Led Zeppelin

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin logo.svg

Led Zeppelin in 1975 in Chicago
Led Zeppelin in 1975 in Chicago
General information
Genre (s) Hard rock , blues rock
founding 1968
resolution 1980
(Reunions: 1985, 1988, 1995, 2007)
Website www.ledzeppelin.com
Last occupation
Robert Plant
Jimmy Page
John Paul Jones
John Bonham († September 25, 1980)

Led Zeppelin [ ˌlɛdˈzɛplɪn ] ( listen to ? / I ) was a British rock band . Founded in 1968, it is one of the most successful bands ever with 300 million albums sold . The death of drummer John Bonham in September 1980 marked the end of the band, which was continuously active in the same line-up with singer Robert Plant , guitarist Jimmy Page and bassist John Paul Jones . Musically Led Zeppelin was one of the pioneers of hard rock , blues rock and progressive rockAudio file / audio sample as well as the burgeoning heavy metal , but also processed influences from folk music .

history

Prehistory and foundation

The beginnings can be traced back to the British band The Yardbirds . Jimmy Page played there from 1966 on, first electric bass, then electric guitar. After Jeff Beck and later Keith Relf and Jim McCarty had left the group, Page and the remaining bassist Chris Dreja built a new band.

Originally, Page had planned to sign Procol Harum's drummers BJ Wilson and Terry Reid , but they both turned him down. The latter recommended Robert Plant , who had previously been the singer in the band Hobbstweedle . He suggested John Bonham as drummer, who had already played with him in the Band of Joy . When Dreja left the band, John Paul Jones was engaged . So the new line-up was complete. Although Page was the only former Yardbirds member, the band initially appeared in September 1968 under the name The New Yardbirds , as existing Yardbirds contracts had to be fulfilled, and only later changed the name after a mini-tour in Scandinavia.

Keith Moon , the drummer of The Who , is said to have had a major influence on the naming . In 1966, when recording the Jeff Beck -B-side Beck's Bolero (on which Page and John Paul Jones collaborated), he is said to have said that a band around Page would "crash like a leaden airship" ("The band will go over like a lead zeppelin "). This name was finally adopted by the band in October 1968. Since the word lead in English denotes both the verb to lead [ liːd ] ("to lead") and the noun lead [ lɛd ] ("lead"), at the suggestion of the producer Peter Grant, the a , to prevent “thick Americans” from pronouncing it as “leed” [ liːd ].

First album: Led Zeppelin

Photograph of the burning Hindenburg used as the cover by Led Zeppelin for their first album

During the first US tour in the winter months of 1968/69 Led Zeppelin initially acted as opening act for Vanilla Fudge , Iron Butterfly , Alice Cooper and Country Joe and the Fish .

Around the same time, the band signed a contract with Atlantic Records and recorded their debut album Led Zeppelin in just 30 hours in the studio , which was released on January 12, 1969. Various musical genres were already combined on the debut album: Influences from the blues are clearly audible, while Good Times Bad Times and Communication Breakdown have a much harder sound. On the other hand, elements of folk are unmistakable in the pieces Black Mountain Side and Babe I'm Gonna Leave You . The reviews were mixed at first, but only in retrospect did the album receive mostly positive reviews from the music press. Today it is referred to as "the turning point in the development of hard rock and heavy metal ". The album reached number six in the UK charts and marked the beginning of Led Zeppelin's career. The cost of recording was only £ 1,800, but the album grossed around £ 3.5 million.

In April 1969 they set off again for North America. The debut album was now very popular with American radio stations, which resulted in a considerable increase in popularity and increasing sales figures, so that the album could reach position 10 on the Billboard charts.

The manager Peter Grant is considered to be a significant factor in the development of the band's success . He had already looked after the Yardbirds since 1966 and also negotiated contracts for Led Zeppelin, which contributed to the commercial success. He also pursued the strategy of concentrating on the US stages early on. Right from the start, it was possible to build on the popularity of Pages, which the audience remembered thanks to its Yardbirds commitment.

In Europe, however, the breakthrough was a little longer in coming. While the success set in in England after being able to attract attention through five live appearances on the BBC radio stations in March and June 1969, the reactions on the European mainland were initially very cautious. An example of this is Led Zeppelin's appearance on the ARD broadcast Beat Club : at the end of March 1969, the Radio Bremen studios recorded the songs Babe I'm Gonna Leave You and You Shook Me, among others . The Beat Club producers were unimpressed by the band's performances, so the recorded material was initially not broadcast. It was only when the song Whole Lotta Love became popular in Germany in the spring of 1970 that the recorded footage was used to produce a video clip. The clip was broadcast on March 28, 1970 within the Beat Club 53 and was backed with the studio version of Whole Lotta Love . The audio tracks from the original recording were not used.

