LED ZEPPELIN
January 12, 1969 Led Zeppelin #6 UK, #10 U.S.
October 22, 1969 Led Zeppelin II #1 UK, #1 U.S.
October 5, 1970 Led Zeppelin III #1 UK, #1 U.S.
November 8, 1971 Led Zeppelin IV #1 UK, #2 U.S.
March 28, 1973 Houses of the Holy #1 UK, #1 U.S.
February 24, 1975 Physical Graffiti #1 UK, #1 U.S.
March 31, 1976 Presence #1 UK, #1 U.S.
August 15, 1979 In Through the Out Door #1 UK, #1 U.S.
Led Zeppelin were an English rock band that formed in September 1968. Led Zeppelin consisted of Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Bonham, and John Paul Jones. With their heavy, guitar-driven sound, Led Zeppelin are regarded as one of the first heavy metal bands. Their rock-infused interpretation of the blues also incorporated rockabilly, reggae,soul,funk,jazz,classical, Celtic, Indian, Arabic, folk, pop, Latin, and country. The band did not release the popular songs from their albums as singles in Britain, as they preferred to develop the concept of album-oriented rock.
Over 25 years after disbanding following Bonham's 1980 death, Led Zeppelin continue to be held in high regard for their artistic achievements, commercial success, and broad influence. The band have sold more than 300 million albums worldwide, including 109.5 million sales in the United States, and they are the only band to have had all their albums reach the U.S. Billboard Top 10. Led Zeppelin are ranked No. 1 on VH1's list of the 100 greatest artists of hard rock.
The band completed the Scandinavian tour as "The New Yardbirds". One account, which has become almost legendary, has it that Keith Moon and John Entwistle suggested that a possible supergroup containing themselves, Jimmy Page, and Jeff Beck would go down like a lead balloon, a term Entwistle used to describe a bad gig. The group deliberately dropped the 'a' in Lead at the suggestion of their manager, Peter Grant, to prevent "thick Americans"from pronouncing it as "leed".
Grant also secured an advance deal of $200,000 from Atlantic Records in November 1968, then the biggest deal of its kind for a new band. Atlantic was a label known for its catalogue of blues, soul and jazz artists, but in the late-1960s it began to take an interest in progressive British rock acts, and signed Led Zeppelin without having ever seen them, largely on the recommendation of singer Dusty Springfield.With their first album not yet released, Zeppelin made their live debut at the University of Surrey, Guildford on October 15, 1968. This was followed by a U.S. concert debut on December 26, 1968 (when promoter Barry Fey added them onto a bill in Denver, Colorado) before moving on to the west coast for dates in Los Angeles, San Francisco and other cities.
History of Led Zeppelin
The early days (1968-1970)
The "New Yardbirds"
The beginnings of Led Zeppelin can be traced back to the English blues-influenced rock band The Yardbirds. Page joined the Yardbirds in 1966 to play bass guitar after the original bassist, Paul Samwell-Smith, left the group. Shortly after, Page switched from bass to second lead guitar, creating a dual-lead guitar line up with Jeff Beck.
Following the departure of Beck in October 1966, The Yardbirds, tired from constant touring and recording, were beginning to wind down. Page wanted to form a supergroup with himself and Beck on guitars, and The Who's rhythm section - drummer Keith Moon and bassist John Entwistle. Vocalists Donovan, Steve Winwood and Steve Marriott were also considered for the project. The group never formed, although Page, Beck and Moon did record a song together in 1966, "Beck's Bolero" (which Entwistle did not play on), which is featured on Beck's 1968 album, Truth. The recording session also included bassist-keyboardist John Paul Jones, who told Page that he would be interested in collaborating with him on future projects.
The Yardbirds played their final gig in July 1968. However, they were still committed to perform several concerts in Scandinavia, so drummer Jim McCarty and vocalist Keith Relf authorised Page and bassist Chris Dreja to use the Yardbirds name to fulfil the band's obligations. Page and Dreja began putting a new line-up together. Page's first choice for lead singer, Terry Reid, declined the offer, but suggested Robert Plant, a Birmingham singer he knew. Plant eventually accepted the position, recommending a drummer, John Bonham from nearby Redditch. When Dreja opted out of the project to become a photographer — he would later take the photograph that appeared on the back of Led Zeppelin's debut album — Jones, at the suggestion of his wife, contacted Page about the vacant position. Being familiar with Jones' credentials, Page agreed to bring in Jones as the final piece.
The group played together on record the first time on the final day of sessions for the P. J. Proby album, Three Week Hero. Proby recalled, "Come the last day we found we had some studio time, so I just asked the band to play while I just came up with the words. ... They weren't Led Zeppelin at the time, they were the New Yardbirds and they were going to be my band."
