Biography of Led Zeppelin

Led Zeppelin was the definitive heavy metal band. It wasn't just their crushingly loud interpretation of the blues -- it was how they incorporated mythology, mysticism, and British folk into their sound. Led Zeppelin had mystique. Black Sabbath were working class thugs, the Rolling Stones were jet-setting rock stars -- no one quite knew what Zeppelin were about. They rarely gave interviews, since the music press detested the band, slamming them at every opportunity. Consequently, the only connection the audience had with the band was through the records and the concerts. More than any other band, Led Zeppelin pushed the concept of album-oriented rock, refusing to release popular songs from their albums as singles. Led Zeppelin formed out of the ashes of the Yardbirds. Jimmy Page had joined the band in its final days, playing a pivotal role on their final album, 1967's Little Games, which also featured string arrangements from John Paul Jones. During 1967, the Yardbirds were fairly inactive and were approaching their eventual breakup. While the Yardbirds decided their future, Page returned to session work in 1967, most notably playing on Jeff Beck's debut single, "Hi Ho Silver Lining." The single featured contributions from Page, Jones, and the Who's drummer, Keith Moon. The Who's John Entwistle also attended the sessions and after the single was completed, Entwistle and Moon discussed forming a supergroup with Page and Beck. Moon commented that the proposed group would "go over like a lead balloon," thereby planting the seeds of the name of Page's future group. The proposed supergroup never materialized and Page continued to concentrate on session work. In the spring of 1968, he played on Jones' arrangement of Donovan's "Hurdy Gurdy Man." During the sessions, Jones requested to be part of any future project Page would develop. Page would have to assemble a band sooner than he had planned. In the summer of 1968, the Yardbirds' founding members Keith Relf and James McCarty left the band, leaving only Page and bassist Chris Dreja with the rights to the name, as well as the obligation of fulfilling an upcoming fall tour. Page set out to find a replacement vocalist and drummer with the intention of calling the group the New Yardbirds. Initially, he wanted to enlist Procol Harum's singer Terry Reid and the band's drummer B.J. Wilson, but neither musician was able to join the group. Reid suggested that Page contact Robert Plant, who was currently singing with a band called Hobbstweedle. After hearing him sing, Page asked Plant to join the band in August of 1968, the same month the Yardbirds' bassist Chris Dreja dropped out of the new project. Following Dreja's departure, John Paul Jones joined the group as its bassist. Plant recommended that Page contact John Bonham, the drummer for Plant's old band, the Band of Joy. Bonham had to be persuaded to join the group, as he was being courted by Joe Cocker and Tim Rose, who offered the drummer considerably more money. By September, Bonham agreed to join the band.Performing under the name the New Yardbirds, the band fulfilled the Yardbirds' previously booked engagements in late September 1968. The following month, they recorded their debut album in just under 30 hours. Also in October, the group switched their name to Led Zeppelin, taking their cue from Keith Moon's comment from the previous year. The band secured a contract with Atlantic Records in the United States before the end of the year. Early in 1969, Led Zeppelin set out on their first American tour, opening for the Vanilla Fudge. The tour helped set the stage for the January release of their self-titled debut album. Two months after its release, Led Zeppelin had climbed into the U.S. Top Ten. Throughout 1969, the band toured relentlessly, playing dates in America and England. While they were on the road, they recorded their second album, Led Zeppelin II, which was released in October of 1969. Like its predecessor, Led Zeppelin II was an immediate hit, topping the American charts two months after its release and spending seven weeks at number one; the album would eventually sell well over seven million copies. The album helped establish Led Zeppelin as an international concert attraction, and for the next year, the group continued to tour relentlessly. Led Zeppelin's sound began to deepen with Led Zeppelin III. Released in October of 1970, the album featured an overt British folk influence. Indeed, Page and Plant would frequently jam with Fairport Convention during the English folk-rock band's concerts. Their infatuation with folk and mythology would reach a fruition on the group's untitled fourth album, which was released in November of 1971. Led Zeppelin IV was the band's most musically diverse effort to date, featuring everything from the crunching rock of "Black Dog" to the folk of "The Battle of Evermore," as well as "Stairway to Heaven," which found the bridge between the two genres. "Stairway to Heaven" was an immediate radio hit, becoming the most played song in the history of album-oriented radio; the song was never released as a single. Despite the fact that the album never reached number one in America, Led Zeppelin IV was their biggest album ever, selling well over 16 million copies over the next two and a half decades.Led Zeppelin did tour to support both Led Zeppelin III and Led Zeppelin IV, but they cut back the number of dates, concentrating on only playing larger venues, such as a date at Wembley Arena at the end of 1971 and two concerts at Alexandra Palace at the end of 1972. After completing their 1972 tour, the band retreated from the spotlight and recorded their fifth album. Released in the spring of 1973, Houses of the Holy continued the band's musical experimentation, featuring touches of funk and reggae among their trademark rock and folk. Houses of the Holy debuted at number one in both America and Britain, setting the stage for a record-breaking American tour. Throughout their 1973 