Whole Lotta Love

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Whole Lotta Love
Led Zeppelin
publication October 22, 1969 (album), November 7, 1969 (single)
length Album and first single version: 5:33,
second single version: 3:10
Genre (s) Blues rock , hard rock , heavy metal , psychedelic rock
Author (s) John Bonham , John Paul Jones , Jimmy Page , Robert Plant , Willie Dixon
Label Atlantic
Award (s) Golden record
album Led Zeppelin II

Whole Lotta Love is a song by the British rock band Led Zeppelin . It is the first track on the band's 1969 album, Led Zeppelin II , and their most successful single.

History of origin

Whole Lotta Love was created in Jimmy Page's house . Contrary to other statements, Page vehemently denied that the song was created on stage:

Interviewer : Is it true "Whole Lotta Love" was written on stage during a gig in America, when you were all jamming on a Garnett Mimms song?

Page : No. No. Absolutely incorrect. No, it was put together when we were rehearsing some music for the second album. I had a riff, everyone was at my house, and we kicked it from there. Never was it written during a gig.

" Interviewer : Is it true that" Whole Lotta Love "was written live during a concert in America when you have all jammed into a Garnett Mimms song?

Page : No. No. Absolutely wrong. No, it was put together when we were rehearsing music for our second album. I had a reef, everyone was in my house and we were off. In no case was it written during a concert. "

Here was Whole Lotta Love recognizable You Need Loving the Small Faces ajar. This was recorded by the Ronnie Lane / Steve Marriott composition in February 1966 in the IBC studios in London and published on the debut album Small Faces , published in May 1966 . On the Led Zeppelin version, however, only the Led Zeppelin members are registered as composers by copyright. Her contributions to the design of the song consisted in emphasizing the distinctive riff presented in the intro and other ideas in the sound design. It consists of five notes and is played by Jimmy Page on a distorted Telecaster guitar with a Vox Super Beatle . In addition, of Experimental fall psychedelic mean instrumental part in which a siren-like played Theremin - solo is housed, and the outro to that by the application of an inverted reverberation unique in the rock music is. The riff is repeated many times as the song progresses, maintaining a tempo of 80 bpm throughout . Formally it is a piece in ABA form with a bridge in the middle part. It is based on only two chords , namely E major and A major.

The recordings for Whole Lotta Love found in May 1969 in the Olympic Studios and seven other recording studios instead. Music producer - besides members of the group - was Peter Grant, sound engineer Eddie Kramer (in the Olympic Studios). The song was planned as part of the LP Led Zeppelin II , recorded between July and August 1969 . Robert Plant's shout-like vocals were completed in just one take . The unaccompanied guitar solo parts were overdubbed to other takes that had been recorded in other studios. It took Jimmy Page hours to construct the instrumentation around the finished vocals. The experimental center part is a psychedelic sound collage of screeching, squeaking and roar, underlaid with cymbals and fills on the snare drum and tom , connected to each other with through eighth pulses of the Hi-Hat . To heighten the psychedelic impression, sound engineer Kramer fiddled with all available buttons on the mixer. The master tapes were final mixed at the A&R studios in New York between May 20 and 23, 1969 . Here the panorama controls on the mixer were used, through which the instruments and the vocals were transported from one stereo channel to the other and therefore move from left to right for the listener and vice versa.

Led Zeppelin - Whole Lotta Love

From the chronological sequence, the experimental middle section begins at around 1:22 minutes - initially with the connecting hi-hat passages - up to around 3:06 minutes. From 4:02 minutes the outro begins with a first used - and extended - backward reverberation, because Plant's voice can be heard before it actually starts. A long fading follows until the end at 5:33 minutes. The song is characteristic of Led Zeppelin's studio production method and could not be reproduced in this form during live performances.

The song was first performed on April 26, 1969. Live Whole Lotta Love occasionally contained parts of other Led Zeppelin songs, such as I Can't Quit You Baby , You Shook Me , How Many More Times , Your Time Is Gonna Come , Good Times Bad Times , The Lemon Song , The Crunge , D'yer Mak'er , Black Dog , Out on the Tiles and Ramble On .

