Album of the Day-May 19

Led Zeppelin — Presence

Led Zeppelin — Presence

Led Zeppelin — Presence

19.May.2020
Led Zeppelin
Presence
1976

If you like Led Zeppelin you have a favorite Zeppelin album. For many, it’s II, or IV or Physical Graffiti. The odds are it’s not gonna be Presence.

Yet for me, Presence has clarity in sound that most of their other albums do not.

It’s also refreshing to know that every time I play this album, I know I’ll be listening to songs I haven’t heard a hundred million times.

I grew up listening to classic rock. Yea, “Whole Lotta Love, “Black Dog”, and “Kashmir” are great songs but I’ve heard them enough. If I hear them any more I’m going to take an ice pick and jam it in my ear.

I’m all set with those songs thank you very much.

Presence is a strange album for a band that was, at the time, the biggest rock and roll band in the world. There is no question it is a Led Zeppelin album, it’s just that it has more crunch than the previous albums. Largely written by Jimmy Page and Robert Plant in Malibu while Plant was convalescing from a car accident earlier in the year, with only one song, “Royal Orleans”, being attributed to all four members. Conspicuously absent is the lack of any acoustic noodling that is normally found on a Led Zeppelin album.

Perhaps as a result of the accident, Plant’s lyrics had begun to stretch beyond nymphs, trolls, and any other sort of Tolkien imagery (“Achilles Last Stand” notwithstanding). Songs like “For Your Life”, “Candy Store Rock”, and “Royal Orleans” highlight a progressive lyrical maturing that had begun on Physical Graffiti. And Jimmy Page proved again why he’s Jimmy Page.

Once the songs were written, John Paul Jones and John Bonham flew to Los Angeles to rehearse, and then the band went to Munich to record the album. Even with Robert Plant forced to record his vocals from a wheelchair, the album was recorded and mixed in 18 days…the fastest turnaround since their debut album.

Commercially the album sold well in the U.S. and Europe. And as was always the case with Led Zeppelin, fans loved the album. And even though Presence peaked at #1 on the Billboard Album Charts and shipped gold in the U.K., it was the lowest-selling album of their career.

While fans loved Zeppelin, as was always the case, critics did not…and they certainly did not like Presence.

• Robert Christgau of The Village Voice called it “consistent but unnecessary.”

• Neil McCormick of The Daily Telegraph claimed it was “Zeppelin at their most blunted."

Even when re-issued, modern reviewers got cranky about it:

• Mark Richardson of Pitchfork dubbed Presence as one of Zeppelin’s worst albums adding “none of these songs sound like they could have come from another record.” (to me, that’s a compliment…not sure it’s meant that way.)

• Q Magazine reviewed the album saying that “Presence sounds as rushed as it was.”

Even Jimmy Page admitted in 2005 that “…it’s not an easy album for a lot of people to access …it’s not an easy album for a lot of people to listen to.”

Believe it or not, but Presence got nominated for a Grammy Award…for Best Album Package (it lost). And the packaging fits the album perfectly. There are all sorts of 70s British stoner design philosophy behind it, but it was designed by Hipgnosis…an art design group who also worked with Pink Floyd, Black Sabbath, AC/DC, etc. ‘Nuff said.

Presence gets put in the same corner of the Led Zeppelin catalog as Coda does. It’s just that Coda gets a pass because it’s a collage of outtakes slapped together after John Bonham passed away.

If you’re a Led Zeppelin fan and you’ve got 45 minutes to kill and you haven’t heard Presence in awhile, give it a fresh listen. You may be surprised. It holds up quite well.