Quodlibets: Plant or Animal

There is something seriously wrong with the song "You Shook Me" by Led Zeppelin, and that something that is seriously wrong is the call and response portion of the song, when Robert Plant answer the guitar with his own yowly voicework, and that yowly voicework manages to simultaneously sound like a guitar and like a dying animal in a way that a guitar doesn't. It's damn frightening. It can be seriously jarring in a situation like the one that just happened: you're sitting at your desk, herding your virtual villagers to farm faster, keeping an eye on your email, all the while listening to the iPod on the big shuffle. Maybe you're hearing some Keane, some Ani, and even some Led Zeppelin. You know, whatever. But then "You Shook Me" comes on, and suddenly you're jarred out of pleasant thoughts of island life by this preternatural wailing. Back to work. Herding islanders.

(The title of this post is a reference to a fake game show that was on SNL or some show like that; the game show was called Plant or Animal, and it involved playback of a sound, and the contestants had to choose Robert Plant or an Animal as the originator of the sound. At least, I'm reliably certain no actual game show would do this. Regardless, S and I reference this game show bit about once a month, I'd say, and sometimes more. When we were in the car more, I think we probably referenced it more, because we had more time together listening to music, and Zeppelin is one of the very few things we almost always agree on. Plant or Animal is harder than you think, by the way.)