Initially, I didn't like Robert Plant's voice, can you believe that! I liked "Good Times, Bad Times" immediately. I liked "Whole Lotta Love" immediately. Except for "Immigrant Song" my young ears were not mature enough to appreciate Led Zeppelin III. One of my favorites now! Then Led Zeppelin IV was released and it changed my life of music appreciation. I saw Led Zeppelin in 1975 right before "Physical Graffiti" was released. I can't believe what I went through to get tickets to that concert, or to get "Physical Graffiti" as soon as it was available. (I'll never forgot that opening riff of "In My Time Of Dying" before the song was even released. I was in heaven...) After the length of time between "Led Zeppelin IV" and "Physical Graffiti," "Presence" was kind of a pleasant, relatively quick surprise. Zeppelin toured again after that release and I saw them again in 1977. It was a good concert, but not nearly as good as 1975. The rumor was that Jimmy Page was having addiction problems and he seemed a bit sloppy. Though it had its moments, I remember that my friends and I thought that "In Through The Out Door" was somewhat disappointing considering what had come before. Robert Plant's son was killed somewhere around that time and of course Bonzo died shortly thereafter. I saw them again at Live-Aid in 1985 playing with Phil Collins, but that performance was just kind of sad. I have seen Robert Plant solo twice since the Led Zeppelin days, and his performances were first rate. There's a lot of revisionism out there these days concerning Led Zeppelin being overrated. They were certainly the very best of their time (IMHO only Pink Floyd with Roger Waters equalled them in terms of live performance...) and certainly among the very best of all time.
