Led Zeppelin

Led Zeppelin
File:Led Zeppelin flippedcorrect.jpg A 1969 photo of Led Zeppelin, from left to right: John Paul Jones, John Bonham (Top), Jimmy Page and Robert Plant
Background information
Origin	London, England
Years active	1968 - 1980 (Reunions: 1985,1988,1995)
Members	Robert Plant Jimmy Page John Paul Jones John Bonham (deceased)

Led Zeppelin were an English rock band consisting of four men: Jimmy Page (guitar), Robert Plant (vocals, harmonica), John Bonham (drums), and John Paul Jones (bass guitar, mandolin and keyboards).

Formed in 1968, Led Zeppelin were consistent innovators who never lost mainstream appeal. While the band is best known as a pioneering force in hard rock and heavy metal, they also included elements of blues, rockabilly, bluegrass, reggae, soul, funk, Celtic, Indian, Arabic, folk, pop, and flamenco in their music.

Over 25 years after deciding to disband in response to drummer John Bonham's death in 1980, Led Zeppelin continue to be held in high regard for their artistic achievements, commercial success and influential role in the history of 20th Century popular music. The BBC has described them as "one of the most influential bands of the rock era." As of 2006, the group has sold more than 300 million albums worldwide. including 109.5 million in the United States.

History

The early days (1968-1970)

In 1968, The Beatles and The Rolling Stones still dominated the charts on both sides of the Atlantic, and new, heavier styles of rock and roll were also beginning to arise in groups like The Who, The Jimi Hendrix Experience and Iron Butterfly. In that same year, a new English band, Led Zeppelin, would begin to form their own distinctly thunderous sound, and play a critical role in the creation of a new musical genre, heavy metal.

The formation of the band

The beginnings of Led Zeppelin can be traced to Jimmy Page, who had joined the rock band The Yardbirds in 1966, first playing bass guitar, then switching to lead guitar when the band noticed that he had more to contribute than just being the bass guitarist. They had to wait a while so then rhythm guitarist Chris Dreja could get comfortable with the bass. Following the departure of Jeff Beck in October 1966, the Yardbirds, tired from constant touring and recording, were beginning to wind down. Page discussed forming a supergroup with himself and Beck on guitar, and The Who's Keith Moon and John Entwistle on drums and bass. Vocalists Donovan, Steve Winwood and Steve Marriott were also considered for the project. The group never formed, although Page, Beck and Moon did record a song together in 1966, "Beck's Bolero", which featured on Beck's 1968 album, Truth. The recording session also included bassist John Paul Jones, who told Page that he would be interested in collaborating with him on future projects.

The Yardbirds played their final gig in July 1968, after which vocalist Keith Relf and drummer Jim McCarty left the band, wishing to pursue a shared interest in folk music. However, The Yardbirds were still committed to perform several concerts in Scandinavia, and so McCarty and Relf authorised Page and Dreja to use the Yardbirds name to fulfil the bands' obligation. Page and Dreja began putting a new line-up together. Page's first choice for lead singer, Terry Reid, declined the offer, but suggested Robert Plant, who accepted the position. Plant recommended drummer John Bonham, with whom he had played in the Band of Joy. When Dreja opted out of the project to become a photographer (he would later take the photograph that appeared on the back of Led Zeppelin's debut album), John Paul Jones contacted Page about the empty position. Page, being familiar with his credentials, gladly accepted him as the band's new bassist.

The band completed the Scandinavian tour as the New Yardbirds and then began deciding on a new name. After some discussion, the name "Led Zeppelin" was chosen, based upon a name (Lead Zeppelin) that Keith Moon had suggested during his discussions with Page about a possible supergroup. Moon got the name from John Entwistle's term for a bad gig, describing it as "going over" (some sources say "going down") "like a lead zeppelin". The group deliberately dropped the 'a' in Lead at the suggestion of their manager, Peter Grant, to prevent people from pronouncing it as "leed".

Led Zeppelin I

Shortly after their first tour, the group's eponymous first album, Led Zeppelin was released on January 12, 1969. Its blend of blues, folk, and eastern influences with distorted amplification made it one of the pivotal records in the creation of heavy metal music.

Although several of Led Zeppelin's earliest songs were based on blues standards, others, such as "Communication Breakdown" had a unique and distinctively heavy sound which would prefigure the punk and heavy metal movements of the late 1970s and 1980s. Led Zeppelin featured delicate acoustic guitar on "Black Mountain Side", and a combination of acoustic and electric approaches on the reworked folk song "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You."

