A Random Snapshot of What's on the iPod

Here's a new meme: set the iPod on shuffle. Count to the number of days it is. Talk about what comes up, with authority.

Attempt #1

"Whole Lotta Love" from How the West Was Won by Led Zeppelin.


Oh, Zeppelin fans, unite! If you missed this release in 2003, you missed an event. How the West Was Won is a 3-disc concert CD from Zeppelin in their heyday, much earlier than the adequate-but-disappointing-in-retrospect The Song Remains the Same.

The discs actually combine the pre-Houses of the Holy tour dates in Los Angeles and Long Beach in 1972. Widely regarded by Zep-heads as the finest concert performances on bootleg, this set has been re-mastered and cleaned up for mass release. And oh, it is so worth the wait.

The crowning achievement starts off disc 3 with the classic "Whole Lotta Love." I just re-listened to this, no easy feat at a whopping 23 minutes and 7 seconds. How did Plant/Page/Bonham/Jones stretch it out so long? With fine guitar solos, drum flourishes and vocal acrobatics from Plant. And they also made it a medley. It starts and ends as "Whole Lotta Love," but it weaves its way through John Lee Hooker's "Boogie Chillun," Wanda Jackson's rockabilly classic "Let's Have a Party," and the classic "Hello Mary Lou (Goodbye Heart)" before finishing with a flourish. I was listening to this imagining what it must have been like, and it is truly spine-tingling. Check it out if you can.