Experiencing Led Zeppelin

September 15, 2014
Music writer Akkerman (The Last Balladeer: The Johnny Hartman Story) delivers an excellent look at Led Zeppelin's music, focusing on each of the band's nine studio albums between 1968 and 1979, with a song-by-song analysisâwith some examples from live concertsâthat proves how well the music "has weathered the passing of the decades." It helps that Akkerman is a self-professed "fan but not a Led Zeppelin fanatic." This allows him to effectively articulate which songs stand out ("When the Levee Breaks" was Led Zeppelin at their best, reinterpreting American blues into something distinctly their own") and their worst ("'Hot Dog' is a mess of a song"). While Akkerman sometimes leans towards the overly academic ("That's the Way" melds music and words "in a manner equal to any text painting composer of the Renaissance"), each page reveals some new aspect of Zeppelin's legacy soundâeven in "Stairway to Heaven," as Akkerman looks at the harmonic importance of the song's A-minor key. Even the most hardcore Zeppelin critic will listen again when the song is played on the radio for the millionth time.