LED ZEPPELIN II @ 55

 

Released on October 22nd, 1969, Led Zeppelin II is turning 55 years old today. After the smash success of their debut, its follow-up would be the first album by the band to crack the #1 slot on the charts in both the US and UK, as well as Canada, Australia, Spain and several other markets.

The album came together in bits & pieces, and fits & starts, while the band were on a breakneck touring schedule throughout both the US and UK. Songs were mostly developed during jam sessions while setting up for gigs, and recorded at whatever studio could be secured wherever the band happened to be at the time. As such, a wide variety of facilities were used, from high end, to what the group would describe as "a hut" when they used a ramshackle 8 track facility in Vancouver, BC. With this disparate range of studios being used to record the album, it was something of an achievement that producer, Jimmy Page, managed to attain a sense of cohesion with the album's sound and mix. Eddie Kramer engineered the album and was quoted as saying, "The famous Whole Lotta Love mix, where everything is going bananas, is a combination of Jimmy and myself just flying around on a small console twiddling every knob known to man." Kramer later gave high praise to Page for the sound that was achieved: "We cut some of the tracks in some of the most bizarre studios you can imagine ... but in the end it sounded bloody marvellous ... there was one guy in charge and that was Mr. Page."

The music on the album was predominantly original compositions, with a selection of interpretations of classic Chicago blues pieces. "The Lemon Song" was a re-arrangement of Howlin' Wolf's "Killing Floor", "Bring It On Home" was a cover of a Willie Dixon song originally performed by Sonny Boy Williamson II. Of the originals, Whole Lotta Love is the most well known, especially being that it was released as a single outside the UK, against the band's wishes, I might add. Zeppelin never released singles, as a matter of policy, so this was a rare instance where the label edited down a track and put out a single without the group's approval. The song would become a hit, charting in many markets, and becoming a concert staple as well.

The album sleeve design was from a poster by David Juniper, who was simply told by the band to come up with an interesting idea. Juniper was a fellow student of Page's at Sutton Art College in Surrey. Juniper's design was based on a photograph of the Jagdstaffel 11 Division of the German Air Force during World War I, the Flying Circus led by the Red Baron. Juniper replaced four of the flyers' heads with photos of the band members, added facial hair and sunglasses to some of the flyers' faces or replaced some with the faces of other people. The blonde-haired woman is French actress Delphine Seyrig in her role as Marie-Madeleine in the film Mr. Freedom, a leftist anti-war satire by William Klein. The cover also pictured the outline of a Zeppelin on a brown background (similar to the cover of the band's first album), which gave the album its nickname "Brown Bomber". The cover was nominated for a Grammy award for best LP graphics in 1970.

Despite the commercial success, at the time of its release, the album was largely panned by critics, who simply weren't ready for an interpretation of the blues that was so heavy and so dark. Many found the album monotonous and overbearing. But it wouldn't take long for reassessments to start aligning with the position that this was, in fact, an album of unique distinction, setting a new tone for rock 'n' roll that would become integral to the development of heavy metal music in the decade to come. Today, you'd be hard pressed to find a Zeppelin fan who doesn't rank this as one of their greatest records. The fact it was created in such demanding circumstances, necessitating spontaneity and ferocity, is what makes it stand out for many as the band's most intense outing.

With the success of the album, the band's touring began to ramp up in terms of the venues they were playing, beginning in smaller clubs, then larger theatres, and ultimately, coliseums. The band were truly on the map as the biggest band in rock 'n' roll, and the coming decade would see them enshrined as truly legendary performers.

LED ZEPPELIN - IN THROUGH THE OUT DOOR @ 45

 

Released on August 22nd, 1979, the eighth and final studio album from legendary hard rockers, Led Zeppelin, In Through the Out Door, turns 45 years old today. While being one of their biggest selling albums ever, it divided both critics and fans as it sought to redefine the group's sound after a family tragedy left them on hiatus for the better part of three years.