Led Zeppelin (the first album)
Shortly after their first tour, the group's self-titled first album was released on January 13, 1969. Its blend of blues, folk, and eastern influences with distorted amplification made it one of the pivotal records in the creation of heavy metal music. However, Plant has commented that it is unfair for people to typecast the band as heavy metal, since about a third of their music was acoustic.
In an interview for the Led Zeppelin Profiled radio promo CD (1990) Page said that the album took about 36 hours of studio time to create (including mixing), and stated that he knows this because of the amount charged on the studio bill. Peter Grant claimed the album cost £1,750 to produce (including artwork). By 1975, the album had grossed $7,000,000.
Led Zeppelin's album cover met an interesting protest when, at a February 28, 1970 gig in Copenhagen, the band was billed as "The Nobs" as the result of a threat of legal action from aristocrat Eva von Zeppelin (a relative of the namesake creator of the Zeppelin aircraft), who, upon seeing the logo of the Hindenburg crashing in flames, threatened to have the show pulled off the air.
Led Zeppelin II
In their first year of existence, Led Zeppelin managed to complete four US and four UK concert tours, as well as find time to release their second album, entitled Led Zeppelin II.Recorded almost entirely on the road at various North American recording studios, the second album was an even greater success than the first and reached the number one chart position in the US and the UK.Here the band further developed ideas established on their debut album, creating a work which became even more widely acclaimed and arguably more influential. It has been suggested that Led Zeppelin II largely wrote the blueprint for 1970s hard rock.
Following the album's release Led Zeppelin made several more tours of the United States. They played often, initially in clubs and ballrooms, then in larger auditoriums as their popularity grew. Led Zeppelin concerts could last more than three hours, with expanded, improvised live versions of their song repertoire.Many of these shows have been preserved as Led Zeppelin bootleg recordings.
Led Zeppelin III
For the composition of their third album, Led Zeppelin III, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant retired to Bron-Yr-Aur, a remote cottage in Wales, in 1970. This would result in a more acoustic sound than previously exhibited by the group (and a song, "Bron-Yr-Aur Stomp", misspelled as "Bron-Y-Aur Stomp" on the album cover, which was a complete remake of Bert Jansch's song "The Waggoners Lad"). Strongly influenced by folk and Celtic music, the album revealed a different side of the band's versatility.
The album's rich acoustic sound initially received mixed reactions, with many critics and fans surprised at the turn taken by the band away from the primarily electric compositions of the first two albums. Over time, however, its reputation has recovered and Led Zeppelin III is now generally praised.It has a unique album cover featuring a wheel which, when rotated, displayed various images through cut outs in the main jacket sleeve.
The album's opening track, "Immigrant Song", was released in November 1970 by Atlantic Records as a single against the band's wishes (Atlantic had earlier released an edited version of "Whole Lotta Love" which cut the 5:34 song to 3:10, removing the abstract middle section). It included their only non-album b-side, "Hey Hey What Can I Do". Even though the band saw their albums as indivisible, whole listening experiences — and their manager, Peter Grant, maintained an aggressive pro-album stance — some singles were released without their consent. The group also increasingly resisted television appearances, enforcing their preference that their fans hear and see them live in person.
"The biggest band in the world" (1971–1975)
The success of Zeppelin's early years would be dwarfed by this five year period in which the band would release their best selling albums and ascend to musical success in the 1970s. The band's image also changed as members began to wear elaborate, colourful clothing and jewellery similar to other popular performers of the era. If the band's popularity on stage was impressive, so too was its reputation for off-stage wildness and excess. Led Zeppelin began travelling in a private jet airliner (nicknamed The Starship[31]), rented out entire sections of hotels (most notably the Continental Hyatt House in Los Angeles, known colloquially as the "Riot House"), and became the subject of many of rock's most famous stories of debauchery. One escapade involved John Bonham throwing televisions out of the windows of the Riot House during a drunken rampage and then blaming the damage on Led Zeppelin groupies. Another example of Led Zeppelin excess was the infamous shark episode, or red snapper incident, which took place at the Edgewater Inn in Seattle, Washington, on July 28, 1969.
The fourth album
The four symbols on Led Zeppelin IV's cover, representing Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones, John Bonham, and Robert Plant respectively.
The symbols have origins in mysticismMain Article: Led Zeppelin IV
Led Zeppelin's fourth album was released on November 8, 1971. There was no indication of a title nor band name on the original cover, but on the LP label four symbols were printed - . The reason for this was the band's disdain for the media which labelled them as hyped, so they put out the album with no indication of who they were to prove that the music could sell itself. The album is variously referred to as Four Symbols and The Fourth Album (both titles were used in the Atlantic Records catalogue), and also IV, Untitled, Zoso, Runes, Sticks, Man With Sticks, and Four. It is still officially untitled, and most commonly referred to as Led Zeppelin IV. In an interview with Rolling Stone magazine in 2005, Plant said that it is simply called The Fourth Album.
further refined the band's unique formula of combining earthy, acoustic elements with heavy metal and blues emphases. The album included examples of hard rock, such as "Black Dog" and an acoustic track, "Going to California" (a tribute to Joni Mitchell).
