LED ZEPPELIN

“If the sun refused to shine, I would still be loving you. When mountains crumble to the sea, there will still be you and me"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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REWRITTEN INTRO

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"B+"

Main Decade:

70's

Main Ages:

Hard Rock (1968-???)

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Key Members:

Jimmy Page, Guitar

Robert Plant, Singer

John "Bonzo" Bonham, Drums

John Paul Jones, Bass & Keyboards

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Key Songs:

Stairway To Heaven, Since I've Been Loving You, Immigrant Song, Kashmir, No Quarter, Baby I'm Gonna Leave You, Whole Lotta Love, Dazed And Confused, Black Dog, Rock & Roll, The Lemon Song, When The Levee Breaks, In My Time Of Dying, Heartbreaker,  The Rover, Ramble On, D'yer Mak'er, All My Love, Moby Dick, Going To California, Communication Breakdown, The  Rain Song, The Battle Of Evermore, Tangerine, Achilles' Last Stand, Thank You, Trampled Underfoot, The Ocean, In The Evening, Ten Years Gone, Houses Of The Holy, Four Sticks, What Is And What Should Never Be, Celebration Day, In The Light, I'm Gonna Crawl, Tea For One 

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ink to The Cavern's Spotify list of Best Led Zeppelin's Songs

 

As a teenager, I was blown away when a radio station presented "Stairway to Heaven" as the greatest metal song of all time. I laugh about it now, but at the time it was easy to go along with it and swallow it whole. Led Zeppelin isn't a band that made metal, and "Stairway to Heaven" isn't even a power ballad; it's simply a beautiful folk ballad with a beastly, powerful coda and a masterful solo, but nothing more (perhaps the best solo ever, but nothing more, ha!). However, that was the general perception for a long time, though time has ultimately cemented its place among the gods of hard rock. In any case, I think even their most ardent detractor can't deny that this band, for better or for worse, is one of the five pillars of rock: Led Zeppelin forged the foundations of hard rock during the transition from the 60s to the 70s, and in a way, their powerful sound opened the doors for the growth of metal, without necessarily considering them part of the genre.

 

Another point is that, when information wasn't so readily available, before the omnipresent internet, there were many rumors. The one about them having sold their souls to the devil and the one about them being a manufactured band, perhaps not like the Monkees, but almost. Today, information can be verified more easily, and while it's true that Jimmy Page was fascinated by occult myths, particularly Aleister Crowley, there were many exaggerations. Jimmy had read Crowley's book "Magic in Theory and Practice" when he was just 15 years old, and in 1971 he bought what had been his home, The Boleskine House in Scotland, very close to Loch Ness, to restore it. But from that to making pacts with the devil, well…

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And on the other hand, regarding the casting, today we know that nothing could be further from the truth. At some point, it must have seemed unreal that one of the best guitarists, drummers, bassists, and vocalists in history could all be in the same band. And perhaps even holding a global casting call would fall short of Led Zeppelin because of the tremendous musical chemistry they had. In 2025, the documentary "Becoming Led Zeppelin" was released, which talks about their beginnings (a must-see, by the way). It's not the first; there's already a lot of literature and information online, but this one is practically narrated by the band members themselves, with a lot of previously unseen video footage, and it makes the way the group formed much clearer. Basically, from the ashes of the Yardbirds, which was already on the verge of breaking up when Jimmy Page joined. Jimmy was already a session guitarist, not only famous but also directly sought after by many artists, and it's no secret that he played guitar on albums by The Kinks, or that wonderful guitar work on Joe Cocker's version of "With A Little Help From My Friends." It took some effort for him to decide to leave the comfort of being a famous session musician, where work fell into his lap, to risk being part of a band that was already falling apart. For a few months, he shared the stage with Jeff Beck, but when Beck also left, the entire responsibility for the guitar, and indirectly, for the whole group, fell on him, since Keith Relf, ​​Chris Dreja, and Jim McCarthy showed complete apathy, to the point of disbanding in 1968, despite still having tour commitments. Page refused to give up hope and frantically searched for people with whom he could continue the band and the tour. His only ally at the time was Peter Grant, manager of the Yardbirds and owner of the name, who helped him put together a new lineup. Grant was also the manager of the newly formed Jeff Beck Group, which had just performed successfully at the Fillmore East, with Ron Wood on bass, Aynsley Dunbar on drums, Jeff Beck on guitar, and a very young Rod Stewart on vocals. Page himself had contributed guitar to Beck's debut album, notably the guitar duel on "Beck's Bolero." Blues rock was all the rage, with Iron Butterfly dominating with "In A Gadda Da Vida" and Jimi Hendrix working his magic with his left hand. In August 1968, Cream disbanded, leaving a huge void. The only one left on the Titanic called the Yardbirds was Chris Dreja on bass. Jimmy sought out pop crooner Terry Reid and drummer R.J. Wilson from Procol Harum, whom he had met while recording with Joe Cocker. But Reid had just signed a contract to launch his solo career, and Wilson was still riding the wave of success from "A Wither Shade of Pale" with his band. Why risk an uncertain project? It was then that Dreja despaired and wished Page luck.

