You like-a da juice?

It's been a lazy afternoon... after I finally got used to the jets screaming overhead. Every year I forget about the damn Air & Water Show until suddenly one weekend I feel under attack. Maybe if I watched and listened to "news" programs instead of rocking and trying to be entertained, I'd know what's going on in this city...

It's supposed to be real nice out tomorrow, with lows maybe reaching the 40s. That's awesome. I walked over to the local gyros storefront this afternoon, and was sweating like mad by the time I walked in. How do those guys working the grill handle it?

So I just popped in one of my Led Zeppelin BBC Sessions discs, and I'm rocking to The Girl I Love She Got Long Black Wavy Hair... which sounds like Moby Dick with lyrics and no drum solo. Maybe that's why they never recorded it in the studio, but damn it's kicking my ass. There was a (too long) moment in time when all the Zeppelin I had was this collection... I'd lost my box sets in the "settlement" with my ex. I actually gave them to her... this way I had an excuse to finally buy the Complete Studio Recordings box. Due to money factors and moving and shit, I didn't get around to buying it until months and months later. When I finally got it through Amazon, disc 2 of Physical Grafitti was missing! C'mon... no Boogie With Stu?! Unacceptable. Thankfully they let me return it, so now I'm all set.

I admire what Page was trying to do with the original Box Set... but I for one never need to hear Living Loving Maid right after Heartbreaker on classic rock radio again. It's just too predictable. With that release, Page was asking us to listen to the songs in a different context. It worked to a degree, but LPs were tracked in a certain order for a reason... especially back in the AOR era. Zeppelin never released two songs on the same side of a 45 (they barely released 45s at all), so I never understood why those songs ALWAYS had to go together on the radio.

This gets me thinking back to my first conscious memory or Zeppelin. I didn't get into them until high school, but I have a hazy memory from way back. It possibly could be a manufactured memory, but it's so vivid that I can't shake the feeling...

My folks had some decent records in their collection, but they weren't music freaks by any means. It's likely that I heard some Zeppelin in real time on the radio before Bonham kicked his final bass drum, but it would have had to have been on an AM pop station. It's weird to think that I can remember back to AM music radio days, but I didn't make the switch over until probably sometime around 1980-1982. I became obsessed with the radio, having my cousin call into a station to vote for my favorite song for the 9pm countdown... because it was long-distance from my house. If I could have gotten away with it, I would have stacked the votes... but it was up to him, and to this day I still don't know if he actually put in my ballots. Anyway, I was a top-40 geek and could tell you any song within a couple notes. I vaguely remember Name that Tune, but I'm sure I could have won some prizes. And at the time, Casey Kasem was my hero.

But here's where the Zeppelin memory comes in. My family was driving down a country road near our house, in the summer with the sunroof open. It was one of those perfect nights... nice outside, and my station on the radio. No talking, just cruising around going to get ice cream or something. To this day, whenever I hear All My Love... it's this moment in time I can still remember, feel and smell. This was definitely post-1980, and thus post-Zeppelin. But for some reason JPJ's cheesy synth (bless that man) still takes me back to that memory.

It's especially funny because the aforementioned car was apparently my dad's idea of a joke... a Renault Le Car. Supposedly it was the French car company's response to the success of Volkswagen. It was only made for the US market, and written in big letters on the side was "Le Car". My mom was so pissed at my dad when he brought that thing home. It was funny looking to me then. But it was silver and it had a great radio. Other people nearby actaully had Le Cars too, and we'd wave at each other when we passed... as if we were some proud community. Unfortunately the thing was a piece of shit and was having trouble all the time. At one point we could only have one accessory on at a time. If it was raining and we were using the wipers, we couldn't turn on the radio. It was a gamble to drive it in the rain with the lights on too. Luckily we can laugh at it now. It's still known as the "Le Shit" among my family... and the official Renault site doesn't even acknowledge its existence.

OK, I just skipped back to Traveling Riverside Blues. Remember when that song was only available on the radio? I used to call up the local jock (by that time we'd moved so it was a free call) every time he played it to ask him where he got it... and The Slog Zeppelin mix-single too. He told me they showed up at the station in plain brown bags. That's just awesome. That was the fucking Zeppelin mystique.

By the way, I gotta give The Loop credit for turning me onto another version of All My Love. It wasn't too long after I'd moved to Chicago when I heard it on Get the Led Out (pre-Byrd). In these times, though... I was able to find the song on LimeWire after checking back for a few weeks. It was mislabeled as a live studio version, but there are obvious overdubs so I redubbed it the "Unfinished Version". It's a little more raw, and without the synth breakdown. I love both versions, and am still a staunch defender of All My Love... despite that other Zeppelin fans think it's soft. Even without the Le Shit memories, it's an awesome song. Check it out.