A photo of the flaming Hindenburg; an image famously (and controversially) used by Led Zeppelin

The dark centrepiece of the album, "Dazed and Confused", contains a furious Jimmy Page solo and a "trance-like" opening riff of descending notes. That song and "How Many More Times" mark some of the first recordings of bow guitar (the playing of an electric guitar with a violin bow); this innovation would become one of Jimmy Page's many trademarks, both on stage and in the studio. The album features Plant vocally mimicking Page's guitar effects--another invention that would become a Led Zeppelin staple on later albums, and especially in concert. Other songs included "I Can't Quit You Baby", a song written by bluesman Willie Dixon, and "You Shook Me", by Dixon and J. B. Lenoir. Jeff Beck had previously recorded "You Shook Me" for his album, Truth, and accused Led Zeppelin of stealing his idea. According to Stephen Davis' biography of the band, Hammer of the Gods, this led to a long rift between Beck and Page, who had been friends for years.

While the album received generally positive reviews, some hated it, most famously John Mendelsohn of Rolling Stone Magazine who savaged the band for stealing music, mimicking black artists, and showing off. This marked the beginning of a long rift between the band and the magazine. Led Zeppelin rejected later requests for interviews and cover stories.

Led Zeppelin's famous album cover met interesting protest when, at a February 28, 1970 gig in Copenhagen, the band was billed as "The Nobs" as a result of a threat of legal action from aristocrat Eva von Zeppelin (relative of the namesake creator of the Zeppelin aircraft), who, upon seeing the logo of the Hindenburg crashing in flames, threatened to have the show pulled off the air.

Led Zeppelin II

The immediate success of the first album kick-started the band's career, especially in the United States. The second record, simply titled Led Zeppelin II, followed in similar style later that year. The album was an even greater success for the group than the first, reaching the number one chart position in both the US and the UK.

Led Zeppelin II begins with the bludgeoning riff of "Whole Lotta Love," which, driven by the rhythm section, helped as much as any other song to define their sound. Other highlights from the album include the ballad "Ramble On", the catchy riff, intricate guitar solo, and powerful vocals of "Heartbreaker", and the explosive chorus of "What Is and What Should Never Be". The album also included songs which bore striking similarities to Willie Dixon's work, although Dixon was not credited. "Bring It on Home" drew comparisons with Dixon's "Bring It on Back", and "Whole Lotta Love", was lyrically very similar to his song "You Need Love". In the 1970s, Arc Music, the publishing arm of Chess Records, brought suit against Led Zeppelin for copyright infringement over "Bring It on Home", winning an out-of-court settlement. Dixon himself did not benefit until he sued Arc Music to recover his royalties and copyrights. Years later, Dixon filed suit against Led Zeppelin over "Whole Lotta Love", and a generous out-of-court settlement was reached. Later pressings of Led Zeppelin II credit Dixon for his work.

Page was once quoted in an interview as saying: "I've often thought that in the way the Stones tried to be the sons of Chuck Berry, we tried to be the sons of Howlin' Wolf." A version of Howlin' Wolf's song "Killing Floor" featured prominently in Led Zeppelin's early live performances, found its way onto and Led Zeppelin II in a different arrangement, entitled "The Lemon Song".

During this early period Led Zeppelin made several tours of the United States, delivering numerous performances initially in clubs and ballrooms, then larger auditoriums as their popularity grew. Led Zeppelin concerts could last more than three hours, with expanded, improvised live versions of their song repertoire often incorporating elements of James Brown, Stax and Motown-influenced soul music and funk (favourites of bassist Jones and drummer Bonham). The quartet also loved American rock and roll, being inspired by the exuberant styles of Fats Domino and Little Richard. Led Zeppelin would also perform rockabilly songs originally made famous by Elvis Presley and Eddie Cochran. Many of these shows were the sources of bootleg recordings which continue to be prized by collectors and fans.

Led Zeppelin III

For the composition of their third album, Led Zeppelin III, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant retired to Bron-Yr-Aur, a remote cottage in Wales. This would result in a more rural, acoustic sound than previously exhibited by the group (and a song, "Bron-Yr-Aur Stomp", misspelled as "Bron-Y-Aur Stomp" on the album cover). Strongly influenced by Celtic and folk music, the album revealed a different side of Page's versatility, most notably on the more peaceful tracks "That's The Way" and "Tangerine".

The album's rich acoustic sound initially received mixed reactions, with many critics surprised at the turn taken by the band away from the primarily electric compositions of the first two albums. Over time, howewer, its reputation has recovered and Led Zeppelin III is now generally praised.

