A Physical Graffiti Selection Box

Snow Dog wrote: ^Night Flight is awesome

My second fav cut on the album. Love the James Brown vocals toward the end.

All excelent tracks, but I had to go with Robert Plant's favorite, Kashmir.

Snow Dog wrote: ^Night Flight is awesome

So is Boogie With Stu

Sorry but I can't stand "Night Flight" at all. It's an uneasy cross between sissy-ish pop and uninspired boogie rock. You hear that guitar track in the chorus? That's the most generic rock & roll guitar lick in existence. Now that wouldn't be so bad if they at least stuck to a regular blues pattern (which is was the lick was originally meant for), but instead they decide to superimpose it on a totally unrelated chord progression. The results are catastrophic to my ears. It's fine by me if you like it, but I consider it a failed songwriting experiment and probably the worst song on the album.

As for "Boogie With Stu", the name says it all. It's just a generic boogie jam with awfully stereotypical lyrics. "I don't want no tutti-frutti, no lollipop" makes me cringe. Musically, there's absolutely nothing interesting going on in this song. Anybody could have improvised it.

"Aesthetics" is a cool word to throw around, but what does it really mean? At the end of the day, it's more or less synonymous to "beauty" (at least in this context), and I see the beauty of music in the enjoyment I get out of a good melody. If not a melody, then anything else that grabs my interest. "Boogie with Stu" is really just a generic boogie that anybody else could have performed, and the players being talented and Robert Plant having a good voice isn't enough to grab my interesting, because that's true for every Led Zeppelin song in existence. I can see why one would find enjoyment in "Night Flight", but for the reasons I outlined above, I think that the different elements clash.

Of course I understand the concept of aesthetics in music. Music is 100% about aesthetics. In the end it all boils down to whether you enjoy a given track or not.

Triceratopsoil wrote: HarbouringTheSoul wrote: At the end of the day, it's more or less synonymous to "beauty" (at least in this context), No, that isn't at all what I meant by it, actually.  See, I was right.

Don't be intentionally obtuse and then criticize the guy for not understanding you.

"I don't want no tutti-frutti, no lollipop/c'mon, baby, just rock, rock, rock,"  yeah, Boogie with Stu may be a generic jam, but Plant wails....and a great cameo from Stu! 

When you have "In My Time of Dying" and "Ten Years Gone", you got me! ...  Though, now that I'm thinking about it, I may choose "Ten Years Gone". Maybe because it's got that sweet romantic tone to it juxtaposed with "mean" moodiness, whereas "In My Time of Dying" has worn on me and is a bit too repetitive.

I'm glad to see such appreciation for Ten Years Gone, it's my pick too. It's something about that mellow beginning that always gets me. Beautiful stuff! And excellent selection of songs Snowy!!

Horizons wrote: Gotta go with the classic Kashmir on this one.