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General => General Music Discussion => Topic started by: WildRanger on May 10, 2019, 04:13:37 PM
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As a Zeppelin fan I could never understand why is "Immigrant Song" one of the most popular, revered and iconic Zep tunes.
1) Its length is only 2:26.
2) It has no guitar solo.
3) It's basically one, same guitar riff/melody throughout the whole song, it lacks any musical changes and diverse elements.
From a musical perspective what makes that song so special or great?
Your subjective views and arguments?
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It's just a kickass song. Nuff said. Sometimes less is more.
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I think the reasons you listed are probably why. The riff has a hypnotic vibe they were obviously going for. But even I know they have better songs. It was probably very cool and original at the time.
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The sing has great imagery. It's as close to heavy metal as Zeppelin got, especially in their early days. Plus it stands out as the true rocker on the album that it's on.
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I don't get a thing about Led Zeppelin.
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1) Its length is only 2:26.
3) It's basically one, same guitar riff/melody throughout the whole song, it lacks any musical changes and diverse elements.
Give or take the exact lenght, this basically describes Paranoid as well :D
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Question, why does a song have to have "diverse elements" and "changes" to be considered great? Sabbath wrote Paranoid in minutes and it's one of their most fun songs. Paul McCartney wrote Yesterday pretty quickly, it's barebones and yet it's arguably one of the greatest songs ever written.
Less is almost always more.
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the only good songs are 20+ minute prog epics with at least a dozen different instruments playing at all times
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the only good songs are 20+ minute prog epics with at least a dozen different instruments playing at all times
You mean like all Free Improv Jazz? :biggrin:
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exactly
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Wilderanger is right.
Song doesn't even have double bass!
And would it have killed John Paul Jones to thrown in some tapping or natural harmonics? UGH!
I wouldn't even consider it a real song.
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there aren't even any trap hihats or glossy synths. not real music
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For the record, I hear it's Donald Trump's least favorite Zeppelin song too.
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Thor loves it too for the love of thunder God.
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1) Its length is only 2:26.
Try playing that bass drum figure for longer than 2:26 minutes :lol
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For the record, I hear it's Donald Trump's least favorite Zeppelin song too.
This needs some appreciation.
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For the record, I hear it's Donald Trump's least favorite Zeppelin song too.
His favorite is probably Trumpled Underfoot. ;)
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I used to work with a guy who played bass guitar, and he said the bass line is this song was extremely difficult to wrap his head around and get right. LZ was his favorite band and he could play most of their songs, but this one always stumped him. Amazing tune.
For the record, I hear it's Donald Trump's least favorite Zeppelin song too.
:rollin :rollin :rollin :rollin :rollin
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I used to work with a guy who played bass guitar, and he said the bass line is this song was extremely difficult to wrap his head around and get right. LZ was his favorite band and he could play most of their songs, but this one always stumped him. Amazing tune.
Just looked it up. I don't think I've ever paid attention to that fast part. Wow!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2mu25tEqb4
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The part that starts at 44 secs is ridiculous.
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Btw, length doesn't matter. Girth does.
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Says the bumper sticker on the Bondo Buggy.
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No that was "Bigger Than John Holmes" I kid you not.
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Sorry WildRanger.....but you just lost your only supporter on this forum. :coolio :lol
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I don't get a thing about Led Zeppelin.
this
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For the record, I hear it's Donald Trump's least favorite Zeppelin song too.
His favorite is probably Trumpled Underfoot. ;)
Nah, it's Over the Wall and Far Away :biggrin:
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I already thought it was a kickass song, and reading this thread makes me think even more highly of it. Because of its straight ahead nature I never really paid much attention to the individual components.
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I don't consider myself a Led Zeppelin fan (I don't dislike them either) so my post is more from a casual point of view but I think what makes Immigrant Song great is what makes a lot of hit songs memorable and that's the ability to write a short song that just gets stuck in your head right away. I believe someone else mentioned Paranoid in the thread, Smoke on the Water or Run to the Hills would be other similar songs for me. Not necessarily the best songs by any of those bands but they stick with you in a great way. There's an art to writing a great 2 ½ - 3 minute song that becomes a classic.
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It's just a really catchy and fun song to listen to. Sure they have better songs in my opinion, but I completely understand why it's so popular.
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For the record, I hear it's Donald Trump's least favorite Zeppelin song too.
His favorite is probably Trumpled Underfoot. ;)
Nah, it's Over the Wall and Far Away :biggrin:
:lol
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Some songs are great because of their melodies, some are great because of their musicianship, some for their lyrics, some for their place in rock history. There are many reasons a song can be considered great. For me, Immigrant Song is all about that propulsive beat. There's a 'primitive' quality to it, from the driving riff to Plant's opening primal scream. On the one hand it coudn't be a simpler song, but on the other, it gets right down to the basics of rock music: rhythm. In this way it reminds me of Tool's 'Triad', another song that sounds 'simple' on the surface (almost literally just a one-note riff), or Pete Townshend's brilliant 1-note guitar solo in I Can See For Miles. Sometimes it's good to be reminded of the power of just one or 2 notes, and Immigrant Song does that for me. It's not their best song, but it is one of the best of its kind.