Aside from its acoustic numbers, Led Zeppelin III included the blues rock epic "Since I've Been Loving You" and the drum-driven "Out on the Tiles". The album's unrelenting opening track, "Immigrant Song", also served reminder of the power Led Zeppelin's was capable of generating, with Plant's lyrics invoking a tale of Viking conquests and Norse mythology. This and other songs whose lyrics contained mythological references helped popularise the use of terms such as "rock gods", "god of rock", or "hammer of the gods" to describe the band, and later, other rock artists with a similar sound.

Led Zeppelin III ushered in an era of unique album covers, this one featuring a wheel which, when rotated, displayed various images through cutouts in the main jacket sleeve. In November of 1970, Led Zeppelin's record label, Atlantic Records, released "Immigrant Song" as a single against the band's wishes (Atlantic had earlier released an edited version of "Whole Lotta Love" which cut the 5:34 song to 3:10, removing the abstract middle movement). It included their only non-album b-side, "Hey Hey What Can I Do". Even though the band saw their albums as indivisible, whole listening experiences — and their manager, Peter Grant, maintained an aggressive pro-album stance — nine other singles were released without their consent. The group also resisted television appearances, which would have reduced their ability to control their presentation and sound quality. Lack of TV exposure enforced the band's preference that their fans hear and see them in person.

“The biggest band in the world” (1971–1975)

The success of Led Zeppelin's early years would be dwarfed by this five year period in which the band would release their most famous albums and ascend to the very peak of musical success in the 1970s. The band's image also changed as members began to wear elaborate, colorful clothing and jewelry. If the band's popularity on stage was impressive, so too was its reputation for off-stage wildness and excess. Led Zeppelin began travelling in a private jet airliner (nicknamed The Starship), rented out entire sections of hotels (most notably the Continental Hyatt House in Los Angeles, known colloquially the "Riot House"), and became the subject of many of rock's most famous stories of debauchery. One escapade involved John Bonham throwing televisions out of the windows of the Riot House during a drunken rampage and then blaming the damage on the many Led Zeppelin groupies. But perhaps the most notorious story of Led Zeppelin excess was the infamous Shark episode, which took place at the Edgewater Inn in Seattle, WA, on July 28, 1969.

Untitled (Led Zeppelin IV)

Each of the four symbols on Led Zeppelin IV's cover, representing Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones, John Bonham, and Robert Plant

Led Zeppelin's fourth album was released on November 8, 1971. There was no indication of the band's name on the original packaging, and the title of the album was given as four symbols - . It is variously referred to as The Unnamed Album, Untitled, Led Zeppelin IV, Zoso, Runes, Sticks or Four Symbols. In an interview with Rolling Stone magazine in 2005, Plant said that it is simply called the fourth album.

Led Zeppelin IV further refined the band's unique formula of combining earthy, acoustic elements with heavy metal and blues empasis. The album included examples of pure hard rock, such as "Black Dog" (supposedly titled in tribute to a dog which loitered around the recording studio) along with a gentler, acoustic folk track, "Going to California" (a tribute to Joni Mitchell), and "Four Sticks" (so named because it features John Bonham drumming with four drumsticks). "The Battle of Evermore", one of two songs (the other being "Misty Mountain Hop") on the album to feature lyrical references to the Lord of the Rings, is the only Led Zeppelin song to feature a guest vocalist, Sandy Denny. However, three of the album's tracks, Rock and Roll, When the Levee Breaks, and most of all, Stairway to Heaven, have come to be known as three of the band's greatest and most famous songs:

Rock and Roll, is a lively tribute to the early rock music of the 1950s but with a heavy metal twist, featuring John Bonham's memorable drum-only introduction. Recently (as of 2006), the song has been used prominently in Cadillac automobile commercials--one of the few instances of Led Zeppelin's surviving members licensing songs.

concludes its eight song cycle with a radically altered version of a Memphis Minnie/Kansas Joe McCoy blues song, "When the Levee Breaks". Led Zeppelin's version opens with a distinctive, pounding drum beat, which has been sampled for use in many modern rock and rap releases. The distinct resonance of the drumming in the song was achieved by recording in a stairwell for added resonance.