After the sobering experiences with the Beat Club and two previous television appearances in Denmark and France that were unsuccessful from the band's point of view in March 1969, the band and management decided to stay away from the medium of television in the future. According to Jimmy Page, after the negative TV experiences, one came to the opinion that one did not fit into the “pop format” of the broadcasters and that they did not understand how to present a new kind of band like Led Zeppelin appropriately. As a result, the band focused almost exclusively on albums and live performances.

The way to success

The second album, simply named Led Zeppelin II , followed the same style as the debut. It includes Heartbreaker and Whole Lotta Love, which are characterized by memorable guitar riffs . An old group picture with the Red Baron was used for the cover . The album reached number one on the US charts, where it ousted the Beatles album Abbey Road . The Rolling Stone described Page because of his musical performance as an "absolute number-one heaviest white blues guitarist".

As part of a European tour, the band gave their first four concerts in Germany in the spring of 1970, starting with a performance in the Munich Circus Krone building on March 8th. The tour, like all subsequent appearances in Germany, was organized by the concert agency Lippmann & Rau .

The tracks for the third album Led Zeppelin III were written by Page and Plant in the Bron-Yr-Aur [ brɔn‿ər.aɪr ] ( golden hill ), a remote country house with no electricity in Wales . The result was a more acoustic sound that was heavily influenced by Celtic and folk music and revealed a new side of Jimmy Page's musical versatility, as can be heard in Gallows Pole and Tangerine . The opening track is the Immigrant Song , to which Robert Plant was inspired on the Iceland tour in the summer of 1970. The songs Bron-Yr-Aur (later published on Physical Graffiti ) and Bron-Yr-Aur Stomp (incorrectly titled Bron-Y-Aur Stomp on the album cover ) were named after the whereabouts . The album closes with Hats Off to (Roy) Harper , a tribute to British singer-songwriter Roy Harper . The album was released on October 5, 1970.

World fame

The buildings 96 and 98 St. Mark's Place, Manhattan, on the cover to Physical Graffiti to see

After successful tours through North America and Japan in the summer of 1971, Four symbolsthe band's fourth album, entitled only with four cryptic symbols ( ), was released in November . This sound carrier became known under the names Led Zeppelin IV or Four Symbols. With the opening track Black Dog , the band created a hard rock song that highlights both Plant's vocals and the musical skills of guitarist Page and drummer Bonham. Rock and Roll testifies to the stylistic origins of hard rock in rock 'n' roll of the 1950s and 1960s. Contrary to popular belief that the drum groove at the beginning is based on the title Good Golly Miss Molly , it is Little Richard's Keep-A-Knockin ' that served as a template. The showpiece of the record is the rock ballad Stairway to Heaven , which is probably the most famous song of the band. Well-known pieces are the folk rock song Going To California and the ballad The Battle of Evermore , which includes a vocal duet by Robert Plant and Sandy Denny ( Fairport Convention ). The record was mainly recorded in Headley Grange, a remote country house in Hampshire. The album not only received positive reviews, it also sold extremely well. In the USA alone, 23 million copies have been sold to date. This makes it one of the four best-selling albums there.

In 1972, three short tours followed, which allowed the band to appear again in the USA and Japan in addition to Australia and New Zealand. On this and a later tour through the USA, the musicians traveled in their own aircraft, a Boeing 720 . After two appearances in Montreux , Switzerland , a four-month tour through Great Britain began in November.

After a European tour in March 1973, Houses of the Holy was followed by their fifth album and a successful US tour. At the last three concerts on the tour in New York's Madison Square Garden , a large part of the film and sound recordings for the 1976 concert film The Song Remains the Same and the soundtrack of the same name were made . Work on the concert film continued in the fall.

In 1974 Led Zeppelin founded their own label, Swan Song Records , which is subordinate to Atlantic Records . In addition to the band, Bad Company , The Pretty Things and Maggie Bell also signed with the label. The image Evening, Fall of Day (1869) by William Rimmer , depicting Apollo or Icarus , was used to design the logo . This logo was printed on many fan articles.

The four musicians recorded their first double album, Physical Graffiti , in 1974. The album was released in the spring of 1975 and contains not only new but also earlier pieces that were left over from the sessions for the last three albums. One of the best-known and most popular songs on the album with the live audience is Kashmir, a piece in which the musicians processed oriental influences. According to the company, the fifth track Trampled Under Foot Plants is Led Zeppelin's favorite song.

Further tours

Robert Plant and Jimmy Page 1977

At the beginning of 1975 they undertook another US tour. After two years of stage abstinence in Great Britain, the band also gave five concerts in front of a total of 85,000 spectators at London's Earls Court Exhibition Center , recordings of which were later released on DVD.

In August of that year, shortly before the start of a planned stadium tour through the USA, Plant and his wife were involved in a car accident in Rhodes in which Plant broke his ankle. As it was impossible to go on tour, the band decided to start working on a new album. When recording her seventh studio album Presence in the Munich Musicland Studios , Plant was forced to sit in a wheelchair or an armchair.

