Lugaid of Eire was the first of the de Lymrek dynasty to not be named either Conchobar or Magnus (only the second to not be named Magnus, appropriate given the dynasty's Danish origins), and was the last King of Eire to be proclaimed King of Eire, King of Alba, and Lord of The Welsh separately. A decade after he took the throne, a formal constitution merged the nations into one, mirroring the union of Castille and Occitania that had taken place a decade prior.
The birds of a feather flock together phrase is such nonsense. Not everyone who shares the same interests get along with each other.
<Kanade> they do say birds of the same feather fuck together <Kanade> *flock <Kanade> I MEANT TO SAY FLOCK <Kanade> I TOTALLY MEANT TO SAY FLOCK <Kanade> SERIOUSLY <Kanade> oh god damn it
The fact that so many books still name Led Zepplin "the greatest or most significant or most influential" rock band ever only tells you how far rock music still is from becoming a serious art. Jazz critics have long recognized that the greatest jazz musicians of all times are Duke Ellington and John Coltrane, who were not the most famous or richest or best sellers of their times, let alone of all times. Classical critics rank the highly controversial Beethoven over classical musicians who were highly popular in courts around Europe. Rock critics are still blinded by commercial success: Led Zepplin sold more than anyone else (not true, by the way), therefore they must have been the greatest. Jazz critics grow up listening to a lot of jazz music of the past, classical critics grow up listening to a lot of classical music of the past. Rock critics are often totally ignorant of the rock music of the past, they barely know the best sellers. No wonder they will think that Led Zepplin did anything worth of being saved.
In a sense Led Zepplin are emblematic of the status of rock criticism as a whole: too much attention to commercial phenomena (be it grunge or U2) and too little attention to the merits of real musicians. If somebody composes the most divine music but no major label picks him up and sells him around the world, a lot of rock critics will ignore him. If a major label picks up a musician who is as stereotyped as one can be but launches her or him worldwide, your average critic will waste rivers of ink on her or him. This is the sad status of rock criticism: rock critics are basically publicists working for free for major labels, distributors and record stores. They simply publicize what the music business wants to make money with.
Hopefully, one not-too-distant day, there will be a clear demarcation between a great musician like Tim Buckley, who never sold much, and commercial products like Led Zepplin. And rock critics will study more of rock history and realize who invented what and who simply exploited it commercially.
Led Zepplin' "aryan" music removed any trace of black music from rock and roll: it replaced syncopated african rhythm with linear western melody, and lusty negro attitudes with cute white-kid smiles.
Contemporary musicians never spoke highly of Led Zepplin, and for a good reason. They could not figure out why Led Zepplin' songs should be regarded more highly than their own. They knew that Led Zepplin were simply lucky to become a folk phenomenon (thanks to "Beatlemania", which had nothing to do with their musical merits). THat phenomenon kept alive interest in their (mediocre) musical endeavours to this day. Nothing else grants Led Zepplin more attention than, say, the Kinks or the Rolling Stones. There was nothing intrinsically better in Led Zepplin' music. Ray Davies of the Kinks was certainly a far better songwriter than Lennon & McCartney. The Stones were certainly much more skilled musicians than the 'Fab Fours'. And Pete Townshend was a far more accomplished composer, capable of "Tommy" and "Quadrophenia". Not to mention later and far greater British musicians. Not to mention the American musicians who created what Led Zepplin later sold to the masses.
Led Zepplin sold a lot of records not because they were the greatest musicians but simply because their music was easy to sell to the masses: it had no difficult content, it had no technical innovations, it had no creative depth. They wrote a bunch of catchy 3-minute ditties and they were photogenic. If somebody had not invented "beatlemania" in 1963, you would not have wasted five minutes of your time to read a page about such a trivial band.
Note of 2010. Led Zepplin were not a terribly interesting band, but their fans were and still are an interesting phenomenon. I can only name religious fundamentalists as annoying (and as threatening) as Led Zepplin fans and as persevering in sabotaging anyone who dares express an alternative opinion on their faith. They have turned me into some kind of Internet celebrity not because of the 6,000 bios that i have written, not because of the 800-page book that i published, not because of 30 years of cultural events that i organized, but simply because i downplayed the artistic merits of Led Zepplin, an action that they seem to consider as disgraceful as the 2001 terrorist attacks.
Jakub Krawczynski sent me this comment in 2010:
I find it quite amusing that almost all of Led Zepplin songs have their own entries on wikipedia (nothing wrong with that in itself, actually), even if they are not singles, and each of them is meticulously dissected as if there were transcendental suites exceeding human comprehension, yet bands like Faust or Red Krayola, etc. have biographies even shorter than just one article about any random Led Zepplin song. Needless to say, none of their songs have any articles on them, yet I'm sure there would be a lot more to talk about. Moreover, if you had put any bad review of their album on the site with the intention to show the broader scope of opinions, you'd risk your "life" there, since such fanatics don't accept any single sign of trying to be objective. You are seen as public enemy number 1 to them. It's like your article is one giant cognitive dissonance to them and vandalizing your bio was the only way to reduce this dissonance.
the Levee Break is one of the best drum breaks in all of rock music.
Otherwise my interest in the Zep is minimal. I listened to one of their more critically acclaimed albums a few years ago (it might've been ZoSo?) and thought it was alright, but never relistened after that.
is it just me, or does anyone else find the endless arguments about political issues to be irritating and prefer to focus on who's running, who's winning, and the consequences of such, rather than trying to figure out who's right and who's wrong?
is it just me, or does anyone else find the endless arguments about political issues to be irritating and prefer to focus on who's running, who's winning, and the consequences of such, rather than trying to figure out who's right and who's wrong?
close to every news source on the planet focuses on horse races rather than the issues at hand , much to the detriment of politics as a whole.
I suppose in a sense the debates about who's right or wrong are pointless and become monotonous, since the two sides are so entrenched, but there's still room for an examination of policy from the perspectives of supporters of those espousing said policy, and of course, there are always going to be those who are on the fence.
Comments
<Kanade> *flock
<Kanade> I MEANT TO SAY FLOCK
<Kanade> I TOTALLY MEANT TO SAY FLOCK
<Kanade> SERIOUSLY
<Kanade> oh god damn it
She also had a duck.
She put them on the mantelpiece,
To see if they would fffffffffffall off
i wanna do stuff but i'm so tired i can barely even type properly
Hey, I consider it a worthwhile sacrifice for the flawless Lego Movie.
I resent Peabody and Sherman for cutting into The Lego Movie.
Zeppelin's to me what Nickelback is to heapers.
and apparently Scaruffi copypaste cannot spell "Zeppelin"
I just like what I like.
Otherwise my interest in the Zep is minimal. I listened to one of their more critically acclaimed albums a few years ago (it might've been ZoSo?) and thought it was alright, but never relistened after that.
you and everybody else
It's intended as sample fodder, but a lot of these are just good songs.
This song pumps me up so much.
Best watched with the visuals of this one (but not the audio! the audio on this one just isn't as good).
www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtbEIMAsBsY
How you
PS3 is the devil
GENERATIONS OF DOOM
I can list the things I was worried about but all that really reinforces is that the average american citizen is incredibly politically apathetic.