With the group not having released a new LP since Presence in 1976, the pressure was on to prove that they were still relevant. The interim between albums had seen a C-change in the music culture, with the arrival of punk and new wave music. Led Zeppelin were looking like the proverbial "dinosaurs" that the kids were accusing them of being. The group had been sidelined after the tragic death of Robert Plant's young son while they were on tour in 1977. That unbearable personal loss took the wind out of the band's sails, ending their tour and putting off future plans indefinitely.

By late 1978, the emotional wounds Plant was dealing with had healed enough that he was ready to head back into the studio, but the group knew it would be an uphill battle to reassert themselves in a pop music scene that had radically changed in the years they'd been sidelined. That apprehension was what inspired the title of the album, as the group felt their task was pitting them against the flow. This was all compounded by the process of grieving, for Plant, and the practical difficulties of the band being in tax exile from the UK. With their revenue stream hobbled by their inactivity, their solvency was a serious consideration. This record would need to be a success in order to right their ship again.

Rehearsals for recording began in September of 1978, lasting six weeks before the group decamped to ABBA's Polar Studios in Stockholm, Sweden, where they spent three weeks recording in November and December. In addition to the above mentioned challenge of making a come-back after a long absence from the public eye, the group were also wrestling with internal personal demons that would directly impact the sound of the album.

Half the band were trying to work through substance abuse issues, with drummer John Bonham battling the bottle, a war that he would ultimately lose, while Jimmy Page was distracted by a heroine addiction. These circumstance meant that Robert Plant and bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones were often left to lay down the foundations for the album's sessions. The pair would frequently work together on their own during the day, while Bonham and Page would come in late at night to add their contributions.

The results are clear from the writing credits for the album, with Bonham completely absent and Page, uncharacteristically, missing on two of the album's seven tracks, which were credited only to Plant and Jones. The effect on the sound of the record is immediately apparent by the dominance of the keyboards from Jones, who was left to fill in the gaps created by Page's distractions. Jones was inspired by the Yamaha GX-1 synthesizer he had recently purchased, along with the opportunity to work closely with Plant, a situation that had never happened in the studio before. Only the album's opener, In The Evening, fully features Page's guitar histrionics in all their blustery glory, while the 50's inspired Hot Dog is merely a perfunctory indulgence of tired vintage rock 'n' roll cliches that evolved out of the group's warm-up jam sessions. The rest of the album is mostly about Jones's keyboards, with the sprawling Carouselambra being the centrepiece of his contributions.

When it came to the album's packaging, Hipgnosis' Storm Thorgerson pulled out all the stops in order to create one of the most elaborate and complex cover concepts his design house ever produced. The concept was to recreate the Old Absinthe House in New Orleans, Louisiana, in a London photo studio. The staging was meticulously detailed and populated by a half dozen ragtag denizens one might find in such a venue. The central character, a despondent man in a white Panama hat and suit, burning a "dear John" letter, sits at the bar with the bartender looking on and the other characters dispersed throughout the space. The first "gimmick" for the packaging was that the record would be released in six different variants, with the photos in each taken from the vantage point of each of the different patrons, who were all looking over at the man at the bar. The next element was the inner sleeve, which featured a hidden colour dye that was activated by water, intended to be applied gently with a sponge by the purchaser of the record. This would activate the dye and colour the inner sleeve. The final element in the design was that the whole thing would be enclosed in a plain brown paper slip cover with the band name and album title stamped on the outside. Once shrink-wrapped, buyers would not be able to tell which version of the album cover they'd got, though one might be able to peek at the inner spine of the cover to see a letter "A" to "F" as the only indication of the edition.

The album's release was initially planned to be before the group's two night live stint at Knebworth in 1979, but production delays held it off until after the shows. When it finally did hit the shelves, it was met with a strongly divided response from both fans and critics, many of whom were put off by the dramatic change in tone from their previous record. While some fans felt betrayed by the change, critics batted about their opinions in the press like a tennis match.

