Music Legends - Featured Artist - Led Zeppelin
An undisputed supergroup, Led Zeppelin was instrumental in changing the way rock was perceived....... my opinion
Not many rock music lovers know that New Yardbirds and Led Zeppelin are one and the same bands. Robert Plant (vocals), Jimmy Page (Lead Guitar), John Paul Jones (Bassist / Keyboards) and John Bonham (Drums) formed the band New Yardbirds in the year of 1968 to replace the defunct Yardbirds (Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck.. a fantastic band in their own rights.) A British band which had considerably more success in the United States, they originated from London.
October of 1968 they changed the band’s name to Led Zeppelin purportedly due to a humorous conversation amongst musicians about how the band would fail and ‘go down like a lead balloon'
After their first live tour of America, their first album simply named Led Zeppelin (under the Atlantic label who reputedly paid $200 000 advance to the band to ensure they joined the Atlantic stable) debuted in early 1969, soon making the Top Ten on the US charts.
It is amazing how ‘knit’ the band was already, and Robert Plant was not yet at his full vocal power. The best was still to come. These were truly amazing musicians
How to describe the band’s music? Angry blues, psychedelic rock? I do not know but all I know is they never followed… they always led
This person sums them up better than I can. From Allmusic.com
What the Beatles were to the '60s, Led Zeppelin were to the '70s: a band so successful and innovative they wound up creating the prism through which their entire epoch was seen
I am not even sure I understand what that means ..but.. ‘Nuff said !
Who has never heard their epic Stairway To Heaven ? Whole Lotta Love? Got to have them here
Interesting statistic… this Youtube video has has over 11 MILLION views
I thought 11 million was a lot….the above video has had 118,877,722 views
The band toured throughout the 70’s racking up record sales. The band refused to release singles from their albums and were the instigators for Album Rock. In 1976 they released Houses Of the Holy, the success of this album led to record box office sales in the US, most of which were previously held by The Beatles. At the end of this tour the concert film Song Remains the Same was filmed
I want to share this next song ‘Rain Song’ to demonstrate the vocal ability of Robert Plant. In my mind not until Freddy Mercury came along was there a singer to match him. Subjective I know
The band recorded 9 studio albums but released twenty two when considering the Live albums and compilations. It is estimated they sold between 200 and 300 million albums.
In 1980 Jon Bonham unfortunately passed away accidentally, the cause officially known as Pulmonary Oedema after a bout of drinking…. I suspect this is medical for choking on your own vomit… I could be wrong though. By the end of 1980 Led Zeppelin disbanded
But wait…there is more
Some trivia, thanks to IMDB.COM
Their song "Misty Mountain Hop" is named after J.R.R. Tolkien's "Misty Mountains"; "Ramble On" refers to Gollum and Mordor and "The Battle of Evermore" is an allegory from the "Battle of the Pelennor Fields" from "The Return of the King".
VH1 named the group the #1 Greatest Artist of Hard Rock.
On 12 January 1995 the band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, OH. Jimmy Page had also been previously inducted as a member of The Yardbirds.
I would like to end with one of their lesser known songs, yet one of my favourites as it highlights Jimmy Page on lead
Sources: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0496389/bio
And of course YouTube !!
Wikipedia was not required this time around .
I am featuring artists from the 60’s and 70’s from diverse genre’s over the next few months. If you love music … FOLLOW and take the journey with me..it is going to be one thrilling ride !! Furthermore I will only be featuring artists from MY vinyl collection, and I shall start all of the posts with a photo of an album cover to authenticate
This post only requires Steem Power
Previous Music Legends
Leonard Cohen
The Doors
Bob Dylan
The Rolling Stones
60’s Protest Artists
Janis Joplin
Jimi Hendrix
Neil Young
Deep Purple
Great posts! Seem to always hit me when I am in the mood. As for memories, thats another story. Keep up the good work!
One of the greatest bands ever, timeless music, going to throw on that Mothership compilation today just because of seeing this post.
Spot on... phenomenal. It really hurts having to try and squeeze such brilliance and talent into a few hundred words, I always feel like I am selling them short and not getting the story across
when the levee breaks. brilliant.
Fairly recently we were invited to bring our own playlist for a yoga class, and with mine we did the closing relaxation to Stairway to Heaven and it really worked!