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Six years after frontmen Doherty and Barat formed the band, The Libertines released their debut single, "What a Waster", in 2002. A few months later, in October 2002, they released their first studio album, Up the Bracket. The album was well-received critically and was also a moderate hit, peaking at the 35th spot on the UK Albums Chart.

Background

In August 1968, the English rock group The Yardbirds had completely disbanded. Guitarist Jimmy Page, The Yardbirds' sole remaining member, was left with rights to the group’s name and contractual obligations for a series of concerts in Scandinavia.^[1] For his new band, Page recruited bassist John Paul Jones, vocalist Robert Plant and drummer John Bonham. During September 1968, the group toured Scandinavia as The New Yardbirds, performing some old Yarbirds material as well as new songs such as "Communication Breakdown", "I Can't Quit You Baby", "You Shook Me", "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You" and "How Many More Times".^[2] The month after they returned to England, October 1968, Page changed the band's name to "Led Zeppelin", and the group entered the studio to record their debut album.^[3]

• include stuff about dreja
• page's vision of the band
• did they tour as the yardbirds, new yardbirds or yardbirds feat. JP
• clarify name change - when, where, why
• describe the tour.
• maybe 2 paras - 1. new band formation 2. about the tour - reviews… return.

Recording and production

plenty interviews, complete recordings.

• no label… recorded on their own money, 30 hours. (distance is depth, backward-echos)
• song-by-song? instruments used, production techniques.
• gave to atlantic.

Music

song-by-song… plagiarism… lyrics… style- blues influenced.

Release and reception

2-3 paras

• release info, charting
• single info.
• contemporary reviews- rolling stone! find other reviews
• rereleases etc?

Live performances

complete recordings… diff tours.

Legacy

current reviews by AMG, RS (tell about-face), gushing praise. how it set the stage for their career; quote by page/band on its importance.

"Everything that came later… the roots are all there in the first album." - Jimmy Page on `Led Zeppelin'. From the liner notes with the first boxed set.

Influence

diff artists praising it. grohl.

Track listing

make note of plants contract obligations

Personnel

Chart listing

other countries? singles?

Citations

Sources

• Lewis, Dave (2004) The Complete Guide to the Music of Led Zeppelin, London: Omnibus Press, ISBN 0-7119-3528-9.
• Lewis, Dave and Pallett, Simon (1997) Led Zeppelin: The Concert File, London: Omnibus Press. ISBN 0-7119-5307-4.
• Welch, Chris (2006) Led Zeppelin: Dazed and Confused: The Stories Behind Every Song, Thunder's Mouth Press, ISBN 1-56025-818-7.

Footnotes

links

www.geocities.com/brandyzep/ - a mag collection

trublukris.tripod.com/inter/view.html

www.rockhall.com/inductee/led-zeppelin

www.led-zeppelin.org/reference/index.php?m=interviews

trublukris.tripod.com/inter/jpwords.html same as www.zepagain.com/page_rosen.html = guitar player interview

www.led-zeppelin.org/reference/index.php?m=int23

trublukris.tripod.com/inter/jp-history.html - page interview about each album in detail.

trublukris.tripod.com/inter/robertjimmy1675.html cameron crowe for RS

www.turnmeondeadman.net/Zep/StairwayToHeaven.php#footnotes

trublukris.tripod.com/inter/view.html

The Complete Guide to the Music of Led Zeppelin By Dave Lewis - google book preview good.

books.google.co.in/books?id=xBk3w1yr2scC&printsec=frontcover&dq=The+Complete+Guide+to+the+Music+of+Led+Zeppelin,&sig=XdZ4RIyYO4VHuxXXFvNdUKz3GqA

books.google.co.in/books?id=veOBJ9xrAEwC&pg=PA73&sig=_GiCQjPlXdomomoMk92gEzZe4Lk&vq=%22Good+Times+Bad+Times%C2%BF+We're+Gonna+Groove%C2%BF+Night+Flight,+That's+The+Way','Baby+Come%22&source=gbs_quotes_s#PPP1,M1

trublukris.tripod.com/inter/crowe.html - cameron crowe RS 1975 interview.

news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/6989929.stm

sheer prophecy when you think about all the Ibiza Uncovered bollocks that the heads of TV think we wanna watch now

[2]

Inspired by a holiday in Magaluf (Greece), Damon wrote this song to honour the rampant 18-30 Club Med culture. He said later that it had "a very strong sexuality about it. I just love the whole idea of it, to be honest. I love herds. All these blokes and all these girls meeting at the watering hole and then just copulating. There's no morality involved, I'm not saying it should or shouldn't happen."

