December 1982.
The week after Christmas and the last week of the holidays before the new school year. I am 15 and the results of the lower-school examinations have been released. All third formers head to school to pick up their result slips. The hill where the school lies is deserted out of term, everything seems out of sorts and this is increased by not being in uniform. I meet some classmates and we wait to receive our results at the school office. I find I have done quite well, and queue at the call phone (the only one in school) to call home with the good news. I stay on with a few friends to have lunch and roam the city. We end up in a record shop and I use my Christmas money to buy Led Zeppelin II ($16.20 after a 10% discount). We then head back to school to play football. My elder brother shows up with a friend.
Back home I put LZII on. I'm already familiar with WLL, Heartbreaker, LLM, Ramble On, Moby Dick and BIOH from pirated compilations but hearing "What Is..." and "The Lemon Song" for the first time blew me away. I can still remember the chills on hearing "What Is..." with its super-crisp mix and sibilant cymbals. Good times, when Papa was still alive and hearty. Where the hell does the time go?
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