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With nothing but his guitar, Jimmy phoned John Paul Jones, stage name of John Richard Baldwin. JPJ was another session musician he had met during the recording of Donovan's "Hurdy Gurdy Man," where, in addition to playing bass, he had done string arrangements, which had greatly impressed him. Jones had also worked on the arrangements for "She's a Rainbow" and tracks from "Their Satanic Majesties Request." By 1968, as a session musician, he was completing two or three sessions a day, six or seven days a week. When Page called him in 1968, he was feeling exhausted due to the heavy workload: "I was organizing 50 or 60 things a month and it was starting to kill me." However, it wasn't easy for him to give up a job and a secure salary. For a vocalist, they explored various options. Rumors say they tried to recruit Steve Marriott, Steve Winwood, Joe Cocker, and Chris Farlowe, but all declined. One day Jimmy and Peter ran into Reid, who had already rejected them several times. But this time Reid told them about an extraordinary singer in a band called Hobbstweedle, a 20-year-old blond guy named Robert Plant with an amazing voice. That same weekend they went to Birmingham to see the group, with whom he effortlessly reached incredibly high notes, and they offered him a spot. Plant was younger, although already with some experience in music, and he was thrilled that a legend like Jimmy Page had noticed him. When he asked who the drummer was, they told him they didn't have one yet, so he suggested a guy his own age, but who played the drums like a bull, whom he had met in Band of Joy. Days later, Robert hitched a ride to Oxford to find John Bonham, whom everyone called Bonzo, and tell him they wanted to hear him out to form The New Yardbirds… And the rest is history.

 

Well, no. Bonzo wasn't that impressed. At the time, he was earning 4 pounds a week, the most he'd ever earned, enough to support his wife—he'd married Pat Phillips the previous year at 19—and his two-year-old son, Jason (yes, THAT Jason). He was in Oxford on tour with Tim Rose. He had a reputation as a drummer with a VERY powerful attack, and just a few months earlier, club owners had avoided booking the bands he played with. But he refined his sound and stopped smashing drumsticks, without losing his characteristic ferocity. So, he wasn't as impressed as his friend Robert with the offer from the new band. He considered the Yardbirds a name from the past with little future. Days later, Page went to see him play for the first time at the London Country Club, still with Tim Rose's band. Page still envisioned a band with acoustic touches, but when he heard Bonzo, he knew immediately that his sound had to be massive and powerful. Peter Grant would later say that he knew Page was 100% convinced about Bonzo because, for the first time, he didn't even turn to ask for his advice. Despite persistent attempts to persuade him, Bonham still refused. The exposure he received with Rose had brought him more offers, including from Joe Cocker and Chris Farlowe.

 

Ultimately, what convinced him was the type of music he could play. He knew Page was a virtuoso guitarist, and he was aware of Plant's vocal power. This band promised him more freedom, unlike the bands where he had to adapt to the singer's style. So, after playing hard to get for three months, he sent a telegram to Peter Grant saying he would give the New Yardbirds a chance, and that depending on the type of music and how he felt during the first sessions, he would make a final decision.

