growing on me. I hope The Loop keeps you around when Byrd returns to his rightful throne in the evening slot. Morning drive is a big deal and many a jock's goal, but Byrd was put on this earth to rock... not to worry about his timeslot. And he will bring the rock! How about Byrd from 4-8:30p... with that extra half hour to help people Get the Led Out? Give Seaver middays or evenings.

I just had another thought. Who's on the overnights at The Loop? But wait... who cares?!

What's Allan Stagg up to lately? There's a guy who should be working!

OK... enough of this. Let's Get the Led Out.

"Alright, let's go to Angelo in Bensenville. Alright, how are we gonna do this tonite?"
"Uh, Black Mountain Side. [...unintelligible banter...] There's no words and I think it goes right into Communication Breakdown."
"Actually Your Time is Gonna come goes into Black Mountain Side, and uh... and you know what I can do that. I'll just play both those songs. They'll track right together... it'll sound great."
"You can do that?"
"Sure I can do it. And you know what, since it's all about extras on Twofer Tuesday you'll get a bonus Zep tune. So uh, let's Get the Led Out. 97-9 The Loop... Chicago's rock station."

A bonus Zep tune?! That's awesome! I look over to my long-suffering girlfriend, but unlike any other Tuesday when we're Getting the Led Out... I didn't again have to explain my theory on why there should be 4 Zep tunes on Twofer Tuesday. Ever the sly one, she tells me if the "Zep Set" is 3 songs, then there should be 6 total on Twofer Tuesday. That's a great idea if I've ever heard one!

I'm not sure if Angelo from Bensenville ("That old car is worth money!") wanted to hear Communication Breakdown or not, and if he did I'm glad Seaver called the audible and played what he wanted. Nothing against CB, but as I've matured I can appreciate a sensitive acoustic tune about a cheatin' woman. Come to think of it, that's something I didn't realize so much when I was younger. To write all those lyrics, Robert Plant must have known lots of cheatin' women... which is funny 'cause there's no doubt he was cheatin' right back. The churchy organ intro used to turn me off too, but I never gave it a proper chance.

"This is all I gotta say to you, woman. You're Time is Gonna Come!"

Can't say I'm the biggest fan of Black Mountain Side, but it's a perfectly acceptable tune. It is from the Zeppelin catalog after all, but as far as I'm concerned they ALL gotta be in the room for me to give it a fair chance. I was ranting to the girlfriend about how I wasn't interested if Plant wasn't involved. Zeppelin is a BAND... made up of four musicians, not three. We were listening hard for anything besides the obvious acoustic guitar, bass, and percussion... but came up with nothing. Maybe they made Robert sit in the corner with a tambourine. Nope... no tamborine. She asked me if Plant played guitar after I said I thought I heard a second acoustic. She's a musician, so I thought I'd get all impressive and throw out a musical term. It took me some time to rack my brain to find the word harmonics ("Uh, I think I hear some, uh... you know when they tap the guitar and those high, uh, weird... notes come out... uh... uh... harmonics!")... but she just kinda smirked at me because I was unsuccessfully trying to sound smart. Anyway, show me how Plant was involved in Black Mountain Side, and I'll re-evaulate it.

It is important to note that Angelo from Bensenville mentioned Communication Breakdown. After Black Mountain Side came to an end, there was a split second before just part of a cut-off note from Communication Breakdown... straight from Zeppelin I. I'm not putting the blame on Seaver for this one... it could have been his fault or faulty equipment. Click here for an aircheck.

No worries, though... it's time for Trampled Underfoot. This was my favorite Zeppelin song for about a week when I was 15, until I realized it's just not very good. It's another song about a woman, which is cool... but the car analogy is pretty bad, even for guys singing about cheatin' women all the time. My memory of this song is sitting my parents' car in a hotel parking lot, somewhere in the south. We were on a family vacation gawd knows where, and it must have been in the afternoon because it was fucking hot outside. Some classic rock station was airing the Knebworth concert, and kept teasing the Page/Plant reunion (no JPJ... a sign of things to come?)... but hadn't gotten to it by the time we got back to the room. So I stayed out in the car listening to the dudes tear the proverbial roof off the motherfucker. You know... I'm not sure if they even played Trampled Underfoot that day. That station definitely played it though... probably in preparation for the rocking we were about to receive. It was sweet. I love it how hotel rooms have limited cable with bad channels, and you're lucky to get a shitty alarm clock that tunes in nothing. You have to sit out in the car if you wanna rock. I never think to bring along my own radio. But then when the whole family stays in one room, it's pretty easy for your entertainment choices to get overruled. (I do hope that by that time they were getting the rollaway for me... so my sister and I weren't sharing a bed anymore!)

So the bonus song is Custard Pie, and it couldn't have gotten any better. I had dropped off the girl, rolled down the windows... and was cranking some fucking Zep. We'd had tapas for dinner, and ate some kickass dessert similar to tiramisu. That's right... custard. I love custard... especially chocolately custard. Today was sticky hot... but once my belly was full, the sun came down, and the Zeppelin came on... it all felt good. I pull up to a six corner, and in the left turn lane is a cool dude on a motorcyle with his kid. We nodded in acknowledgement of the good rock coming from my car. There was a Pantera bumper sticker on the back side of his bike... one closer to the front one said "Vaginas are way cool". That's one badass dad right there.

As I pull in front of my building, Get the Led Out comes to an end. Seaver backsells the songs, and shouts out to Bensenville once again. Jack wants to hear some Rush, baby... Working Man. That first record... before Peart... back when they were nothing more than a Canadian Zeppelin/Sabbath ripoff band... and they never sounded better. I never got those dudes who wrote "2112" on their grocery bag book covers. Give me Rush I, or give me Geddy with Bob & Doug McKenzie... that's it.