In the late autumn of 1976, The Song Remains the Same and its soundtrack were finally released. Although the concert recordings were from 1973, the film remained the only document of Led Zeppelin's live performances for more than 20 years. The live recordings are interspersed with psychedelic film sequences and scenes from the backstage area.

Another extensive US tour followed in 1977, which was also sold out within a few days of its announcement. On this tour, the band played six sold-out concerts in a row in New York's Madison Square Garden in front of around 20,000 spectators. Shortly before the end of the tour - the band still had seven completely sold-out concerts ahead of them - Plant received the news that his five-year-old son Karac had died of a virus infection on July 26th. The tour was then canceled.

After this incident in the summer of 1977, the band did not get back together for test recordings until May 1978 in Wales, where work on a new album began. Was included in Through the Out Door , the eighth work of the band, in November in Stockholm's Polar studios. The release date was in August 1979, after two appearances in front of over 100,000 spectators each at the Knebworth Festival in Stevenage.

Already during the festival there was tension between Peter Grant and festival promoter Freddy Bannister regarding the actual size of the audience, which according to the contractual agreements was a factor in the calculation of the license fees due. The license was valid for 100,000 spectators. Due to strongly contradicting information from Bannister and the local authorities in Stevenage after the first day of the festival, Grant posted his own staff at the entrances before the second concert to determine the actual number of visitors. After the festival, Grant also commissioned an independent institute in Nassau to determine the audience numbers based on aerial photographs. Finally, Bannister's figures (104,000 viewers on August 4 and 40,000 on August 11) contrasted with Grant's figures (218,000 on August 4 and 187,000 on August 11). The dispute ended with Freddy Bannister's withdrawal from the promotion business and the bankruptcy of his company Tedoar Ltd.

Death of John Bonhams and dissolution of the band

John Bonham with Led Zeppelin (1975)

In 1980 Led Zeppelin undertook a European tour that led through 14 cities in German-speaking countries as well as Belgium and the Netherlands, including Dortmund, Cologne , Brussels, Rotterdam, Bremen and Hanover. During the performance on June 26, 1980 in the Wiener Stadthalle, Page was hit by a fireworks. The band then left the stage and only returned after the perpetrator, a student, was identified. The concert in the Nuremberg exhibition hall A on June 27, 1980 also had to be canceled prematurely after only three songs, because drummer Bonham collapsed while playing. Six more concerts followed in Zurich, Frankfurt, and twice in Mannheim, Munich and Berlin. The appearance in the Berlin ice rink on July 7th was supposed to be the last Led Zeppelin concert for 27 years.

On September 25th, John Bonham was found dead in his bed at Page's house in Windsor. He had choked on vomit in his sleep, which was commonly viewed as a result of excessive alcohol consumption. The remaining band members then decided to disband Led Zeppelin. In a press release on December 4, 1980, they made it clear that it was not possible for them to play without Bonham.

Projects 1980–1990

Codas cover

Due to contractual obligations to Atlantic Records , the band's own label Swan Song Records had to submit a studio album. Jimmy Page then put together the last Led Zeppelin album Coda from previously unpublished live and studio recordings from the period 1969 to 1978 . It was released in November 1982.

In 1981, Pages and Plants entered into a short-term collaboration with Chris Squire and Alan White from Yes under the name XYZ (Ex Yes Zeppelin), but this did not result in a long-term commitment. Some of the song ideas later appeared as bootlegs and on albums by The Firm and Yes .

In 1984, The Honeydrippers, Vol. 1 appeared, the only album by the band of the same name , which was founded in 1981 as a project by Robert Plant. His goal was to return to his pre-Led Zeppelin musical roots: blues , rock 'n' roll and R&B . In addition to Jimmy Page, members included Jeff Beck , Nile Rodgers ( Chic ), Robbie Blunt , Andy Sylvester ( Savoy Brown ) and others.

In 1985 the remaining Led Zeppelin band members appeared as "Plant, Page and Jones" with Phil Collins on drums at Live Aid . The gig was a disaster. John Paul Jones arrived so late that the band only had an hour to rehearse. In addition, Robert Plant had vocal problems due to overload. The band was so dissatisfied with the quality of their performance that they refused to give their consent to the release of the relevant footage as part of the 2004 official 4-DVD set Live Aid . Instead, they donated out of their own pocket for aid to Sudan.

Plant said in 1988:

“It was horrible. ... I was hoarse, I had three gigs just before Live Aid. We rehearsed in the afternoon and by the time I went on stage my voice was long gone. "

- Robert Plant

Phil Collins described the performance as a "disaster" in November 2014:

“Robert was happy to see me, but Jimmy wasn't. ... You could tell I wasn't welcome. If I could I would have left. ... It was a disaster, really. Robert was out of voice and Jimmy was completely out. It wasn't my fault, it was crap. "

- Phil Collins

In May 1988 they then appeared with John Bonham's son Jason Bonham on the 40th anniversary of their former record company Atlantic Records.