Folk and heavy metal are fused together in the eight-minute, suite-like "Stairway to Heaven", which became a massive album-oriented rock FM radio hit even though it was never released as a single. The song features three distinct movements: a slow acoustic introduction, a more up-tempo acoustic middle section, and an electric finale marked by Page's guitar solo. "Stairway" is undoubtedly the most well-known song in Led Zeppelin's catalogue, which has led to many rumours involving the meaning of its lyrics, its construction, and the source of its famous opening riff. One of the most famous of these is that when the song is played backwards, Satanic messages can be heard. This also reinforced other popular rumours that Jimmy Page dabbled in Satanism and the occult, which was further fueled by Page's admitted interest in magician Aleister Crowley. The presence of any Satanic messages have been repeatedly denied by both Page and Plant. It has been noted by critics that the acoustic opening riff of "Stairway to Heaven" is similar to another riff in the song "Taurus" by the rock group Spirit (band), a band for whom Led Zeppelin opened on their first American tour. Zeppelin has maintained that this resemblance is mere conicidence. Plant's mysterious lyrics have also been the subject of speculation even beyond theories of Satanism, with hypotheses that the song can mean whatever the listener wants it to mean (artistic pliability), or that it means nothing at all. In the 1973 concert film The Song Remains The Same, Plant says before performing the song live "I think this is a song of hope". In 2005, the magazine Guitar World held a poll of readers in which "Stairway to Heaven" was voted as containing the greatest guitar solo of all time.[4]

As of May 4, 2006, has sold 23 million copies in the US, making it one of the top four best selling albums in the history of the US music industry.

Houses of the Holy

The band's next studio record, 1973's Houses of the Holy, featured further experimentation, with powerful melodies, longer tracks and expanded use of synthesisers and Mellotron orchestration. The album shows fewer blues influences than any of Led Zeppelin's other albums, turning instead to jazz and classically-inspired riffs; for example, the multi-layered guitar symphony of "The Song Remains the Same", the atmospheric keyboards of "No Quarter", and a moody ballad about a pagan ritual, "The Rain Song". The album also included the explosive ballad "Over the Hills and Far Away", which remains an FM radio staple, and "The Ocean", written largely by John Bonham. Ironically, the song "Houses of the Holy" does not appear on its namesake album, even though it was recorded at the same time as other songs on the album; it is a track on 1975's Physical Graffiti. The orange album cover of "Houses of the Holy" features nude images of children (young girls) climbing up the Giant's Causeway to an unseen idol; although the children are not depicted from the front, this was highly controversial at the time of release, and some areas banned the record.

Led Zeppelin's subsequent Houses of the Holy concert tour of the United States in 1973 broke records for attendance, as they consistently filled large auditoriums and stadiums. At Tampa Stadium, Florida, they played to 56,800 fans (more than The Beatles' 1965 concert at Shea Stadium), and grossed $309,000 . Three sold-out shows at Madison Square Garden in New York were filmed for a motion picture, but the theatrical release of this project would be delayed until 1976.

In 1974, Led Zeppelin launched their own record label, Swan Song, named after one of only five Led Zeppelin songs which the band never released commercially (Page later re-worked the song with his band, The Firm, and it appears as "Midnight Moonlight" on their first album). The record label's logo, based on a painting called Evening: Fall of Day (1869) by William Rimmer, features a picture of Apollo (although it is often misinterpreted as a picture of Icarus, Lucifer, Satan, or Daedelus). The logo can be found on much Led Zeppelin memorabilia, especially t-shirts. In addition to using it as a vehicle to promote their own albums, the band expanded the label's roster, signing artists such as Bad Company, Pretty Things, Maggie Bell, Detective, Dave Edmunds, Midnight Flyer, Sad Café and Wildlife. The label would have success while Led Zeppelin existed, but folded less than three years after their disbanding in 1980.

Physical Graffiti

File:Plant1975.jpg

Robert Plant performing live with Led Zeppelin at Earls Court Exhibition Centre in 1975.

February 24, 1975 saw the release of Physical Graffiti, Led Zeppelin's first double-album containing sixteen lengthy songs on the Swan Song label. Even more so than earlier releases, Jimmy Page's contributions are especially evident (this mid-seventies period was the peak of his playing skills), though every member of the band is given time to make their mark on the album. The band again showed its impressive range with songs such as the ballad "Ten Years Gone", the slide guitar exposition "In My Time of Dying" (the band's longest studio recording at over eleven minutes), the simplified hard rock of "Sick Again", the keyboard-based "Trampled Under Foot", and the trance-like, Indian/Arabic-tinged "Kashmir", which has become an FM radio staple; that song and its lyrics were inspired by Robert Plant's travels in Morocco. A review in Rolling Stone magazine referred to the album as Led Zeppelin's "bid for artistic respectability", adding that the only competition the band had for the title of 'World's best rock band' were the Rolling Stones and The Who.The album was a massive fiscal and critical success. Shortly after the release of Physical Graffiti, all previous Led Zeppelin albums simultaneously re-entered the top-200 album chart. Shortly after the album's release, the band embarked on another U.S. tour, again playing to record-breaking crowds.