Girls and Boys, the first single from Parklife, becomes a huge international hit thanks to a Euro-trash remix by the Pet Shop Boys.

while the Blur lyrics "Girls, who are boys, who like boys to be girls, who do boys like they're girls, who do girls, like they're boys" have become an anthem for the cool transgender crowd.

Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Girls & Boys: Song review". All Music Guide. Retrieved on 6 May 2008

It's ironic -- but what isn't ironic, when it comes to Blur, the most ironic band in pop history -- that the single that made Brit-pop a phenomenon had almost nothing to do with what followed, apart from maybe Pulp and the renegade band of freaks that Simon Price labeled as Romos. "Girls & Boys" was retro- new wave disco, a post-modern cross of Duran Duran and Chic. Opening with a bouncing, octave-jumping synth riff that becomes a virtual parody of Eurodisco as soon as the rhythm section kicks in, the undeniably catchy tune at first feels opposed to everything Blur is about, at least on their first two albums. They touched on dance on Leisure, but only as far as it concerned post- baggy hipsters. But here, they made an unabashed dance-club hit. It was only when you dug deeper, looking at the construction and hooks and Damon Albarn's lyrics, that you realized it was totally, undeniably Blur. As a pop song, it is easily one of the best Blur ever recorded (meaning it was one of the best of their era), and they were clever enough (but they ain't half been some clever bastards, have they?) to make it feel exactly like Eurotrash. Not only is the music accurate, they self-consciously twisted the sexuality of the song to make it feel like a bisexual favorite: the chorus is "looking for girls who are boys/who like boys to be girls/who do boys like they're girls/who do girls like they're boys/always should be someone you really love," an absolutely devastating put-down of '90s gender-bending, where even ambi-sexuals didn't know whose fantasy they were fulfilling. Then, the song moves into social commentary -- "Avoiding all work/'Cause there's none available" -- bringing it around full-circle, as it slowly becomes a picture of a culture, adrift in false expectations, dashed dreams, and media fantasias, that was only willing to celebrate hedonism. In that sense, it was an appropriate christening of the Brit-pop era, where hedonism reigned supreme, but again, most listeners missed the fact that Blur was lampooning this situation, even before it reached critical mass. Of course, when it did become a phenomenon, Blur dived right in, but that doesn't diminish the power of one of their greatest singles.

Sillitoe, Sue (July 1994). "Streets Ahead". Sound on Sound. Retrieved on 6 May 2008.

"This was one of those tracks that was truly programmed -- it has the same chord progression going round and round, but it sounds great. The band demo-ed it with a really disco beat and I thought it wasn't bad, but that if we were going to do it that way we should go the whole hog. It had real possibility as a dance track but to make that work we needed to programme it, and it gives the possibility of some really good mixes.

"So basically I went through all my dance samples on my Akai, got a sound sorted out -- very 1980s disco -- and programmed the drums and synth bass part and then just let the guys do their usual thing on top. Graham played some superb guitar and as soon as he put his guitar on it started sounding like Blur with some killer lines. Alex played a really cool bass part with some DI bass -- he just likes to sit next to the desk and bounce up and down. With Alex, you have to say 'that bass line sounds really good so why don't you just repeat it a bit more before you go elsewhere.' He has lots of good ideas -- sometimes too many and you have to pin him down.

"On this track I was triggering some Moog samples that I had on my Akai and every time it went to a particular chord I was just switching the programme on my Akai so it went from a round sound to a squeakier, acidy-type sound which you can hear quite clearly. I know some programmers would have programmed it so that every time it came to that bar it would have switched over, but I thought sod that, and I just sat there and went through the track, going backwards and forwards with the data button. It was more fun -- interactive recording! People expect the computer to do too much.