The 1990s

In the early 1990s, Jimmy Page went back to the studio and gradually remixed all of the old records digitally.

In the summer of 1994, Page and Plant got together for a television appearance on MTV Unplugged in London. Here, old Led Zeppelin pieces with Arab musicians and the London Metropolitan Orchestra were recorded in a new arrangement. The general response to the broadcast of the corresponding MTV show , entitled No Quarter - Unledded, was so positive that an official CD (Jimmy Page & Robert Plant - No Quarter) was released from the MTV recordings . In 2004 the DVD Jimmy Page & Robert Plant - No Quarter Unledded followed.

A further collaboration between the two ex-Led Zeppelin band members developed, in the course of which a successful year-long world tour with 115 concerts took place in 1995/1996. a. also in Munich's Olympic Stadium and on July 26, 1995 in London's Wembley Arena, where the band's former manager, Peter Grant, was in the audience. Peter Grant passed away the following November.

When she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame , also in 1995, Jason Bonham played drums again.

1997 they took together the studio album Walking Into Clarksdale ( Page & Plant ), which was not a sales success. In addition, the album was BBC Sessions released, the resulting in the BBC studios recordings and in 1969 the recording of a concert in London's Paris Theater contains from 1 April 1971 in which the very first recorded on tape live performance of Stairway To Heaven to hear is.

After another world tour in 1998 with 89 concerts, the collaboration was ended due to Robert Plant's request for a musical reorientation. In 1998 the song Kashmir was reissued with the help of Jimmy Page from Puff Daddy for the film Godzilla under the title Come With Me .

In 1999 and 2000, Page played several concerts with the American (blues) rock band The Black Crowes , the setlists of which consisted mainly of Led Zeppelin pieces. The double CD Live at the Greek , released in 2000, documents this collaboration.

After 2000

2001 Page and Plant stood together again on stage at the Montreux Jazz Festival . In 2003, the triple CD How the West Was Won, a documentation of the band's live performances , was finally released. It includes concert recordings in the LA Forum on June 25, 1972 and in the Long Beach Arena two days later.

In the same year, the Led Zeppelin DVD was a retrospective on two DVDs with 5½ hours of material, the concert recordings of performances at the Royal Albert Hall (1970), Madison Square Garden (1973), Earls Court (1975) and Knebworth ( 1979) contains. Interviews with the musicians are also shown.

Concert 2007

Led Zeppelin 2007: (from left) John Paul Jones, Robert Plant, Jimmy Page

In 2007 there were rumors of plans that Led Zeppelin could play a reunion tour with the old line-up. At a press conference on September 12, 2007 a one-time concert in London was announced. For the live comeback of the band on December 10, 2007 in the O₂-Arena in London in honor of the founder of the record company Atlantic Records, who died in 2006 and co-discoverer of Led Zeppelin, Ahmet Ertegün , more than 20 million had paid according to the organizer Registering people for tickets. The allocation of tickets was decided by lot. A total of around 20,000 tickets were issued, each costing £ 125 (approx. € 183). In addition to Plant, Page and Jones, John Bonham's son Jason Bonham was the drummer on stage. At the benefit concert for Ertegüns Foundation, besides Led Zeppelin, who entered a stage under this name for the first time since 1980, other musicians such as B. Paolo Nutini , Paul Rodgers , Foreigner, and Bill Wyman .

At a press conference in Tokyo for the presentation of the album Mothership in January 2008, Jimmy Page announced that he was ready to go on a world tour with Led Zeppelin. However, Robert Plant was not interested in a reunion. Since the band could not find a new suitable singer, there will be no more merger according to the band manager. Candidates for this were Steven Tyler , Chris Cornell and Myles Kennedy .

The concert, recorded in 2007, was shown on October 17, 2012 in sixteen German cinemas of the Cinemaxx chain under the title Led Zeppelin: Celebration Day and released a month later as a video and album. At the Grammy Awards in 2014 it was named the best rock album of the year.

Style and effect

Musical elements

In addition to rock 'n' roll , blues and folk music , which shaped the style of many rock bands, Led Zeppelin also used elements from many other genres. The atonal intermediate part from Whole Lotta Love is an example of psychedelic elements.