"Rock and Roll" is a tribute to the early rock music of the 1950s. Recently (as of 2006), the song has been used prominently in Cadillac automobile commercials--one of the few instances of Led Zeppelin's surviving members licensing songs.
The album also featured "Stairway to Heaven" which became a massive album-oriented rock FM radio hit despite never being released as a single. Stairway has been controversial due to unsubstantiated but repeated claims of "satanic" back masked messages. In 2005, the magazine Guitar World held a poll of readers in which "Stairway to Heaven" was voted as having the greatest guitar solo of all time.
As of July 31, 2006, has sold 23 million copies in the US, making it one of the top four best selling albums in the history of the US music industry. Worldwide, it ranks at number eleven in album sales.
Houses of the Holy
Led Zeppelin's next album, Houses of the Holy, was released in 1973. It featured further experimentation, with longer tracks and expanded use of synthesisers and mellotron orchestration. The song "Houses of the Holy" does not appear on its namesake album, even though it was recorded at the same time as other songs on the album; it eventually made its way onto the 1975 album Physical Graffiti.
The striking orange album cover of "Houses of the Holy" features images of nude children climbing up the Giant's Causeway (in County Antrim, Northern Ireland) to an unseen idol. Although the children are not depicted from the front, this was highly controversial at the time of the album's release, and in some areas, such as Spain, the record was banned
The album topped the charts, and Led Zeppelin's subsequent Houses of the Holy concert tour of the United States in 1973 broke records for attendance, as they consistently filled large auditoriums and stadiums. At Tampa Stadium, Florida, they played to 56,800 fans (breaking the record set by The Beatles at Shea Stadium in 1965), and grossed $309,000. Three sold-out shows at Madison Square Garden in New York were filmed for a motion picture, but the theatrical release of this project (The Song Remains the Same) would be delayed until 1976.
In 1974 Led Zeppelin took a break from touring and launched their own record label, Swan Song, named after one of only five Led Zeppelin songs which the band never released commercially (Page later re-worked the song with his band, The Firm, and it appears as "Midnight Moonlight" on their first album). The record label's logo, based on a drawing called Evening: Fall of Day (1869) by William Rimmer, features a picture of Apollo (although it is often misinterpreted as a picture of Icarus, Daedelus, Satan, or Lucifer). The logo can be found on much Led Zeppelin memorabilia, especially t-shirts. In addition to using Swan Song as a vehicle to promote their own albums, the band expanded the label's roster, signing artists such as Bad Company, Pretty Things, Maggie Bell, Detective, Dave Edmunds, Midnight Flyer, Sad Café and Wildlife.[40] The label would be successful while Led Zeppelin existed, but folded less than three years after they disbanded.
Physical Graffiti
February 24, 1975 saw the release of Led Zeppelin's first double album, Physical Graffiti, which was the first release on the Swan Song Records label. It consisted of fifteen songs, eight of which were recorded at Headley Grange in 1974, and the remainder being tracks recorded years previously but not released on earlier albums.
A review in Rolling Stone magazine referred to Physical Graffiti as Led Zeppelin's "bid for artistic respectability," adding that the only competition the band had for the title of 'World's Best Rock Band' were The Rolling Stones and The Who. The album was a massive fiscal and critical success. Shortly after the release of Physical Graffiti, all previous Led Zeppelin albums simultaneously re-entered the top-200 album chart, and the band embarked on another U.S. tour, again playing to record-breaking crowds. In May 1975, Led Zeppelin played five highly successful, sold-out nights at the Earls Court Exhibition Centre in London, footage of which was released in 2003, on the Led Zeppelin DVD. This series of concerts could be considered as some of the best of the band's career.
The latter days (1976-1980)
By 1976, Led Zeppelin were becoming increasingly popular, having outsold most bands of the time, including the Rolling Stones. Their live shows would increase even further in theatricality, featuring larger stage areas and complex lights shows. While there were still massive musical and commercial successes for the band during this period, problems such as the 1977 death of Robert Plant's son, Jimmy Page's heroin use,changing musical tastes, and ultimately John Bonham's 1980 death would finally bring an end to Led Zeppelin.
Presence
Following their triumphant Earls Court appearances, Led Zeppelin took an unplanned break from touring. In August 1975, Robert Plant and his wife Maureen were involved in a serious car crash while on holiday in Rhodes, Greece. Robert suffered a broken ankle and Maureen was very badly injured; a blood transfusion saved her life.Unable to tour, Plant headed to the channel island of Jersey to spend August and September recuperating, with Bonham and Page in tow. The band then reconvened in Malibu, California. It was during this forced hiatus that much of the material for their next album, Presence, was written.