tour, Led Zeppelin broke box office records -- most of which were previously held by the Beatles -- across America. The group's concert at Madison Square Garden in July was filmed for use in the feature film The Song Remains the Same, which was released three years later. After their 1973 tour, Led Zeppelin spent a quiet year during 1974, releasing no new material and performing no concerts. They did, however, establish their own record label, Swan Song, which was named after an unreleased Jimmy Page instrumental. Swan Song released all of Led Zeppelin's subsequent albums, as well as records by Dave Edmunds, Bad Company, the Pretty Things, and several others. Physical Graffiti, a double album set released in the spring of 1975, was the band's first release on Swan Song. The album was an immediate success, topping the charts in both America and England. Led Zeppelin embarked on a British tour in the spring, playing largely stadiums like London's Earls Court. The band was preparing to launch a large American tour in the late summer of 1975 when Robert Plant and his wife suffered a serious car crash while vacationing in Greece. Plans for the tour were cancelled and Plant spent the rest of the year recuperating from the accident. Led Zeppelin returned to action in the spring of 1976 with Presence. Although the album debuted at number one in both America and England, the reviews for the album were lukewarm, as was the reception to the live concert film The Song Remains the Same, which finally appeared in the fall of 1976. After postponing their U.S. tour at the beginning of 1977, the band finally returned to America in the Spring of 1977, launching a major tour. A couple of months into the tour, Plant's six-year-old son Karac died of a stomach infection. Led Zeppelin immediately cancelled the tour and offered no word whether or not it would be rescheduled, causing wide-spread speculation about the band's future. For a while, it did appear that Led Zeppelin was finished. Robert Plant spent the latter half of 1977 and the better part of 1978 in seclusion. The group didn't begin work on a new album until late in the summer of 1978, when they began recording at ABBA's Polar studios in Sweden. A year later, the band played a short Eurpoean tour, performing in Switzerland, Germany, Holland, Belgium, and Austria. In August of 1979, Led Zeppelin played two large concerts at Knebworth; the shows would be their last English performances. In Through the Out Door, the band's much-delayed eighth studio album, was finally released in September of 1979. The album entered the charts at number one in both America and England and spawned the Latin-tinged hit single "Fool in the Rain." In May of 1980, Led Zeppelin embarked on their final European tour. It ended on July 7, which happened to be the twelfth anniversary of the Yardbirds' break-up. Their last show was at the Eissporthalle in West Berlin. In September, Led Zeppelin began rehearsing at Jimmy Page's house in preparation for an American tour. On September 25, John Bonham was found dead in his bed -- following an all-day drinking binge, he had passed out and choked on his own vomit. In December of 1980, Led Zeppelin announced they were disbanding, since they could not continue without Bonham. Immediately following the break-up, there were rumors that Plant and Page were planning to form a supergroup with former Yes members Alan White and Chris Squire. The band was going to be called XYZ -- because it was composed of ex-members of Yes and Zeppelin -- but the group never formed. Instead, the remaining members all began solo careers. John Paul Jones never released a solo album. Instead, he returned to producing and arranging; of his post-Zeppelin work, he is best known for producing the Mission U.K. and the Butthole Surfers, as well as providing string arrangements for R.E.M.'s Automatic for the People. After recording the soundtrack for Death Wish II, Jimmy Page compiled the Zeppelin outtakes collection, Coda, which was released at the end of 1982. That same year, Robert Plant began a solo career with the Pictures at Eleven album. In 1984, Plant and Page briefly reunited in the all-star oldies band the Honeydrippers. After recording one EP with the Honeydrippers, Plant returned to his solo career and Page formed the Firm with former Bad Company singer Paul Rogers. The Firm split after releasing their second album in 1986. In 1985, Led Zeppelin reunited to play Live Aid, sparking off a flurry of reunion rumors; the reunion never materialized. In 1988, Page released his solo debut, Outrider, which featured a guest appearance by Plant. The guitarist returned the favor by appearing on the vocalist's 1988 album, Now and Zen. All of the activity -- plus a bevy of popular Zeppelin copycat bands -- fueled another round of reunion rumors and the band did re-form to play Atlantic's 25th Anniversary Concert. However, Led Zeppelin decided against permanently re-forming. During 1989, Jimmy Page remastered the band's catalog for release on the 1990 box set, Led Zeppelin. The four-disc set became the biggest selling multi-disc box set of all time and was followed by a two-disc supplement in 1993 that contained all of the songs that didn't make the first box. Following a commercially disappointing collaboration with former Whitesnake vocalist David Coverdale in 1993, Jimmy Page contacted Robert Plant about the possibility of reuniting. The following year, Page and Plant formed a duo -- they never called John Paul Jones to discuss the possibility of a Zeppelin reunion. Page & Plant recorded a segment for MTV Unplugged in the summer of 1994. The performance was released along with several newly written songs as No Quarter: Jimmy Page & Robert Plant Unledded in the fall of 1994. Although the album went platinum, the sales were disappointing considering the anticipation of a Zeppelin reunion. The following year, Page & Plant embarked on a successful international tour. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine