The 11th Hour is currently available at your local Wal-Mart for 5 bucks! Pick it up, have a screening and invite all of your friends and family. We have about 30 to 40 years to change our way of life or our planet will cease to exist as we know it. Temperatures could reach 200 plus degrees leaving us on a planet similar to Venus.
Just a quick blog to tell all of you that if you haven't seen "The 11th Hour," you need to! A real eye opener about where our planet is headed. Pass it on to everyone you know. You can pick it up at Wal-Mart for $5. I'm kind of surprised they even sell it since our Government and greedy Corporations are the main reasons we are going no where fast regarding the Global Warming Issue. Looks like we have 30 to 40 years to clean up our act. That's when it will be entirely too late. You people think it's hot now, try a couple hundred degree temperatures. Sun screen and A/C won't even help. Talk about Hell on Earth, literally!
Our Way of Life - Bling vs Bliss
Current mood: discontent
Category: Life
One Diamond Rolex = Food, clean water, a warm bed, heat and medical care for ??? starving children
I woke up this morning to see a humungous diamond watch on the back of a Playboy Magazine and I thought about "Idol Gives Back." Sometimes we just need our conscience to slap us upside the face! Thank God for shows like Idol Gives back because they bring us back down to reality. I thought about how many truly needy people there are in the World. I pondered how many people that one watch could feed, cloth, provide shelter, clean water, heat, bedding and medical care to. You know, necessities... only what we truly need to be happy and sustain life. Multiply all of the bling and unnecessary things we buy and consider how many children dying of cancers we could help... how many abandoned dogs and cats we could feed... the list goes on and on.
I knew I was going to do a blog about my thoughts and feelings and then my mom sent me this e-mail before I started my blog. It basically sums up everything I was thinking when I woke up this morning, trying to figure out what I wanted my blog to say. So here it is....
The pattern of out-of-control consumption in the U.S. is not too different from the well-known behavioral patterns of substance abusers.
"An addict is someone who uses their body to tell society that something is wrong." --Stella Adler (1901-1992)
In last year's powerful independent documentary, What A Way To Go: Life at the End of Empire, producer Sally Erickson pulled from her 20 years working as a therapist in private practice to attempt to explain why so many people, perhaps even you, are so unhappy.
The film from writer-director TS Bennett is an epic exploration of a Middle American, middle-class white father of three coming to grips with climate change, resource crises, environmental meltdown and the demise of the American lifestyle. It is as compassionate a film as it is utterly terrifying.
Through a pastiche of revolutionary thinkers including Derrick Jensen, Daniel Quinn, Jerry Mander, Richard Manning and Chellis Glendinning, What A Way To Go concludes that industrial civilization -- and its end product, consumerism -- has disconnected us from nature, the cycle of life, our communities, our families and, ultimately, ourselves. This unnatural, inorganic, materialistic way of living, coupled with a marked decline in society's moral and ethical standards -- what the French call anomie -- has created a kind of pathology that produces pain and emptiness, for which addictive behavior becomes the primary symptom and consumption the preferred drug of choice.
"What most of us experience when it comes to addiction," says Erickson, "is a pattern of continually seeking more of what it is we don't really want and, therefore, never being fully satisfied. And as long as we are never satisfied, we continue to seek more, while our real needs are never being met."
"Addiction in one form or another characterizes every aspect of industrial society," wrote the social philosopher Morris Berman, and dependence on substances or corporeal pleasures is no different from dependence on "prestige, career achievement, world influence, wealth, the need to build more ingenious bombs or the need to exercise control over everything."
At the very least, this certainly raises questions about the dominant, socially accepted view of addiction, the disempowering, less-than-hospitable "disease model," which claims addiction is a chronic illness predetermined by genetics. The "disease-model" is characterized by a loss of control over substances or practices, along with denial of the severity and consequences of using or engaging in them.
"Current research shows that genetics are the most significant factor in addiction," argues Bruce Sewick, a Chicago area substance abuse clinician who works with the mentally ill. "A person is four times more likely to become dependent on alcohol or drugs when there is a genetic history of the same."
This may be true, but the pervasive pattern of addictive behavior that finds its way into our economics, our politics, and our interpersonal relationships cannot be just explained away using genetic predeterminism. Consumption without need is the hallmark of addiction, and "consumerism" is defined as "the equating of personal happiness with the purchasing of material possessions and consumption." The pattern of out-of-control consumption in the United States, which per capita consumes 70 times more than India, with three times the U.S. population, is not qualitatively different from the well-known patterns of behavior of substance abusers. In fact, it looks as if the United States just finished with the worst binge of its life and is now cresting the peak of a wicked crash.
"I think consumerism is probably a bit of an addiction," offers Richard Eckersley, an Australian public health researcher featured in a 2003 radio documentary, Consumerism, Money, and Happiness:
Addiction is really a hallmark of our era, and I think it reflects that we don't have culturally promoted kinds of other deeper forms of meaning and purpose in our lives. So we make up for it by consuming more. But the evidence is overwhelming that people who are characterized by materialistic attitudes and values actually experience lower well-being, lower happiness, more depression and anxiety and anger than people who aren't materialistic.
While we generally accept that anything can be used addictively, we often tend to forget or overlook why it's being used in the first place. Most professionals will agree that the purpose or function of an addiction is to put a buffer between ourselves and the experience or awareness of our emotions. An addiction serves to numb us so that we are out of touch with what we know and what we feel. Eventually this numb buffer zone becomes a habituated coping mechanism.
"But addiction itself," explains Tom Goforth, a Christian minister and practicing clinical psychotherapist for more than 40 years, "is not innate to the human species. It's something we developed to cope with our predicament."
