President Obama's tribute to Led Zeppelin

I worked with speech writers there's no smooth transition from ballet to Led Zeppelin you know we're trying to work the stairway to heaven metaphor and it didn't work so when Jimmy Page Robert Plant John Paul Jones and John Bonham burst on the musical scene in the late 1960s the world never saw it coming there was this singer with a Mane like a lion voice like banshee guitar prodigy who left people's jaws on the floor the versatile bassist who was equally at home on the keyboards a drummer who played like his life depended on and when the Brits initially kept their distance Led Zeppelin grabbed America from the opening court we were ready for what Jimmy called songs with a lot of light and shade it's been said that a generation of young people survived teenage angst with a pair of headphones and a Zeppelin album and a generation of parents wondered what all that noise was about but even now at 32 years after John Bonham's passing and we all I think appreciate the fact that the Zeppelin legacy lives on the last time the band performed together in 2007 perhaps the last time ever but we don't know more than 20 million fans from around the world applied for tickets and what they saw was vintage Zeppelin no frills no theatrics just a few guys who can still make the ladies weak at the knees and huddled together following the music of course these guys also redefined the rock-and-roll lifestyle we do not have video of this but there was some hotel rooms trashed and mayhem all around so it's fitting that we're doing this in a room with Windows that are about three inches thick and secret service all around so guys just settle down these paintings are valuable they look very calm now though don't they it is it is a tribute to you guys and and tonight we honor Led Zeppelin for making us all feel young and for showing us that some guys who are you know not completely youthful can still rock

Channel: undefined

Views: 2,070,001

Rating: 4.8298306 out of 5

Keywords: ledz3

Id: k4Q3zKfBRnI

Length: 2min 58sec (178 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 02 2012

Reddit Comments

[u/Elbeez]

I was expecting a bunch of clips cut together to make him sing Immigrant Song.

[u/Ikimasen]

"There were some incidents in hotel rooms, so it's fitting that we're doing this in a room with no fishing poles."

[u/Hojimachong]

One of my co-workers, when we were talking about music, started going on and on about how much she loved "Led Zeffelin." Nobody had the heart to correct her. It was cringeworthy.

[u/ImNotMichaelCera]

What's the context of this?

[u/d-scan]

I'm curious if Barack is actually a Zep fan.

[u/gokism]

Hey Paul Ryan. You've got Zeppelin on your Ipod? I've got Zeppelin at the White House. Checkmate GOP.

[u/chris27scot]

"And a drummer who played like his life depended on it" uuuuhhh...

[u/AmazingMarv]

After meeting the middle-aged black man with a difficult job, out of habit Zeppelin tried to steal his songs.

[u/Jonathan-O]

This is not the greatest speech in the world, this is just a tribute.