Led Zeppelin II sees the greatest band of all time expanding on the crushing heavy blues of their debut. This was the album that turned Jimmy Page's 1968 one-album studio supergroup (Page, Robert Plant, John Bonham & John Paul Jones) into a bone fide stadium act, topping the US album charts and setting them on course to become the most revered, and yes sometimes the most reviled, hard rock act in music history. Whilst of course still relying heavily on the blues that made up much of their debut, a spacier sound on many of these tracks increases their appeal greatly. Mind you before the sound gets too spacey Page lets rip another power chord to bring things back into line.

Whole Lotta Love, the best known song here, a straight, albeit powered up, rip of Willie Dixon's "You Need Love" showcases this band in their classic posture of taking one riff and expanding out on it. The famous Middle Section with its cymbal keeping time and Plant's vocals coming in and out of the mix turns this from A.N. Other rock song into a timeless classic. What Is And What Should Never Be starts with said meandering bass before exploding into life as Page delivers power chords before settling back into the kind of light / heavy song that was this band's trademark. The Lemon Song, an updated take on Howling Wolf's "Killing Floor" has John Paul Jones putting down an astonishing wandering bass whilst Robert Plant pleads for his woman to "squeeze me baby, till the juice runs down my leg" well of course his lemon is his testicles, hey hey! Again alternate fast and slow sections on this take.

Ramble On has a lighter feel with its acoustic intro before Page again leads the band into a harder sound. Plant's vocals are excellent on this track. Moby Dick starts off with a good hard R&B groove, probably something the band got from just jamming in the studio, before Bonzo takes over with what was to become his trademark drum solo. In those days any band worth their salt had a drummer who did a solo, and here he is pretty much left to get on with it. A drummer friend of mine says if you are going to do a solo this is how to do it. So I guess he would know. On the studio version it's 4.20 long but live Bonham was known to stretch this out to nearly half an hour when the mood took him. Bring It On Home does just that, it's another light / heavy tune with some strange slurred singing and harmonica to finish.