Reviewing the album in Rolling Stone, Charles M. Young said Page's diminishing creativity resulted in little good material to work with for Plant, whose lyrics Young found inane, and Bonham, whose drumming was viewed as heavy handed. This brought to the forefront the keyboard playing of Jones, who Young said "functions best behind Page, not in front of him". Chris Bohn from Melody Maker said "the impressionable first play" of the record "had everyone in the office rolling around laughing", while accusing the band of being "totally out of touch" and "displaying the first intimations of mortality". By contrast, NME journalist Nick Kent argued that the album was "no epitaph", believing its "potential points of departure" deserved further listening. Robert Christgau also wrote positively of the record in The Village Voice, observing the usual "lax in the lyrics department", but regarding the album as the group's best since Houses of the Holy (1973). He said "the tuneful synthesizer pomp on side two confirms my long-held belief that this is a real good art-rock band", while "the lollapalooza hooks on the first side confirms the world's long-held belief that this is a real good hard rock band". Yet despite the mixed responses, the album soared up the charts to crack the number 1 slot in multiple markets, including both the US and UK, making it one of the groups biggest sellers of all time. Personally, I was well down the road towards much more experimental music, so my response was muted, though I found the opener one of Zeppelin's best tracks, but the rest came across as mediocre or just dumb (I'm looking at you, Hot Dog).

Even the band themselves were a little ambivalent about it, both immediately after its release and in later years, considering it something of a transitional record on the way to something else, though that destination would never be reached. After the Knebworth shows in August of 1979, the band didn't hit the stage again until embarking on a limited European tour in June and July of 1980, with a majority of the shows booked in West Germany. The tour was a way for the band to warm up in smaller venues so that Robert Plant could regain his confidence before attempting a US leg. Before they could head to the US, in September of 1980, the tragic news of John Bonham's death knocked the pins from under them, putting an end to their plans and their career, since none of the surviving members were prepared to continue without Bonham's presence.

I'm sure that tragedy is partially responsible for pushing sales of the album, as it soon became apparent it would be the group's last. The Coda album, released in 1982, contained only studio leftovers from across their career, though somewhat weighted with outtakes from In Through the Out Door. There would be no real Led Zeppelin reunion, save a few rare live shows well dispersed over the coming decades, the last in 2007 featuring Jason Bonham on drums. Jimmy Page and Robert Plant would reunite in the 1990s for a time, first to reinterpret songs from the Zeppelin catalogue and then to record an album of new material with grunge producer, Steve Albini. John Paul Jones was conspicuously excluded from those projects, however.

As a last statement from one of the most important bands in rock history, In Through The Out Door offers some highlights, but mostly indicates that there was much more to be done to get back where they wanted to be. It is only through speculation that we can consider what that destination might have been.

LED ZEPPELIN @ 55

 

Released on January 12th, 1969, the debut eponymous LP by Led Zeppelin turns 55 years old today. Rising from the ashes of The Yardbirds, Led Zeppelin would lay out some of the most important foundation stones for heavy metal & hard rock and become one of the biggest bands in the world throughout the following decade.

Jimmy Page, the man at the centre of the band, spent most of his career in the '60s working as a highly regarded session musician in the UK. In 1966 he joined The Yardbirds, then fronted by guitar legend Jeff Beck, as a bass player, but soon switched to guitar, doubling up on leads with Beck. Beck left the group the following year, putting Page at the helm for their final album, Little Games (1967). By 1968, other members of the group were burning out from touring and also wanting to go in a more acoustic folk oriented direction. Page's penchant for hard and heavy blues put him at odds with that. With contractual obligations still necessitating a number of remaining tour dates, the departing members of The Yardbirds agreed that the group could temporarily continue on stage as the "New Yardbirds", with Page assembling a fresh band.

