Arising in the late 1960s in the UK, Led Zeppelin's influence is incalculable in rock history. Its music transcends any label, incorporating to its base hard rock and to its texts with mystical traits and mythological heterogenous sounds that so much are inspired in the blues as in the British folk or in the funk.
The group derives from the band The Yardbirds. When they decided to separate in the late 1960s, two of its members, Jimmy Page and Chris Deja, decided to continue the project in the summer of 1968 under the name of The New Yardbirds.
Jimmy Page (born January 9, 1944 in Heston, Middlesex) had been a prestigious session musician before joining the Yardbirds to replace Paul Samwell-Smith, participating in albums by numerous groups and soloists, including the Who, Dave Berry, Herman's Hermits, Donovan or the Kinks.
En varias de estas grabaciones había coincidido con el bajista y teclista John Paul Jones (nacido el 3 de enero de 1946 en Londres), otro experimentado músico de sesión y excelente arreglista con el que había tocado en el tema “Hurdy Gurdy Man”, una canción de Donovan en la que también aparecía a la batería John Bonham (nacido el 31 de mayo de 1947 en Redditch).
When Dreja left the project of the New Yardbirds to dedicate himself professionally to the photography, Page thought immediately in Jones to conform a new band adding to the pair a singer and a battery.
Desired singers were Terry Reid or B. J. Wilson, member of Procol Harum. Both discarded the offer but Reid recommended a young and unknown vocalist named Robert Plant (born August 20, 1948 in West Bromwich), who had sung in a band called Hobbstweedle.
Plant was, like Page, a great blues lover, but he also had a predilection for the sounds of the West Coast, with his favorite bands Love and Moby Grape.
The fourth member of the New Yardbirds was Bonham, his old partner in "Hurdy Gurdy Man" who had gone through bands like Crawling King Snakes or Band of Joy, and that was also close friend of Plant.
The quartet, represented by Peter Grant, debuted live in September 1968, when they performed for prior contractual obligations in the Danish city of Copenhagen.
When they returned to England, Page decided to adopt the name Led Zeppelin remembering a phrase of Keith Moon, when he, planning to leave the Who and the possibility of forming a supergroup with Page, Jeff Beck, John Paul Jones, Nicky Hopkins and Moon itself, a quintet that had recorded the instruments "Beck's Bolero", defined the fate of the band with the sensation of riding on a lead balloon.
After performing successfully in British clubs and touring with massive US audience with Vanilla Fudge, the group published in Atlantic "Led Zeppelin" (1969), an extraordinary LP debut recorded in thirty days and produced and arranged by Jimmy Page, a fact that would repeat in all the albums of the band.
His powerful, epic blues-rock, folk, psychedelic and hard rock showcase conquered the audience with themes like "Communication Breakdown," "Dazed And Confused," a Jake Holmes song version, "Good Times Bad Times" or "Babe, I'm Gonna Leave You."
"Led Zeppelin II" (1969) topped sales to its first LP reaching number 1 in the United States and in Great Britain with songs like "Whole Lotta Love", "Heartbreaker", "Thank You" or "Ramble On" . With this album, Plant's vocals, Page's inventive guitar riffs and rhythm section and the powerful rhythm section of Jones and Plant became a basic mirror for a multitude of ensemble ensembles.
In "Led Zeppelin III" (1970), disc with classic cuts like "Immigrant Song" or "Since I've Been Loving You", the band affected more in its folk roots.
The album managed to rise to the top of the best sales charts in the world, as did all the Lps of his career.
At the same time his rock star attitudes and his sweaty and multitudinous concerts were adding to his legend as indomitable rock. There were violent behaviors in hotels and wild relations with groupies, being censored in several countries. Even Eva Von Zeppelin, the descendant of Ferdinand Von Zeppelin, prohibited the group to act in Denmark like Led Zeppelin, since according to her, the group of young musicians were nothing more than "screaming monkeys". They performed under the name of The Nods.