Released in March 1976, the album marked a change in the Led Zeppelin sound towards more straightforward, guitar-based jams, departing from the acoustic ballads and intricate arrangements featured on their previous albums. Though it was a platinum seller, Presence received mixed responses from critics and fans. While many appreciated the looser style, others dismissed it as "sloppy", and some critics speculated that the band members' legendary excesses might have finally caught up with them, resulting in a sub-standard album release.The recording of Presence coincided with the beginning of Page's heroin use, which may have interfered with Led Zeppelin's later live shows and studio recordings, although Page has denied this.
Despite the original criticisms, Jimmy Page has called Presence his favourite album, and its opening track "Achilles Last Stand" his favourite Led Zeppelin song. Robert Plant has also stated that he thinks Presence is the album that probably sounds the most "Led Zeppelin" of all their LPs.
The concert film (The Song Remains The Same)
Poster for Led Zeppelin's twin concerts at Oakland, July 1977Robert Plant's injuries prevented Led Zeppelin from touring in 1976. Instead, the band finally completed the concert film The Song Remains The Same, and the soundtrack album of the film. It would be the only official live document of the group available until the release of the BBC Sessions in 1997. The recording had taken place during three nights of concerts at Madison Square Garden in July 1973, during the Houses of the Holy concert tour. The film premiered in New York on October 20, 1976, but was not well received by critics or fans. The film was particularly unsuccessful in the UK, where, after eight years of recording and touring, and in the wake of the punk rock revolution, Led Zeppelin were now considered to be obsolete in some quarters.
In 1977, Led Zeppelin embarked on another massive U.S. concert tour. Though profitable financially, the tour was beset with off-stage problems. On June 3, after a concert at Tampa Stadium was cut short because of a severe thunderstorm, a riot broke out amongst the audience, resulting in several arrests and injuries. Police ultimately resorted to tear gas to break up the crowd.
After a July 23 show at the "Days on the Green" festival at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum in Oakland, California, John Bonham and members of the band's support staff (including manager Peter Grant and security co-ordinator John Bindon) were arrested after a member of promoter Bill Graham's staff was badly beaten during the performance. A member of the staff had allegedly slapped Grant's son when he was taking down a dressing room sign; when Grant heard about this, he went into the trailer, along with Bindon and John Bonham, and savagely assaulted the man.
The following day's second Oakland concert would prove be the band's final live appearance in the United States. After the performance, news came that Plant's five year old son, Karac, had died from a stomach virus. The rest of the tour was immediately cancelled.
In Through the Out Door
December 1978 saw the group recording again, this time at Polar Studios in Stockholm, Sweden. The resultant album was In Through the Out Door, which exhibited a degree of sonic experimentation that again drew mixed reactions from critics. Nevertheless, the band still commanded legions of loyal fans, and the album easily reached #1 in the UK and the US (in just its second week on the Billboard album chart).
In August 1979, after two warm-up shows in Copenhagen, Led Zeppelin headlined two concerts at the Knebworth music festival, where crowds of close to 120,000 witnessed the return of the band. However, Robert Plant was not eager to tour full-time again, and even considered leaving Led Zeppelin. He was persuaded to stay by Peter Grant. A brief, low-key European tour was undertaken in June and July 1980, featuring a stripped-down set without the usual lengthy jams and solos. At one show on June 27, in Nuremberg, Germany, the concert came to an abrupt end in the middle of the third song when John Bonham collapsed on stage and was rushed to a hospital. Press speculation arose that Bonham's problem was caused by an excess of alcohol and drugs, but the band claimed that he had simply overeaten, and they completed the European tour on July 7, at Berlin.
"A tragic end"
On September 24, 1980, John Bonham was picked up by Led Zeppelin assistant Rex King to attend rehearsals at Bray Studios for the upcoming tour of the United States, the band's first since 1977. During the journey Bonham had asked to stop for breakfast, where he downed four quadruple vodkas (roughly sixteen shots (2/3 pint(~8dl) of vodka), with a ham roll. After taking a bite of the ham roll he said to his assistant, "Breakfast." He continued to drink heavily when he arrived at the studio. A halt was called to the rehearsals late in the evening and the band retired to Page's house — The Old Mill House in Clewer, Windsor. After midnight, Bonham had fallen asleep and was taken to bed and placed on his side. Benji LeFevre (who had replaced Richard Cole as Led Zeppelin's tour manager) and John Paul Jones found him dead the next morning. Bonham was 32 years old.
The cause of death was asphyxiation from vomit. A subsequent autopsy found no other drugs in Bonham's body. The alcoholism that had plagued the drummer since his earliest days with the band ultimately led to his death. John Bonham was cremated on October 10, 1980, at Rushock, Worcestershire parish church.