File:Page.jpg

Jimmy Page performing live with Led Zeppelin at Earls Court Exhibition Centre in 1975

In May 1975, Led Zeppelin played five highly successful, sold-out nights at the Earls Court Exhibition Centre in London (footage from these concerts was released in 2003, on the Led Zeppelin DVD). This series of concerts is widely considered by fans to be amongst the best of the band's career.

The latter days (1976-1980)

By 1975, Led Zeppelin was a household name in both the United States and Europe, perennially topping the charts on both continents, as they would continue to do throughout these years. Their live shows would increase even further in theaticality, featuring larger stage areas and complex lightshows that were popular with other bands of the era, such as Pink Floyd. While there were musical and commercial successes for Led Zeppelin during this period, problems such as the tragic death of Robert Plant's son, a car crash, Jimmy Page's heroin use, changing musical tastes, and finally John Bonham's alcoholism would ultimately bring an end to Led Zeppelin.

Presence

Led Zeppelin took a break from touring in 1976, during which time Robert Plant and his wife, Maureen, were involved in a serious car crash whilst on holiday in Rhodes, Greece. Robert suffered a broken ankle, while Maureen was very badly injured, and only a flight back to London and a timely blood transfusion saved her life. Unable to tour, the band returned to the studio and, with Plant sitting on a stool during the sessions, recorded their seventh studio album, Presence in Munich, Germany. The album's magnum opus, "Achilles Last Stand", is a ten-and-a-half minute metal epic featuring a driving bass line, lightning fast drumming, melodic guitar riffs and one of Page's best guitar solos. However, the album marked a change in the Led Zeppelin sound to a more punk-like basis, with straightforward, guitar-based jams such as "Nobody's Fault But Mine" (a tune first record by Blind Willie Johnson in the 1920s) outnumbering the intricate arrangements typical of previous albums. It is arguably the heaviest collection of songs the group produced. Whereas their previous albums contained electric hard rock anthems balanced with acoustic ballads, Presence is an almost wholly aggressive grouping of songs.

Presence was a platinum seller, but the album received mixed responses from critics and fans. While many appreciated the looser style others dismissed it as sloppy, and some critics speculated that the band member's legendary excesses might have finally caught up with them, resulting in a sub-standard album release.

The Song Remains The Same

October 21, 1976 finally saw the release of the concert film The Song Remains The Same, and the soundtrack album of the film. The recording had taken place during three nights of concerts at Madison Square Garden in 1973, during the Houses of the Holy concert tour. Each member of the band has a respective "fantasy sequence" unique to them and during a particular song: Plant's involves rescuing a damsel in distress (occurs during "The Rain Song"), Page's depicts a moonlight ritual of some sort (during "Dazed and Confused"), Jones' portrays a gigantic pipe organ (during "No Quarter"), and Bonham's sports fast automobiles (during "Moby Dick (song)". While the quality of the concert footage is generally praised, the accompanying album is not widely considered a great live document because of flawed production and mediocre sound quality. It would be the only official live document of the group available until the release of the BBC Sessions in 1997, and "How the West was Won".

In 1977, Led Zeppelin embarked on another massive U.S. concert tour, again selling out venues in cities like Chicago, Los Angeles and New York. Though hugely successful musically and financially, the tour was beset with off-stage problems. On June 3 an audience riot occurred at Tampa Stadium when the concert was cut short because of a large thunderstorm, resulting in several arrests and injuries, with police ultimately using tear gas to break up the crowd. Then after a show at the "Days on the Green" festival at Oakland Coliseum in California, John Bonham and members of the band's support staff (including manager Peter Grant and security co-ordinator, John Bindon) were arrested after a member of promoter Bill Graham's Oakland concert staff was badly beaten during the concert. A member of the staff had allegedly slapped Grant's son when he was taking down a dressing room sign. When Grant heard of this, he went into the trailer, along with Bindon and John Bonham, and beat the man senseless.

Soon later the news came that Plant's five year old son, Karac, had died from a respiratory infection, resulting in the rest of the tour being canceled. Some critics imputed the bands' many misfortunes in 1977 to an ominous "curse", said to be related to Page's supposed interest in the occult. The band scoffed at such charges.

