Rhymin’ and Stealin’ from the Zep, Dude

I have another story about Led Zeppelin. This is back in the 80’s when the Beastie Boys did License to Ill. I was really digging that album, maybe in part because no one else I hung out with did. A lot of them were stoners so they didn’t like punk either. They didn’t even like Slayer. You had to at least appreciate the Beastie Boys if you like Slayer since Kerry King was on the album.

Anyways, I was at this party and the stoners were all lazy and dopey and so I started putting on some good music – I think Gang Green and Husker Du, the really early fast stuff, and they got all pissy and started throwing stuff at me and moving the needle more towards violence. It was pretty annoying.

And then it struck me – I could lash out at them in a posthumous manner. I put on License to Ill. The first track, is Rhymin’ and Stealin’, which lifts the intro from Led Zeppelin’s When the Levee Breaks. This was going to be beautiful.

I put it on and got to a safe vantage point. They got all relaxed, like they just took a hit off the bong and laid back. “You finally put on some good music, Dude!” Somehow the record scratches in there didn’t register.

But then the vox started up with “Mutiny on the Bounty’s what we’re all about” and it was all over. I don’t think the song lasted four more lines to “Terrorizing suckers on the seven seas” but that’s what I was doing. Their cries of sorrow and indignation were my swang song as they chased me off the premises…

I do remember someone saying “no one does that to Zep, Dude!” I pointed out that someone did but they didn’t see the irony of that.

Advertisement