Led Zeppelin

Led Zeppelin were an English rock band that formed in 1968 and consisted of guitarist Jimmy Page, singer Robert Plant, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham. With their heavy, guitar-driven blues rock sound, Led Zeppelin are regularly cited as one of the progenitors of heavy metal and hard rock, even though the band's individualistic style drew from many sources and transcends any one music genre. 

Led Zeppelin were one of the most commercially successful and influential groups of the 1970s. The band's popularity in the early years was dwarfed by their mid-70s successes and it is this period that continues to define them. The band officially declared they were changing their name to Led Zeppelin on 14 October 1968, and played their first show under the new name at the University of Surrey in Guildford on 25 October. In their first year, Led Zeppelin managed to complete four US and four UK concert tours, and also released 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 and reached the number one chart position in the US and the UK. 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 heavy metal bands that followed it. 

For the composition of their third album, Led Zeppelin III, Page and Plant retired to Bron-Yr-Aur, a remote cottage in Wales, in 1970. The result was a more acoustic sound that was strongly influenced by folk and Celtic music, and revealed the band's versatility. The album's rich acoustic sound initially received mixed reactions, with many critics and fans surprised at the turn taken away from the primarily electric compositions of the first two albums. 

The fourth album by the English rock band Led Zeppelin was released on 8 November 1971. No title is printed on the album, so it is generally referred to as Led Zeppelin IV, following the naming standard used by the band's first three studio albums. The album has alternatively been referred to as , Four Symbols, The Fourth Album (those two titles each having been used in the Atlantic catalogue), Untitled, The Runes, The Hermit, and ZoSo.  Zoso is also the moniker for Jimmy Page.  After this album followed  five other albums,  Houses of the Holy (1973),  Physical Graffiti (1975),  Presence (1976), In Through the Out Door (1979) and Coda (1982). 

Led Zeppelin disbanded following Bonham's death in 1980, but continue to be held in high regard for their artistic achievements, commercial success, and broad influence. The band is widely considered to be one of the most successful, innovative and influential bands in the history of rock music.

Read more...