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Band of the Week: Led Zeppelin

Led Zeppelin is one of those bands that everybody knows. They opened the door for many bands after them. Even though their music was released in the 1970s, their music sounds as if it was released in this day and age. There is something about Led Zeppelin’s music that moves me. It relates to me in a way that other bands do not. The rawness of their music and the talent that all the members had created an amazing band. My mom used to listen to Led Zeppelin all the time and played them when I was little. At a young age I was introduced to this band and 21 years later, I still listen to them on a daily basis. I would also argue that the style in which Led Zeppelin played influenced metal and opened the door for metal bands. I think this because when listening to Led Zeppelin, it’s dark. The music, the lyrics, and the overall vibe is dark, and this is where I believe it correlates to metal. Led Zeppelin’s music may not be as fast, heavy, and technical as today’s bands, but they all have that overall theme of darkness.

Led Zeppelin were an English rock band formed in London in 1968. The group consisted of Robert Plant (vocalist), Jimmy Page (guitarist), John Paul Jones (bassist), and John Bonham (drums). With their heavy guitar driven sound, they are regularly cited as one of the pioneers of heavy metal, although their influences included a variety of blues and folk music. When looking at the members of Led Zeppelin, they had a super-group. By a super-group I mean that each member is the best at their instrument. You had four extremely talented musicians that formed a band and this was a force to be reckoned with. With so much talent also comes hardships and struggles. There are positive and negative factors when having such a talented band like Led Zeppelin.

After changing their name from New Yardbirds, Led Zeppelin signed a deal with Atlantic Records, although they were unpopular with critics, they achieved commercial success with eight studio albums. Page wrote most of Led Zeppelin’s music while Plant supplied the lyrics. The latter half of Led Zeppelin’s career saw a series of record-breaking tours and had fans all around the world.

Things were coming to an end during the late 1970s and the group disbanded following the death of their drummer John Bonham. There have been many successful reunion shows with Bonham’s son (Jason) on drums.

Led Zeppelin is known to be one of the most successful bands due to their sales success, fame, and talent. They influenced many hard rock and metal bands such as Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Queen, Aerosmith, Megadeth, Tool, Dream Theater, the Ramones, Smashing Pumpkins, Nirvana, Sound Garden, and Pearl Jam.

When watching Breaking the Band on Reelz tv channel, they did a segment on Led Zeppelin which lead me to write a post about them. A fun fact that I learned was that Jimmy Page was interested in the occult and black magic. The symbols on their album release in 1971 have been argued to be black magic symbols. Some of the symbols are used to describe Egyptian Gods and Goddesses. Jimmy Page said that he believed Led Zeppelin’s success of their release, Led Zeppelin IV (1971) and the hit song off that album, Stairway to Heaven, was because of the use of these symbols and the magic behind them.

Discography:

Led Zeppelin (1969)

Led Zeppelin II (1969)

Led Zeppelin III (1970)

Led Zeppelin IV (1971)

House of the Holy (1973)

Physical Graffiti (1975)

Presence (1976)

In Through the Out Door (1979)

Coda (1982)


Favorite Songs:

Kashmir

Stairway to Heaven

Black Dog

Ramble On

Babe I’m Gonna Leave You

When the Levee Breaks

What are some of your favorite Led Zeppelin songs?

Stay Metal,

THE SAW