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In his book "Hammer of the Gods," Stephen Davis claims that the first rehearsal took place on Gerard Street in London, in Jimmy's studio. The documentary "Becoming Led Zeppelin" states it was in a rented house on the banks of the Thames outside London. What they both agree on is that this first rehearsal in a cramped room was simply magic. I quote from "Hammer of the Gods": "The first time we got together to see if we could stand each other in that tiny room," JPJ would say, "there were old amplifiers from wall to wall, it was terrible. Robert had heard I was a studio musician, and he wondered if I'd arrive in a carriage with a pipe. Jimmy said, 'Well, we're here now. What are we going to play?' And I said, 'I don't know. What songs do you know?' 'Do you know Train Keep-A-Rolling?' I said no, and he said, 'It's easy, just jump from G to A.' He tapped out the rhythm, and the room erupted." Robert would say in an interview years later: “Although we had all grown up on Blues and R&B, we realized in that hour and a half that we already had our own identity.” The chemistry that emerged from that first session was incredible. Jimmy, and really everyone, entered that room with the idea that Page was the solo artist, the one with the talent, who just needed a good singer and a band to back him up, but they left knowing that they were a band with equal power and talent. In Jimmy's words: “The four of us got into that room and started playing, and we knew it. We started laughing together. Maybe out of relief.” The truth is, they left there as a band. A band that would leave the following week for Scandinavia to fulfill commitments under the name The New Yardbirds, but that in a few months would conquer the world as Led Zeppelin.

 

Upon returning from the Nordic countries, now free of previous contracts, they knew they weren't the New Yardbirds. They had to choose a name. Legend has it that the first time Keith Moon heard them, he said they would fail like a lead blimp. The truth is, the name did come from Keith's idea, but it was when Jimmy Page was looking for people for his band and offered Moon a position, which he declined, but he started toying with possible names for the band. The idea came to him from the light-heavy duality of Iron Butterfly. Page remembered that day and initially it was going to be Lead Zeppelin, but upon returning to London they dropped the "a" so that Americans wouldn't get confused with the pronunciation.

 

In any case, the name Led Zeppelin perfectly defines the power of the The band, which became a very tight ensemble with Page's virtuoso guitar, the precision, melodicity, and cohesion of John Paul Jones' bass, Bonham's monstrous fury, and Plant's power, personality, and incredible vocal range. But on the other hand, they also knew how to play folk ballads, and over time they managed to expand and experiment with rhythms like reggae, deliver superb acoustic blues, flirt with punk in some chords, or brush against progressive rock in some complex structures and intricate riffs.

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Zep is so great because they were four guys with the same idea: to make the heaviest songs that had been made up to that point. Personally, I'm amazed at how quickly they came together as a band, to the point that their first album is the one that sounds most cohesive, with greater musical direction and polished production. They sound like a group that had been playing together for years, and they had only been rehearsing for a few months! We'll delve deeper into this first album later; the point is that they achieved more than enough in record time. Their purpose. It's a denser (and at the same time more delicate) sound than anything The Who, The Animals, The Kinks, or The Throggs had ever made. Led Zeppelin draws on the blues in most of their creations, but it's a blues far removed from the psychedelia of Clapton or Hendrix, and also far removed from the pure Mississippi blues. Although they borrow its foundations in structure and improvisation (paradoxically enough), it's a much more distorted and gritty sound due to the influences of rock and other genres.​

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It's still hard rock, but in 1968 there was nothing quite like it in terms of dark, dense, and powerful atmospheres; in other words, they completely redefined it. It's true that they would later be surpassed in power by Black Sabbath and Judas Priest, the true creators of metal, but it's also true that without the earthquake caused by the airship's takeoff, the evolution of metal by other artists would have been much more difficult.