Over the years Goforth saw most of the addictions he treated develop as the result of some violation of the self, a deep wounding or trauma. This wounding can come from any number of causes: domestic violence and abuse, prejudice and racism, warfare, economic hardship, illness and death, even something as insidiously mundane as rejection, shame, insecurity or feelings of inadequacy.
Primitivist writer-activists like Derrick Jensen and Chellis Glendinning believe that consumer culture drives the "culture of empire," an inherently abusive system built on resource exploitation and the subjugation of peoples. Because of this, those living in it have undergone a collective wounding or trauma that has left society suffering from a mass form of PTSD.
Glendinning is the author of My Name Is Chellis and I'm in Recovery from Western Civilization, a book that examines the relationship between addiction and the ecological crisis. In an essay on what she calls "techno-addiction" Glendinning writes about our "primary" and "secondary" sources of satisfaction. "Primary" needs are those we were born to have satisfied: nourishment, love, meaning, purpose and spirit. When they are not met, we turn to the "secondary" sources, which include "drugs, violence, sex, material possessions and machines." Eventually we become obsessed with the secondary sources "as if our lives depended on them."
Designing and marketing secondary sources of satisfaction falls to the complimenting social, political and economic systems that reinforce addictive behavior in order to drive the consumer machine. Consumption becomes "naturalized" through corporate advertising and marketing, government tax breaks, and officially sanctioned religio-consumer holidays like Christmas, Hanukah and Valentine's Day. Let us never forget that after 9/11 George Bush told Americans it was their patriotic duty to "spend."
"Everything appalling has to be naturalized in order to be justified," says Derrick Jensen, author of the Endgame series and The Culture of Make Believe. "This is because an abusive system is designed to protect the abuser. The whole idea of naturalizing addictions is about maintaining the dependency and victimhood of the addict, the abused."
In a system based on consumption, the best patient a doctor, therapist or pharmacist can ask for is one who never gets better. Is it any coincidence then that in the dominant model an addict always remains an addict? Under this rubric, the addict is always "recovering" and never "recovered." Imagine the psychological impact of imposing a perpetual sense of powerlessness on someone. It must be profound. But it suddenly makes a whole lot more sense when you look at the few socially acceptable surrogates like AA, Prozac, work or Jesus. Aren't these, in a sense, meant to be chronic as well? This approach simply transfers the dependency while preserving the overall system of consumptive behavior.
By the same token, what better consumer can a corporation ask for than one who is never satisfied with what they buy, who always has to have the next, the biggest, the newest in order to feel like they are somebody. If real needs were being met, it's a good possibility that certain markets would contract or collapse. Knowing this, our identities have in a sense been re-engineered to accommodate forced obsolescence, so that every few years we're told we need an upgrade. Tellingly, we call it our "new look" or the "new you." Whole industries are based in this.
Naturalizing addictions through consumerism has its beginnings in early 20th century notions of psychology and social control. The story of how consumerism, and more importantly, the consumer self, came into being is the subject of Adam Curtis' BBC documentary The Century of the Self. It is, at its core, the story of Sigmund Freud.
In response to the barbarism of Nazi Germany during the Second World War, which Freud believed was unleashed by the dangerous and irrational fears and desires that lay deep within the unconscious, Western politicians and planners set about finding ways to control this "hidden enemy within the human mind."
One of the theories that emerged was the brainchild of Freud's nephew, Edward Bernays, the sloganeering progenitor of public relations who helped Woodrow Wilson sell the First World War to the American public by inventing the tag line, "Making the World Safe for Democracy." "[PR] is really just propaganda," Bernays says in the film, "but we couldn't use the word because the Germans had."
Bernays showed American corporations how to make people buy material goods they didn't need by connecting those products to their unconscious desires and unmet needs. This made him incredibly powerful and in demand. He used this influence to propose that the same principles be used politically to control the masses.
This social-control-through-indulgence model was later excoriated in Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, a critique of consumerism and the vapidity of a culture based in pleasure seeking. In Huxley's futuristic dystopia, freethinking and human attachment have either been outlawed or genetically modified out of most of humanity. In its place is a dumbed-down hierarchical society overrun by high-tech entertainment, sexual promiscuity and a powerful, all-purpose intoxicant/narcotic/dissociative drug called Soma, which is used to quell any unpleasant feelings. Perhaps this sounds familiar?
"We can see where consumer psychology has led us," Tom Goforth sighs heavily. "It's a disaster. It's the kind of thing that has caused the human organism and psyche to go so far out of balance. Marketing to our unconscious leads us down a dangerous path that promises satisfaction and wholeness and a sense of importance and worth without us having to do anything but spend. But none of these things come in any real sense unless we work hard at them."
The ego, Freud discovered, is the part of us that invests in the values of society that hold out fulfillment for us. We as individual human beings may be looking for fulfillment through our contribution to society and our own sense of meaning, integrity, love and connection. "But instead," Goforth says, "consumerism teaches the ego to let go of integrity and inflate itself with an aesthetic, material process that confuses, or associates, self-worth with net worth."
This is the gospel preached by activist-performance-artist Reverend Billy of the Church of Stop Shopping, star of the upcoming What Would Jesus Buy?, an anti-consumer road film produced by Super Size Me's Morgan Spurlock. Rev. Billy preaches that consumerism has become our great national addiction.
"If we're ever going to move away from being consumers and back to being citizens, society will need to go into recovery," says the good reverend. "I recommend at least 60 to 90 days away from the shopping just to detox. If we don't repent," he warns, "then the Shopocalypse is coming!"
