Pop Rocks and Coke
Searching for Our Led Zeppelin
Megan Burbank
Issue date: 9/4/08 Section: Arts
"It makes men cry," said a friend of mine at a typical Smith dinner the other day. Kicking off the new semester with old friends and dining hall fare, the subject was The Shawshank Redemption. And I couldn't help but respond, "Kind of like Led Zeppelin?"
I had been reading Chuck Klosterman over the summer. For those not in the know - and that's a considerable number - Chuck used to be a writer for Spin and now occasionally churns out a rambling first-person book comprised of his own ruminations on popular culture and life in general. He's a pretty entertaining, if roundabout, guy. Anyhow, Chuck has a theory about men and Led Zeppelin. The theory goes something like this: men universally love Robert Plant and company, inherently and irrevocably, and every person born with a Y chromosome in the world will one day hear something like "Immigrant Song" and feel like Led Zeppelin is describing their life. The reason for this, reasons Chuck, is that Led Zeppelin has all the qualities of a really cool guy, a guy that all guys really want to be. And listening to this theoretical cool guy makes them feel like they, too, can be that cool. And so, all arguments that women like Led Zeppelin aside, I had to wonder -- do we, the fairer sex, have a Led Zep?
It was a question I mulled over for a few days after reading Chuck's Killing Yourself To Live. Admittedly, I think most women go through a Joni phase at some point in their lives, but we don't all want to be Joni Mitchell. Not everyone wants to look at love from both sides now or plaintively bemoan that menacing Big Yellow Taxi. At Smith, most of us memorize the lyrics of artists like Regina Spektor and Rilo Kiley, but next to Led Zeppelin, these acts are little babies. They're young. Time will tell if they're enduring.
Inevitably, the Led Zeppelin dilemma leads to one thing that many bands seek but few obtain - staying power. While Chuck's assessment of male adoration of Led Zeppelin focuses on an abstract self-identification with lyrics and rhythms, I think it has as much to do with the fact that a lot of men - and for that matter, a lot of people - can listen to Led Zeppelin at age 13 or 40 and appreciate it equally at both ages, albeit in different ways. Led Zeppelin is passed down from generation to generation like a psychedelic heirloom brooch, and so, in my investigation of its popularity, I looked for bands with a similar tenacity. I contend that bands like the Clash and artists like the Bobs Marley and Dylan will never really die, even though Dylan is pushing 70, Marley died of cancer, Clash frontman Joe Strummer died in 2002. And while I am one of the throng who come back to these three again and again in my music library, their survival begs a disturbing question. Where are the girls here? Who are the immortal ladies of rock 'n roll?
I had been reading Chuck Klosterman over the summer. For those not in the know - and that's a considerable number - Chuck used to be a writer for Spin and now occasionally churns out a rambling first-person book comprised of his own ruminations on popular culture and life in general. He's a pretty entertaining, if roundabout, guy. Anyhow, Chuck has a theory about men and Led Zeppelin. The theory goes something like this: men universally love Robert Plant and company, inherently and irrevocably, and every person born with a Y chromosome in the world will one day hear something like "Immigrant Song" and feel like Led Zeppelin is describing their life. The reason for this, reasons Chuck, is that Led Zeppelin has all the qualities of a really cool guy, a guy that all guys really want to be. And listening to this theoretical cool guy makes them feel like they, too, can be that cool. And so, all arguments that women like Led Zeppelin aside, I had to wonder -- do we, the fairer sex, have a Led Zep?
It was a question I mulled over for a few days after reading Chuck's Killing Yourself To Live. Admittedly, I think most women go through a Joni phase at some point in their lives, but we don't all want to be Joni Mitchell. Not everyone wants to look at love from both sides now or plaintively bemoan that menacing Big Yellow Taxi. At Smith, most of us memorize the lyrics of artists like Regina Spektor and Rilo Kiley, but next to Led Zeppelin, these acts are little babies. They're young. Time will tell if they're enduring.
Inevitably, the Led Zeppelin dilemma leads to one thing that many bands seek but few obtain - staying power. While Chuck's assessment of male adoration of Led Zeppelin focuses on an abstract self-identification with lyrics and rhythms, I think it has as much to do with the fact that a lot of men - and for that matter, a lot of people - can listen to Led Zeppelin at age 13 or 40 and appreciate it equally at both ages, albeit in different ways. Led Zeppelin is passed down from generation to generation like a psychedelic heirloom brooch, and so, in my investigation of its popularity, I looked for bands with a similar tenacity. I contend that bands like the Clash and artists like the Bobs Marley and Dylan will never really die, even though Dylan is pushing 70, Marley died of cancer, Clash frontman Joe Strummer died in 2002. And while I am one of the throng who come back to these three again and again in my music library, their survival begs a disturbing question. Where are the girls here? Who are the immortal ladies of rock 'n roll?
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
Anne Mollegen Smith
posted 9/05/08 @ 3:21 PM EST
How about Carly Simon, Carole King, for two.
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