Whole Lotta Love was the last song Led Zeppelin played live. However, he was performed with the band reunions at Live Aid 1985 (with drummers Phil Collins and Tony Thompson ), at the Atlantic Records 40th Anniversary Concert in 1988 (with drummer Jason Bonham ) and at the Ahmet Ertegun Tribute Concert in 2007 (with drummer Jason Bonham) .

Publication and Success

First the album Led Zeppelin II was released on October 22, 1969 with Whole Lotta Love as the opening track, which was listed at number one on the Billboard 200 for seven weeks in the USA and sold twelve million times. The album also reached number one in Great Britain , but only for one week.

After the LP was released, radio stations looked for a title that would fit into their live broadcasts. The title song Whole Lotta Love was the first candidate. However, many radio stations viewed the free-form center section as inappropriate to their broadcasts and created their own edited versions. Atlantic Records had to react quickly and on November 7, 1969, in addition to the release of the regular single in the USA (with Living Loving Maid (She's Just a Woman) as B-side), a version with a length of 3:10 minutes with the middle section cut and the end was faded out earlier. Both versions were released as Atlantic # 45-2690. The edited version was intended as a promotional release for radio stations, but some copies appear to have been sold commercially in the United States and are collectibles for fans. The official single made it to number four in the US charts and became the band's only top 10 single in the US. Worldwide it became the number one hit in Germany (5 weeks) and Australia . The single was also released in France, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Belgium and Japan. In April 1970 it had already achieved the status of a million seller . The edited version was withdrawn from the market.

In Great Britain, Atlantic Records also wanted to release the edited version itself and pressed the first copies for a release on December 5, 1969. However, the manager of the band, Peter Grant , insisted that the band not release singles to market their music in Great Britain, and stopped publishing. In an official statement, the band added that they had written a special track for their first UK single. This never came about and despite a lot of pressure from the record label, they refused to release official singles in the UK during their careers.

Years later, Atlantic Records released Whole Lotta Love (with the original B-side Living Loving Maid ) through their Oldie Series label (OS-13116). The edited version with a length of 3:10 was used, but on the cover the length is given with the unedited time of 5:33 minutes.

In 1997, Atlantic Records released a CD single with a further adaptation (this time to 4:50 minutes) of the original. This version also hit the UK charts for the first time.

Live versions of Whole Lotta Love were officially released on the following albums:

  • The Song Remains the Same ; 2 LPs (September 28, 1976; Swan Song; from a 1973 concert and the film of the same name)
  • Led Zeppelin BBC Sessions ; 2 CDs (November 11, 1997; Atlantic; from a concert in 1971)
  • How the West Was Won ; 3 CDs (May 27, 2003; Atlantic; from a concert in 1972)
  • Led Zeppelin ; DVD (2003; from concerts in 1970 and 1979)
  • Celebration Day ; DVD / 2 CDs (October 17, 2012; from the "Ahmet Ertegun Tribute" concert 2007)

Plagiarism dispute

The original: Muddy Waters - You Need Love

The blues legend Willie Dixon sparked a copyright battle in January 1985 . His daughter Shirley was 13 years old when she first played Whole Lotta Love by Led Zeppelin to her father in 1976 . She had borrowed the Led Zeppelin II LP because the piece on this LP reminded her of a composition by her father.

Willie Dixon was the composer of numerous blues classics, including You Need Love . Dixon wrote You Need Love for Muddy Waters , who recorded the blues on October 12, 1962 ( Chess Records 1839). The song remained hidden from a broader public due to the lack of a hit parade. In January 1985, the US magazine Variety reported that Dixon had filed a lawsuit against Robert Plant because Whola Lotta Love was a plagiarism of You Need Love . The plagiarism process did not go beyond a first hearing, however, but the music publisher Arc Music , which was suing for Dixon, reached an out-of-court settlement with Atlantic Records. Plant defense lawyers found it strange waiting 17 years to sue.