Asking society to go into a global recovery program is not nearly as Dr. Phil-crazy as it sounds. It's become the new mantra of the green movement, who are now calling for a spiritual solution to the planetary crisis. It was Freud's student and eventual rival Carl Jung who first dissented against Freud's "irrational desires" theory and put forth the idea that addictions address a spiritual loss or deficiency. Because the addictive experience is mimetic of the spiritual experience, you can have an imitation of bliss or oneness, but it doesn't last. Jung believed only a true spiritual awakening will end an addiction. Likewise, the eco-ilk believe only a global spiritual awakening will end the consumer addiction that is ravaging the planet.
In Steps to an Ecology of Mind, Gregory Bateson, the evolutionary philosopher husband of anthropologist Margaret Mead, observed that addictive behavior is consistent with the Western approach to life that pits mind against body. Because of this schism, Bateson gave our species a low probability of continued survival.
"In order to avoid this literal death," Derrick Jensen adds soberly, "society will have to go through a cultural death and spiritual rebirth."
Heady words for sure, but it may be our only way out of this mess. For this process to begin, consumer society must first "hit bottom." Let us hope this happens soon. As Sally Erickson reminds us, the patterns of behavior endemic to consumer society are so much more dangerous than substance abuse, because they are perpetuating a culture that is literally eating itself out of house and home. If addicts define insanity as doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting different results, this may be the clearest sign yet that consumerism is driving us all crazy.
But there is hope to leave you with. In his 40 years treating addicts, Tom Goforth will honestly tell you that, by and large, those who did truly conquer their addictions became less materialistic and more aligned with a sense of who they really were and what they felt their life purpose was.
Led Zeppelin - More Info About My Favorite Band
Current mood: okay
Category: Music
LED ZEPPELIN
Inductees: John "Bonzo" Bonham (drums; born May 31, 1948, died September 25, 1980), John Paul Jones (bass, keyboards; born January 3, 1946), Jimmy Page (guitar; born January 9, 1944), Robert Plant (vocals; born August 20, 1948) Combining the visceral power and intensity of hard rock with the finesse and delicacy of British folk music, Led Zeppelin redefined rock in the Seventies and for all time. They were as influential in that decade as the Beatles were in the prior one. Their impact extends to classic and alternative rockers alike. Then and now, Led Zeppelin looms larger than life on the rock landscape as a band for the ages with an almost mystical power to evoke primal passions. The combination of Jimmy Page's powerful, layered guitar work, Robert Plant's keening, upper-timbre vocals, John Paul Jones' melodic bass playing and keyboard work, and John Bonham's thunderous drumming made for a band whose alchemy proved enchanting and irresistible. "The motto of the group is definitely, 'Ever onward,'" Page said in 1977, perfectly summing up Led Zeppelin's forward-thinking philosophy.
The group formed in 1968 from the ashes of the Yardbirds, for which guitarist Jimmy Page had served as lead guitarist after Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck. Page's stint in the Yardbirds (1966-1968) followed a period of years as one of Britain's most in-demand session guitarists. As a generally anonymous hired gun, Page performed on mid-Sixties British Invasion records by the likes of Donovan ("Hurdy Gurdy Man"), Them ("Gloria"), the Kinks ("You Really Got Me"), the Who ("I Can't Explain") and hundreds of others. Page assembled a "New Yardbirds" in order to fulfill contractual obligations that, once served, allowed him to move on to his blues-based dream band, Led Zeppelin.
Bassist John Paul Jones also boasted a lofty session musician's pedigree. His resume included work for the Rolling Stones, Donovan, Jeff Beck and Dusty Springfield. Singer Robert Plant and drummer John "Bonzo" Bonham came from Birmingham, England, where they'd previously played in the Band of Joy. Page described Led Zeppelin in a press release for their first album with these words: "I can't put a tag to our music. Every one of us has been influenced by the blues, but it's one's interpretation of it and how you utilize it. I wish someone would invent an expression, but the closest I can get is contemporary blues." Integrating Delta blues and U.K. folk influences with a modern rock approach, Led Zeppelin's symbiosis gave rise to hard rock, which flourished in the Seventies under their expert tutelage. Such classics as "Whole Lotta Love" were built around Page's heavyweight guitar riffs, Plant's raw, half-screamed vocals, and the rhythm section's deep, walloping assaults – all hallmarks of a new approach to rock that combined heaviness and delicacy.
In Jimmy Page's words, the band aimed for "a kind of construction in light and shade." The members of Led Zeppelin were musical sponges, often traveling the world –literally traipsing about foreign lands and figuratively exploring the cultural landscape via their record collections – in search of fresh input to trigger their muse. "The very thing Zeppelin was about was that there were absolutely no limits," explained bassist Jones. "We all had ideas, and we'd use everything we came across, whether it was folk, country music, blues, Indian, Arabic."
The group's use of familiar blues-rock forms spiced with exotic flavors found favor among the rock audience that emerged in the Seventies. Led Zeppelin aimed itself at the album market, eschewing the AM-radio singles orientation of the previous decade. Their self-titled first album found them elongating blues forms with extended solos and psychedelic effects, most notably on the agonized "Dazed and Confused," and launching pithy hard-rock rave-ups like "Good Times Bad Times" and "Communication Breakdown." Led Zeppelin II found them further tightening up and modernizing their blues-rock approach on such tracks as "Whole Lotta Love," "Heartbreaker" and "Ramble On." Led Zeppelin III took a more acoustic, folk-oriented approach on such numbers as Leadbelly's "Gallows Pole" and their own "Tangerine," yet they also rocked furiously on "Immigrant Song" and offered a lengthy electric blues, "Since I've Been Loving You."
