Classics Part Three: Led Zeppelin

Led Zeppelin are the third band of the big three who began it all. Compared to Sabbath and Purple, Zep were a bit more on the folky side of things, with lyrics ranging from LOTR to classic English folk songs. Led Zeppelin got their name from a line by John Entwistle the bassist from The Who (something to do with a possible formation of a super group involving Keith Moon, John Entwistle, Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck going down like a lead zeppelin).

Led Zep aren’t as heavy as either Purple or Sabbath but they definitely hold their own, like being banned for life from the Tokyo Hilton, John Bonham riding motorcycles through hotel corridors etc etc, but along with the excess of rock they had a string of absolute classic albums:

It was around this time that tragedy struck Zep, Robert Plant was in a car accident and he broke his ankle, and his wife Maureen almost died and Jimmy Page’s heroin addiction was starting to become apparent.. Zep had a bit of time off and wrote Presence:

To me that’s when the magic began to dwindle and the shit really started to hit the fan, it was rumored that Jimmy Page was dabbling in the occult, he had even bought Aleister Crowleys castle in Scotland (I think) and weird shit started happening, well, crazy things, Robert Plants son Karac died of a stomach infection at age 7 (All My Love is dedicated to him) Jimmy Page broke is ring finger and couldn’t play guitar and there were more weird things that happened but I can’t quite remember them all .

John Bonham died September 25th 1980 and that effectively ended Led Zeppelin, they had one album post Bonham, CODA, but I am not even going to post that.

Out of the three, Led Zep, Sabbath and Purple they definitely my least favourite, they have some utterly brilliant songs but they just don’t do it for me the way the other do. Plant is easily my favourite vocalist and that scream of his on Immigrant Song gives me chills. Bonzo is a great drummer but for me both Bill Ward and Ian Paice do a better job. Jimmy Page is a genius on guitar some of the things he did on guitar blow my mind.

Those slight negatives aside, Led Zep still row my boat and Led Zeppelin III is an all time favourite for me as well.