In Through the Out Door

The summer of 1978 saw the group recording again, this time at ABBA's Polar Studios in Stockholm, Sweden. The resultant album was In Through the Out Door. After a decade of recording and touring, Led Zeppelin was now considered an obsolete musical machine in some quarters, as mainstream musical tastes had moved in favour of disco, and the college audience momentarily turned to punk rock. Perhaps in response to shifting trends, In Through the Out Door features a great deal of sonic experimentation, making much use of Jones' well wrought keyboard skills, notably in synthesiser driven sections of the ten-and-one-half minute long "Carouselambra", and in "Fool in the Rain", which exhibits a Latin feel. These departures from the band's usual style once again drew mixed reactions from fans and critics. Nevertheless, the band still commanded legions of loyal fans, and the album easily reached #1 in the UK and the US (where it became the first album by a rock band to debut at #1 on the Billboard album chart). Other highlights include, "In the Evening", which includes a downbeat interlude which would predate a similar technique used by later grunge bands such as Nirvana, and All My Love, Robert Plant's tribute to his late son. The original gramophone record of this album featured an outer sleeve which was made to look like a plain brown paper bag, and the LP record sleeve proper featured black and white line artwork which, if washed with a wet brush, would become permanently fully coloured. The album itself was released with several different cover designs, each having the viewpoint of a different person in a bar watching a man burning something, which is revealed inside to be a Dear John letter.

In August 1979, after two warm-up shows in Copenhagen, Led Zeppelin headlined at the legendary Knebworth music festival. A massive success, close to 200,000 fans witnessed the return of Led Zeppelin and, with the release of In Through the Out Door on August 15, the band was eager to tour again, planning a short European tour followed by another American tour.

"A tragic end"

The 1980 American tour was not to be: On September 24, 1980, John Bonham was picked up by Led Zeppelin assistant Rex King from The Old Hyde to be at rehearsals at Bray Studios for the upcoming tour of the United States, the band's first since 1977. During the journey Bonham had asked to stop for breakfast, where he downed four quadruple vodkas (roughly sixteen shots (~8dl) of vodka), with a ham roll. After taking a bite of the ham roll he said to his assistant 'Breakfast.'

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John Bonham in 1970. The drummer died in 1980 after a drinking binge.

He then continued to drink when he arrived at the studio. A halt was called to the rehearsals late in the evening and the band retired to Page's house — The Old Mill House in Clewer, Windsor. After midnight, Bonham had fallen asleep and was taken to bed on his side. It was rumoured that he had a total of forty shots that night. Tour Manager (replacing Richard Cole, who was taking a break from tour managing to control his drug habits) Benji LeFevre and John Paul Jones found him dead the next morning. Bonham was 32 years old.

The cause of death was asphyxiation of vomit. A subsequent coroner inquest found no other drugs in Bonham's body. The alcoholism that had plagued the drummer since his earliest days with the band, ultimately led to his untimely death. John Bonham's son, Jason Bonham (who went on to become a rock drummer like his father), said on the 2006 VH1 show "Supergroup" that he has a personal dislike of alcohol and avoid it, partially by reason of his father's alcohol-induced death. John Bonham was cremated and a funeral was held on October 10th, 1980 at Rushock, Worcestershire parish church near The Old Hyde farm. The headstone reads:

"Cherished memories of a loving husband and father, John Henry Bonham Who died Sept. 25th 1980. He will always be remembered in our hearts, Goodnight my Love, God Bless."

Despite rumours that Cozy Powell, Carmine Appice, Simon Kirke, or Bev Bevan would join the group as his replacement, the remaining members disbanded Led Zeppelin after Bonham's death. They issued a statement, once and for all clarifying that the band would not continue without its irreplaceable drummer. In December 1980, they disbanded permanently as Led Zeppelin, saying: "We wish it to be known that the loss of our dear friend and the deep sense of undivided harmony felt by ourselves and our manager, have led us to decide that we could not continue as we were".

In the years to follow, a steady stream of boxed sets, never before released material, and greatest hits collections kept the band on the charts along with their major albums, which perennially sell in the millions, as Led Zeppelin continues to garner heavy airplay on rock radio.

