Led Zeppelin: Difference between revisions

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[[File:Led_Zeppelin.jpg|framethumb|400px| This band will never work- it'll go over like a Lead Zeppelin!]]

''When movin' through Kashmir"''|'''"Kashmir"''', 4:37 through 5:13}}

The one, the only, the hammer of the Gods. Long story short: Led Zeppelin formed in 1968 after Jimmy Page recruited three other lads for a new band to satisfy contractual obligations for [[The Yardbirds (Music)|The Yardbirds]] (which Page had joined in 1966 and almost immediately assumed control of after their guitarist Jeff Beck left in late '66). The band was originally to be a [[Supergroup]] consisting of Page, Jeff Beck, Nicky Hopkins on piano, and Keith Moon and John Entwistle of [[The Who (Music)|The Who]] and possibly with Donovan as lead vocalist. They actually recorded one song (but with John Paul Jones on bass instead) called "Beck's Bolero" which made its way onto Jeff Beck Group's ''Truth''. The group never amounted to more, as Entwistle and Moon allegedly said it would go over "like a lead balloon". Led Zeppelin, once formed, went on to release many albums, tour heavily, become one of the most successful and famous bands in [[Rock and Roll]], help pioneer [[Heavy Metal (Music)|Heavy Metal]] and generally rock so hard as to blow people's minds and inspire them to form bands of their own. They broke up in 1980 after drummer John Bonham asphyxiated on vomit after a day of binge alcoholism. They were famously trashed at first by critics in [[The Seventies]] but gained a huge fanbase, and those critics (particularly [[Rolling Stone]] magazine) have since [[Vindicated Byby History|reversed themselves]] and realised that, hey, Led Zeppelin are awesome after all.

But as with every mega-successful and influential band, there are downsides. Negative marks on their record include Plant's habit of [https://web.archive.org/web/20090326071845/http://www.turnmeondeadman.net/Zep/Originals.php lifting lyrics from old blues songs without credit] (which led to the occasional lawsuits), his occasionally embarassing lyrics (they referenced ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' about thirty years before [[The Lord of the Rings (Filmfilm)|the movies]] made it [[Fantasy Ghetto|cool to do that]]), the band inevitably allowing success to go to their heads and descending into overblown excess post-1975, and the infamous 1976 [[Rockumentary]] film ''The Song Remains the Same'', commonly cited as one of the [[So Bad It's Good|worst concert films ever]], thanks to the sub-par performances and self-indulgent [[Cliché Storm|fantasy sequences]]. Also to be mentioned is their continued refusal to allow their songs into rhythm games, such as [[Guitar Hero]] and [[Rock Band]].

'''{{examples|Discography:'''}}

* November 1971 - [[No Title|Untitled]] (informallyUniversally calledtermed ''Led Zeppelin IV'', other informal names included ''[[Lucky Charms Title|Four Symbols]]'' or ''ZoSo'')

* August 1979 - ''In Through the Out Door''

* [[Careful Withwith That Axe]]: Robert Plant, when he gets excited, tends to do this. One of the best recorded examples is his emotionally-charged scream near the end of "I'm Gonna Crawl".

* [[Fake -Out Fade -Out]]: "Thank You".

* [[Filk Song]]: "The Battle of Evermore" is perhaps their best known one here, but it's without doubt that the group were fans of [[The Lord of the Rings|J.R.R. Tolkien.]]

* [[Intercourse Withwith You]]: A large portion of their songs are this.

{{quote| Guy: My wife's going on holiday in the Caribbean.<br />

Friend: Jamaica?[[hottip:*:<ref>[[Don't Explain the Joke|"Did you make her?", in full.]]</ref><br />

* [[Mind Screw]]: Many of Zeppelin's songs are strange. "Stairway To Heaven" is their most famous example. "Dancing Days", a song about taking a girl on a date, contains the line, ''I saw a lion/He was standing along/With a tadpole in a jar.''