During this phase it became known that the Small Faces had already used Willie Dixon's composition. The distinctive riff and text passages were taken over by the Small Faces in the song You Need Loving , recorded in the IBC studios in February 1966 . They too ignored Dixon's copyright and named band members Ronnie Lane / Steve Marriott as composers, although Dixon did not complain. Almost identical text passages are contained in Whole Lotta Love , and both songs take on elements of the blue tradition. The striking riff already runs through the original recording and can also be heard in the Small Faces. Led Zeppelin had only brought it to the fore. At the end of the song Robert Plant quoted Howlin 'Wolf's Back Door Man (June 1960) with the passage "Shake for me girl / I wanna be your back door man", also written by Dixon. However, Plant, a big fan of blues and soul singers, often quoted other songs, especially live. The vocal breaks are also similar: that of the Small Faces lasts 14 seconds, that of Plant 26 seconds. The settlement did not end until 1987 after lengthy negotiations, with Willie Dixon winning. From then on, Led Zeppelin had to mention him as a co-composer and pay an undisclosed compensation.

Jimmy Page indirectly admitted the plagiarism allegations in an interview. "If you exclude the text, the instrumentation is new and different." Robert Plant commented similarly:

“Page's riffed what Page's riffed. It was there before anything else. I just thought, 'well, what am I going to sing?' [...] At the time, there was a lot of conversation about what to do. It was decided that it was so far away in time and influence that ... well, you only get caught when you're successful. That's the game. "

“Pages reef was Pages reef. It was there above all else. I just thought, 'what could I sing?' Back then there was a lot of argument about what to do. We decided it was so far from time and influence that ... well, you only get caught if you are successful. So life is."

- Robert Plant

Chart positions

single

Chart (1969–1970) Highest ranking
Austria ( Ö3 Austria Top 40 ) 3
Germany ( German single charts ) 1
USA ( Billboard Hot 100 ) 4th
Chart (1997) Highest ranking
Great Britain ( Official Charts Company ) 21st

Single (download)

Chart year Highest ranking
Great Britain (Official Charts Company) 2007 64

Note: The Official Charts Company chart includes downloads since April 17, 2005.

Awards

publication country Award year rank
Spin United States "100 Greatest Singles of All Time" 1989 39
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame United States "The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll" 1994 *
Classic rock Great Britain "Ten of the Best Songs Ever! .. (Bubbling under)" 1999 30th
VH1 United States "The 100 Greatest Rock Songs of All Time" 2009 46
Rolling Stone United States "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time" 2003 75
Q Great Britain "100 Greatest Guitar Tracks Ever" 2005 3
Toby Creswell Australia "1001 Songs: the Great Songs of All Time" 2005 *
Grammy Awards United States "Grammy Hall of Fame Award" 2007 *
VH1 United States "VH1 Greatest Hard Rock Songs" 2009 3

(*) denotes unsorted lists.

occupation

Cultural influence

Whole Lotta Love was by many musicians gecovert . In Great Britain, the song was known as the theme music of the long-running television series Top of the Pops during the 1970s and 1980s . This version was based on a recording by the Collective Consciousness Society , a band of blues guitarist Alexis Korner , which reached number 13 on the British charts in the fall of 1970. In addition, the American television station WXON used the instrumental bridge in the middle section of the song as theme music for their weekly horror film program Thriller Double Feature in the 1980s .

On August 24, 2008 Whole Lotta Love was played during the closing ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing . This time in a rewritten version by Jimmy Page and with Leona Lewis as the singer. Lewis and the organizers requested that the text be changed. Passages like “I'm gonna give you every inch of my love” would make little sense if they were sung by a woman. In September 2008, Prince released a live recording as an instrumental version on his album Indigo Nights .

literature

  • Dave Lewis: The Complete Guide to the Music of Led Zeppelin . Omnibus Press, 2004, ISBN 0-7119-3528-9
  • Chris Welch: Led Zeppelin: Dazed and Confused: The Stories Behind Every Song . Carlton, 1998, ISBN 1-56025-818-7

