Last night, I attempted to recreate my mother’s version of goulash. I tried to use the exact ingredients I remembered her dish having—it was a disaster. Today I’m cleaning up after that tragedy, and listening to Jealous Butcher’s new compilation entitled From the Land of Ice and Snow: The Songs of Led Zeppelin.
My mother’s goulash was corn, hamburger, spaghetti noodles, tomato paste and cheese—heavy and easy. While it was simple, but unique, it retained levels of complexity that varied with different tastings and with different pairings of food. Each time she cooked it, she added a different minced leftover from the fridge, and adjusted the seasoning accordingly. She had a base recipe that years ago I had stolen out of her haphazard recipe folder and hand copied. My experiment with her dish was only the base recipe, no flourish of contextual leftover from my fridge and no adjustment of seasoning—just the standard recipe.
While I’m listening to this compilation, it’s driving home my mistake. Each of these bands have taken rock ‘n’ roll’s gold standard and added their own flourish. Take, for instance, the third song in by The Portland Cello Project w/ Laura Gibson and John Moen (of the Decemberists). The opening passage of "Dazed and Confused" has, for me, always evoked an eerie feeling, like some ghost is watching me take a shower. The Portland Cello Project’s version intensifies that feeling. Their tonality alone makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end, and that’s only 20 seconds in. I can’t even begin to address Laura Gibson’s take on Robert Plant’s immortal voice. I’m not sure I’ll be able to hear the original in the same light.
Every track on this immense comp (34 tracks over two discs) swings for the fences, and while I may not particularly like the style or genre each performance is rooted in, I have to stand in awe of the revisioning. The tracks that work best for me are the bands that seem to be farthest removed from Led Zeppelin’s blues-based origins. Like Tu Fawning; their contribution of "The Battle of Evermore" is a pretty straightforward cover, but their deft precision makes it sound like their song, one they’ve been playing for years.
I just asked my mom why her goulash was so good and mine was so bland. Her response was, “Because each time I made it, I made it my own. And after a while I got to know the recipe so well that I could make it with my eyes closed. I mean the origin is good, but what makes my goulash good is the love I put into it.”
Mom, you summed up this comp perfectly.
You can catch the CD release show on October 9 at Doug Fir. The album drops on October 12.
– Chappy