Sometimes, life feels like a random intersection of others lives. In 1969, there was just over three and a half billion people on the planet. And somehow, Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Bonham, and John Paul Jones found one another and formed one of the most important bands in the whole scope of pop music history.
And they released this record, which would become one of the most influential albums of all time.
Across their first four albums, Led Zeppelin had rocked harder and explored more than any band before them.
It was a double-edged sword. They had created some of the most indelible songs in rock and roll history. But how were they supposed to top “Stairway to Heaven”?
They wouldn’t, actually.
By their second album, Led Zeppelin had already revolutionized hard rock. By their third, they had injected traditional folk elements to round out their songwriting.
So where could they possibly go for their fourth? They had already subverted every expectation of their genre and broken every limitation of the recording process.
But they weren’t about to rest now. Continue reading
Having already asserted their dominance on their first two hard rocking, raunchy records, Led Zeppelin takes a step back on their third outing to flex their compositional chops.
And that means a surprising amount of ballads.
By the end of the 1960s, the peace and love of the decade had started to wear a little thin.
The Nixon Administration rose to power in the United States. The Troubles dominated headlines in the United Kingdom. The Vietnam War raged on.
And out of this chaos came a band whose sound was as fiery as the world around them.