Reunions and ongoing success (1981-present)

1980s

After Led Zeppelin disbanded in 1980, Jimmy Page stopped playing guitar regularly until 1983, when he embarked on a short tour with the ARMS project, a charity event for multiple sclerosis. The tour also included former Yardbird guitarists Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck. Each artist performed separately, with Page performing tunes from his Death Wish 2 soundtrack along with an instrumental version of Stairway to Heaven, although performances of other Led Zeppelin songs were rare. For the finale, all three guitarists shared the stage, trading blues solos. During the tour Page looked extremely thin and frail. According to the book "Hammer of the Gods," Page reportedly told friends that he'd just given up heroin after seven years of use. In a 1988 interview with Musician Magazine, Page took offense when the interviewer noted that heroin had been associated with his name, and insisted that "I'm not [an addict], thank you very much." In 1984, Page teamed up with Paul Rodgers (of Bad Company and Free fame) to record two albums under the name The Firm. The first album included an epic song called "Midnight Moonlight" which had originally been intended for Led Zeppelin.

Pictures at Eleven album cover--Robert Plant Plant's first solo album

Robert Plant had launched his own successful solo career 1982 with the album Pictures at Eleven, and in 1984 teamed with Page for the commercially successful EP The Honeydrippers: Volume One, which also featured another former Yardbirds guitarist, Jeff Beck.

On 13 July, 1985 Page, Plant and John Paul Jones reunited at the Live Aid concert at JFK Stadium, Philadelphia, for a short Led Zeppelin set featuring drummers Tony Thompson and Phil Collins. The performance, which included three songs ("Rock and Roll", "Whole Lotta Love" and "Stairway to Heaven"), was marred by such factors as bad broadcast sound, poor drumming, a sub-standard vocal performance from Plant, and Page's apparent inebriation and badly tuned Gibson Les Paul guitar (the Gibson EDS-1275 was in tune). When Live Aid footage was released on a four-DVD set in late 2004, the group unanimously agreed not to allow footage from their performance to be used, agreeing that it was not up to their standards. However, Page and Plant donated proceeds from their Unledded DVD to the Live Aid charity, and Jones donated a portion of the profits from his United States tour with the Mutual Admiration Society.

In 1986, Page, Plant and Jones gathered at Bath, in South West England, for rehearsals with Thompson with a view to playing as a group again, but a serious car accident involving Thompson put an end to that plan. 1988 turned out to be a significant year for the surviving Led Zeppelin members, with much talk about a reunion tour. A Rolling Stone critic commented at year's end that "1988 was the biggest year Led Zeppelin ever had, and they only played once." A newer band, Kingdom Come, had a hit single called "Get It On", which sounded so much like Led Zeppelin that many listeners thought that the band had reformed, and the song received heavy airplay. Additional excitement was generated by Page's appearance on Plant's album Now and Zen, where he performed on the tracks "Heaven Knows" and "Tall Cool One" (the latter also featuring samples of Page's guitar riffs from the original Led Zeppelin recordings). Plant later sang on track four ("The Only One") of Page's album Outrider, released in June. For the first time since Bonham's death, Plant began performing Zeppelin tunes on his solo tour. When Plant's European tour visited London's Hammersmith Odeon on April 17, 1988, Page joined Plant on stage for several numbers. Both Page and Plant mounted tours in the United States later in the year, each performing Led Zeppelin numbers to ecstatic audiences.

Led Zeppelin reunited again in May of 1988, for Atlantic Records' 40th Anniversary concert, with Bonham's son, Jason Bonham, on drums. The performance was again flawed, this time by a lack of keyboards in the mix, and by Page's unusually lackluster performance during "Heartbreaker". Page and Plant performed with Jason Bonham again at the 21st birthday party of Plant's daughter, Carmen, and at Jason Bonham's wedding. The media published countless articles about Led Zeppelin, with speculation about a reunion tour.

1990s

On June 30, 1990, while Plant was touring in support of his album, Manic Nirvana, Page joined him for a brief set at the Knebworth music festival. The set included "Wearing and Tearing", "Misty Mountain Hop" and "Rock and Roll". The concert was broadcast by radio stations around the world, and highlights of the event, including the entire Page/Plant set, were later shown on MTV. On other dates of the tour, Plant performed wearing a Jimmy Page t-shirt.

Page and Plant reunited in 1994 for an MTV Unplugged performance (dubbed Unledded) which eventually led to a world tour with a Middle Eastern orchestra, and a live album entitled No Quarter. The bass player was Charlie Jones, who had been the bassist with Plant's own band for several years (and was now his son-in-law, having married Carmen Plant). Many see this as the beginning of discord with John Paul Jones, who was upset with Page and Plant for touring without asking him first. Tensions were further increased when Plant was asked at a press conference where Jones was, and he jokingly replied that Jones was parking the car. Jones later commented that he was unhappy about Plant and Page naming the album after a Led Zeppelin song which was largely his work. In a 1995 interview with Spin magazine, Page kicked the interviewer out of the room simply for mentioning Jones.

