“They are an immovable force in music... I don’t trust anyone who doesn’t like them.” Jack White
Jack White may be many things but wrong about Led Zeppelin isn’t one of them.
Often imitated, never bettered. They burst out of the gate white-hot and tighter than a duck’s arse, delivering jaw-dropping rock with a capital ROCK and never really slowed down. Their last few albums may have suffered from the shadows of personal tragedies but even then they could bring it like few others. I can’t write anything about them or better than what has already been written.
But… as a result of prepping a room for redecoration I did come across a pile of old cd compilations that I must have made some ten years gone and – while they’ve travelled and been spun here and in Romania before picking up dust and scuffs that cause the dreaded skip just as you’re getting your head bang on – it was a real pleasant surprise to find my old self-compiled Led Zeppelin cd again.
I know… why would I want such a thing, it’s not like there are already several Led Zeppelin compilations on the market but we all know that those compilations are invariably altered based on Jimmy Page’s preference at the time, there’ll be a little too much focus applied to later tunes that don’t really stand shoulder to shoulder, suffer a little from CD bloat etc…. besides: this is my single-disc all killer, no filler blast of my favourite Led Zeppelin tunes (well, as they were back when I made it) that – I think – covers every aspect of what made them great, get in, hit em hard and get out compilation. It’s probably also the only Led Zeppelin compilation with no ‘Whole Lotta Love’ and without a trace of ‘Stairway to Heaven’. I know: denied.
Mumbling About... 
You know, I felt something in my trousers I thought, maybe the universe has shifted. But no, it was only a Zep post. So, same thing. Good list. I’ll think about mine and get back to you. I will warn you in advance that there may be two on my list that are missing from yours – Hairway to Steven and Whole Lotta Yorkshire Pudding.
Last time I felt something in my trousers I needed to sit down for a week.
I think Stairway to a Lotta Loving was omitted purely because they were so familiar and had a timing conflict to keep Rain Song and Dazed on
That reminds me that I wanted to put my own list together
Here’s my list. Going by your dictum that it’s CD-length, this is somewhere around 79 minutes. Interestingly, nothing from “Houses of the Holy,” “Presence,” or “In Through the Out Door.” No “Kashmir.” And the first album is a Desert Island Disc for me.
Good Times Bad Times
Babe I’m Gonna Leave You
Communication Breakdown
Whole Lotta Love
The Lemon Song
Immigrant Song
Black Dog
Rock and Roll
Stairway to Heaven
In My Time of Dying
Trampled Under Foot
Ten Years Gone
The Wanton Song
Traveling Riverside Blues
Bring it On Home
As with a lot of bands, I tend to gravitate to Led Zep’s mid career, when they’d established themselves and were free to stretch out a bit more. I think we have four in common?
No Quarter
Hey Hey, What Can I Do
When The Levee Breaks
Stairway To Heaven
Tangerine
Achilles Last Stand
Over The Hills and Far Away
The Rain Song
Kashmir
The Rover
I think if I were to revisit then Archilles Last Stand would be there and Over The Hills would round out the five minutes additional run time my list has for the 80min cd/r
Then our lists would look pretty similar. Achilles towers over the rest of Presence for me – there’s some great playing, but that’s the one really great song on it.
Great list! You really can’t go wrong with Zep, says the clever music blogger who didn’t like them much at first. But while they were an acquired taste, I’ve really come to love them.
Like Jim, “Whole Lotta Love” and “Stairway to Heaven” definitely would be part of my list, even though these tunes haven’t exactly suffered from under-exposure.
I would also add “All of My Love” and “Fool in the Rain”. I also like “In the Evening”.
That’s the great thing about self-compiled albums. You create your own orthodoxy. Many years ago I notionally created one myself (notional because it didn’t make it to CD-R) called “Led Zeppelin for chicks”. Wouldn’t pass must now, of course, but in the 70s… Actually, not then either. Still, it was a good list.
Thanks for this. Good fun.
Whenever I say Led Zeppelin, I say it like I was Scooby Doo. Fact.