The group's untitled fourth album (a.k.a., Led Zeppelin IV, "The Runes Album" and ZOSO), which appeared in 1971, remains an enduring rock milestone and their defining work. The album was a fully realized hybrid of the folk and hard-rock directions they'd been pursuing, particularly on "When the Levee Breaks" and "The Battle of Evermore." "Black Dog" was a piledriving hard-rock number cut from the same cloth as "Whole Lotta Love." Most significant of the album's eight tracks was the fable-like "Stairway to Heaven," an eight-minute epic that, while never released as a single, remains radio's all-time most-requested rock song. Houses of the Holy, Led Zeppelin's fifth album, was another larger-than-life offering, from its startling artwork to the adventuresome music within. Even more taut, dynamic and groove-oriented, it included such Zeppelin staples as "Dancing Days," "The Song Remains the Same" and "D'yer Mak'er." They followed this with the Physical Graffiti, a double-album assertion of group strength that included the "Trampled Underfoot," "Sick Again," "Ten Years Gone" and the lengthy, Eastern-flavored "Kashmir."
Led Zeppelin's sold-out concert tours became rituals of high-energy rock and roll theater. The Song Remains the Same, a film documentary and double-album soundtrack from 1976, attests to the group's powerful and somewhat saturnalian appeal at the height of their popularity. The darker side of Led Zeppelin – their reputation as one of the most hedonistic and indulgent of all rock bands– is an undeniable facet of the band's history.
In the mid-to-late Seventies, a series of tragedies befell and ultimately broke up Led Zeppelin. A 1975 car crash on a Greek island nearly cost Plant his leg and sidelined him (and the band) for two years. In 1977, Plant's six-year-old son Karac died of a viral infection. The group inevitably lost momentum, as three years passed between the release of the underrated Presence (1976) and In Through the Out Door, their final studio album (1979). On September 25, 1980, while in the midst of rehearsals for an upcoming American tour, Led Zeppelin suffered another debilitating blow. Drummer John Bonham was found dead due to asphyxiation following excessive alcohol consumption. Feeling that he was irreplaceable, Led Zeppelin disbanded.
Robert Plant launched a solo career, Jimmy Page formed The Firm with former Bad Company singer Paul Rodgers, and John Paul Jones returned to producing, arranging and scoring music. There were brief reunions at Live Aid and for Atlantic Records' 40th anniversary celebration. Something of the old power was rekindled in 1995 when Page and Plant reunited to record an album (No Quarter) and tour with a large and diverse ensemble of musicians.
Meanwhile, the Led Zeppelin legend endures and grows long after their demise, much like that of the Doors and Elvis Presley. The lingering appeal of Led Zeppelin is perhaps best summed up by guitarist Page: "Passion is the word....It was a very passionate band, and that's really what comes through." At the dawn of the new millennium, Led Zeppelin placed second only to the Beatles in terms of record sales, having sold 84 million units. Led Zeppelin IV is the fourth best-selling album in history, having sold more than 22 million copies, and four other albums by the band – Physical Graffiti, Led Zeppelin II, Houses of the Holy and Led Zeppelin - also rank among the all-time top 100 best-sellers. Fittingly, Led Zeppelin is tied with the Beatles (five apiece) for the most albums on that esteemed list – a mark of both bands' impact. In their ceaseless determination to move music forward, Led Zeppelin carved out an indelible place in rock history.
TIMELINE
January 9, 1944 Jimmy Page was born.
June 3, 1946 John Paul Jones was born.
May 31, 1948 John "Bonzo" Bonham was born.
August 20, 1948 Robert Plant was born.
July 1, 1966 Ahmet Ertegun signs the English group Cream. Atlantic will become a major force in British rock, releasing albums by such artists as the Bee Gees, Mott the Hoople, Yes, Genesis, Derek and the Dominos, Emerson, Lake and Palmer and Led Zeppelin.
July 7, 1968 The Yardbirds break up, guitarist Jimmy Page forms the New Yardbirds and changes the group's name to Led Zeppelin, allegedly on the advice of the Who's Keith Moon.
October 15, 1968 Led Zeppelin performs its first show, at Surrey University in England.
November 13, 1968 Atlantic Record announces its signing of a "hot new English group" named Led Zeppelin.
February 15, 1969 The hotly anticipated, self-titled debut album by Led Zeppelin enters the album charts, ultimately reaching 10.
December 6, 1969 Led Zeppelin enters the Top Forty with "Whole Lotta Love," which reaches 4. It is this album-oriented band's highest-charting single.
December 27, 1969 'Led Zeppelin II' tops the U.S. album charts for the first of seven weeks; it will reach 1 in the U.K. in February 1970.
October 31, 1970 The more folk-oriented 'Led Zeppelin III' becomes the band's second 1 album.
January 30, 1971 Led Zeppelin hits 15 with "Immigrant Song".
November 27, 1971 Led Zeppelin's fourth album, which features four runes (symbols) as its title, enters Billboard's album chart, where it will remain for the next five years. Oddly, it doesn't quite reach 1, peaking at 2.
February 12, 1972 Led Zeppelin hits 15 with "Black Dog".
April 15, 1972 Led Zeppelin hits 47 with "Rock and Roll".
May 12, 1973 'Houses of the Holy,' Led Zeppelin's fifth album, becomes their third to reach 1.
December 29, 1973 Led Zeppelin hits 20 with "D'yer Mak'er".
May 3, 1974 Led Zeppelin launches their Swan Song label, which releases their albums and ones by handpicked artists like Bad Company and the Pretty Things.
March 22, 1975 'Physical Graffiti,' a double album by Led Zeppelin, reaches 1 in its second week of release. It stays there for six weeks.