Although almost every record of Led Zeppelin is essential (especially until 1975), "Led Zeppelin IV" (1971) is one of his most important works and one of those that best expose his communion between hard rock, folk and blues.
The album includes some of his best known songs, such as "Black Dog", "Rock and Roll" or "Stairway to heaven".
"Houses of the Holy" (1973) demonstrated the eclectic ability of its authors with funk and reggae remixes widening their traditional sonority. The LP confirmed them, along with the Rolling Stones, as the most important rock band on the planet in the 70's.
After this LP the group formed the Swan Song record label. "Physical Graffiti" (1975) was his debut in his own company, a double album more adventurous and experimental than other works that included songs like "Kashmir", "Custard Pie" or "Trampled Under Foot".
This masterful work showed again both its exceptional quality as instrumentalists as its compositional diversity and search for new sound spectra without losing its well-known references.
On August 4, 1975, Robert Plant and his wife Maureen Wilson, whom he married in 1969, suffered a serious car accident while on vacation on Rhodes Island.
This incident caused the discontinuity of the tours of the band, which filled all the venues to which he came. Among them the Madison Square Garden, a performance in the summer of 1973 that would appear on the album with the name "The Songs Remains The Same" (1976) and in a film of the same name.
The same year in which this direct appeared, also they published "Presence" (1976), disc inferior to its previous works that it incurred in the epic and progressive treatment in many of its compositions, among them, "Achilles last stand" or "Nobody's Fault but mine ".
In 1977 he died of a stomach infection Karac, the six-year-old son of Robert Plant. This lamentable event plunged in a deep and long depression the blonde singer and took away for a long season the group of the scenes.
After this unstable period, Led Zeppelin returned to live performances and also to the recording studio publishing "In through the out door" (1979), diverse Lp that became the last work in study of the band. The album, which featured pop and synth sounds, included the catchy AOR ballad "All My Love" and the rock opening "In the evening", where the great Jimmy Page, key character in the history of the guitar Rock, again gave us another masterful riff for his huge collection.
On September 25, 1980, John Bonham died drowned in his own vomit at Page's house after a strong drunkenness.
Jimmy Page's home, next to Loch Ness, was the famed Boleskine mansion, a building that had been owned by the occultist Aleister Crowley, an enigmatic figure who had always drawn the famous guitarist, not Page Page decided to call the seal of the Band "Swang Song" by the nickname given to himself Crowley, Paramahansa, meaning "divine swan".
The disappearance of Bonham caused the definitive dissolution of the band, that would publish of form Posthumous "Coda" (1982), an album that contained archival material.
Following the breakup, Page and Plant were about to join the Yes group members Alan White and Chris Squire to form the XYZ super-band, but eventually the project never took place, starting both solo races.
Jimmy Page formed the mid-'80s group The Firm, which also included Free and Bad Company singer Paul Rodgers and Uriah Heep drummer Chris Slade. This adventure only lasted until 1986.
Robert Plant made his solo debut with "Pictures at Eleven" (1983), which featured Phil Collins on drums and guitarist Robbie Blunt, with whom Plant formed the group The Honeydrippers, in which they would also collaborate Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck.
John Paul Jones had resumed his facet of arranger and producer until publishing his first Lp like soloist in 1999, "Zooma".
Led Zeppelin's various members were subsequently reunited on various occasions, recording Page & Plant albums such as "No Quarter" (1994) or "Walking into Clarksdale" (1998), work without excessive relevance in his discography.
Led Zeppelin's fundamental legacy was expanded with compilations and live shows throughout the following decades after its dissolution, such as the compilation "Remasters" (1990) or the direct "BBC Sessions" (1997) or "How the west was won "(2003).
In 2007, Page, Plant and Jones, accompanied by the son of John Bonham, Jason, met to perform live in November regaining the name Led Zeppelin.
After meeting this meeting, Jimmy Page himself, the group's main composer, did not rule out the band re-recording new songs.
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