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It's no Marillion song, I'll give you that.
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:facepalm:
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For the record, I hear it's Donald Trump's least favorite Zeppelin song too.
This needs some appreciation.
Trump is a bit more of a Floyd fan
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What I don't get is why people feed in to this troll. I rarely go into his click-bait threads, and the odd time I do, he's rarely even participating in the discussion he created. To me, that's the definition of a troll.
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What I don't get is why people feed in to this troll. I rarely go into his click-bait threads, and the odd time I do, he's rarely even participating in the discussion he created. To me, that's the definition of a troll.
This. He's had at least one temp-ban so far. (I'm sure it's actually two, but I can't confirm that.) Just waiting for the next slip-up...
He's certainly a good troll, I'll give him that. Doing enough to diminish the experience of visiting this forum, and yet just about staying within the rules.
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He’s not a troll he’s just a strange guy. I dont think he means any harm.
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Honestly, there's nothing about this thread that's trollish. It has actually spurred some discussion. For everyone calling him a troll, how many threads have you started to spur some music discussion?
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the specific problem is that he almost never participates in his own threads. sure, they're discussion, but he's not contributing to it. he just starts it then vanishes
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the specific problem is that he almost never participates in his own threads. sure, they're discussion, but he's not contributing to it. he just starts it then vanishes
Well, that I agree with, and have mentioned that in the past.
Still, I come hear to talk about music, and many of these threads provide an opportunity to do so.
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I've listened to the Immigrant Song many many times. It's a super kick ass tune.
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Honestly, there's nothing about this thread that's trollish. It has actually spurred some discussion. For everyone calling him a troll, how many threads have you started to spur some music discussion?
I've never considered him a troll, I actually get a kick out of some of his threads and the random topics he comes up with :lol
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Same here, but I do find it interesting that he rarely contributes to the conversations he starts, and I can see how that can be annoying to some. Why ask a question if you're not interested in the answer? Why start a discussion if you have no intention of participating in it?
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Count me in as a supporter in general.
"I never learned anything from a man who agreed with me." is a famous quote that I think has some application here.
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Incredible rythmic aggression (it was 1970 for perspective's sake), perfect banging fast riff, great wailing, arguably a game-changer for rock speed and brutality at the time (with its spiritual twin Speed King). These are the reasons Immigrant Song is "great" in my opinion, plus it's one of those tunes you forever remember the first time you heard it.
About WildRanger: I don't believe him to be a troll (or maybe my idea of what a troll makes is a bit off). He asks questions and I've always read him like someone interested in some kind of intriguing opinion-data collection inside a sort of elusive great unified theory of rock music. The fact he rarely argues the answers to his questions doesn't annoy me in the slightest. On the opposite, it may very well be a hint of a honest need for opinions vs a provocative need to dispute them.
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The sing has great imagery. It's as close to heavy metal as Zeppelin got, especially in their early days. Plus it stands out as the true rocker on the album that it's on.
This... and
Question, why does a song have to have "diverse elements" and "changes" to be considered great? Sabbath wrote Paranoid in minutes and it's one of their most fun songs. Paul McCartney wrote Yesterday pretty quickly, it's barebones and yet it's arguably one of the greatest songs ever written.
Less is almost always more.
This.
Led Zeppelin is, in my humble opinion, the second greatest rock band of all time, and I've found the more you pick it apart, the less it impacts. It's a visceral thing, and this song is probably the epitome of that. (It also is the contextual source of the phrase "The Hammer of the Gods", which has stuck with Zeppelin ever since, including as the title of the infamous biography of the band).
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Not all trolls need to be mean/malicious. He's a cute little troll, but a troll none-the-less
(https://i.pinimg.com/originals/b7/d8/e0/b7d8e00e05ec8cf80eccbba566e79e05.jpg)
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As a Zeppelin fan I could never understand why is "Immigrant Song" one of the most popular, revered and iconic Zep tunes.
1) Its length is only 2:26.
2) It has no guitar solo.
3) It's basically one, same guitar riff/melody throughout the whole song, it lacks any musical changes and diverse elements.
From a musical perspective what makes that song so special or great?
Your subjective views and arguments?
No guitar solo isn't an issue. For me, Page really isn't great soloist. The other two points are both valid, but the short length of the song balances out that it's really a single-riff song. That single riff is really (even though it's just the root and the octave played in rhythm), it's a powerhouse song, and the vocals are soaring. It also stands in rather stark contrast to what is otherwise a rather forgettable album.
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On a scale from one to ten, this song kicks ass.
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On a scale from one to ten, this song kicks ass.
:lol sooo...is that an 11?
When I first started listening to Zep in the mid 70's the Immigrant song, along with Heartbreaker were a couple of the best riffs I'd ever heard! I hear the Immigrant song and can just visualize epic Viking battles. :metal :metal :metal
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Greatness doesn't depend on song length or guitar solo. You have begin to think that a song to be good has to have certain qualities... then you are only moving in circles. What I don't get is whenever you feel something controversial, you make a thread.