Summer Tunes “Whole Lotta Love” Led Zeppelin Recorded May 1969.
So far our “Summer Song” series has focused on the "feel-good” pop standards that actually celebrate summer in a benign, positive family-friendly package.
Nothing wrong with that but this song doesn’t.
The first time I heard this song was from the back seat of a brand new 69 Plymouth GTX 440 doing 120 miles per hour…
But it does qualify as a summer song because the my exposure to this ‘crash and burn” rock anthem was over 40 years ago- in July 1969. Most people look at that summer as all Woodstock hippie heaven. I didn’t.
I was stuck in the middle of the world’s most remote summer resort village-so far removed from the action that the guys on the moon that summer were closer to the action.
But it was a great summer-a wholesome, safe “Wonder Years” world for a 14 year old kid except when my brother, a buddy and I were lucky enough to hitchhike our way into a ride in this incredible car.
The guy was driving with one hand on the wheel and the other around a good-looking babe, he had that monster 440 V-8 flat-out and “Whole Lotta Love” came on the radio just as we were cilmbing into this incredible GTX .
I couldn’t believe this song -up until then I’d never heard of Led Zeppelin. I was more of a Tommy James and The Shondelles kind of guy but that combination of this stranger pinning our lives on his unknown driving skills at well over 100 miles per hour on a crappy highway in a brand new Mopar muscle car, the babe and this incredible song made a lifetime impression-one that 24,678 videos of the same song could never do.
The ride lasted exactly as long as the song did so I recently I did the math based on length and distance and figured out that this guy was averaging 110 miles per hour on this jaunt.
Was it smart? No.
Would our parents have approved of this automotive lunacy? Absolutely not-even though by sheer numbers baby boomer kids were more disposable.
Did I regret or even understand the risk at the time? Are you kidding?
I was fourteen...
