Led Zeppelin needs no introduction. But this specific album does.
Presence was the band’s seventh studio album, released in March 1976. Although it was a #1 album in the U.S. and the band’s native U.K., the album’s only single, “Candy Store Rock,” did not chart in either country. I have heard Presence called “nobody’s favorite Led Zeppelin album.” Or perhaps that should be “nobody’s favorite but mine.”
Anyway, let’s talk about the actual songs. Most of them were inspired by the band’s travels. The ten-minute opener “Achilles Last Stand” was about Jimmy Page and Robert Plant travelling across Africa in 1975. “Royal Orleans” was inspired by this one time in the French quarter of New Orleans when bassist John Paul Jones hooked up with a crossdresser. When in Rome, as they say. “Hots On For Nowhere” was about Plant’s time in Malibu, and the closing track “Tea For One” was written about Plant missing his wife and family.
And while “Nobody’s Fault But Mine” isn’t about travelling, it is, in classic Led Zeppelin fashion, a ripoff of an old blues song.
Is Presence a bad album? No, not at all. Is it their best album? Also no – that title goes to Led Zeppelin II. But I would still recommend Presence, so long as you can ignore what a creep Jimmy Page was.
Leave a comment