March 29, 1975 Led Zeppelin becomes the first band in history to have 6 albums on the chart at once: 'Physical Graffiti' (1), 'Led Zeppelin IV', 'House of the Holy', 'Led Zeppelin II', 'Led Zeppelin', and 'Led Zeppelin III'.
May 17, 1975 Led Zeppelin hits 38 with "Trampled Under Foot".
August 5, 1975 Robert Plant and his wife are injured in a car crash while vacationing in Greece.
October 20, 1976 Led Zeppelin's concert documentary, T'he Song Remains the Same,' premieres in New York.
September 7, 1979 Led Zeppelin's last studio album 'In Through the Out Door' enters the British charts at Number One.
September 8, 1979 'In Through the Out Door,' Led Zeppelin's first album of new material in over three years, is released. Topping the chart for seven weeks, it turns out to be their swan song.
September 14, 1979 Led Zeppelin's 'In Through the Out Door' begins its seven-week run at Number One on the US charts.
February 16, 1980 Led Zeppelin hits 21 with "Fool In the Rain."
September 25, 1980 John Bonham, drummer for Led Zeppelin, dies of asphyxiation in his sleep after having consumed "40 measures of vodka."
December 4, 1980 Led Zeppelin releases a statement announcing that it is disbanding in the wake of drummer John Bonham's death.
July 13, 1985 Led Zeppelin re-forms (with Phil Collins replacing the late John Bonham on drums) for the Live Aid benefit concert in Philadelphia.
May 14, 1988 Led Zeppelin reunites, with drummer Jason Bonham (the late John Bonham's son), to perform a few songs at Atlantic Records' 40th anniversary concert at New York's Madison Square Garden.
November 13, 1990 'Led Zeppelin,' a four-CD and six-LP box set, is released. Reaching 18 on the album chart, it will sell over one million copies, making it the best-selling box set in rock and roll history.
September 11, 1993 'Led Zeppelin – The Complete Studio Records,' a ten-CD box set, is released.
October 12, 1994 The live documentary 'Unledded,' which reunites Robert Plant and Jimmy Page onstage, airs on MTV. It features four live acoustic versions of Led Zeppelin favorites and eight new Page-Plant collaborations.
November 26, 1994 'No Quarter,' by Led Zeppelin mainstays Jimmy Page and Robert Plant, enters the album chart at 4.
January 12, 1995 Led Zeppelin is inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at the tenth annual induction dinner. Steven Tyler and Joe Perry of Aerosmith are their presenters.
November 18, 1997 'Led Zeppelin: BBC Sessions,' a double CD of archival live performances on British radio from 1969-71, is released.
More Bio On Led Zeppelin - Can’t Get Enough
Current mood: melancholy
Category: Music
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin combined the visceral power and intensity of hard rock with the finesse and delicacy of British folk music. In so doing, they helped redefine the direction that rock music took in the Seventies. Since their breakup in 1980, Led Zeppelin seems in retrospect to have been the most significant rock group of the post-Beatles era. Their impact extends to classic and alternative rockers alike.
Led Zeppelin formed in 1968 out of the ashes of the Yardbirds, coming together around guitarist Jimmy Page as the "New Yardbirds" in order to fulfill contractual obligations after the original group's demise. Page's stint in the Yardbirds (1966-1968) followed a period of years as one of Britain's great session guitarists. As a generally anonymous hired gun, Page performed on mid-Sixties British Invasion records by the likes of Donovan ("Hurdy Gurdy Man"), Them ("Gloria"), the Kinks ("You Really Got Me"), the Who ("I Can't Explain") and hundreds of others. Bassist John Paul Jones also boasted a lofty session musician's pedigree. His resume included work for the Rolling Stones, Donovan and Dusty Springfield. Singer Robert Plant and drummer John "Bonzo" Bonham were old friends who had been playing about the British Midlands in an obscure group called Band of Joy.
The union of the four musicians as Led Zeppelin - their name having been suggested as a joke by Who drummer Keith Moon - quickly revealed a potent chemistry. Their integration of classic Delta blues and mystical U.K. folk into the dynamic power of contemporary rock augured the birth of heavy metal - though in Led Zeppelin's well-crafted hands "hard rock" seems a more appropriate description. Such classics as "Whole Lotta Love" were typically based around Page's heavyweight guitar riffs, Plant's raw-throated vocals, Jones' melodic, supportive bass lines, and the inimitable thunder of Bonham's drums.
The group's union of power and delicacy found favor with the audience for rock that emerged in the Seventies. Led Zeppelin deliberately aimed itself at the album market, eschewing the AM-radio singles orientation of the previous decade. Their most enduring albums - Led Zeppelin II, their untitled fourth album (a.k.a., Led Zeppelin IV, the Runes album, or Zoso) and the double album Physical Graffiti - are iconographic milestones in a decade they helped define with a kind of brutally beautiful aesthetic. Led Zeppelin's articulate, sculptural music reached its peak with the fable-like "Stairway to Heaven," which remains radio's all-time most-requested rock song. Led Zeppelin's sold-out concert tours became rituals of rock and roll theater. The Song Remains the Same, a film documentary and double-album soundtrack from 1976, attests to the group's powerful and somewhat dark appeal at the height of their popularity.
After the death of drummer Bonham on September 25, 1980, due to asphyxiation following excessive alcohol consumption, Led Zeppelin disbanded to pursue solo careers. Something of the old power was rekindled in 1995 when Page and Plant reunited to record an album (No Quarter) and tour with a large and diverse ensemble of musicians. Meanwhile, the lingering appeal of Led Zeppelin is perhaps best summed up by guitarist Page: "Passion is the word....It was a very passionate band, and that's really what comes through."
