The Bananas=Led Zeppelin

I still remember the time when I was a kid in the car with my dad and Black Dog by Led Zeppelin came on and my dad got really excited telling me to listen to the breakdown and how the guitars and drums come back in playing off time, then come back together and how impressive it is. Well, I'm pretty sure no one has ever compared the Bananas to Led Zeppelin before, but here it is: The Bananas do the exact same thing in their song 4 A.M. off their first album Forbidden Fruit. Halfway through the song there's a break after which the vocals and guitar come in together seemingly racing as fast as they can paying no mind to beat before coming together again. Now, the Bananas are a sloppy, poppy punk band, so there's no reason to assume it's intentional. The first time I saw them play (every time, really), Mike, the lead singer/guitarist was drunk. Oftentimes he's so drunk it's hard to imagine him being able to play a guitar, and yet, he hits that off-time restart perfectly every time. The effect is of being so frenetically excited to come back in that they can't be bothered to try to play together. It makes my heart race every time I hear it. The fact that this is how the song was written astounds me.

The Bananas' 4 A.M.

(Forbidden Fruit, now included on the compilation The First Ten Years, as well as the Bananas second and third albums [all equally brilliant] are all available from Plan-It-X Records.)