Dan Zaccagnino // Blog

So I just listened to the new Zeppelin compilation, Mothership, which is fantastic, save a few key misses. First of all, let me clarify that I am not usually a huge fan of compilations. I find music more interesting in the context of albums. This is not so say that I'm one of the people who say that all music should be listened to as albums and that singles are killing music. In fact, interestingly enough, music wasn't always in albums. First it was singles, then it was singles with B-sides, then the album emerged, and only then was it looked at as an artistic statement as a whole. So, I say go with whatever works for you as an artist. If you created something to be a single then let it out. If you want something to be listened to as an album and a single is just a way to drive awareness of that album then I'm cool with that too. Which is why I both respect every artist who has put singles on iTunes and the ones who have refrained because iTunes will not allow sales of only albums (Dave Matthews for one, and more recently Jay Z - note I don't totally agree with this article for reasons I've already mentioned).

 Back to the task at hand. For me as a listener, I prefer to hear songs in the context of albums for a number of reasons. For one, bands who do see albums as an entire, related, artistic statement can do wonderful things that cannot happen in a single song. A good example recently for me is The Killers - great albums, not just great songs, and there are themes throghout. I also find it interesting to listen to the other songs that were probably written around the same time as the hits and look for pattern and similarities both in the music and the lyrics in terms of what the band/songwriter was thinking and to see how that evolves over time and albums. This is particularly interesting to see with bands who span long times and who's sound evovles. The Beatles are the obvious example. When you look at Beatles music and broader societal events there is obviously a correleation. The interesting question to me is: did The Beatles cause some of these social and lifestyle changes or did they react to them and create music that would fit in with what else was going on. I think the answer is both and that's what's so interesting. How music effects society and society, music.

Anyway, I'm getting off point - I've just never had a venue where I could talk about this stuff and have someone listen (other than a few key people like Pete and my cousin John). Actually, I think that's still the case but at least I'm putting it out there. I do see the value in compilations for less audiophiliac people who just want the hits and want someone else to do the work for them. What got this whole thought started was that I think, while I understand this it totally subjective, there are some key, KEY Zeppelin tunes left off the album. I know there is limited space, but I would trade Achilles Last Stand, In The Evening, Trampled Under Foot, and probably a few others for these great songs they left off:

Fool In The Rain

Tangerine

Bron-Yr-Aur Stomp

Going to California

Dancing Days

How the hell did they leave those off a best-of compilation!