In 1970, Led Zeppelin released their third album. It's generally regarded as a big change in the band's sound. The first albums were generally louder, more blues-based affairs, while Led Zeppelin III finds the boys devoting a full album side to acoustic numbers. It resulted in the band having their least-selling album to that point.

I've never really understood that either. I'm not going to suggest that III is better than either of its predecessors, but I think it holds up just as well as anything else the band has done.

The album starts out with "Immigrant Song," which served as the album's only single, and did reasonably well on the charts, reaching number sixteen. It's a brief, raucous number that tells the tale of the Vikings coming to the New World. Never accuse Zeppelin of merely writing songs about sex, drugs, and rock and roll.

The next two songs are two that I've always viewed as part of a set, simply because "Friends" runs right into "Celebration Day" with no break between the songs. I've never been all that crazy about "Friends." It's just jarring compared to everything else on the album. "Celebration Day" has a nice little riff to it.

The centerpiece of side one, if not the entire album is track four, "Since I've Been Loving You." This is really the only song on the album that has a considerable bluesiness to it, and it most certainly does have that. All four band members excel on this one. Bonham's drumming is spare but powerful, John Paul Jones delivers on the Hammond organ, Page plays some of the best solos of his career, and Robert Plant just cuts loose on the vocals. If seven-and-a-half minute singles were commonplace, this would have been a huge hit.

Side one closes with "Out On The Tiles," a little played track of the band's that is a personal favorite of mine. I love how the guitar riff that starts the song just sounds like a freight train. I've read other reviews that suggest it sounds like someone falling down a flight of stairs, but frankly, I don't hear that. The song's title comes from an English expression for going out and hitting the bars. Drummer John Bonham supposedly had a raunchy ditty that he sang about going "out on the tiles" and that was the basis for the song. Plant delivers an excellent vocal on this, and I love Page's riff over the chorus. Excellent.

Side two is the acoustic side, and was ripped by critics initially for trying to sound like Crosby, Stills, and Nash but failing miserably. Personally, I like to imagine CSN sitting around going, "Man, I wish we could sound like Zeppelin."

"Gallows Pole" starts off side two. It's a traditional folk song, known by many titles and recorded by countless artists. I rather like Zeppelin's take on the song. The banjo is a nice touch and drives the song along nicely. For all the critics ragging on Zeppelin, I don't think there were any other bands who came close to employing the sonic diversity that Zeppelin did in their day.

My personal favorite off the album, "Tangerine," follows. Apparently, it has its origins in Page's days in the Yardbirds. I love this song. It has a beautiful lyric, and Plant delivers it just right. Page's solo on this song is one of my favorites of his. There's nothing particularly flashy about it, but then again, I don't need flash. It has more than enough melody to it to make up for any lack of blinding virtuosity.

"Tangerine" is followed by "That's The Way," another gorgeous acoustic number. The lyrics are about ecology and the environment, and to a lesser extent, the band's feelings about the lousy way they were treated by authorities at some of their shows. Zeppelin had a notorious reputation as wild party men, and maybe that influenced the way they were treated down the line. Who knows. Page's pedal steel guitar work on this song makes the song for me.

The last two songs of the album are two of my least favorite Zeppelin songs. "Bron-Y-Aur Stomp" has a country hoedown feel to it, with a stomping beat as Plant talks about walking in the woods with a dog. It's not a bad song. It's just sort of a letdown after the five songs that preceded it. The final track, "Hats Off To (Roy) Harper," is a weird acoustic blues-sounding track that is a tribute of sorts to English folk singer Roy Harper. Page plays a mean slide guitar while Robert Plant delivers a wild vocal that sounds even wilder due to those vocals being processed through a tremolo.

All in all, I think III deserved better than it got critically. Over time, I think that being sandwiched between the second and fourth albums, two albums that are often cited as being Zeppelin's best, hasn't helped it too much either. However, I love this album, and for the longest time, it was the one that I played the most. I think if one looks at what followed III, one could argue that this was just as much a blueprint for the rest of the band's career as anything that came before it.