Whole Lotta Whole Lotta Love

Sorry to get all "'member when?"  on you, but Ahmet Ertegun died, and it got me thinking of my formative years.  If you say Atlantic Records, the first thing I think of is the label, particularly the red one with the art deco font; when I think of that label, I think of the first record I noticed it stuck to: Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love" (b/w "Heartbreaker"/"Living Loving Maid (She's Just A Woman)").  And that makes me think of The Bay City Rollers. 

When I was 11 or 12 I used to go to Dave Marciano's house after school, and we'd watch dirty movies on his parents' WHT (Wometco Home Theater) system, then listen to records.  For some reason, the records I remember most clearly were by The Rollers, which was really the Bay City Rollers, but... well, The Rollers were to the Bay City Rollers as Rockline was to 16 Magazine: the same thing, but with a little less sugar.  Chewing gum vs. Bubblegum.  So our dissatisfaction had set in, and we were ready to graduate to Circus, Hit Parader and Creem, Boy Howdy notwithstanding.

I think I'd found the "Whole Lotta Love" 45 on the street somewhere, one of about a dozen 7"-ers stuck in a nasty gold record rack someone was trashing.  The name Led Zeppelin was not unfamiliar to me: I had 15-year-old bad influence buds, who smoked pot, rode mopeds and used words like crimson euphemistically (means fuckin).  These guys spoke only in awed whispers of "Led Zeppelin"; that, combined with scary posters on my Cool Uncle Jeff's attic wall, made me feel as though I wasn't allowed to actually listen to that music until I had sacrificed a squirrel or danced naked on rich people's lawns.  Or at least started smoking cigarettes.  I know, this sounds awfully "Dazed & Confused", but no, it's "Whole Lotta Love".

I presented the record to Dave.  The rusty red-orange label was so dirty, the word "Atlantic" printed there so primordial; the name of the band so... I dunno, some Big shit. Anyway, it was a whole lotta heavier than most things you psyche yourself out for.  Dave dropped the needle on the record, and the opening guitar/bass riff kicked us in the balls and poured motor oil on us and made us kiss the goat's anus; then we got to the stop-time guitar solo and our eyes turned black and fell out, and we jumped off the overpass, and the color became sound, and the font became fury, and we microwaved the baby, and we saw Thor's hammer forge Valhalla, and we are coming, we are coming, and it's all for you Damian, hack splat, oh oh oh oh oh oh,  - hey, I wonder whatever happened to Dave Marciano...

By request, here's "Whole Lotta Love" as performed, vertically, by Dennis Coffey, King Curtis, Ken Freedman, Led Zeppelin and Tina Turner.  "Whole Lotta Whole Lotta Love" (mp3, 17.8m)  Here's a version of the song by Godfrey Daniel (realaudio link to the WFMU archives)  A different sort of fellow might ask you to help him compile all the covers of "Whole Lotta Love", but not me!  I got 6, that's enough for me!  But somebody else might want to do that, I can understand that.  I'll take em and pass them along if you want, no problem.

Comments

[flame duck]

So after all that buildup, where's the Rollers mp3s?

[Listener Kliph]

When I see the red atlantic label I think of Wilson Pickett. I loved the thick solid quality of Atlantic 45s from that era, which were for some reason ten times sturdier than that of any other label's wax. I found some great footage of Wilson Pickett performing live in Europe in 1968 on Youtube, great stuff. Especially when the audience crowds the stage and goes insane during Land of 1000 Dances, and Wilson makes the scrawny white guy with the thick accent to sing the 'na nanana na nananan na na' part. Just one of eight parts: http://youtube.com/watch?v=br4cLtSb47w

[Parker]

Great BLOG dude, i will come and visit u again very soon!!! just a question: i listened to your mp3's by Charlie and his Orchestra

( http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2005/03/charlie_and_his.html )

and i want to use "Nice people" for one of my videoclips. Is that song protected by rights or is it "creative commons" licensed?

Thank you.
Bye

[Fatherflot]

Don't overlook "Whole Lotta Love Supreme" by the British-Scandanavian jazz group Stekpanna. It's exactly what you'd think, a "mashup" arrangement for Jazz trio of the Zep toon and the Coltrane classic.

Sample here: http://www.stekpanna.com/samples/allfor/awhole.mp3

I bought the CD that it appears on ("All For a Beautiful Life") from my Oxford Classics don, who just happened to be the bass player ("Yorkshireman Steve Kershaw").

[Listener Mike D.]

I remember listening to Ken's performance when it was broadcast several years ago during the marathon finale and snickering. But in retrospect, he holds his own against the falsetto banshee wails of one R. Plant quite well!

[King Daevid MacKenzie]

...hey, don't give the bad rap to the Bay City Rollers. "Money Honey" and "Yesterday's Hero" were damned good rockers in their own right. And "Whole Lotta Love" is a Led Zeppelin cover to begin with -- they lifted the tune from Muddy Waters...oh, and if you *really* wanted to get kicked in the balls by an Atlantic 45, you shoulda started with "Fire" by The Crazy World of Arthur Brown. Literally scared the piss out of my grandmother the first time I played that one in the house when I was 7 ;-) ...

[Scott]

Hi Parker -- indeed, that track is in the public domain, so feel free to use it as you wish.

Hi Flame Duck -- haven't I suffered enough humiliation, without having to actually make y'all listen to The Rollers?? And anyway I ain't got no mp3s. Frankly, I barely remember what it sounded like - but I do remember the album cover, it had a big blue pill on it. Yeah, it was a big pill alright!!

[Scott]

And hello King Daevid MacKenzie - you're right, Led Zeppelin stole everything. That's another post entirely. I'll bet "Fire" scared your grandmother, tho I am sorry about her peeing over it. Anyway, "Fire" wasn't there when I was 11 and getting my balls kicked -- "Whole Lotta Love" was.

[Vic Perry]

If you play the end of "Ho Lot'o'Luv" backwards you can hear George Jetson shouting "Jane, stop this crazy thing." Or was it forwards?

[rocketboy]

The mono mix/edit version is the most bitchin' thing going. It sounds like my speakers are about to explode, every time I play it!
Has anyone noticed on the L.P. version, when Jimmy is doing that violin bow and theramin bit and "Bobby" is screaming his lungs out, how much it sounds like somebody getting a tooth drilled, without the benefit of Novocaine? Seriously. Next time you hear the track, picture a guy in a dentist's chair when that part comes on.

[mike]

hi i have a led zep story well i was 10 and i had heard the ocean on the radio kats fm in 1985 but i didnt know the name just had the riff in my head but i found ledzep2 in my friends mothers record collection?so we my friend put it in the stereo and played whole lotta love because i knew of that one at the time i knew it was great but it was not the ocean which i was looking for but i knew it was intense and i liked it