Once upon a time, charity shops were a great place to find good old albums on vinyl. But long before the "vinyl revival" really kicked in, it seemed that either no one was giving away any good records, or the shops realised that they could get more for some of the better records by selling them online. And so, for most of the time I've been buying records, charity shops have not been the fruitful picking ground they used to be (for vinyl at least, I've consistently found gems on cds over the years and love buying something I might not usually because it was 50p in a charity shop).
On 1st December 2018, I found that rare treat - a newly arrived box of records in a charity shop that no one had had the good sense to send off to be sold online. In fact, it was three boxes of records from the 70's and 80's, all in incredible condition that I think had only just been dropped off. I immediately started trawling through them and was amazed to find the likes of Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan and Led Zeppelin. I asked the woman at the counter how much they were and to my amazement she replied "three for £1"! I'd struck charity shop gold. My heart was pacing a bit as I went through all three boxes and pulled out most of the Floyd and Zeppelin back-catalogues. I've been gradually working on those two back-catalogues on cd, but was more than happy to swap over to vinyl at those prices. There were two early REM albums and more Dylan than you could shake a stick at; I have a tricky relationship with Dylan, so only opted for The Times They Are A-Changin' (a classic by any measure) and At Budokan (to get a wide mix of stuff). There was also a Roger Walters solo album that I bought out of curiosity more than anything else - I don't think many Floyd fans consider having all the various solo albums an essential part of any collection.
Now is a good time to mention the slight guilt I felt at leaving the shop with 18 albums I'd just paid £6 for. A better person might have told them that these albums are worth considerably more than "three for £1" and offered to pay a few £ each. An even better person might have looked on Discogs, checked the details and seen that the copy of Animals by Pink Floyd was the Italian first edition and worth in the region of £30 alone - not a fortune, but quite a lot more than I was about to pay for it. I, however, am not a good person, it seems. I did leave a lot of records that probably had reasonable value - including a lot of Dylan albums and a Kraftwerk album in very good condition - I could have bought all these and sold them for profit; I'm not the worst person, but definitely occupying a place on the lower end of the ladder. When I went back a few weeks later, all of the records had gone, so either someone else had taken advantage, or they'd finally seen the value in shipping them off to be sold somewhere else.
A minor addition to this story (and possibly a factor in deciding exactly how much of a bad person I am) - the reason I was in the charity shop was because I'd taken the baby for a walk to the supermarket, but decided to swing by the local charity shops first. Whilst I looked through every LP in those three boxes, I periodically waved my spare hand in front of my daughter's face to make sure she wasn't getting too bored. I loaded up the pram with my LPs and rushed home, in my excitement entirely forgetting to actually go to the supermarket. "Did you get the shopping?" "Better than that..."
Anyway, this is a lot of waffling about things that aren't Led Zeppelin IV. I've been listening to Zeppelin for longer than I can remember as they're one of the bands my dad loved; I remember him once turning the radio off in the car about two minutes from home because Stairway to Heaven was starting and he didn't want to start listening to it if he couldn't finish it. Somewhere in his record collection is also a copy of this LP.
I bought a copy of Led Zepp IV on cd in HMV in my second year of university. I was clearly very influenced by my housemate Matt on that trip, because I bought Led Zepp IV, Radiohead's Pablo Honey and Jeff Buckley's Grace, all bands he was a huge fan of (it was one of their four-for-£20 deals, which at the time was a great deal; I also bought King for Day by Faith No More). I knew of the importance of the band far more than I really knew the songs, so that cd was meant to be the beginning of me getting into the band properly. Somehow, nearly 15 years passed before I bought any more Led Zeppelin, a strange act I can't quite explain. In that time, I got into a lot of other music, and I guess I just didn't have the time to dedicate to Zeppelin too. Also, whilst I like Led Zeppelin, they're not a band I'm hugely passionate about (a sentence that I'm sure be controversial to certain people); I'm a casual fan at best.
Black Dog and Rock and Roll are a great opening duo and everything I want from Led Zeppelin - huge riffs, heavy and crazy amounts of energy. Stairway to Heaven is, of course, Stairway to Heaven - the unfuckwithable epic that everyone knows. It's a great song and deserves the endless praise it gets - the drums are a particular highlight. I'm sure no post-rock band would call it an influence, but that overall song structure - the gradual build-up and ultimate release - can be seen countless times throughout my collection. Songs like The Battle of Evermore and Going to California are less my thing - perhaps an album full of Led Zeppelin riffs would be too much to take, so maybe these songs serve more of a purpose than I'm giving them credit for. When the Levee Breaks closes the album with another ridiculously huge riff. I'm probably one of the few people who was introduced to this song by the A Perfect Circle cover rather than the original. Robert Plant's vocals here are impeccable.
It's going to take me years to write about all the other albums I bought that day; it's been six months and I've still not had a chance to play them all (I am purposely spreading them out, to give each its time). I'll try to avoid telling the whole story again each time.
Format: 12", gatefold sleeve, picture sleeve
Tracks: 8
Cost: £0.33 second hand
Bought: Blue Cross, Kidlington
When: 01/12/18
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no