** Arguably the most notable bit of plagiarism was "Lemon Song", a song ripped off note for note from Howlin' Wolf's "Killing Floor". What makes this one particularly jarring is that, by the time it was recorded for ''Led Zeppelin II'', the song was already a hit amongst the rock community, with it being covered by other famous acts of the period like Albert King, Electric Flag and [[Jimi Hendrix (Music)|Jimi Hendrix]], with the latter using it to open his famous set at the Monterey International Pop Festival. It didn't help that the band even referred to the song by its original title at various points before recording it.

* [[Shout -Out]]:

** Most famously, the [[The Lord of the Rings]] references in "Ramble On" and "The Battle of Evermore".

** The cover of ''Houses of the Holy'' is a depiction of the end of [[Arthur C. Clarke (Creator)]]'s ''[[ChildhoodsChildhood's End]].''

** The ''Presence'' object, according to the band members, was an artistic depiction of the ''[[2001: A Space Odyssey (Film)|2001]]'' monoliths.

** In an example of a ''literal'' [[Shout -Out]], Plant can be heard saying "Joni!" (Mitchell) on the live version of "Going to California" from ''How the West was Won''. Fitting, considering the song was basically about how the band were big fans of [[Joni Mitchell (Music)|Joni Mitchell]].

** Also, the Pan imagery from ''Stairway to Heaven'' appears to be inspired by ''[[The Wind in Thethe Willows]]''.

* [[Spell My Name Withwith an "S"]]: They have two songs named after the Bron-Yr-Aur cottage where they recorded. One of them gets it right ("Bron-Yr-Aur"), but the other spells it wrong ("Bron-Y-Aur Stomp").

* [[Stairway to Heaven]]: [[Trope Namer]], but subverted, as she's buying the stairway to heaven and does not [[Ascend to Aa Higher Plane of Existence]].

* [[Appropriated Appellation]]: Led Zeppelin got their name when Keith Moon and John Entwistle suggested that a supergroup with them, Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck, would "go down like a lead balloon".

* [[Cosplay]]: John Bonham famously donned [[A Clockwork Orange (Filmfilm)|Alex DeLarge's]] gang attire during some shows of the band's 1975 North American tour.

* [[Dead Guy, Junior]]: Jason Bonham took his father's place in the band for the few occasions they still play together.

{{quote| ''Later, when we recorded "You Shook Me", I told the engineer, Glyn Johns, that I wanted to use backwards echo on the end. He said, "Jimmy, it can't be done". I said "Yes, it can. I've already done it." Then he began arguing, so I said, "Look, I'm the producer. I'm going to tell you what to do, and just do it." So he grudgingly did everything I told him to, and when we were finished he started refusing to push the fader up so I could hear the result. Finally, I had to scream, "Push the bloody fader up!" And lo and behold, the effect worked perfectly.''}}

* [[No Celebrities Were Harmed]]: Dorian Red Gloria, the fabulously gay art thief from [[From Eroica Withwith Love]], was physically modeled after Robert Plant. (Three of his subordinates in the Eroica gang are ''also'' modeled after other Zeppelin band members.)

* [[Painted-On Pants]]: Plant's trademark usual attire. Little wonder that his 'girly whine' is his ''other'' trademark...

* [[Self -Plagiarism]]: Jimmy Page took many late Yardbirds songs and reworked them. "Tangerine" is an almost note-by-note copy of "Knowing That I'm Losing You," an unreleased Yardbirds track from just before they broke up.

* [[Short -Lived, Big Impact]]: Led Zeppelin had a career that spanned little more than a decade, cut short by drummer John Bonham's death. Their impact on the rock genre is undeniable, and their sound was one of the precursors to [[Heavy Metal (Music)|Heavy Metal]].

* [[Two -Faced Aside]]: Led Zeppelin's early albums featured quite a few songs where they basically copied lyrics and riffs from older blues songs. Then Jimmy Page sued rapper [[Schoolly D (Music)|Schoolly D]] for doing the same thing with "Kashmir". Then Page and [[Rage Against the Machine (Music)|Rage Against the Machine]] guitarist Tom Morello recorded ''the same riffs'' for Puff Daddy's ''[[Godzilla (Filmfilm)|Godzilla]]'' single "Come With Me".