Presence [Remaster]

Performer: Led Zeppelin
Engineer: Jeremy Gee; Jeremy Gee; Keith Harwood
Producer: Jimmy Page
Distributor: WEA (Distributor)

Notes: Led Zeppelin: Robert Plant (vocals, harmonica); Jimmy Page (electric & acoustic guitars, background vocals); John Paul Jones (bass, keyboards, background vocals); John Bonham (drums). Recorded at Musicland Studios, Munich, West Germany. Personnel: Robert Plant (vocals, harmonica); Jimmy Page (guitar, acoustic guitar, electric guitar); John Paul Jones (keyboards); John Bonham (drums). Audio Mixer: Keith Harwood. Recording information: Musicland Studios, Munich, Germany (11/1975-12/1975). Presence scales back the size of Physical Graffiti to a single album, but it retains the grandiose scope of that double record. If anything, Presence has more majestic epics than its predecessor, opening with the surging, ten-minute "Achilles Last Stand" and closing with the meandering, nearly ten-minute "Tea for One." In between, Led Zeppelin add the lumbering blues workout "Nobody's Fault But Mine" and the terse, menacing "For Your Life," which is the best song on the album. These four tracks take up the bulk of the album, leaving three lighthearted throwaways to alleviate the foreboding atmosphere -- and pretensions -- of the epics. If all of the throwaways were as focused and funny as those on Physical Graffiti or Houses of the Holy, Zeppelin would have had another classic on their hands. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine Led Zeppelin's seventh album, PRESENCE, is a straight-ahead rocker, that has much more of a "live" feel than some of their previous recordings. Gone are most of the big production flourishes, and in their place the big power trio + vocals sound that made Led Zeppelin such a popular concert band. The opening "Achilles Last Stand" is a driving, up-tempo rocker, while the closing "Tea For One" is a slow, Chicago-style blues, featuring Plant's moaning vocals and Page's alternatingly sweet, and frenetic solos. Elsewhere, "Royal Orleans" mixes delta blues with Indian music, "Hots On For Nowhere" is a stop-time boogie, and "Candy Store Rock" is heavy metal rockabilly.

Q (11/94, p.143) - 3 Stars - Good - "...kind of PHYSICAL GRAFFITI, part two, though not quite essential..."

Formed from the ashes of British blues-rockers the Yardbirds, Led Zeppelin shot to the stratosphere in the early 1970s. With Dionysian frenzy and a blast of blues-drenched riffs, they became one of the biggest bands of the era. Their intense musical excursions helped define the sound of hard rock, while their penchant for folk balladry added to their mystique as rock gods. The group called it quits after the death of drummer John Bonham in 1980, and remaining members Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, and John Paul Jones pursued (mostly) separate musical ventures.

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