Page's initial conception was to create a super-group with Jeff Beck, plus Keith Moon and John Entwistle from The Who, and possibly vocalist Steve Winwood or Steve Marriott. This never materialized as all his picks for vocalist turned him down. Instead, he found himself being referred by another declining first pick vocalist, Terry Reid, to a relative unknown by the name of Robert Plant, who in turn brought along drummer John Bonham. Bassist John-Paul Jones, who was someone Page knew from session work, auditioned for the group at his wife's behest, thus completing the lineup. With the four members in place, they fulfilled the touring requirements of the Yardbirds before heading to the studio to start working on some recordings of their own.

With the Yardbirds name no longer legally available for them to use as a recording entity, they began to consider alternatives. At one point, Keith Moon had commented that Page's "super-group" concept would go down like a "lead balloon", disparaging that it would be less than successful, but the irony of the concept appealed to Page. At the suggestion of manager Peter Grant, the name was modified to Led Zeppelin, dropping the "a" in "lead" so people didn't mispronounce it "Leed", and changing "balloon" to "Zeppelin", as it evoked the ideas of both lightness with heaviness as well as combustibility. That cheekiness would also express itself on the album's cover, which featured the famous shot of the Hindenburg bursting into flames. If it was going to be a colossal failure, they might as well have a sense of humour about it.

The band began recording their debut LP in mid September, 1968, completing recording and mixing in a mere 9 days, with production costs covered by Page and Grant. The material for the album was drawn from mostly original songs worked out during their transitional touring phase fulfilling their commitments to the Yardbirds, with some traditional blues material having been percolating within the predecessor group while Page was in charge. With most of the songs well worked out during their contractual obligation tour, they were able to get them down on tape in the studio with little fuss.

Page used a "distance makes depth" approach to production. At the time, most music producers placed microphones directly in front of the amplifiers and drums. For Led Zeppelin, he developed the idea of placing additional microphones some distance from the amplifier (as far as 20 feet) and then recording the balance between the two. The technique would provide Zeppelin's signature sound and flew in the face of the dry-as-bones productions that dominated throughout the 1970s. It wouldn't be until a full decade later that this methodology would become common among the mainstream of rock and pop producers.

Peter Grant then set about nailing down a record contract for the band, and thanks to his bullish determination and a recommendation by Dusty Springfield, managed to secure a deal with Atlantic Records, which included a whopping $143,000 advance, the largest ever paid for an unknown band, sight unseen. The deal included exclusive rights for the band to have complete control over their touring and recording schedules, as well as creative control of all aspects of their products, including mixing, production and album graphics.

Their debut album was released while the band were on their first tour of the US, with the album peaking on the American Billboard charts at #10, and #6 in the UK. Throughout the year after its release, they would tour the US and UK four times and release their sophomore LP before the year's end. It was a blitzkrieg attack on the rock world that set the industry on notice that something massive was about to dominate the world of rock 'n' roll, redefining its sound for a new era.

Initial critical reception for the album, surprisingly, was often negative and harsh. The group emerged at a time when "super-groups" were all the rage, while their bloated promises of greatness mostly turned out to be over-hyped bullshit. As such, the critical tides were against them and they suffered a few slings and arrows before they could prove themselves. Retrospectively, the album has shaken off any and all of the detritus of those early critiques and reigns as one of the band's most highly regarded releases. Its raw energy and intensity have made it representative of the band at their fiercest, most primal peak.

LED ZEPPELIN - HOUSES OF THE HOLY @ 50

 

Marking its 50th anniversary today is Led Zeppelin’s fifth studio LP, Houses of the Holy, which was released on March 28th, 1973. It marked a distinct evolution in the groups songwriting prowess and was the first LP from the band not to be given an eponymous title.

