It's just me and the Dauphin this week, and the other night he wandered in as I was finally watching the first half hour of Becoming Led Zeppelin. "What gives?" he asked. "You hate Led Zeppelin!"

"Come on, man, what gave you that idea?" I countered. "It's true, isn't it?" he said.

Well ok, now I have to explain. Apparently my son was actually paying attention the night I delivered an early draft of my Monologue On The Problem With British Invasion Blues-Rock.

It's an argument which basically goes: 1960s British rockers seem to have almost universally siphoned off their favorite part of the blues – the sense of menace and aggression – and completely ignored my favorite parts of the blues, which are its deep groove, good taste and sense of humor. 

Now, I have to say, in this film, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones come across as thoughtful guys who care a lot about music. So that's interesting. I knew they were both studio guys first, but it's cool hearing them explain how they thought about the music they were putting together as a band.

And this particular documentary is unusual for including complete or nearly-complete performances when possible, so seeing Page & co. make it work without all that studio orchestration is informative too. (Although some of the clips are clearly canny editing jobs doing their best to sync up archival live footage with studio recordings.)

And finally, Robert Plant in particular makes it clear that the blues is only one ingredient in the mix of musics and instrumental skills everyone brought to the table, so dinging them for not sounding like Little Walter or T-Bone Walker is a waste of time and besides the point.

Best to simply say that while I will probably never be a fan of the more operatic side of rock music, this documentary has made me more inclined to spend some time with the actual records and hear what there is to hear.

None of which changes the fact that today's Youtube video, unlike a lot of Zepplin's music, is based on a song that actually is in the public domain. 

In anticipation of my upcoming workshop on July 16th, today's lesson explains how to start playing a fingerstyle version of a standard tune, James F. Hanley and Ballard McDonald's "Indiana." You can find it at the link below:

How To Play A (Fingerstyle) Standard

To learn more about the workshop and sign up, go here:

Fingerstyle Standards: "Indiana"

More soon,

David