Despite rumours that Cozy Powell, Carmine Appice, Barriemore Barlow, Simon Kirke, or Bev Bevan would join the group as his replacement, the remaining members decided to disband Led Zeppelin after Bonham's death. They issued a press statement on December 4, 1980 confirming that the band would not continue without Bonham. "We wish it to be known that the loss of our dear friend and the deep sense of undivided harmony felt by ourselves and our manager, have led us to decide that we could not continue as we were."
Post Led Zeppelin (1980-present)
1980s
In 1982, the surviving members of the group released a collection of out-takes from various sessions during Led Zeppelin's career, entitled Coda. It included two tracks taken from the band's performance at the Royal Albert Hall in 1970, one each from the Led Zeppelin III and Houses of the Holy sessions, and three from the In Through the Out Door sessions. It also featured a 1976 John Bonham drum instrumental with electronic effects added by Jimmy Page, called "Bonzo's Montreux".
On July 13, 1985 Page, Plant and John Paul Jones reunited at the Live Aid concert at JFK Stadium, Philadelphia, for a short set featuring drummers Tony Thompson and Phil Collins. Collins had played on Plant's first two solo albums. When Live Aid footage was released on a four-DVD set in late 2004, the group unanimously agreed not to allow footage from their performance to be used, agreeing that it was not up to their usual standards.but to show their ongoing support Page and Plant pledged proceeds from their forthcoming Page and Plant DVD release to the campaign and John Paul Jones pledged the proceeds of his current US tour with Mutual Admiration Society to the project.
The three members reunited again in May of 1988, for Atlantic Records' 40th Anniversary concert, with Bonham's son, Jason Bonham, on drums.
1990s
Page and Plant reunited in 1994 for an MTV Unplugged performance (dubbed Unledded) which eventually led to a world tour with a Middle Eastern orchestra, and a live album entitled No Quarter. The bass player was Charlie Jones, who had been the bassist with Plant's own band for several years. Many see this as the beginning of discord with John Paul Jones, who was upset with Page and Plant for touring without asking him first. Tensions were further increased when Plant was asked at a press conference where Jones was, and he jokingly replied that Jones was parking the car.
On January 12, 1995, Led Zeppelin was inducted into the United States Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. They were inducted by Aerosmith's vocalist, Steven Tyler and guitarist Joe Perry. At the induction ceremony, the band's inner rift became apparent when Jones joked upon accepting his award, "Thank you, my friends, for finally remembering my phone number," causing consternation and awkward looks from Page and Plant.
On August 29, 1997, Atlantic released a single edit of "Whole Lotta Love" in the US and the UK, making it the only Led Zeppelin CD single. Additional tracks on this CD-single are "Baby Come on Home" and "Travelling Riverside Blues". It is the only single the band ever released in the UK. It peaked at #21.
November 11, 1997 saw the release of Led Zeppelin BBC Sessions, the first Led Zeppelin album in fifteen years. The two-disc set included almost all of the band's recordings for the BBC.
2000s
In October 2002, the British press reported that Robert Plant and John Paul Jones had reconciled after a 20-year feud which had kept Led Zeppelin apart, and rumours surfaced of a reunion tour in 2003. This was later denied by Plant and Page's management company.
2003 saw the release of a triple live album, How the West Was Won, and a video collection, Led Zeppelin DVD, both featuring material from the band's heyday. At the year's end, the DVD had sold more than 520,000 copies. Around Christmas 2004, "Stairway To Heaven" was voted the best rock song of all time by Planet Rock listeners in a poll conducted on the station's website. Two other Led Zeppelin songs were also featured in the top ten - "Whole Lotta Love" at number six and "Rock and Roll" at number eight.
In 2005, Led Zeppelin received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, and readers of Guitar World magazine voted the guitar solo from "Stairway to Heaven" to be the best rock guitar solo of all time.Led Zeppelin ranked #14 on Rolling Stone's 2004 list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. In November 2005, it was announced that Led Zeppelin and Russian conductor Valery Gergiev were the winners of the 2006 Polar Music Prize. The King of Sweden presented the prize to Plant, Page and Jones, along with John Bonham's daughter, in Stockholm in May, 2006.
In November 2006, Led Zeppelin were inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame. The television broadcasting of the event consisted of an introduction to the band by various famous admirers, a presentation of an award to Jimmy Page and then a short speech by the guitarist. After this, rock group Wolfmother played a tribute to Led Zeppelin, playing the song "Communication Breakdown".
Led Zeppelin have always been very protective of its catalogue of songs, and have seldom allowed them to be licensed for films or commercials. In recent years, this position has softened, and their songs can be heard in movies such as School of Rock, Shrek the Third ("Immigrant Song" in both), Dogtown and Z-Boys ("Achilles Last Stand" and "Hots on for Nowhere") and Almost Famous ("That's the Way"). One Tree Hill was the first, and so far only network television show to license a Led Zeppelin song, using "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You". However, Led Zeppelin remain one of the few major bands to not allow the legal sale of their music on online music stores.
