Non indie-rock non punk rock question:

WXPN is doing a "Greatest Albums of All Time" Countdown. Here's the current rundown of Zeppelin albums:

III - #150
Houses of the Holy - #103
II - #68
I - #63
Physical Graffiti - #48
(untitled d/b/a IV) - unplayed, assumed higher that #48

Q1. Why is Led Zeppelin IV always rated so damn high? I HATE "Stairway," and it always sounds like a big-ass boat anchor on that whole album. I mean, especially when compared to the butt-rock greatness of the first two songs on the album, the beauty of "Going To California," and the apocalyptic blues of "When The Levee Breaks." And "Battle of Evermore" is a little distracting on side one.

Q2. It's nice to see Physical Graffiti get the props -- it's my fave Zep album. Why has it taken so long for it to get recognized as the glorious mishmash it is?

Q3. What is it about III? For that matter, what is it about third albums and like-hate polarity? Fables of the Reconstruction, for instance, you either love or despise. To a point, OK Computer is the same way for Radiohead fans. I'll freely admit not every artist that has this third album love-hate polarity, but why do some bands have this on album three? Or am I highlighting a coincidence?

Album three is where you have to change your sound. I think that's it. Otherwise you're coasting.

From what I hear the soon-to-be-released third Strokes album is a big "sound-change" third album. Which, you know, thank god because they were coasting with the last one - but I predict a giant flop and probably an incredibly mediocre album.

Interesting. According to the Wikipedia Led Zeppelin discography page, Physical Graffiti is their second best selling album in the U.S. With II being third. (So the station's greatest-album-rating doesn't quite correspond with their sales.) Combined sales of the top three? 49 million.

PG is my favorite, but I've been satisfying most of my Zeppelin needs with frequent listenings of How the West Was Won ever since it was released.

Although, IIRC, the RIAA counts double albums as two units. So PG sold 15 million records but only 7.5 million albums.

This years best record is damn hard, mainly because it hasn't been that supergreat. Sleater-Kinney's The Woods and Patrick Wolf's Wind in the Wires are the only two I'm sure would be at the top.

IIRC, the RIAA counts double albums as two units.

:: googles::

Huh.It totally does. I never knew that. I am going on the record as saying that is really dumb. That put's II in second place and I in third sales-wise.

In unrelated news, I am seeing the Mountain Goats tonight. I'd be more excited if I wasn't dealing with the fact that I have to find a new apt. and move in the next two weeks due to having a roommate who is...wait for it...scared of my cat. Still - though - Mountain Goat-y fun this eve.

Huh.It totally does. I never knew that. I am going on the record as saying that is really dumb.

It has to do with price. Originally, a gold record wasn't for units shipped but for $1,000,000 in sales. Eventually, there was a switch, but this is why until the mid-80s it took only 500K albums to go gold vs. 1M singles. Singles were cheaper.

And, actually, it does make sense when you think about box sets. A 10-CD collection is going to cost, in theory, 10X as much as a single CD. (It usually doesn't, but let's ignore that obviousness for a second.) So, if you sell 50,000 box sets, you're selling the same number of discs as a 500,000 selling single CD album.

As a random example, the Doors Box Set is certified platinum, meaning that 250,000 stoned college students and Jim Morrison worshippers have dropped $70 on a four-CD set of songs they already had. If they had to buy them as individual CDs, though, the total combined sales would have been over a million. Therefore, platinum.

BTW, on digital downloads, it's only 100,000 for gold, 200,000 for platinum. iTunes hasn't replaced the CD market... yet.

Zep IV is great and I love Stairway. Overrated? Probably. Overplayed? Definitely. Thought to be much deeper than it is? Of course, how could it not be? And Page ripped it (or at least the beginning) off from John Martyn or some other English folkie and prob'ly ripped the fast section off too: I don't care. It's beautiful. The man had excellent taste in lifting songs.

Love III, too. My tolerance for English folk music is very limited, but as an ingredient in Zep and RT's music it's killer. "Bron-Y-Aur Stomp" is among my favorite Zep songs & "Hats Off to (Roy) Harper" is really friggin' weird. By which I mean the whole sound, not the fact that an ostensible tribute to an English folkie is actually a country blues rip off. Not sure if the credit/blame goes to Page's production or Jones' arrangement.

Interesting, disturbing stuff about New Orleans this week on Le Show. Corwood, you need to listen to this & maybe do a follow up on your blog to your media coverage outrage. Check out This American Life's excellent coverage of Katrina, too. 9/9 and 9/16. Very moving.

Interesting, disturbing stuff about the bomb -- the bomb, Dmitri, the hydrogen bomb -- on Studio 360. I think most of the stuff that really got me is in the Strangelove section. We were really close to nuclear war during the Cuban missile crisis. Listen and blanch. Kurt Andersen and I did. Interesting stuff about what's up with the decommisioned Russian nukes, too. But I don't want to ruin the surprise.

ETA: Almost forgot: Bluegrass Pink Floyd. Did we talk about this? I love this. Don't know how the rest of the album is, but I completely dig this. No, I'm not kidding.

Back on the rap covers by non-rappers, I think I have a new champion. Jonathan Coulton covers "Baby Got Back."

Post: [link]

MP3 is at buffistarawk.

Just this morning I heard on Weekend Edition a cover of LL's My Radio by a group called Halloween Alaska or something like that.