Love Letter To A Record: City Calm Down's Lee Armstrong On Led Zeppelin’s ‘II’

Many of us can link a certain album to pivotal moments in our lives. Whether it’s the first record you bought with your own money, the chord you first learnt to play on guitar, the song that soundtracked your first kiss, the album that got you those awkward and painful pubescent years or the one that set off light bulbs in your brain and inspired you to take a big leap of faith into the unknown – music is often the catalyst for change in our lives and can even help shape who we become.

In this series, Music Feeds asks artists to reflect on their relationship with music and share with us stories about the effect music has had on their lives.

Here are their love letters to records that forever changed their lives.

Lee Armstrong, City Calm Down — Led Zeppelin’s II

II,

I’ve met a lot of albums in my life but few have had an impact on me like you.

I remember when we first met. It was in my later years of high school. I’d been playing music for a few years when I first pulled you out of my father’s record collection, I was searching for something new, experimenting, trying new things, but I hadn’t yet fully connected with a record.

Like most teenagers I didn’t really know who I was, I didn’t know my place in the world and it often felt like I didn’t fit in, but the moment the opening guitar riff for ‘Whole Lotta Love’ entered I could sense something was different. The intensity of the angular guitars and crashing drums washed over every inch of me, providing a space for me to get lost in. A place for me to forget about school or family issues and just enjoy the music and be inspired.

From this point you quickly became the soundtrack to my life. I listened to you every day on the bus to and from school and spent most lunchtimes trying to learn Bonham’s uniquely swung grooves. As a drummer it seems obvious that I was going to connect with Bonham, he had such a unique playing style. Thunderous sounding drums drenched in reverb and played with a type of quasi-blues swing.

But even after giving me all of this, the main thing I love you for is the opportunity you gave me to connect with others. I would sit around talking to my cousin for hours about the things we loved about you, he was a guitarist so we would learn the parts and try our best to play your tracks. You were one of the reasons that I bonded with my first love and while it didn’t last I’m grateful that it happened. You were the songs that I played in my first band where I developed some of my longest lasting relationships.

I guess what I’m trying to say is Thank You. Thank you for always being around when I need to lose myself, thank you for inspiring me to do what I do today, thank you for supporting me through everything and most of all thanks for being you. “If the sun refused to shine I would still be loving you. When mountains crumble to the sea there will still be you and me”.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqaFgFmYn6M

Love ya mate

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City Calm Down‘s new album ‘Echoes In Blue’ is out now. Catch the band touring around the country in its honour this June. Dates below.