Ramble On by Led Zeppelin

Ah, the Zep. Many people have very strong opinions about this band, love/hate feelings usually more than just that they're meh (and, by the way, did you know that "meh" is now officially a word?) Not that I wanted intentionally to start a debate about whether Zeppelin's songs are meh, but a good many of them are, at least to me.

Here's my feeling about this band: they were musically excellent—some of their songs are beautiful—and hugely influential, if lyrically a bit too "Middle Earth" for my aesthetic. But the vast majority of bands that patterned themselves after Zeppelin were mediocre hair bands. So thank you, Plant/Paige/Jones/Bonham for rocking hard and leaving a legacy of metal dudes screaming at the top of their lungs trying to mimick Plant's tenor vocal peaks that even he was straining to reach.

Year: 1969
Rating: Warm (no, not meh.)