PRESENCE

"Presence" is the seventh studio album of Led Zeppelin and was released in 1976. It was written and recorded during a tumultuous time in the band's history, when Robert Plant was recovering from serious injuries that he had suffered in a recent car accident. During the convalescence period in Malibu, California, Plant wrote some lyrics, and when Page joined him those compositions were finished. So, due to that, most of the album was composed only by Page and Plant.

Page and Plant had planned the album as a return to hard rock but on a new level of complexity. It marked a change in direction from Led Zeppelin to a bit less elaborate sound. While previous albums contained hard rock with acoustic ballads, "Presence" is the only album that uses no keyboards and no acoustic tracks. It's perhaps the most unusual Led Zeppelin's album with the last one "In Trough The Out Door", although each of their albums is quite distinct, really. The album received mixed reviews from critics and became the least successful album in the Led Zeppelin's catalog, commercially. However, "Presence" is the album that the band themselves considered to be their "most important" too.

"Presence" has seven tracks. The first track "Achilles Last Stand" written by Robert Plant and Jimmy Page is the third longest studio song released by Led Zeppelin, after "In My Time Of Dying" and "Carouselambra". It's an amazing epic track full of complex guitar work by Page, a famous Bonham's powerful drumming, a Jones's galloping bass line and a wonderful and one of the most remarkable vocal works by Plant. This is one of the most powerful and amazing tracks ever made by the band and one of my favourite tracks too. The second track "For Your Life" written by Robert Plant and Jimmy Page is a very good song but doesn't represents one of the greatest songs on the album. It's a song influenced by blues with plenty of energy through all over the song and with a very pleasant riff. Despite all I said before, it's a very pleasant and interesting song on the album. The third track "Royal Orleans" written by Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones and John Bonham was the song chosen to be the B side of their only single from this album "Candy Store Rock". It's the only band's composition on the album and it's also one of the two weakest songs on the album. It's a very funky influenced track with a nice drumming performance on it. This is, in my opinion, a very weak song for the Led Zeppelin's usual quality standard. The fourth track "Nobody's Fault But Mine" written by Robert Plant and Jimmy Page is clearly a song with its roots in the blues and in the rock, the formula that made Led Zeppelin so famous. It has a great vocal performance, a great guitar performance, a great bass riff and a great harmonica work. It's another superb song that represents the second highlight on the album and that soon became a classic Led Zeppelin's track. The fifth track "Candy Store Rock" written by Robert Plant and Jimmy Page was, as I wrote before, the song chosen to be the single of the album. The track was made in the style of a 50's Rock'n'Roll musical number. It's a monotonous and a boring song, which is, without any doubt, the second weakest song on the album. Like "Royal Orleans" it's also a very weak song for a Led Zeppelin's track. The sixth track "Hots On For Nowhere" written by Robert Plant and Jimmy Page isn't also one of the greatest songs on the album. However, this is a very decent and catchy track, with a nice and cool vocal melody. It isn't a masterpiece or even a highlight, but there are some interesting and nice things to hear on it. The seventh and last track "Tea For One" written by Robert Plant and Jimmy Page is another great song and the third highlight on the album. It's a great slow blues epic track that recalls the earlier Led Zeppelin song, in sound and style, "Since I've Been Loving You". It came from the desire of the band to return to their initial roots. This is, in reality, an exceptional track where Plant's vocal work is absolutely tremendous, one of his best in the history of the group, really.

Conclusion: There is a common point on the two last studio albums from Led Zeppelin, "Presence" and "In Through The Out Door". They aren't a collective effort by all bands' members but almost an effort of two of them. "In Through The Out Door" features much greater influence of Plant and Jones because Page and Bonham often not appeared on time in the studio sessions with Page suffering from heroin problems and Bonham suffering from alcoholism problems. "Presence" features much greater influence of Plant and Page because the car accident of Plant in Malibu. As I said before, this can be explain by the fact that the majority of the songs were made at Malibu, where Page had initially joined to Plant, but no Jones and Bonham were present. By the other hand, they're two completely distinct musical works. "Presence" is a guitar based album where the keyboards were totally removed and "In Through The Out Door" is the opposite, a keyboard based album with keyboards on all tracks that pushes Page's guitar into the background on several songs. However and despite both albums represent two completely different musical proposals, they are both, in my humble opinion, two much underrated albums. Sincerely, in my opinion, all Led Zeppelin's albums are excellent.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)

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