John Henry "Bonzo" Bonham (May 31, 1948 – September 25, 1980) was an iconic Englishdrummer and member of the Englishrock band Led Zeppelin. He was renowned for his power, speed and "feel" for the groove. Bonham is considered one of the most influential and respected drummers of the modern rock era and continues to be cited as an influence on drummers of varying styles to this day.[1][2]
Bonham was born in Redditch, Worcestershire,England. He first learned how to play drums at the age of five, making a drum kit out of containers and coffee tins, and copying the moves of his idols Gene Krupa and Buddy Rich. His mother Joan gave him a snare drum at the age of ten, and he received his first proper drum kit at the age of fifteen, a Premier Percussion kit. Bonham never took any drum lessons though as a teen would also knock on the doors of other drummers and ask for advice.
After leaving Wiltan House public school (some sources say he attended Bedford Modern) he worked for his father Jack Bonham in the construction industry in between drumming for different local bands. In 1964, Bonham joined his first band, Terry Webb and the Spiders, meeting his future wife Pat Phillips at a dance in Kidderminster. He also played in other Birmingham bands such as The Nicky James Movement, The Blue Star Trio, and The Senators, who released a moderately successful single "She's a Mod". Bonham enjoyed the experience and decided to take up drumming full-time. Two years later, he joined A Way of Life, but the band soon became inactive. In desperation for a regular income, he joined a blues group called Crawling King Snakes whose lead singer was a young Robert Plant.
In 1967, A Way of Life asked Bonham to return to their group, and he agreed—though throughout this period, Plant kept in constant contact with Bonham. When Plant decided to form Band Of Joy, Bonham was first choice as drummer. The band recorded a number of demos but no album. In 1968 American singer Tim Rose toured Britain and invited Band of Joy to open his concerts. When Rose returned for another tour months later, Bonham was formally invited by the singer to drum for his band which gave him a regular income. Along with Rose, singers Joe Cocker and Chris Farlowe had also sought out Bonham to play in their touring bands.
When Jimmy Page wanted to start a band in the wake of The Yardbirds break-up, his first choice for singer was Terry Reid, however Reid had already signed with Mickie Most for a solo career. Reid suggested Robert Plant, who in turn suggested Bonham, who had already drummed with Plant and knew Page from session work, as well as John Paul Jones. Page's choices for drummer included Procol Harum's B.J. Wilson, session drummers Clem Cattini and Aynsley Dunbar. Ginger Baker was also rumoured to be on Page's list. However, upon seeing Bonham drum for Tim Rose in Hampstead, north London, in July 1968, Page and manager Peter Grant were instantly convinced that he was the perfect fit for the new project.
His famous drum solo, first entitled "Pat's Delight", then "Moby Dick", would often last for half-an-hour and regularly featured his use of bare hands to achieve different sound effects. In Led Zeppelin concert tours after 1969, Bonham would expand his basic kit to include congas, orchestral timpani, and a symphonic gong. Bonham is also credited (by the DallasTimes Herald) with the first in-concert use of electronic timpani drum synthesisers (most likely made by Syndrum) during a performance of the song "Kashmir" in Dallas, Texas in 1977. Many modern rappers would later heavily sample his drumming and incorporate it into their composition, such as the Beastie Boys, who sampled "Moby Dick", "The Ocean" and "When the Levee Breaks".
During his time with Led Zeppelin, Bonham was also an avid collector of antique sports cars and motorcycles, which he kept on his family's farm called The Old Hyde. He even bought The Plough pub in the nearby village of Shenstone; which shows signs of conversion work to allow him to drive his bikes or cars right behind the bar. This was not, however, the pub featured in the film The Song Remains the Same Which was in fact the New Inn which is currently boarded up, the only clue to its famous past, a picture hanging close to the bar.[3]
As well as recording with Led Zeppelin, Bonham also found time to play on sessions for other artists. In 1970, Bonham drummed for Screaming Lord Sutch on his album Lord Sutch and Heavy Friends. Bonham also drummed for his Birmingham friend, Roy Wood, on his 1979 album, On the Road Again, and for Paul McCartney's Wings on their Back to the EggRockestra project.
He also plays drums on Lulu's 1971 song "Everybody's Got To Clap", originally written by Maurice Gibb and Billy Lawrie.
On September 24, 1980, John Bonham was picked up by Led Zeppelin assistant Rex King to attend rehearsals at Bray Studios for the upcoming tour of the United States, the band's first since 1977. During the journey Bonham had asked to stop for breakfast, where he downed four quadruple vodkas (roughly sixteen shots (~2/3 imperial quart, or ~8dl) of vodka). He then continued to drink heavily when he arrived at the studio. A halt was called to the rehearsals late in the evening and the band retired to Page's house — The Old Mill House in Clewer, Windsor. After midnight, Bonham had fallen asleep and was taken to bed and placed on his side. Benji LeFevre (who had replaced Richard Cole as Led Zeppelin's tour manager) and John Paul Jones found him dead the next morning. Bonham was 32 years old.[4]
An inquest at East Berkshire coroner's court recorded a verdict of accidental death, the cause being asphyxiation from vomit. A subsequent autopsy found no other drugs in Bonham's body.[5] The alcoholism that had plagued the drummer since his earliest days with the band ultimately led to his death. John Bonham was cremated on October 10, 1980, at Rushock Parish Church, Worcestershire. A cymbal sits in front of his headstone in his memory. His headstone reads:
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Cherished memories of a loving husband and father,John Henry BonhamWho died Sept. 25th 1980.aged 32 years.He will always be remembered in our hearts,Goodnight my Love, God Bless.
