It's Ok To Love Led Zeppelin Even Though They Made A Groupie Stick Fish You-Know-Where

I always wanted to be the kind of girl who discovered Led Zeppelin on her own and taught herself Jimmy Page-ish guitar riffs instead of studying for algebra. Unfortunately I was studying for algebra, and so learned about the Zep through my high school crush. As a result I always thought of them as a guy band, even though I would eventually become the true Zeppelin obsessive. Later, when I actually started listening to the lyrics more carefully and learning more about their on tour antics, I started worrying that idolizing Led Zeppelin and having a vagina were mutually exclusive. As a recent article in the UK Independent, in honor of a Led Zeppelin reunion slated for tonight, put it, "Many of the themes and euphemisms [Zeppelin] employed had previously been coined by black blues artists, but instead of their usually light-hearted, flirtatious manner, in Zep's hands the terminology developed a more aggressive, predatory character," not to mention the rumors of "interspecies hi-jinks" where "live fish and octopuses [were] erotically involved with submissive groupies."

Fish-in-vag aside, I should definitely get over misogynistic undertones when uber feminist Germaine sodding Greer is penning columns about how awesome Zeppelin is.

Greer writes about a Zeppelin concert she attended in 1970 at Albert Hall:

The Albert Hall acoustic is peculiar: the sound came up to me with a force that pummelled me breathless. No other band ever managed to make a sound like that. It was certainly loud, but it was also driving, pushing along with incredible energy. Up there above the heaving crowd, I couldn't believe the transcendental noise I was hearing.
I would let Robert Plant c. 1970 pummel me breathless pretty anytime. The sort of raw sexuality Plant and company exuded was certainly a key component to Zeppelin's appeal, for both men and women, in addition to their truly stunning musicianship. "The spring god Dionysus had arisen and was shaking his streaming red-gold mane on stage," Greer writes, and there's something to be said for embracing the pure hedonism of rock gods.

So they let the "interspecies hi-jinks" get a little out of hand. It was the 70s. Everyone was so busy doing coke and summoning the occult I doubt they remember any of it in the first place.

Led Zeppelin: The First, The Biggest, And Still The Best... [Independent]
Germaine Greer: The Night Led Zeppelin Blew My Mind [Telegraph]