LED ZEPPELIN Houses of the Holy (Atlantic)

I’m listening to Jimmy Page’s overdubbed guitar on “The Song Remains The Same.” It opens the album with a terrific surge of power, an intricate careen that speaks a little of both the Byrds and the Who at their best, and volumes of Jimmy Page’s continuing vitality. When Robert Plant’s vocal enters after Page’s extended attack it’s an abrupt change of mood and tempo, but the contrast works, Plant’s lazy drawl playing off Page’s insistence: “I had a dream - crazy dream . . . Sing out Hare Hare, dance the Hoochie Coo .. .”