Music / Led Zeppelin II

"And if you say to me tomorrow, oh what fun it all would be/Then what's to stop us, pretty baby, but what is and what should never be..."

Led Zeppelin II is the second studio album by Led Zeppelin, released in 1969 through Atlantic Records. It is one of their best-selling, heaviest and most influential records. It's famous for the hit songs "Whole Lotta Love", "Heartbreaker" and "Ramble On".

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Tracklist:

Side One

1. "Whole Lotta Love" (5:33)
2. "What Is And What Should Never Be" (4:47)
3. "The Lemon Song" (6:20)
4. "Thank You" (3:50)

Side Two

5. "Heartbreaker" (4:15)
6. "Living Loving Maid (She's Just A Woman)" (2:40)
7. "Ramble On" (4:35)
8. "Moby Dick" (4:25)
9. "Bring It On Home" (4:19)

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Bonus Disc (Deluxe Edition):

1. "Whole Lotta Love (Rough Mix)" (5:38)
2. "What Is And What Should Never Be (Rough Mix)" (4:33)
3. "Thank You (Backing Track)" (4:21)
4. "Heartbreaker (Rough Mix)" (4:24)
5. "Living Loving Maid (She's Just A Woman) (Backing Track)" (3:08)
6. "Ramble On (Rough Mix)" (4:43)
7. "Moby Dick (Backing Track)" (1:37)
8. "La La" (4:07)

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Principal Members:

• John Bonham - drums, timpani
• John Paul Jones - bass, organ
• Jimmy Page - guitar, vocals, theremin
• Robert Plant - lead vocals, harmonica

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Whole Lotta Tropes:

• Album Filler: "Living Loving Maid" was written with this purpose, according to Jimmy Page. If you don't like drum solos then "Moby Dick" might also come across as this.
• Alliterative Title: "Living Loving Maid".
• Blues: A lot of songs take their inspiration from blues music, but the most recognisable song In the Style of is "Bring It On Home", where a harmonica adds to the atmosphere.
• Break-Up Song: "Heartbreaker", about an adulterous woman whom the protagonist knows from the past, but whom he now downright rejects when she returns in his life.
• Careful with That Axe: "Whole Lotta Love"
  'LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE!
  AH! AH! AH! AH! AH! AH! AH! AH! AH! AH!
• Chronological Album Title: "Led Zeppelin II".
• Cover Version: "Bring It On Home", a cover by Sonny Boy Williamson II, based on lyrics by Willie Dixon.
• Deliberately Monochrome: The album cover.
• Design Student's Orgasm: The album cover by David Juniper.
• The Drifter: "Ramble On", where the protagonist wants to keep on searching for his girl, for "my freedom I hold dear".
• Epic Rocking: "The Lemon Song" (6:20).
• Fake-Out Fade-Out: "Thank You" has a false ending, then comes back ten seconds later.
• Gag Penis: "Whole Lotta Love".
  "Gonna give you every inch of my love."
• Gratuitous Panning:
  • "Whole Lotta Love" keeps the driving riff on the left channel, and furiously twiddles during the middle freakout and was made specifically to be appreciated with headphones.
  • The coda of "What Is and What Should Never Be" has the guitar bouncing between the left and right channels.
  • "The Lemon Song" keeps the guitars mostly on the left, "Thank You" does the same but on the right channel, and "Bring It On Home" alternates.
• Groupie Brigade: "Living Loving Maid (She's Just a Woman)" was inspired by a groupie the band considered to be annoying.
• Homage: "Thank You", to Page's then wife Maureen.
• The Immodest Orgasm: Robert Plant has one during "Whole Lotta Love".
• Incredibly Lame Pun: The album cover, designer David Juniper, asked to just come up with something "interesting", took a photo of Manfred 'The Red Baron' von Richthofen and his Flying Circus from World War I, filtered it and airbrushed the band members' heads onto the bodies. All good. He then put in manager Peter Grant and tour manager Richard Cole's heads. So far so good. But then, you notice there's a woman on the cover too, namely actress Glynis Johns. You may ask what she has to do with Led Zeppelin? The answer is: bugger all. She was just thrown on there because she has a similar name to Glyn Johns, who engineered the band's first album. One wonders why Juniper even bothered since Glyn's brother Andy replaced him as engineer for II.
• Instrumental: "Moby Dick".
• Intercourse with You: The very intense "Whole Lotta Love" and "The Lemon Song", which borrows a line from Robert Johnson:
  Squeeze my lemon, baby, 'til the juice runs down my leg.
• Literary Allusion Title: "Moby-Dick"
• The Not-Remix: The first vinyl pressing was quickly recalled and remastered due to the extreme frequencies causing record players with ceramic cartridges to skip.
• One-Woman Song: "Living Loving Maid (She's Just a Woman)".
• One-Word Title: "Heartbreaker".
• Real Life Writes the Plot: "Living Loving Maid (She's Just A Woman)" was inspired by a groupie that annoyed the band.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: "Living Loving Maid (She's Just A Woman)", aimed a groupie that annoyed the band.
• Self-Titled Album: "Led Zeppelin II".
• Sexual Euphemism: They certainly aren't being very subtle when Plant sings "Gonna give you every inch of my love" in "Whole Lotta Love".
• Shout-Out:
  • The album cover was based on a World War I photograph of the Jagdstaffel 11 Division of the German Air Force with faces of the four band members air brushed in.
  • In 1962, Muddy Waters recorded "You Need Love", written for him by peer Willie Dixon. In 1966 The Small Faces recorded the song as "You Need Loving". Some of the lyrics of "Whole Lotta Love" version were copied from the Willie Dixon song, a favourite of Plant's. Plant's phrasing is particularly similar to that of Steve Marriott's in the Small Faces' version. Similarities with "You Need Love" would lead to a lawsuit against Led Zeppelin in 1985, settled out of court in favour of Dixon. The Small Faces were never sued by Dixon, even though "You Need Loving" still only credits Ronnie Lane and Steve Marriott.
  • "Moby Dick" is a shout-out to Moby-Dick.
  • "The Lemon Song" was inspired by Howlin' Wolf's "Killing Floor", Albert King's "The Hunter", and Robert Johnson's "Travelling Riverside Blues", which shares a similar line about lemon juice dripping down legs.
  • "Ramble On" was inspired by The Lord of the Rings.
    T'was in the darkest depths of Mordor, I met a girl so fair
    But Gollum, and the evil one crept up and slipped away with her
  • The opening lines to "Thank You" about the sun refusing to shine and the mountains crumbling to the sea might have been inspired by the opening lines to The Jimi Hendrix Experience's "If 6 Was 9", which has the same apocalyptic imagery.
• Siamese Twin Songs: "Heartbreaker" and "Living Loving Maid (She's Just a Woman)".
• The Something Song: "The Lemon Song".
• Stop and Go: "What Is And What Should Never Be" and "Thank You".
  • "Heartbreaker" ends abruptly mid-word before the next song, "Living Loving Maid"—and as these two songs are often air-played together on classic-rock stations, it has this effect.
• Surprisingly Gentle Song: Between all the loud and lustful songs there is "Thank You", a tribute to Robert Plant's wife Maureen.
• Theremin: "Whole Lotta Love".
• Title-Only Chorus: "Whole Lotta Love", (well, "Wanna Whole Lotta Love")
• Truck Driver's Gear Change: "Heartbreaker".

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"Leaves are falling all around, It's time I was on my way
Thanks to you, I'm much obliged for such a pleasant stay..."'

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