"As soon as I heard 'Girls and Boys' I knew it was a single. I said to Damon 'Top 10 single'. The minute we finished it I said 'Top 5' -- and I was right. It was a very straightforward track to record. Damon did his vocals and then we all went in en masse and did the 'boys, girls' bit in the background. It was really a pleasure to record. When you have a track that's right it shouldn't be hard."

Cavanagh, David; Maconie, Stuart (May 1995). "How did they do that? - Parklife". Select.

Released 7/3/94.

If ‘Popscene’ was Blur’s transitional single and ‘For Tomorrow’ the record that ushered in a new and productive era, ‘Girls And Boys’ was the song that inspired the whole country to buy Blur records: career rejuvenation at a stroke. And they did it with a disco song.

In recent years, commercial dance music has rooted itself in two speeds: a loping 100bpm (hip hip, Happy Mondays) or a frantic 130bpm (house). ‘Girls And Boys’ was pitched intentionally at the long forgotten 120bpm (Chic, disco, New Romantic pop). Almost all of the drum track is mechanical, with a few cymbal overdubs (“It was sitting-down-with-a-book day for me,” recalls Dave.) The bassline – of bubbling octave leaps – is pure Duran Duran and the lyric is nicely ambiguous: is Damon contemptuous of the holiday “herd”, or is he celebrating their hedonism and joie de vivre? So great was Blur’s enthusiasm for ‘Girls And Boys’ that it was mixed immediately after its recording – which is rare – and it became a gift-wrapped, talismanic inspiration for the rest of ‘Parklife’. Street had forewarned Andy Ross that ‘Girls And Boys’ was a sure thing, and Ross agreed when he heard it. “It’s a blatantly contrived hit, a sales pitch for the whole album,” Ross admits. “And it was ironic that Balfe was now leaving the Food camp, because this was exactly the kind of record that he wanted them to make.” ‘Girls And Boys’ was (and still is) Blur’s biggest hit. Early fans of the tune included the Pet Shop Boys who undertook, at their own instigation, a remix without charge. Alex has his doubts about remixes. “It’s like giving your dog to someone to take for a walk,” he says, “and when they bring it back it’s a different dog.”

Beaumont, Mark (25 October 2000). "'We Assume We Were A Massive Cultural Force From Day One'". Melody Maker.

FROM starvation to superstardom. With grunge's brains blown across the garage wall of history, the herd conga'd down to Greece with our cheeky Mockney Blur boys and caught a serious dose of Britpop.

Alex: "We demoed that really quickly after 'Modern Life Is Rubbish' was released, so we knew we had a big f***ing hit single. We were all quite confident, because we knew where we were going. We were doing a photo shoot the day that it got to Number Five and Food sent down some champagne."

Graham: "Was it Moët? Nice gesture. That was when Dave stopped drinking, that week."

Alex: "It was when he was dancing on the table in Portugal with Siouxsie And The Banshees, wasn't it? That was the final straw."

Did you have any idea of the cultural import "Parklife" was to have?

Alex: "I think we'd been assuming we were a massive cultural force since day one. Our opinion of ourselves was... we were very arrogant. But success never feels like a surprise. Failure is always very jarring, but success always fits."

Dee, Johnny (April 1994). "Blur - Parklife". NME.

[Parklife] begins, as all pop albums should, with a hit single, 'Girls And Boys', a song that sounds as if it was designed by robots as a soundtrack to fun-fair bumper car rides - pointed, niggly, angular and persistently catchy, it's strange and magnificent that something so obtuse should have been taken to the nation's bosom. Testament to its success is the way it has inspired such ardent, nosebleeding hatred among rock puritans. Nothing like a spot of oversprung pop muzik to wind up Grandad Rock - and Blur are past masters at it.

Heath, Chris (November 2007). "The Damon Albarn Jukebox". Q (magazine).

Irresistibly louche disco strut that marked Blur down as risk-takers, and signalled the start of their imperial period. Witty prophecy of the '90s' sexual degeneration disguised as Loaded shag anthem.