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Despite media rumours that Cozy Powell, Carmine Appice, Barriemore Barlow, Simon Kirke, or Bev Bevan would join the group as his replacement, the remaining members decided to disband Led Zeppelin after Bonham's death. They issued a press statement on December 4 1980 confirming that the band would not continue without its irreplaceable drummer. "We wish it to be known that the loss of our dear friend and the deep sense of undivided harmony felt by ourselves and our manager, have led us to decide that we could not continue as we were."[6]
However on September 12, 2007, it was confirmed during a press conference by promoter Harvey Goldsmith that the surviving members of Led Zeppelin was due to reunite for the Ahmet Ertegun tribute show at The O2 in London on 26 November 2007, however due to a finger injury sustained by guitarist Jimmy Page, the show was postponed to 10 December 2007. Jason Bonham, John's son, will play on drums in place of his late father.
My Favorite Band in the Universe
Current mood: satisfied
Category: Music
I recently received approval on my friend requests for Robert Plant, Jimmy Page & John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin. The only thing better than that would have been to receive an approval for a friend request from Jon Bonham too!
Led Zeppelin has always been my favorite band and I'm sure I'll still be rockin to their great music when I'm 95!
The band was originally formed in 1968 by guitarist Jimmy Page under the name "The New Yardbirds," based on Page's previous band, The Yardbirds. While The New Yardbirds arose at first simply to fulfill some performance commitments booked in Scandinavia before the original band's break-up, Page attempted to create a rock-supergroup out of the new band, which would have been composed of the Yardbirds' own Page and Jeff Beck, The Who's Keith Moon and John Entwistle (who were considering leaving their band), and possibly Steve Winwood or Steve Marriott.
After Page's attempt at forming a supergroup failed, Page filled the band with vocalist Robert Plant, drummer John Bonham and long-time friend and fellow London recording session player John Paul Jones. Page's first choice as singer, Terry Reid, declined the opportunity but unselfishly recommended Plant, who accepted and then brought in his old friend Bonham from the defunct Band of Joy.
After some concerts with this new line-up billed variously as the New Yardbirds, or sometimes simply The Yardbirds, the band's name was changed to Led Zeppelin, after a comment was made by The Who's drummer Keith Moon while the New Yardbirds supergroup was still a possibility. Moon (although some attribute the comment to the Who's bassist John Entwistle) was quoted saying that the band would go down faster than a "lead balloon". The group adopted the name, deliberately misspelling the first part to prevent American fans from pronouncing it as "leed."
Shortly after their first tour, the group's eponymous first album was released on January 12, 1969. Its blend of blues and rock influences with distorted amplification made it one of the pivotal records in the evolution of heavy metal music. Although several of Zeppelin's earliest songs were based on or were cover versions of blues standards, others such as "Communication Breakdown" had a unique and distinctively heavy sound. Led Zeppelin also featured delicate acoustic guitar on "Black Mountain Side" in which you can hear the influence of Davy Graham, and a combination of acoustic and electric approaches on the reworked folk song "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You." The immediate success of the first album kick-started the band's career, especially in the United States, where they would frequently tour.
The second record, simply titled Led Zeppelin II, followed in similar style later that year: the album begins with the bludgeoning riff of "Whole Lotta Love," which, driven by the rhythm section of Bonham on drums and Jones on bass, defined their sound at the time. Led Zeppelin II—often referred to by fans as the "Brown Bomber"—was an even greater success for the group, reaching the Number 1 chart position in both the US and the UK.
Jimmy Page and Robert Plant were blues fanatics; their first album included the Willie Dixon song "You Shook Me," and their later hit "Whole Lotta Love" was lyrically very similar to an earlier Dixon song. (The band were subsequently accused of using his lyrics without crediting Dixon, and it was not until Chess Records brought suit 15 years later, that proper credit—and a monetary settlement—was given.)
Page was once quoted in an interview with the hypothesis: "I've often thought that in the way the Stones tried to be the sons of Chuck Berry, we tried to be the sons of Howlin' Wolf" (a version of whose song "Killing Floor" featured prominently in Zeppelin's early live performances). The band also loved American rock and roll: the exuberant styles of Fats Domino and Little Richard were inspirations, and Led Zeppelin would perform rockabilly songs originally made famous by Elvis Presley and Eddie Cochran. Onstage, Led Zeppelin concerts could last more than three hours; expanded, improvised live versions of their song repertoire often incorporated tight workouts of James Brown, Stax, and Motown-influenced soul music and funk (favorites of bassist Jones and drummer Bonham).
For the writing of the music on their third album, Led Zeppelin III, the band retired to Bron-Yr-Aur, a remote cottage in Wales. This would result in a more acoustic sound (and a song "Bron-Yr-Aur Stomp", misspelled as "Bron-Y-Aur Stomp" on the album cover) strongly influenced by Celtic and folk music, and it also revealed a different side of guitarist Page's prodigious talent. Led Zeppelin III also ushered in an era of unique album jackets, this one featuring a wheel that displayed various images through cutouts in the main jacket sleeve when rotated. In November of 1970, Led Zeppelin's record label, Atlantic Records, released "Immigrant Song" as a single against the band's wishes (Atlantic had earlier released an edited version of "Whole Lotta Love" which cut the 5:34 song to 3:10). It included their only b-side, "Hey Hey What Can I Do". Even though the band saw their albums as indivisible, whole listening experiences — and their manager, Peter Grant, maintained an aggressive pro-album stance — nine other singles were released without their consent. The group also resisted television appearances, which would have reduced their ability to control their presentation and sound quality. Lack of Zeppelin TV exposure also enforced the band's preference that their fans hear and see them in person.