Jimmy Page and Robert Plant were musically influenced by the blues. This influence can be seen, for example, in the Led Zeppelin hit Whole Lotta Love (based on the piece You Need Love by Willie Dixon ) and The Lemon Song (based on the song Killing Floor by Howlin 'Wolf ). The band was also fond of American rock 'n' roll and played songs by Elvis Presley ( A Mess of Blues ) and Eddie Cochran ( Something Else , C'mon Everybody ). Other examples of pieces by other artists that Led Zeppelin reinterpreted are Babe I'm Gonna Leave You by Joan Baez , Black Mountain Side ( Bert Jansch , originally Blackwaterside), Dazed and Confused ( Jake Holmes ) and I Can't Quit You Baby ( Otis Rush ).

Jimmy Pages' guitar playing is particularly striking. Instead of the classic electric guitar in rock music, he used an acoustic guitar for many songs. He often used the DADGAD mood, which is almost only used in folk music. In other respects, too, his style was often experimental: in The Battle of Evermore he plays the mandolin , in Whole Lotta Love Theremin . His use of double neck guitars, usually a Gibson EDS-1275, is also known .

Most of the texts were written by Plant. They often contain mystical elements, for example in Stairway to Heaven. The song Ramble On refers to J. R. R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings :

"T'was in the darkest depth of Mordor
I met a girl so fair,
But Gollum, and the evil one crept up
And slipped away with her."

- Text by Ramble On

Led Zeppelin's stage shows could last over three hours; Sprawling and improvised live versions of their song repertoire often featured arrangements by John Lee Hooker , James Brown , Stax and Motown - influenced funk - and soul music .

Beginning of Stairway to Heaven

The most striking piece of the fourth album and probably the best-known song by Led Zeppelin is the eight-minute rock ballad Stairway to Heaven . It has often been assumed that Jimmy Page built or had built a satanic message into this song, which could be heard if the chorus was run backwards - several versions of the wording of this supposed message are circulating. The band had to deal with such press campaigns throughout their history, mainly due to Jimmy Page's well-known interest in occultism .

Reception and meaning

The band's bohemian style was generally rejected by the contemporary music press. The renowned Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung described the concert in Frankfurt on July 18, 1970 as a "boring stammering of undifferentiated effects":

“Plant is quite a screamer who, although black blues singers are among his idols, has learned little from black singing. He can neither musicalize his roar nor fill it with "soul". "

- Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

The band had a very bad relationship with Rolling Stone in particular . The magazine had published a letter from a college student as a review of the first and second LP, in which the student of the band certified poor musical quality; thus the relationship between the band and the magazine was ruined for years. It was not until 1975 that the band gave an interview to Rolling Stone , which was conducted by Cameron Crowe , who later became known as a director and who later processed this experience in his film Almost Famous .

The band members rarely gave interviews and focused more on their albums and tours than on television appearances. Sometimes they refused to follow the usual customs of the music industry . The fourth album, for example, was not given a name, but was marked with four symbols to emphasize the importance of the music.

"Names, titles and things like that do not mean a thing."

"Names, titles and things like that mean nothing."

- Jimmy Page

The release of profitable singles happened mostly only under pressure from their record company Atlantic Records . Their best-known song Stairway to Heaven, which made a significant contribution to the band's popularity, never appeared as a single. Not a single single was released in the UK until 1997.

Along with Deep Purple and Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin is one of the first and most important bands of hard rock and is now considered to be trend-setting for the later development of heavy metal .

In addition to many other musicians, the members of the Guns N 'Roses group openly admitted that they had taken Led Zeppelin as a role model. For example, guitarist Slash was featured on a 1997 tribute album. In addition, the prevailing opinion is that the heavy, typical “Led Zeppelin sound” paved the way for grunge . For example, members of the band Nirvana , especially Dave Grohl , said they were big fans of the band. Musicians from the field of pop also point out:

“I was born in Colombia, but influenced by bands like Led Zeppelin, The Cure, […]. [...] I loved this rock sound very much. "

The songs have often been covered by musicians of different genres. Numerous important artists also played Led Zeppelin songs live or recorded them in the studio, including musicians such as Frank Zappa and Joe Bonamassa , the progressive metal bands Dream Theater and Tool and other renowned bands such as Iron Maiden , Van Halen , Zakk Wylde , Pearl Jam and the German bands Grave Digger and Puhdys .

Since Robert Plant established the style of singing and dressing of a stereotypical hard rock singer, Jimmy Page's guitar solos were very popular and often covered, and John Bonham had a significant influence on the style and technique of many drummers after him, Led Zeppelin can still be considered prototypical today Hard rock band can be seen. The importance of the band can still be determined today by the sales figures: since 1990, more than ten years after the breakup, more than twenty million albums have been sold. 38% of the purchases in the years 2002–2006 were made by fans under the age of 25, which indicates that younger people are still listening to Led Zeppelin's music.

Despite initial disdain, the Rolling Stone Led Zeppelin was ranked 14th of the 100 greatest musicians of all time in 2004 .