 

On the other hand, Led Zeppelin certainly had their low points. Their albums declined from 1975 onwards, their creative wellspring, their freshness, and the power of their performances slowly dwindling, to the point that in their later albums they tried to create power with mere noise, lacking clear ideas, resulting in a complete disaster, like a copy of themselves. The first four albums were revolutionary in terms of creating and consolidating a new sound. We should be grateful that later, when every band on the planet was trying to sound like Led Zeppelin, they attempted a change by fusing new rhythms to avoid repeating themselves. Some experiments worked, others didn't. But the final product was albums that weren't as consistent or cohesive as their earlier work. Plant began to increasingly exaggerate his histrionics and vocal prominence, overdoing the songs and forcing Page into a guitar-vocal duel that rarely ends well in any band when egos are involved. In other words, the teamwork began to unravel. Interestingly, on these later albums, the one who stands out the most is Jones, the most mentally balanced and professional, who carries the band on his shoulders in the face of his bandmates' creative stagnation and ego clashes. On the other hand, there were also personal problems. The death of Robert's son, Karac, in 1977 plunged him into a terrible depression. Bonzo was mired in alcoholism and became increasingly slow and predictable. Page was struggling with hard drugs and experiencing a creative slump. Add to this the fact that the global music scene shifted from hard rock to progressive rock in a matter of minutes, and from progressive rock to disco and punk in seconds. Zeppelin ended up trying to emulate these trends with more failure than success, ultimately becoming a band with only occasional flashes of talent. That is to say, unlike the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, Zeppelin was the best in its field, hard rock, and perhaps acoustic ballads, where Page also displayed mastery and skill. But outside of these genres, Zeppelin mostly became a run-of-the-mill band, producing albums with more filler than good songs, contrary to what happened in their early days.

 

Another unavoidable issue is plagiarism. While Led Zeppelin achieved an original sound that would influence countless bands, such as Greta Van Fleet and Jayler today, to name a couple, many songs blatantly borrowed elements without crediting the original artists. Not just melodies, but often entire lyrics blatantly copied. The list isn't short enough to be a coincidence: “Stairway”/“Taurus” by Spirit, with whom they toured in their early years. “Lemon Song” and “Killing Floor” by Howlin’ Wolf. “Bring It On Home” borrows lyrics from Sonny Boy Williamson. “Dazed And Confused” is from the song of the same name by Jake Holmes in 1967 (they didn't even bother to change the title). The same goes for “Babe I’m Gonna Leave You,” written by Anne Bredon and popularized by Joan Baez. “When The Levee Breaks” was written by Memphis Minnie and Kansas Joe McCoy in 1929. “How Many More Times” is very similar to “Smokestack Lightning” by Howlin’ Wolf. “In My Time of Dying” is an almost identical copy of “Jesus Make Up My Dying Bed” by Blind Willie Johnson. “Black Mountain Side” is a carbon copy of Burt Jansch’s “Black Waterside.” “Gallows Pole” sounds a lot like Blind Willie Johnson’s “Gallis Pole.” “Tangerine” is like “Knowing That I’m Losing You,” a Keith Relf song the Yardbirds never released but which finally saw the light of day recently. “Boogie con Stu” was almost a version of Richie Valens’ “Ooh My Head”—which apparently is a more modern version of Little Richard’s “Ooh My Soul.” “Bron Yr Stomp” borrowed from Bert Jansch’s “The Waggoner’s Lad.” And we could go on. While it was common at the time to borrow ideas and melodies, I think Page and Plant took it too far, and that got them into more than one legal mess, which they eventually resolved with fines or by including the original artists in the credits. Despite their decline in the second half of the 70s, it is precisely this fact of not crediting the authors that makes me not give them a perfect rating as a band.

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​ Even so, I think they deserve a B+. The musical level, instrumental virtuosity, cohesion, and power they displayed up until 1975 are enough to make them a unique and immortal band. Besides, while their last two or three albums are almost entirely forgettable, aren't all the Stones' 80s albums equally boring and dreadful? No band, I repeat, NO BAND can stay at their peak for more than ten years, and I'd even venture to narrow that period down to five or six. In short, Led Zeppelin certainly has many drawbacks, but it also has many strengths, and when you weigh them against other bands, I can't help but give them a B+. And don't be alarmed. It's a subjective matter. You can't ignore that, unlike the Beatles and the Stones, they created entirely new things, fused rhythms, pushed existing ones to the extreme, and featured some of the best guitarists, drummers, and bassists in history. Ultimately, it's incredibly difficult to create a song that becomes a classic (how many one-hit wonders have there been, and yet it's still difficult?). Creating five classics is already the mark of a great band, but creating the number of historic songs that Led Zeppelin did—many more than ten—is the achievement of legends, and Led deserves that place in history.

