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LED ZEPPELIN
1969 - Led Zeppelin.
1971 - Led Zeppelin IV.
more LED ZEPPELIN.
way more Helter Skelter.

January 11, 1969 - 2024: 55 years of: Led Zeppelin.

The legacy starts here.

Deep into the counterculture, arose a rocknroll revolution: The British Invasion, lead by THE BEATLES, THE KINKS and THE ROLLING STONES, they shook the establishment to it's very core. Eventually another set of rebel-teens united the divine-forces of ex-YARDBIRDS Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones, John Bonham and Robert Plant ...the only incarnation of LED ZEPPELIN.

1966-to-69 sunny California's heavyrock: the acid power of the mighty IRON BUTTERFLY and BLUE CHEER had already left a mark, Great Britain rapidly responded with CREAM, DEEP PURPLE ...and LED ZEPPELIN ...the birth of the US-versus-UK rock-rivalry.

From the first punches of the opening "Good Times Bad Times" we knew that this would be a monstrous ride. The melodramatic reprise of Anne Bredon's "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You", to the cathedral-intro of "Your Time Is Gonna Come", to the ethereal heavyrock morphs into spacerock medley "How Many More Times", to Willie Dixon's cult '"You Shook Me" and onto the fast paced "Communication Breakdown" ...a cut credited as the first heavymetal song. Where THE BEATLES's Helter Skelter set the bar high (and heavy) ...ZEP ran with it, going all 175bpm into a full blown palm-muting guitar-riff driven rocknroll crash-course.

Building up to the LP's climax, the grandiose "Dazed And Confused". A slow-paced doom bass-guitar, courtesy of Jones, that surrounds you with four thick walls of heaviness and sorrow and doesn't let go. The wah-guitar tip-toes around and the feeling slowly grips you, all the way to the heavymetallesque explosive lead-work of Page. The first lead-guitar speed shred ever put on tape.

Dazed in 1969 ...bow down:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC6SwzXvyzw

Currently RIAA-certified 8x Platinum, Led Zeppelin I is the blueprint for heavyrock, a true monolith: the bass grooves, the sharp-edge guitar, the loud anthemic drums and that gigantic Robert Plant voice dictates to a tee. This is hard-rocknroll music, the foundation for hardrock, heavyrock and eventual heavymetal.

The rocknroll lifestyle stepped-up with the band's growing popularity. Fame, money, limos, hotels, women, jets and other bloody-excesses where part of their entourage from Day One. The Fab-Four did it first, but it was now ZEPPed into the stratosphere. From the occult to hard-hitting blues, from arenarock to proto-heavymetal, LED ZEPPELIN played it and influenced millions to follow and explore into their indelible foot-steps. Note that both Jimmy Page and Robert Plant where eventually knighted as OBE and CBE respectively, talk about rock royalty !

The artwork: the 1937 Hindenburg, the origins of the "Lead" Zeppelin. One of mankind's fierce tragedies, the death of 40+ people caught live on camera, now immortalized on the multi-Platinum selling record-jacket. Foreshadowing their fate of what would be: a titanic entity, hovering over the world and then in a flash, a sudden end, relating to Bonham's instant death in 1980.

Yet the very best was yet to come: with October 1969's Led Zeppelin II, 1970s Led Zeppelin III and '71 monolithic Led Zeppelin IV LP ...all of this madness within a 30month span ...talk about an impressive legacy.

The genesis for hardrock: no album in history is as important as Led Zeppelin I.

*
Led Zeppelin = full LP
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsZG7n7ries&list=PLhcKPF7Ha0ReULqI54Ranx341ghOXP_0B
Live TV in Denmark in 1969
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-WSbMW7BPc
Live TV in 1969
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YP82IO4ahcY

November 8, 1971 - 2021: 50 years of: Led Zeppelin IV.

Monstrous, magnificent and monolithic.

The almighty unstoppable gargantuous hovering zeppelin, lurks sky high over rocknroll. The mystic Fourth installment of mega-proportions is no stranger to epicness, yet this time, is fully expected.

The "Black Dog" barks, bites and chews you alive. The gigantic start-stop guitar riff wipes the floor with any contenders, while the simply titled "Rock And Roll" burst the door off it's hinges for John Bonham and crew to push the boundaries, once again, to the boiling point.

Some folk makes an eerie apparition on "The Battle Of Evermore" and the tribal-primal "Four Sticks" shows more grooves and hip-shaking, with a steamy southern-vibe. The roominess and dark-heaviness of "When The Levee Breaks" still remains unmatched today. Wide drums, flangy guitars, groovy bass and Robert Plant preaching in a commanding manner.

The Mother of all powerballads, the cornerstone of now classicrock, the 8:03sec heavenly magic of "Stairway To Heaven" is all-stars aligned. Beautiful flute-supported intro, the built-up and the power-chord progressions into oblivion. A rock trek that transcends the galaxy which explodes into a metal-meltdown at the 5:35sec with master Jimmy Page at the helm.

I, II, III and now the IVth record ...in hard rocknroll, LED ZEPPELIN's numerology is the be all - end all in rock-royalty. Currently RIAA-certified 23x Platinum, that's 23 million units sold in the USA alone, it now very comfortably stands as one of heavyrock's heaviest monument in hardmusic's impressive catalog.

A British signature,
A British sound,
The British ZEPPELIN is the voice of a generation !

It led the way to numerous acts to forge the heavyrock genre, the foundations of heavymetal and IV is the ultimate key to this 50+ year rocknroll-supernova.

RIP John Bonham (1948-1980)

*
Led Zeppelin IV = full LP
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIiu0JI3I5g&list=PL6ogdCG3tAWiU-La6k2z_7i-6cvwgQbS7
Interview in 1972
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsxFBpai4Y0
Live in Los Angeles in 1972
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bGMZnosBcU

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