I would be remiss if I was to omit Led Zeppelin from the music that has shaped my being. I first learned of Led Zeppelin in 4th or 5th grade ( around 2008?) on iTunes. My dad had a a library of over 10,000 songs that was passed on by one of his coworkers at the hospital. In this smorgasbord, I found a copy of Early Days and Latter Days, two albums containing their greatest hits that were placed into two eras. Ever since then, I have been a convert! I don’t think it was until freshman year of college that I listened to this specific Zeppelin album all the way through.

I remember making a decision to listen to their discography front to back. It was the end of the fall semester of my freshman year, and this year there was a particularly hard snow fall, resulting in immense amount of ice covering the campus. My last assignment of the semester was a take home exam that I had to submit at the science building. While walking past the climbing gym and Memorial Hall, How Many Times began to play in my beloved Sennheiser PXC-480’s. I couldn’t believe my ears! How had I never heard such a ballad in my years of listening to Led Zeppelin! That song just about broke me then and there. Somehow the scatty drums, low bass line, and bouncy guitar in the introduction (along with Robert Plant’s initial screams), perfectly paired with the heavy snow at nightfall. Not to mention how the song evolves over time. I get chills thinking about this epic.

Well this album start to finish is perfect in my eyes. Starting with the jagged two strokes of a reverb soaked guitar in Good Times Bad Times. Following this come the layered vocals of Robert Plant who almost sounds like he’s screaming slow. Don’t worry, there will be guttural yelling to be had! The next track “Babe I’m Gonna Leave You” is all about dynamics, that for me provide a wide variety of emotion. From being distraught and dismayed to on the verge of a breakdown, it’s hard to imagine a song that feels more visceral, and I can’t even imagine reactions to it back in 1968, where this whole album must’ve really been a shocker. I felt so much kinship with Jon in section F of the dorm, whose favorite song was also How Many Times as well, and had an amazing record setup including an original pressing of this Led Zeppelin album.