ROCK 'N' ROLL BON MOTS, #006

Things my weird musical education deprived me of knowing: just how goddamn noise-rock the middle section of "Whole Lotta Love" is! OK, maybe it's not a whole lot noise-rock for today, but for the 70s, hey, that's pretty damn good. It's specifically the Sonic Youth feel to the whole section--the drums sort of pounding away blindly (the steady pedal-hat beat is very Steve Shelly, although I can't remember for the life of me what song this is from) while non-rhythmic noise elements float through, like the channel-crossing buzz, Plant's distanced vocals, the guitar's mechanical elements ringing out. Certainly elements of the whole song are sort of annoying (in the context of hearing all the noise bits and weird arrangement choices, the more conventional, hooky blues bits at the heart tend to grate), but I think this one deserves closer attention.
posted by Mike B. at 9:18 AM 0 comments