Their fourth album, Led Zeppelin IV featured the world famous "Stairway to Heaven", a masterpiece which every year tops the various Top100 radio lists. On stage Jimmy Page performed Stairway to Heaven on a custom built double neck electric Gibson guitar, the top neck a twelve string version.
Over 25 years after disbanding in response to drummer John Bonham's tragic death in 1980, Led Zeppelin continue to be held in high regard for their artistic achievements, commercial success and influence. To date, the group is reported to have sold more than 300 million albums worldwide, including 109.5 million sales in the United States.
Some regard Jimmy Page as the most talented rock/blues guitarist of all time. John Bonham gave a new sound to rock and roll, people were struck with amazement by his complex drum beats and his expansive drum solos. After his untimely death, the band broke up. Since then, Page, Plant, and Jones have only played together on rare occasions. Page and Plant did get back together to record No Quarter: Jimmy Page and Robert Plant Unledded as part of the MTV Unplugged series in 1994, which was accompanied by a worldwide tour, and again in 1998 for the studio album Walking Into Clarksdale. John Paul Jones also has performed since the break up, most recently at the Bonnaroo music festival in Manchester, Tennessee. He was part of a "SuperJam" featuring himself on bass, Ben Harper on guitar, and Ahmir "?uestlove" Thompson on the drums. He also played as a guest during the sets of various other artists throughout the weekend.
Most recently Led Zeppelin have announced a final performance in London at the o2 Arena on the 26th November 2007. This show will include all the surviving members of Led Zeppelin and Jason Bonham, son of John, on drums. For more details, head to the Last.fm event page, where Warner Music are giving away a pair of tickets to the event.
Totally Useless Info But Still Cool To Know
Current mood: calm
The History of the Middle Finger Well, now......here's something I never knew before, and now that I know it, I feel compelled to send it on to my more intelligent friends in the hope that they, too, will feel edified. Isn't history more fun when you know something about it? Before the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, the French, anticipating victory over the English, proposed to cut off the middle finger of all captured English soldiers. Without the middle finger it would be impossible to draw The renowned English longbow and therefore they would be incapable of fighting in the future. This famous English longbow was made of the native English yew tree, and the act of drawing the longbow was known as "plucking the yew" (or "pluck yew"). Much to the bewilderment of the French, the English won a major upset and began mocking the French by waving their middle fingers at the defeated French, saying, see, we can still pluck yew! Since 'pluck yew' is rather difficult to say, the difficult consonant cluster at the beginning has gradually change d to a labiodentals fricative F', and thus the words often used in conjunction with the one-finger-salute! It is also because of the Pheasant feathers on the arrows used with the longbow that the symbolic gesture is known as "giving the bird." IT IS STILL AN APPROPRIATE SALUTE TO THE FRENCH TODAY! And yew thought yew knew every plucking thing.
How To Catch Wild Pigs
Current mood: hopeful
Category: News and Politics
Subject: How do you catch a wild pig
I got this in my regular e-mail from a friend. Thought it was worth passing on
There was a Chemistry professor in a large college that had some Exchange students in the class. One day while the class was in the lab the Prof noticed one young man (exchange student) who kept rubbing his back and stretching as if his back hurt.
The professor asked the young man what was the matter. The student told him he had a bullet lodged in his back. He had been shot while fighting communists in his native country who were trying to overthrow his country's government and install a new communist government.
In the midst of his story he looked at the professor and asked a strange question. He asked, ' Do you know how to catch wild pigs?'
The professor thought it was a joke and asked for the punch line.
The young man said this was no joke.'You catch wild pigs by finding a suitable place in the woods and putting corn on the ground. The pigs find it and begin to come everyday to eat the free corn. When they are used to coming every day, you put a fence down one side of the place where they are used to coming. When they get used to the fence, they begin to eat the corn again and you put up another side of the fence. They get used to that and start to eat again. You continue until you have all four sides of the fence up with a gate in the last side.
By now the pigs, who are used to the free corn, start to come through the gate to eat, you slam the gate on them and catch the whole herd.
Suddenly the wild pigs have lost their freedom. They run around and around inside the fence, but they are caught. Soon they go back to eating the free corn. They are so used to it that they have forgotten how to forage in the woods for themselves, so they accept their captivity.
The young man then told the professor that is exactly what he sees happening to America. The government keeps pushing us toward Communism/Socialism and keeps spreading the free corn out in the form of programs such as supplemental income, tax credit for unearned income, tobacco subsidies, dairy subsidies, payments not to plant crops (CRP), welfare, medicine, drugs, etc. while we continually lose our freedoms- just a little at a time.
One should always remember 'There is no such thing as a free Lunch!' Also,You can never hire someone to provide a service for you cheaper than you can do it yourself.
Also, if you see that all of this wonderful government 'help' is a problem confronting the future of democracy in America, you might want to send this on to your friends.
If you think the free ride is essential to your way of life then you will probably delete this email, but God help us when the gate slams shut!
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The union of the four musicians as Led Zeppelin - their name having been suggested as a joke by Who drummer Keith Moon - quickly revealed a potent chemistry. Their integration of classic Delta blues and mystical U.K. folk into the dynamic power of contemporary rock augured the birth of heavy metal - though in Led Zeppelin's well-crafted hands "hard rock" seems a more appropriate description. Such classics as "Whole Lotta Love" were typically based around Page's heavyweight guitar riffs, Plant's raw-throated vocals, Jones' melodic, supportive bass lines, and the inimitable thunder of Bonham's drums.
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