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Valmir Hajro: "Whole Lotta Love" For Blues Rock essay. November 16, 2011, accessed March 4, 2014 .
  2. ↑ Led Zeppelin Biography. Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, accessed March 4, 2014 .
  3. ↑ Andrew Winistorfer: VH1's 100 Greatest Hard Rock Songs. Prefix, January 5, 2009, accessed March 4, 2014 .
  4. ↑ Stephen K. Valdez: A History of Rock Music . Kendall / Hunt Publishing Company, 2006, ISBN 978-0-7575-3379-2 .
  5. ↑ Led Zeppelin - Whole Lotta Love. TabsClub, accessed March 4, 2014 .
  6. ^ RIAA database. Retrieved March 4, 2014 .
  7. ↑ David Cavanaugh: Jimmy Page, 'Mission Accomplished.' In: Uncut . No. 132 , 2008, p. 49 .
  8. ↑ the amplifier was Vox's flagship, manufactured between 1966 and 1970.
  9. ↑ Richard Cole, Stairway to Heaven , 2009, without p.
  10. ^ Jon Bream, Whole Lotta Led Zeppelin , 2010, p. 79.
  11. ↑ List of all Led Zeppelin appearances. argenteumastrum.com, accessed June 3, 2014 .
  12. ↑ Tom Broder (Ed.), 100 Best Selling Albums of the Sixties , 2004, p. 212
  13. ↑ a b Billboard Singles Awards. allmusic.com, accessed June 3, 2014 .
  14. ^ Joseph Murrells, Million Selling Records , 1985, p. 288
  15. ↑ Dave Lewis: The Complete Guide to the Music of Led Zeppelin . Omnibus Press, 1994, ISBN 0-7119-3528-9 .
  16. ↑ a b Siva Vaidhyanathan, Copyrights and Copywrongs , 2001, p. 117.
  17. ↑ Variety Magazine No. 317 of January 30, 1985, p. 78
  18. ↑ Arc Music owned most of the copyrights of the Chess catalog and was acquired by Fuji Entertainment in 2009 due to financial difficulties
  19. ↑ Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone magazine, March 4, 1985, Willie Dixon Sue's Led Zeppelin over 'Whole Lotta Love' , p. 12
  20. ^ Siva Vaidhyanathan, Copyrights and Copywrongs , 2001, p. 123.
  21. ^ Guitar World, Brad Tolinski, Led Zeppelin: Airways to Heaven , March 1997 edition.
  22. ^ Charles M. Young: Robert Plant's manic persona . In: Musician . No. 140 , 1990, pp. 45 ( google.com ).
  23. ↑ Austria Top 40.Retrieved on June 3, 2014 .
  24. ↑ Led Zeppelin - Whole Lotta Love. Retrieved June 3, 2014 .
  25. ↑ a b Led Zeppelin author =. Retrieved June 3, 2014 .
  26. ↑ Spin: 100 Greatest Singles Of All Time. 1989, accessed June 3, 2014 .
  27. ^ Rock and Roll Hall of Fame - 500 Songs That Shaped Rock. Archived from the original on July 19, 2009 ; Retrieved June 3, 2014 .
  28. ↑ Ten Of The Best ... Songs Ever! Retrieved June 3, 2014 .
  29. ↑ VH1: '100 Greatest Rock Songs'. Retrieved June 3, 2014 .
  30. ↑ 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. rollingstone.com, accessed June 3, 2014 .
  31. ↑ Q Magazine - 100 Greatest Guitar Tracks Ever! Retrieved June 3, 2014 .
  32. ↑ Toby Creswell: 1001 Songs: the Great Songs of All Time . Prahran: Hardie Grant Books, 2005, ISBN 978-1-74066-458-5 , p. 303.
  33. ^ GRAMMY Hall of Fame. Retrieved June 3, 2014 .
  34. ↑ Vh1 Top 100 Hard Rock Songs. (No longer available online.) Spreadit.org, archived from the original on April 19, 2012 ; Retrieved June 3, 2014 . Info: The archive link was 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 / music.spreadit.org
  35. ↑ David Bond and John Bingham: Led Zeppelin classic 'too racy' for Olympics. The Telegraph, August 22, 2008, accessed June 4, 2014 .