Prior to recording this album, both Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones had built recording studios in their homes. This allowed them to develop ideas well in advance of the album’s recording schedule and take their time to explore more complex arrangements and compositional techniques. With these resources at hand, they were able to come to the table with songs that were far more fleshed out and developed than on previous albums. This also had the effect of expanding the group’s range of musical styles as they began branching out into reggae and funk influenced rhythms.

When it came time to begin formal production on the album, the group booked The Rolling Stones mobile recording facility and set up camp at Mick Jagger’s StarGroves manor house at East Woodhay in the English county of Hampshire. The bulk of the album was recorded there, where the group took the songs that had been started at Page & Jones’ studios and added to them by jamming out additional compositions in the studio. They then moved to Olympic Studios in London for additional work and, finally, finished off recording in NYC at Electric Lady Studios. While in NYC, the group also recorded a series of classic rock ’n’ roll covers which remain unreleased.

In terms of its place in the group’s canon of recordings, Houses of the Holy, veered away from the dark, heavy blues of the first two albums and went for a much cleaner, expansive rock sound, which is particularly evident in Jimmy Page’s guitar tone throughout. The variety of musical styles was also key to the album’s eclectic sound. Though it lacked a standout classic like Stairway to Heaven from the previous album, it does contain pieces which became concert staples in tours following its release, like The Song Remains the Same and No Quarter. Not all of the material recorded during the sessions made the album, including the title track, which ended up being released on Physical Graffiti. Walker’s Walk eventually found its home on the posthumous Coda LP, released after the band’s demise following the death of John Bonham.

For the cover graphics, legendary ‘70s design house, Hipgnosis were hired to do the job. This was the first cover they’d do for the band, but they would end up designing all the future covers for them going forward. Aubrey Powell was the lead photographer and designer for this project. Initially, they had considered shooting in Peru, but ended up going to Giant’s Causeway in North Ireland where a series of photos were shot in order to create a collage for the front image. Two children, Stefan and Samantha Gates, were hired and sessions took place at dawn and dusk over the course of several days in an attempt to get the right lighting. The photo sessions turned out to be something of a frustrating affair as it rained constantly throughout the shoot, thwarting attempts to get the desired results. Images were shot in black & white and then combined to create the impression of many children climbing on the rocks. The results were deemed unsatisfying until a tinting accident inadvertently produced an effect which brought the whole thing together. Whatever the struggles to get a finished work, it ultimately ended up winning a Grammy award for packaging. Powell’s work was actually the second concept submitted for the album with Hipgnosis partner, Storm Thorgerson. initially submitting an image featuring an electric green tennis court with a tennis racket on it. Furious that Thorgerson was implying, by means of a visual pun, that their music sounded like a "racket", the band fired him and hired Powell in his place.

At the time of its release, it was met with mixed critical responses, though it still became a commercial success. Critics were not impressed with the eclectic mix of styles on the album and found it unfocused and derivative. Gordon Fletcher from Rolling Stone called the album "one of the dullest and most confusing albums I've heard this year", believing the band had digressed from "the epitome of everything good about rock" to a watered down heavy metal act. Such critiques didn’t hurt sales, however, as the album topped the UK charts and spent 39 weeks on Billboard's US top 200 albums chart including two weeks at number one (their longest stint since Led Zeppelin III). The album was number four on Billboard magazine's top albums of 1973 year-end chart. Personally, It’s certainly not my favorite album from the band. I tend to agree that the forays into lighter musical styles are not particularly convincing. I prefer my Zeppelin either hot and heavy or folksy and mellow. ’50s rock, funk and reggae felt strained in their hands, at least to my ears.

LED ZEPPELIN - CODA @ 40

 

Released 40 years ago today, Led Zeppelin’s final collection of studio recordings was issued on November 19th, 1982. Created partly to satisfy record company obligations and party to thwart bootleggers, the album was a clearing house for the unreleased remnants of the group’s studio activity throughout their career.