In April 2007 Hard Rock Park announced it had secured an agreement with the band to create "Led Zeppelin-The Ride" - A roller coaster built by B&M synchronized to the music of Led Zeppelin's Whole Lotta Love. The coaster will stand 155 feet tall, feature six inversions, and spiral over a lagoon. It will be found in the "Rock and Roll Heaven" section of Hard Rock Park. As of July 21, 2007, the first drop and the first inversion are complete. The park is aiming to complete construction of the ride in September and conduct test runs in December. The park opens in May 2008 in Myrtle Beach, SC.
On June 25, 2007, World Entertainment News reported that Led Zeppelin had allegedly agreed to re-form for a special memorial concert in honor of Ahmet Ertegun, the founder of Atlantic Records who died in December 2006. It was also reported that if the concert went well, the band would go on tour in 2008. The same report suggested that the three surviving members would be joined on drums by John Bonham's son, Jason. However on June 28, Robert Plant made it clear at a press conference that the reunion discussions were false, and once again, the hopes of a Zeppelin reunion were shot down.
On July 27, 2007, Atlantic/Rhino, & Warner Home Video announced three new Led Zeppelin titles to be released in November, 2007. Released first will be Mothership on November 13, a 24-track best-of spanning the bands career, followed by a reissue of the soundtrack to The Song Remains the Same on November 20 which includes previously unreleased material, and a new DVD
PLANT
Solo career
After the breakup of Led Zeppelin in 1980, Plant pursued a successful solo career beginning with his first solo album, Pictures at Eleven in 1982, followed by 1983's The Principle of Moments. Popular tracks from this period include "Big Log" (a Top 20 hit in 1983), "In the Mood (1984), "Little by Little" (1985), "Tall Cool One" (a #25 hit in 1988) and "I Believe" (1993), another song written for and dedicated to his late son, Karac. In 1984, Plant formed a short-lived all-star group with Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck called The Honeydrippers, who had a #3 hit with a remake of the Phil Phillips' tune, "Sea of Love", along with a lesser hit with "Rockin' at Midnight." Plant avoided performing Led Zeppelin songs through much of this period.
On rare occasions, Plant performed with both surviving members of Led Zeppelin: In 1985 for Live Aid (with Phil Collins and Tony Thompson on drums), 1988 for Atlantic Records 40th anniversary, and in 1995 when the band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the last two with Bonham's son Jason filling in on drums. Additionally, Plant, Jones, and Page attended—and later performed at Jason's wedding in 1990.
Through the 1980s and 1990s, Plant co-wrote three solo albums with keyboardist/songwriter Phil Johnstone. Now and Zen, Manic Nirvana, and Fate of Nations. It was Johnstone who talked Plant into playing Zeppelin songs in his live shows, something Plant had resisted, not wanting to be forever known as "the former Led Zeppelin vocalist." Plant first collaborated with Jimmy Page post-Zeppelin in the studio on the 1988 Page solo effort, Outrider. He later collaborated with Page on the 1998 album, Walking into Clarksdale, which features all original material from the pair. Starting at the close of 1999, Plant performed at several small venues with his folk-rock band, named Priory of Brion.
In 2002, with his then newly-formed band Strange Sensation, Plant released a widely acclaimed collection of mostly blues and folk remakes, Dreamland. Contrasting with this lush collection of often relatively obscure remakes, the second album with Strange Sensation Mighty ReArranger (2005), contains new, original songs. Both have received some of the most favorable reviews of Plant's solo career and four Grammy nominations, two in 2003 and two in 2006.
As a former member of Led Zeppelin, along with Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones, Plant received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2005 and the Polar Music Prize in 2006. Plant still actively tours, the most recent taking place in US and Europe during 2005/2006 with Strange Sensation. His sets typically include recent, but not only, solo material and plenty of Led Zeppelin favorites, often with new and expanded arrangements. A DVD titled Soundstage: Robert Plant and the Strange Sensation, featuring his Soundstage performance (filmed at the Soundstage Studios in Chicago on September 16, 2005), was released in October 2006. An expansive box set of his solo work, Nine Lives, was released in November 2006. It was reported on Billboard's Website that Robert is contributing a track to the Fats Domino tribute album entitled "It Keeps Rainin'". The performers list indicates that he will cover the song with the "Lil' Band o' Gold".
Recently, Plant has been recording music with bluegrass star Alison Krauss. The album, Raising Sand, will be released on October 23, 2007 on Rounder Records, the label announced on August 5, 2007. The album that has been recorded in Nashville and Los Angeles includes the two songwriters doing lesser-known material from R&B, blues, folk, and country songwriters including Mel Tillis, Townes Van Zandt, Gene Clark, Tom Waits, Doc Waltson, Little Milton Campbell, and the Everly Brothers.