Discography

Studio albums

year title Highest ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placementsTemplate: chart table / maintenance / without sources
(Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)
Remarks
DE DE AT AT CH CH UK UK US USTemplate: chart table / maintenance / charts non-existent
1969 Led Zeppelin
also known as: Good Times Bad Times
DE11
gold
gold

(17 weeks)DE
AT18 (2 weeks)
AT
CH11
gold
gold

(4 weeks)CH
UK6th
Double platinum
× 2
Double platinum

(80 weeks)UK
US7th
diamond
diamond

(99 weeks)US
First published:
Jan 12, 1969 Sales: +10,445,000
Led Zeppelin II DE1
platinum
platinum

(43 weeks)DE
AT25th
gold
gold

(2 weeks)AT
CH15 (4 weeks)
CH
UK1
Quadruple platinum
× 4
Quadruple platinum

(129 weeks)UK
US1
Diamond + double platinum
Diamond + double platinum
× 2
Diamond + double platinum

(102 weeks)US
First published: October 22, 1969
Sales: + 15,285,000
1970 Led Zeppelin III DE3
gold
gold

(35 weeks)DE
AT24 (2 weeks)
AT
CH20th
gold
gold

(4 weeks)CH
UK1
platinum
platinum

(44 weeks)UK
US1
Six-fold platinum
× 6
Six-fold platinum

(46 weeks)US
First published: October 5, 1970
Sales: +7,245,000
1971 Led Zeppelin IV
also known as: Four Symbols, Untitled or Zoso
DE5
Triple gold
× 3
Triple gold

(37 weeks)DE
AT12 (1 week)
AT
CH18th
Double platinum
× 2
Double platinum

(3 weeks)CH
UK1
Six-fold platinum
× 6
Six-fold platinum

(89 weeks)UK
US2
Double diamond + triple platinum
× 2
Double diamond + triple platinum
× 3
Double diamond + triple platinum

(289 weeks)US
First published: November 8, 1971
Sales: + 37,000,000
1973 Houses of the Holy
also known as: Recintos de lo sagrado
DE8th
gold
gold

(31 weeks)DE
AT3 (13 weeks)
AT
CH20 (2 weeks)
CH
UK1
platinum
platinum

(16 weeks)UK
US1
Diamond + platinum
Diamond + platinum
Diamond + platinum

(104 weeks)US
First published: March 28, 1973
Sales: +11,800,000
1975 Physical graffiti DE4th
gold
gold

(25 weeks)DE
AT2 (15 weeks)
AT
CH8 (5 weeks)
CH
UK1
Double platinum
× 2
Double platinum

(36 weeks)UK
US1
Diamond + six-fold platinum
Diamond + six-fold platinum
× 6
Diamond + six-fold platinum

(48 weeks)US
First published:
Jan 24th, 1975 Sales: +17,135,000
1976 Presence DE6 (20 weeks)
DE
AT16 (1 week)
AT
CH9 (3 weeks)
CH
UK1
platinum
platinum

(16 weeks)UK
US1
Triple platinum
× 3
Triple platinum

(32 weeks)US
First published: March 31, 1976
Sales: + 3,300,000
1979 In Through the Out Door DE9 (13 weeks)
DE
AT15 (5 weeks)
AT
CH17 (3 weeks)
CH
UK1
platinum
platinum

(18 weeks)UK
US1
Six-fold platinum
× 6
Six-fold platinum

(44 weeks)US
First published: August 15, 1979
Sales: + 6,695,000
1982 Coda DE5 (9 weeks)
DE
AT17 (1 week)
AT
CH12 (4 weeks)
CH
UK4th
silver
silver

(9 weeks)UK
US6th
platinum
platinum

(19 weeks)US
First published: November 19, 1982
Sales: + 1,095,000

gray hatching : no chart data available for this year

Allegations of plagiarism

The band has been sued several times for copyright infringement. In most cases, a settlement was reached with the plaintiffs. In other cases the band agreed to name the actual authors. A much discussed case in music circles concerns the song Whole Lotta Love , an important step on the way to world fame. The band was sued by Willie Dixon , whose song You Need Love was clearly the inspiration for the lyrics. The direct musical role model of Whole Lotta Love, however, was You Need Loving from Small Faces . Their singer Steve Marriott later said that Plant had completely copied his interpretation. There were also allegations of plagiarism at Stairway to Heaven . The bassist of the band Spirit , Mark Andes, sued Led Zeppelin in court because the beginning of Stairway to Heaven was stolen from the Spirit song Taurus. Led Zeppelin won the case.

Trivia

The band was also accused of hiding satanic backward messages in the song Stairway to Heaven . Robert Plant denied this in interviews.

