A Book Of Led Zeppelin

DISCOVERING LED ZEPPELIN

Let's face it, most teenage girls in 2017 do not listen to rock bands from the 60s and 70s. That's not me trying to act special - people that boast about listening to 'alternative' music like that just piss me off - it's simply a fact. I don't go on about my music taste to many people, because I know most of my friends don't like it. Fair enough, I don't like theirs either, so I don't listen to it. It's that simple

However, having joined wattpad I realised that there were a whole lot more classic rock fans of around my age than I thought before, which admittedly still isn't much but it's more than I'd expect. Since I first wrote this, I've also gone onto a course in music technology, where people's music taste is extremely diverse, but there I've found many like-minded people (my own age) who also appreciate the same stuff I do.

So I was wondering, how exactly did people first listen this music, and also how did people discover Led Zeppelin, especially now it's not on mainstream radio or news channels? I'm genuinely very interested in this so please please comment below and explain how you discovered either classic rock, Led Zeppelin or both.

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Here's how it was for me. When I was little, as in 3 months old and up, my parents were both away a lot of the time because of work, so I would stay at my grandparents house as they lived close by. My Grandad was a big fan of music. He didn't really act much like a typical grandad if I'm honest, he was very young when my Dad was born so couldn't have been older than 55 at the time, and he wore a leather jacket, was a pack-a-day smoker, rode a motorbike and had played guitar since he was 10. When I think back on it, he was quite a cool Grandad - minus the smoking, he ended up dying of lung cancer - but at the time I just remember hating the jacket because it was always cold when he picked me up and hating the bike because it always stank of petrol. Kids don't appreciate how lucky they are.

Anyway, my Grandad had an absolutely huge record collection, it took up an entire wall of his living room, and there would always be music playing whenever you went into the house, whether it was from the record player or his guitar. He loved classic rock, so that was mostly what he played. Zeppelin, The Who, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Allman Brothers, ZZ Top, you name it and it was there. He also loved the old delta blues, which I still do too.

So as a child I never really listened to any other music but that. I was always so confused at school when no one knew who Hendrix was, or when people's role models were people I'd barely even heard of at the time, like Katy Perry or Gabriella from High School Musical or whatever. My hero was always Janis Joplin, which I think caused the teachers some concern, but I don't know why because it clearly wasn't her drug intake that caused six year old me to admire her. I think I could relate to her on some level - never quite fitting into the crowd and never quite being able to live up to your family's expectations - and I admired her, and still do, for doing what she loved and not letting anyone stop her. We had to do a project once on our heroes, and the first thing that was said when I showed a picture of Janis to the class went along the lines of "she's ugly, why do you like her?" That really annoyed me and still does if I'm honest, that even at eight years old everything is based around looks. Never mind that she had a voice that could silence a crowd of thousands, never mind that she sang at Woodstock to 500,000 people, she's just an ugly girl.

So I was always a little bit strange to the others at school. I had friends, yes, I wasn't a social outcast by any means, but I was kind of the cliche of the quiet girl in the corner reading. In my case though it probably wasn't as angelic as that image; I probably would've scowled and snapped at anyone who disturbed me and it wasn't a book I was holding, it was a guitar. In practically all the pictures from my childhood, I've got a guitar in my hands or near me. There's one I especially like of me when I'm about six, sitting in the long grass in my Grandad's garden with the guitar in my lap. My Grandma always said I looked like a 'flower child' (aka hippie) as I was always barefoot, wore jeans and my hair was very long so I suppose she was probably right.