Pictures at Eleven (1982), UK #2 US #5
The Principle of Moments (1983), UK #7 US #8
The Honeydrippers: Volume One (1984), with Jimmy Page US #3
Shaken 'n' Stirred (1985), US #20 UK #19
Now and Zen (1988), US #6 UK #10
Manic Nirvana (1990), US #13 UK#15
Fate of Nations (1993), US #34 UK #6
No Quarter: Jimmy Page and Robert Plant Unledded (1994), as Page and PlantUK #7
Walking into Clarksdale (1998), as Page and PlantUK #3 US #8
Dreamland (2002), US #40
Sixty Six to Timbuktu (2003) Best Of, US #134
Mighty ReArranger (2005), with Strange Sensation, US #22 UK #4
Nine Lives (2006), a box set of his previous albums, with unreleased tracks and B-sides.
Soundstage: Robert Plant and the Strange Sensation (2006), DVD Watch the trailer
JIMMY PAGE
Led Zeppelin disbanded in 1980 following the death of drummer John Bonham at Page's home, The Old Mill House at Clewer in Berkshire. Page made a successful return to the stage with the A.R.M.S. (Action Research for Multiple Sclerosis) charity series of concerts in 1983 which honoured Small Faces bass player Ronnie Lane, who suffered from the disease. A 1984 video of a London A.R.M.S. concert was released featuring two songs from Page's work on the Death Wish II soundtrack, featuring Steve Winwood on vocals, and an onstage jam of "Layla" reunited Page with Yardbirds guitarists Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton. During the tour Page looked extremely thin and frail. According to the book Hammer of the Gods, Page reportedly told friends that he'd just given up heroin after seven years of use.
Page next linked up with Roy Harper for an album (Whatever Happened to Jugula?) and occasional concerts, performing a predominantly acoustic set at folk festivals under various guises such as the MacGregors, and Themselves. In 1984, Page recorded with former Zeppelin vocalist, Robert Plant as The Honeydrippers. He also teamed up with Paul Rodgers of Bad Company and Free fame to record two albums under the name The Firm. The first album was the self-titled The Firm, followed by Mean Business in 1986. Popular songs included the commercially successful "Radioactive", and "Closer", which employs a horn section to subtle effect. The cover version of "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling" featured vocals by Paul Rodgers but was never released as a single. The album peaked at #17 on the Billboard's Pop Albums chart. Various other projects soon followed such as session work for Graham Nash, Box of Frogs, the Rolling Stones (on their 1986 single "One Hit (to the Body)"), and Robert Plant, a solo album Outrider, a collaboration with David Coverdale in Coverdale-Page. In addition, he also collaborated with director Michael Winner to record the Death Wish II and subsequent Death Wish 3 soundtrack, released in 1982 and 1985 respectively.
The surviving members of Led Zeppelin re-formed in 1985 for the Live Aid concert with both Phil Collins and Tony Thompson filling drum duties. However, the band considered their performance to be sub-standard, and were one of the few Live Aid acts to refuse permission for their segment to be included in the 20th anniversary DVD release of the concert. In 1986, Page reunited temporarily with his Yardbirds bandmates to play on several tracks of the Box of Frogs album Strange Land. The band also re-formed for the Atlantic Records 40th Anniversary show on 14 May, 1988. Page, Plant and Jones, as well as John Bonham's son Jason Bonham closed the 12-hour show. The band have also played together at various private family functions.
In 1990, a Knebworth concert to aid the Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy Centre and the British School for Performing Arts and Technolog saw Plant unexpectedly joined by Page to perform "Misty Mountain Hop", "Wearing and Tearing" and "Rock and Roll".
In 1994, Page reunited with Plant for the penultimate performance in MTV's "Unplugged" series. The 90-minute special, dubbed Unledded, premiered to the highest ratings in MTV's history. In October of the same year, the session was released as the CD No Quarter: Jimmy Page and Robert Plant Unledded, and in 2004 as the DVD No Quarter Unledded. Following a highly successful mid-90s tour to support No Quarter, Page and Plant recorded 1998's Walking into Clarksdale.
Since 1990, Page has been heavily involved in remastering the entire Led Zeppelin back catalogue and is currently participating in various charity concerts and charity work, particularly the Action for Brazil's Children Trust (ABC Trust), founded by his wife Jimena Gomez-Paratcha in 1998. In the same year, Page played guitar for rap singer/producer Puff Daddy's song "Come with Me," which heavily samples Led Zeppelin's "Kashmir" and was included in the soundtrack of Godzilla. The two later performed the song on Saturday Night Live. A live album and tour with The Black Crowes follow in 1999. In 2001 he made an appearance on stage with Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst and Wes Scantlin of Puddle of Mudd at the MTV Europe Video Music Awards in Frankfurt, where they performed a version of Led Zeppelin's "Thank You".