 

Finally, Led Zeppelin died, as everyone knows, along with Bonzo, on September 25, 1980. The three remaining members understood that there was no point in continuing without that fundamental piece. Just like with the Beatles, there was always the hope of a reunion. For Live Aid, on July 13, 1985, the three surviving members performed, generating enormous anticipation, and ending up with one of the most disappointing performances. Tony Thompson was the lead drummer, but someone had the brilliant idea of ​​having Phil Collins also play drums, without him ever having rehearsed with them, and he even flew from London to Philadelphia on the Concorde to be the only one to perform on both stages on the same day. The result was truly lamentable, so much so that the band refused to have their performance released on video or record. Jimmy and Robert would later release an album as The Honeydrippers, and in the 90s they would release a sort of unplugged album called No Quarter: Jimmy Page and Robert Plant Unplugged, for which John Paul Jones would say they didn't even call him.

 

However, on December 10, 2007, the three of them gave a magnificent performance at London's O2 Arena with Jason Bonham on his father's drum kit, which would put them back in the spotlight. The performance broke ticket sales records and raised expectations of a possible world tour. The album Celebration Day was eventually released, showcasing a still powerful and tight band, as if almost 30 years hadn't passed since their breakup. The thing is, Plant clearly could no longer replicate those performances night after night, and he was the one who refused to do anything more than that ephemeral reunion. I was angry at first, but now I understand. He's no longer 20, and the notes he reached in the early 70s were hysterical. Changing the key of the songs would simply break their magic. So that was the last we heard from them, 19 years ago. And yet they remain relevant and are one of the most streamed bands in the digital age.

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​LINEUP: Robert Plant. Vocalist. Powerful vocalist, he reached incredibly high notes with his natural voice without needing to use falsetto or fake it. I've heard many vocalists struggle trying to cover Led Zeppelin, while Plant made the sound sound incredibly natural and fresh. His voice also lent itself to acoustic melodies and more delicate ballads. As the years went by, he lost that power and, at the same time, his sound became more saturated with tired "Ah, oh, ah, ah, aaaaaaaaaaaaaaah." You know what I mean. However, he established the style of powerful, very high vocals in Hard Rock and Metal.

 

John Paul Jones. Bassist, keyboardist, and author of all the arrangements other than drums and guitar in the songs, from strings to Mellotron and flutes. My favorite? Yes. As a bassist, I learned a lot from him, and he's one of my biggest influences. He was precise, incredibly fast when he wanted to be, and sometimes he could deliver a breathtaking bass solo. LZII is a masterclass in bass playing from beginning to end, which is why he's my favorite member of the band today. Undoubtedly the most focused and serious member of the band, the quietest, and perhaps the least noticeable in terms of his instruments, but he was Zep's secret weapon, a sound architect who gave each song the perfect structure with melody, power, and elegance.

 

John "Bonzo" Bonham. Drummer. One of the greats, without a doubt. Although from the Keith Moon school, he had a different style, less refined, but perhaps freer, fiercer, and more creative, with an immense attack. Even though he lost some of the speed and power that redefined the sound of rock in its early days, he remains one of the best drummers of all time, topping many lists and one of the most influential. Irreplaceable. His tragic death meant the end of the band.

 

Jimmy Page. Guitarist. Also a virtuoso and one of the greatest with the distorted six strings. Perhaps, after Keith Richards, he is the best riff creator of all time. He may be second only to Hendrix on electric guitar, but unlike Hendrix, he masters the acoustic guitar, and for many, he is the best of all time. Powerful, revolutionary, creative, fast, with a blues soul.

 

A better definition is impossible: The Lead Airship, Led Zeppelin!

 

 

By Corvan 

Oct/7/2007

Rewritten: Jul/06/2026

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