Following the tragic death of drummer John Bonham, Led Zeppelin terminated their career, leaving their last LP, In Through the Out Door, as their inadvertent swan song. Yet there were lingering commitments with Atlantic Records, to whom the band still owed one more studio album. While the group were exceptionally economical with their studio time, creating very little that did not get used for their finished albums, there were still a few stray odds and ends which managed to slip the net over the course of their career. It wasn’t a lot, but it was enough to generate a healthy trade in the bootleg business as poor quality unofficial copies of these tracks circulated among the bands more ardent fans. It was enough to convince Jimmy Page that there would be some interest in curating a proper, sanctioned compilation of these recordings, which would also help him tie up loose ends regarding record label obligations.

The material on the album spans pretty much the entirety of the group’s career, though it can be broken down into two primary sets by LP side. The first side features four recordings spanning 1969 to 1972. We’re Gonna Groove, the LP opener, is actually a live recording, but the audience sounds were removed and guitar overdubs were added in order to be able to call it a “studio recording”. Poor Tom was an outtake from Led Zeppelin III, and I Can’t Quit You Baby was from a pre performance soundcheck rehearsal. Walter’s Walk was a 1972 Houses of the Holy outtake with vocal overdubs added. For the second side, most of the material comes from 1978 In Through the Out Door outtakes with the exception of the 1976 Bonzo’s Montreux drum solo. In 1993, a CD reissue included four additional tracks from various sources including the B-Side from the Immigrant Song single, a couple of live tracks and an outtake from their debut LP.

Critically, given it’s a “leftovers” package, it’s obviously not going to stand up as a cohesive collection in the same way as the groups formal albums. However, it still showcases many of the group's virtues which made them the legends they became. For any serious fan of the band, its a welcome capstone to their illustrious career. The cover graphics were again provided by the Hipgnosis design house, whom had been responsible for several other covers for the band over the years, but this would actually be the prestigious firm’s final design commission before the the company was dissolved and its partners would go their separate ways.

LED ZEPPELIN IV @ 50

 

November 8th marks the 50th anniversary of the release of Led Zeppelin’s eponymous fourth album, alternately known as Led Zeppelin IV or sometimes “ZOSO” in reference to the mysterious symbol used by Jimmy Page for the album graphics. It remains the group’s most critically and commercially successful album, being home to what has become their “signature” song, Stairway to Heaven.

With the somewhat lukewarm & dismissive critical response to Led Zeppelin III, which is MY personal favorite of their canon, Jimmy Page determined to stick it to the critics a bit by making it deliberately difficult to reference the new album by virtue of the fact it technically has no title. Even down to the album graphics on the cover, there’s virtually no information present anywhere. This was a decision the band’s record company resisted as much as they could, considering it commercial suicide, but the band, by this point, had enough clout that they stubbornly hung onto the master tapes until the label agreed to release the album precisely according to the group's instructions. It’s a decision vindicated by the successful mystique that ended up enveloping them and the album in the wake of its release.

Musically, the group found a relaxed retreat to record the bulk of the album when they located production to the Headley Grange country house in Hampshire, England. For recording, they rented the Rolling Stones mobile studio facility. This setup allowed them to work out ideas in a loose, improvisational manner where some compositions could arise out of impromptu jam sessions. The result is an album that manifests organically from the band members, who were able to contribute a wide range of elements to the finished product beyond their established roles. The album also features the extremely rare presence of guest performers in the form of Fairport Convention vocalist Sandy Denny’s contribution to The Battle Of Evermore and Rolling Stones pianist Ian Stewart on "Rock and Roll".

The album has gone on to achieve legendary status in the realm of classic rock, no doubt propelled to astronomical heights thanks to Stairway to Heaven and its near ubiquitous presence on FM radio over the past half century. Personally, I find the song suffers from over exposure and overshadows a lot of other great material that is contained on the album, but you can’t really fault the band for their success. In a sense, this could be considered the peak of their perfection as subsequent releases struggled to live up to this level of achievement.