In 2005, Page was awarded the Order of the British Empire in recognition of his Brazilian charity work, made an honorary citizen of Rio de Janeiro later that year, and was awarded a Grammy award.
In November 2006, Led Zeppelin were inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame. The television broadcasting of the event consisted of an introduction to the band by various famous admirers, a presentation of an award to Jimmy Page and then a short speech by the guitarist. After this, rock group Wolfmother played a tribute to Led Zeppelin, playing the song "Communication Breakdown".
On 6 January 2007, Page was featured at #19 on Channel 4's The Ultimate Hellraiser, a countdown of music's top 25 who "lived the rock 'n' roll lifestyle". The show's reason for featuring Page was almost exclusively attributed to the groupies who toured with Led Zeppelin. In addition, many of John Bonham's antics (for example driving a motorcycle down a hotel corridor) were blamed on Page.
In 2006, Page attended the induction of Led Zeppelin to the UK Music Hall of Fame. During an interview for the BBC for said event, he expressed plans to record new material in 2007, saying "It's an album that I really need to get out of my system... there's a good album in there and it's ready to come out" and "Also there will be some Zeppelin things on the horizon"
Personal life
In 1972 Page bought, from Richard Harris, the home which William Burges designed for himself in London, The Tower House. "I had an interest going back to my teens in the pre-Raphaelite movement and the architecture of Burges," he said. "What a wonderful world to discover." The reputation of William Burges (1827-1881) rests on his extravagant designs and his contribution to the Gothic revival in architecture in the nineteenth century.[16]
From the mid 1970s to 2004 Jimmy owned 'The Mill House', Mill Lane, Windsor, UK - formerly the home of actor Michael Caine. Fellow Led Zeppelin band member John Bonham died at the house in 1980.
Page is a fan of Chelsea FC.
Page's daughter, Scarlet Page, is a respected photographer. Her mother, Charlotte Martin, is an ex-girlfriend of Eric Clapton.
Drug use
Page's drug use during his time with Led Zeppelin has been well documented. Page himself has admitted to heavy use of drugs throughout the 1970s. In an interview he gave to Guitar World magazine in 2003, he stated that:
" I can't speak for the [other members of the band], but for me drugs were an integral part of the whole thing, right from the beginning, right to the end. "
In 1973 Led Zeppelin's main choice of drug was cocaine,with Page, drummer John Bonham along with manager Peter Grant and tour manager Richard Cole, becoming regular users. After the band's concert tour of the United States in that year, Page told Nick Kent:
" Oh, everyone went over the top a few times. I know I did and, to be honest with you, I don't really remember much of what happened."
In 1976, Page began to use heroin, a fact attributed to Richard Cole, who stated that Page (as well as himself) was taking the drug during the recording sessions of the album Presence in that year, and that Page admitted to him shortly afterwards that he was addicted to the drug.He took up heavy smoking in the same year in attempts to curb cravings for his developing drug addiction.[citation needed]
By 1977, Page's heroin addiction was beginning to hamper his guitar playing performances as exhibited on a number of Led Zeppelin bootleg recordings from their 1977 tour of the United States.[citation needed] By this time the guitarist had lost a noticeable amount of weight. His onstage appearance was not the only noticable change, his addiction caused Page to become so inward and isolated it altered the dynamic between him and Plant considerably. During the recording sessions for In Through The Out Door in 1978, Page's diminished influence on the album (relative to bassist John Paul Jones) is partly attributed to his ongoing heroin addiction, which resulted in his absence from the studio for large periods of time.
Page reportedly kicked his heroin habit in the early 1980s. In a 1988 interview with Musician magazine, Page took offence when the interviewer noted that heroin had been associated with his name, and insisted that "I'm not an addict, thank you very much."
Guitar Boogie Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton blues album (1971)
Special Early Works (1972), 1965 session recordings with Sonny Boy Williamson
Death Wish II Soundtrack (1982), US #50
The Honeydrippers: Volume One (1984), with Robert Plant
No Introduction Necessary (1984), 1968 session recordings feat. John Paul Jones and Albert Lee
Whatever Happened to Jugula? (1985), with Roy Harper
The Firm (1985)
Mean Business (1986)
Strange Land (1986), with Box of Frogs
Lucifer Rising (1987)
Outrider (1988), US #26
Coverdale-Page (1993)
No Quarter: Jimmy Page and Robert Plant Unledded (1994)
Walking into Clarksdale (1998), with Robert Plant
Jimmy Page and The Black Crowes - Live at the Greek (2000), US #64
Last Man Standing (2006) - Jimmy Page guests on the first track, 'Rock and Roll' of this album by Jerry Lee Lewis.
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