Sunday
Sep092012
Led Zeppelin's Facebook Goes Cryptic
Sunday, September 9, 2012 at 12:01AM 
Is Led Zeppelin getting ready to release a new album? Tour? Live DVD? The band's official Facebook just posted the word "Five" written in the same font as the band's Houses of the Holy album cover.
The band already has a fifth album and that is Houses of the Holy. And the band has nine studio albums, so the numbering-album theory doesn't really add up. I can't imagine singer Robert Plant agreeing to a tour, but holy crap if it happens! Talk about the music event of the year.
It has been five years since the band's reunion show at the O2 arena, so I think a DVD of that performance is probably what this all means. What do you think?
Reader Comments (13)
Ya gotta hand it to 'em when it comes to hype.
They have always been masters of music marketing.
Note to Al: I think your right! Clever girl!
http://www.blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=179183
Cheer!
We were theorizing about it at THE local Indy Record Store here in Orlando, "Rock and Roll Heaven", where you can still find it all from Ratt's first EP, a picture sleeve 45 of Poison's first single, "Cry Tough", a vintage Mötley Crüe Action Figure Set including miniature Marshall stacks, and proportional exact replicas of Tommy's drum kit plus Nikki's T-Bird and Mick's black Les Paul or all the Zep boots on vinyl, Sabbath stuff -- pretty much, you name it, including stuff you don't necessarily want from Abba to Zha-Zha comedy albums, etc., etc.
Anywho, picture the scenes at the store in the movie, "High Fidelity", John Cusack's hilarious and heartfelt adaptation of Nick Hornby's now classic novel about an Indy record store owner and the nuts who either work there or come into the place, except now set in Orlando with a bunch of idiot Floridian transplants traversing the aisles and aisles of vinyl (I'm mainly talking about myself and the other Rock & Roll Fools who buy all the stuff, not really the owners who are two brothers and their buddy, though I really could do with some of the bonfire ignoramuses they've got working there).
So there we were discussing the whole Reunion Tour speculation and I thought I was winning, when Ray, the buddy owner, gazed over his slightly crooked Coke Bottle Aviator wireframed glasses, aiming right between my eyes with his fatal point...
Ray sees it like this: Plant isn't necessarily the bad guy here, as much as I might want him to be. The question is, could Page hold it together for a whole tour? Consistency of performance is called into question as we all know, the guitar work, the very monster he created, is tremendously more complicated than the do-re-mi stuff Richards or Woody of The Stones are still trotting out, for example. And he's all by himself, where those guys can lean on each other.
Eddie Van Halen once outrageously called Page "all thumbs" when he's playin' live on stage. Though he's been documented with some pretty sloppy playing (Live-Aid and Knebworth), he's also turned in some well documented stellar, blistering performances, as well -- Earl's Court, Royal Albert Hall and Denmark, '69.
So the burning question is, "Can Page still pull it off night after night on tour". Sure, Plant can't really belt 'em out like before, either, but Page and Jones dropped their tuning for the one off London reunion and it seemed to work.
I'm still stickin' with Al's DVD Release theory (just in time for Holiday shopping!) on the cryptic "FIVE" overtaking their Facebook page but another thought just came to me...
Maybe Page could handle "FIVE" Shows! Zep could do consecutive shows at Madison Square Garden or how about a mini stint in Vega$, where they could really pull in the big bucks? It might be considered a little campy, but they're Elvis freaks so it works. They could do a once-a-week schedule there. Or they could do a mini North American Tour -- NYC, L.A., Chicago, Dallas (Cowboy's Stadium, anyone?) and hmmm...
I see the ominous "FIVE" is eating my brain! Aaaaggghhhhhh!!!!
p.s. I was lucky enough to see Zeppelin on May, 27, 1977 3rd Row at the age of two and I've got the ticket stub to prove it (but not the proof that I was two, regrettably). I also saw 'em 6th Row at Madison Square Garden in 1996!
Plus, those guys have stupid money. There is no need for anyone of them to tour except for a burning desire to.
The fact that hey've now posted a "FOUR" on Facebook leads me to believe this is some sort of countdown probably to what Ally and HIM speculate. I was just holding out for a tour, even of mini proportions. Maybe they could deploy some of the stagecraft tactics you mention. I know they manipulated Plant's voice for the '96 Tour.
p.s. Didn't Plant just win like 8 Grammies for his Duets album with Allyson Krauss? Page on the other hand -- I would love to think he could hold it together, but there are serious doubts he's tour worthy at this point. And this is coming from someone ego considers Page to be his absolute favorite guitarist! Believe me, I want to be wrong. I'm just speculating why they don't want to Tour. If it's not Page, you CAN blame Plant as it's been Plant who's kaboshed things everytime the others are all set to do it (I.e. right after the Reunion!).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMdiHIZgSo
Announcement should come today at 9:45...