Celebration Day

I did not watch the Grammy’s and from what I hear, I didn’t miss much. But odd timing in that I just got Celebration Day from the library – Led Zeppelin’s Grammy winner for best rock album for a Live recording made in 2007. Huh?

Anyway I was looking forward to listening so this morn I popped it in the CD player on my way to work.

I like Led Zeppelin a lot; mostly their first two albums. But apart from the oddness of a 2007 recording getting a 2013 award … what gives?

For starters their timing is just way off. Plant starts singing too soon, leaves out entire sections of lyrics and well he just doesn’t have his old voice anymore. (His voice works just fine with Alison Kraus and I fully expect him to do something with his latest girl, Patty Griffin and I’m sure that will be good too) Mr. Page still has pretty good guitar chops and that kid, Jason Bonham is every bit the drummer his father was and more. But collectively they just don’t hold up.

If Led had never won a Grammy before or somebody just died I’d understand how this was needed. But they are in the Hall of Fame, nobody questions their impact on rock-and-roll and their standing as one of the top bands of all time, so why?