"You can hear how the way this album was written and recorded has affected its sound, with most of the songs having the feel that it’s a freeform writing style, stopping and starting into solo breaks for all members. It’s a style very much of that age, where bands on stage would happily stretch out instrumental breaks between songs or even in the middle of songs, creating new sounds as they went. Many of the songs here sound like that is just what they are doing, with a flowing structure rather than anything concrete. In the long run, it must have been almost impossible to tame and keep in check the four musicians in the band as they move towards the new decade. John Bonham just wants to hit those drums hard and fast and in a seemingly random order that falls into place perfectly. “Moby Dick” gives him that outlet, once both John Paul Jones and Jimmy Page have completed their own riffing at the start of the song. Both of these two musicians also sound like they are looking for greater outlets for their talents, and the morphing from straight blues backed songs to something a bit harder comes through. Combined with those honeyed vocal chords of Robert Plant you have a band that is bursting out of its original cocoon".

On this episode we are going to talk about “Led Zeppelin II” by Led Zeppelin, the band’s 2nd studio album released 55 years ago this week, on today’s episode where “hey fellas, have you heard the news?” on Music from a Lifetime.