Awards

  • Led Zeppelin was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on January 12, 1995 .
  • On February 12, 2005, Led Zeppelin received the Grammy Award for Lifetime Achievement.
  • On May 22, 2006, Led Zeppelin was awarded the “ Polar Music Prize ” as a “great pioneer of rock music” . The “Polar Music Prize” from the Swedish founder Stikkan Anderson is considered an unofficial Nobel Prize for music. The three band members still alive appeared at the awards ceremony in Stockholm.
  • The television station VH1 listed Led Zeppelin at the top of the 100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock.
  • The music magazine Guitar World listed the song Stairway to Heaven 2007 at number 1 of the "Best Guitar Solos".
  • Kennedy Center Honors 2012 with honors each to John Paul Jones, Robert Plant and Jimmy Page
  • At the Echo Awards 2013, Led Zeppelin received the “Lifetime Achievement Award International for Outstanding Contribution to Music” for their life's work.
  • On February 3, 2015, an asteroid was named after Led Zeppelin: (4749) Ledzeppelin .

literature

  • Richard Cole, Richard Trubo: Led Zeppelin - Stairway to Heaven. Simon + Schuster Uk, 1st edition of the German edition, 1993, ISBN 978-0-7434-8985-0 .
  • Stephen Davis: Led Zeppelin, Hammer of Gods: Led Zeppelin - Die Saga Rockbuch, 2008, ISBN 978-3-927638-43-3 .
  • Paul Kendall, Dave Lewis: Led Zeppelin Talking. Berlin: Schwarzkopf and Schwarzkopf 2004 (orig. 1981), ISBN 3-89602-497-3 .
  • Dave Lewis: The Tight But Loose Files - Celebration 2. Music Sales Corporation 2004, ISBN 1-84449-056-4 .
  • Dave Lewis, Simon Pallett: Led Zeppelin: The Concert File. Omnibus Press, 2nd edition 2005, ISBN 1-84449-659-7 .
  • Luis Rey: Led Zeppelin Live. An Illustrated Exploration of Underground Tapes. Hot Wacks Press, 3rd edition 1997, ISBN 0-9698080-7-0 .
  • Jürgen Seibold : Led Zeppelin. Vienna: Paul Zsolnay Verlag 1993, ISBN 3-552-05110-4 .
  • Mick Wall : When Giants Walked the Earth: A Biography of Led Zeppelin , Orion Books, 2008, ISBN 978-0-7528-7547-7 .
  • Neil Daniels: Robert Plant - Led Zeppelin, Jimmy Page (The Solo Years) . Hannibal Verlag, Höfen 2009, ISBN 978-3-85445-300-0 (original edition: Robert Plant ).
  • Ritchie Yorke: Led Zeppelin - biography of a band. Cologne: vgs verlagsgesellschaft 1994, ISBN 3-8025-2287-7 .
  • Musikexpress (special issue): Led Zeppelin - The music and history of the ultimate rock band. Munich: Axel Springer Young Mediahouse, October 2004; 146 pages. With previously unpublished photos and a foreword by Dave Grohl . In collaboration with the British music magazine Q .

Web links

Commons : Led Zeppelin  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

sources

  1. Led Zeppelin wins Polar Prize. November 7, 2005, archived from the original on April 5, 2013 ; accessed on May 1, 2016 .
  2. John Bonham is dead - He died at the age of 32 .
  3. Jimmy Page: Why Led Zeppelin died with John Bonham . October 29, 2014.
  4. a b Stephen Thomas Erlewine: Led Zeppelin. Biography . In: All Music Guide.
  5. Led Zeppelin - Music Videos, News, Photos, Tour Dates, Ringtones, and Lyrics MTV
  6. Led Zeppelin: Biography ( Memento December 12, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) rollingstone.com, accessed August 12, 2015.
  7. Stephen Davis: Hammer of the Gods: The Led Zeppelin Saga (LPC) . Berkley Boulevard Books, New York 1995, ISBN 0-425-18213-4 , pp. 32, 44, 64, 190, 225, 277.
  8. James M. Curtis: Rock eras: interpretations of music and society, 1954-1984 , Popular Press, Bowling Green, OH 1987, ISBN 0-87972-369-6 , p. 291.
  9. George Case: Jimmy Page: Magus, Musician, Man: An Unauthorized Biography . Backbeat Books, 2009, ISBN 978-0-87930-947-3 , p. 125.
    Kevin Courtright: Back To Schoolin . Xulon Press, 2009, ISBN 978-1-61579-045-6 , p. 60.
  10. Stephen Thomas Erlewine: Led Zeppelin. Biography . In: All Music Guide . "Marked a significant turning point in the evolution of hard rock and heavy metal"
  11. "The total cost of production was 1,800 pounds. The sale of this first LP brought them in the end the enormous sum of 3.5 million pounds. ” Flugschatten.de
  12. ^ Peter Grant - Biography & History .
  13. ^ Dave Lewis, Simon Pallett: Led Zeppelin - The Concert File . 2005, ISBN 978-0-7119-5307-9
  14. Jimmy Page in an interview with Jonathan Cohen (Billboard Magazine, USA, June 2003)
  15. Template used ( Memento from December 19, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) and later album cover
  16. criticism Led Zeppelin II on rollingstone.com (English) ( Memento of 23 April 2009 at the Internet Archive )
  17. Stephen Davis: HAMMER OF THE GODS . Ed .: Arrangement with Stephen Davis. rockbuch Verlag, Hamburg 2008, ISBN 978-3-927638-43-3 , p. 140 .
  18. Led Zeppelin III - Led Zeppelin - Songs, Reviews, Credits .
  19. Black Dog - Led Zeppelin - Song Info .
  20. https://www.last.fm/de/music/Led+Zeppelin/_/Stairway+to+Heaven/+wiki, accessed on October 16, 2019
  21. RIAA: Top Selling Artists (accessed January 12, 2009)
  22. Achilles Last Stand led-zeppelin.org
  23. Physical Graffiti - Led Zeppelin - Songs, Reviews, Credits .
  24. Presence - Led Zeppelin - Songs, Reviews, Credits .
  25. Karac Plant - encyclopedia article - Citizendium .
  26. Grammy 1979 - Winners and Nominees ( Memento from December 27, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  27. ^ Led Zeppelin: The 1979 Knebworth Concerts .
  28. Led Zeppelin - Official Website Shows .
  29. Led Zeppelin Live 1980 - 4th European Tour .
  30. “During the band's 1980 European tour, at the Nuremberg show on June 27, Bonham fell off his drum stool and collapsed after the third song […]” on leninimports.com
  31. "The next day he was found, he was no longer breathing, John Bonham had choked on his own vomit." On drummermagazin.de
  32. "We wish it to be known that the loss of our dear friend and the deep respect we have for his family, together with the sense of undivided harmony felt by ourselves and our manager, have led us to decide that we could not continue as we were. ” iem.ac.ru
  33. https://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-honeydrippers-mn0000075473
  34. Led Zeppelin: Live Aid gig was inferior - laut.de
  35. a b Blabbermouth: PHIL COLLINS Recalls LED ZEPPELIN Reunion 'Disaster' . 3rd November 2014.
  36. https://www.allmusic.com/artist/peter-grant-mn0001393567 accessed on October 17, 2019
  37. ^ Inductee Explorer .
  38. Led Zeppelin - The ultimate embodiment of Sex, Drugs & Rock'n'Roll . The-Pit.de, accessed on February 23, 2009
  39. https://www.vip.de/vips/led-zeppelin-t10618.html found at vip.de, accessed on October 18, 2019
  40. Led Zeppelin on tour again soon? Saxon newspaper online
  41. Blabbermouth: ALTER BRIDGE Vocalist MYLES KENNEDY Recalls Singing With LED ZEPPELIN . February 21, 2014.
  42. COVER.INFO - Cover Versions, Samples, Medleys .
  43. on Lyricsfreak.com ( Memento of the original from February 25, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.lyricsfreak.com
  44. stryder.de .
  45. ^ At War with the Mystics . ( Memento of December 12, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Rolling Stone
  46. What do the four symbols on Led Zeppelin's 4th album mean? . September 18, 2001.
  47. "[...] they never released a single in the UK" on bbc.co.uk
  48. The New Illustrated Rock Handbook. Salamander Books Ltd., London 1986, ISBN 0-86101-248-8 , pp. 57 and 58.
  49. Led Zeppelin . In: Microsoft Encarta Online
  50. Dave Grohl at www.fooarchive.com
  51. Zep Eternal: "[...] Led Zeppelin have sold 20.2 million albums since 1990 alone. In the last four years, thirty-eight percent of all Zep sales were to fans under the age of twenty-five ”. In: Rolling Stone , August 9, 2006
  52. 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. Rolling Stone , December 2, 2010, accessed August 8, 2017 .
  53. Sales of Led Zeppelin IV
  54. "Stairway to Heaven": The Melody That Could Cost Led Zeppelin $ 40 Million , Spiegel Online , June 16, 2016
  55. Dead Man: Led Zeppelin: Plagiarism? Retrieved November 1, 2017 .
  56. https://www.metal-hammer.de/stairway-to-heaven-plagiatsvorwurf-wird-vor-gericht-verhandelt-608831/ accessed on October 16, 2019
  57. https://www.lto.de/recht/nachrichten/n/led-zeppelin-stairway-to-heaven-kein-plagiat/ accessed on October 16, 2019
  58. Wiki - Stairway to Heaven - Led Zeppelin. Retrieved October 17, 2019 .
  59. ^ The Greatest VH1.com
  60. Led Zeppelin are honored with the first ever “Lifetime Achievement Award International” at the ECHO 2013. Press release. In: echopop.de. ECHO Pop , January 30, 2013, archived from the original on May 17, 2013 ; accessed on May 1, 2016 .
This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on April 21, 2007 .