On January 13, 1995, Led Zeppelin was inducted into the United States Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. At the induction ceremony, the band's inner rift became apparent when Jones joked upon accepting his award, "Thank you, my friends, for finally remembering my phone number," causing consternation and awkward looks from Page and Plant. The three jammed with Aerosmith's Steven Tyler and Joe Perry on "Bring It On Home" and "Baby Please Don't Go", and with Neil Young on "When the Levee Breaks."

November 11, 1997 saw the release of Led Zeppelin BBC Sessions, the first Led Zeppelin album in more than fifteen years. The two-disc set included almost all of the band's recordings for the BBC. In 1998, Page and Plant continued their collaboration with Walking into Clarksdale, the pair's first album-length collaboration on entirely new material since Led Zeppelin disbanded in 1980. The subsequent tour featured Led Zeppelin songs (including the epic "How Many More Times") along with a few songs from the new album.

2000s

On May 30, 2000, Atlantic released a single edit of "Whole Lotta Love", making it the only Led Zeppelin CD single. In October 2002, The British press reported that Robert Plant and John Paul Jones had reconciled after a 20-year feud which had kept Led Zeppelin apart, and rumours surfaced of a reunion tour in 2003. This was later denied by Plant and Page's management company.

2003 saw a resurgence of the band's popularity with the release of a live album, How the West Was Won, and a video collection, Led Zeppelin DVD, both featuring material from the band's heyday. At the year's end, the DVD had sold more than 520,000 copies. Around Christmas 2004, "Stairway To Heaven" was voted the best rock song of all time by Planet Rock listeners, in a poll conducted on the station's website. Two other Led Zeppelin songs featured in the top ten - "Whole Lotta Love" at number six and "Rock and Roll" at number eight.

In 2005, Led Zeppelin received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, they were ranked #1 in US cable channel VH1's "100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock" special, and readers of Guitar World magazine voted the guitar solo from "Stairway to Heaven" to be the best guitar solo of all time in rock history. In Rolling Stone magazine's tabulation of the greatest guitarists of all time , Jimmy Page was ranked number nine. In November 2005, it was announced that Led Zeppelin and Russian conductor Valery Gergiev were the winners of the 2006 Polar Music Prize. The King of Sweden presented the prize to Plant, Page and Jones, along with John Bonham's daughter, in Stockholm in May, 2006.

On the cover of their February 2006 issue, Guitar World magazine called Led Zeppelin the "world's greatest band." The band, and Jimmy Page especially, have been featured in the magazine numerous times, whether in articles about the band itself, about topics that include the band, or in articles where other musicians cite the band as a powerful influence.

Page and Plant were slated to appear on June 30th, 2006 at the Montreux Jazz Festival for a tribute to Ahmet Ertegun, Atlantic Records' founder, but Jimmy Page did not appear, citing unnamed medical problems.

Led Zeppelin has always been very protective of its catalogue of songs, and has seldom allowed them to be licensed for online download services, films, or commercials. In recent years, this position has softened somewhat, and Led Zeppelin songs can be heard in movies such as One Day in September, Almost Famous and School of Rock. On the DVD release of the last movie, a special feature shows star Jack Black and an auditorium full of extras videotaping a plea to Led Zeppelin for permission to use "Immigrant Song" in the film. In a singular concession for commercial use, the Led Zeppelin song "Rock and Roll" has been used in Cadillac television and radio ads. One Tree Hill was the first television show to be licensed use of a Led Zeppelin song (using "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You" for the Season 3 finale).

Samples, covers, and tributes

Beginning in the early 1980s, other musical artists showed interest in experimenting with Led Zeppelin's music. This led to the creation of many tribute bands, the recording of countless cover songs, and, with the advent of hip hop, the use of samples from Led Zeppelin's songs.

For a list of some of the more prominent Led Zeppelin covers, tributes, and samples, see Led Zeppelin: Covers and Tributes.

Discography

Further information: Led Zeppelin discography

Albums

Album Cover	Date of Release	Title
File:LedZeppelinLedZeppelinalbumcover.jpg	January 12, 1969	Led Zeppelin
File:LedZeppelinLedZeppelinIIalbumcover.jpg	October 22, 1969	Led Zeppelin II
File:Ledzeppeliniii.jpg	October 5, 1970	Led Zeppelin III
	November 8, 1971	* (Led Zeppelin IV)
	March 28, 1973	Houses of the Holy
File:LedZeppelinPhysicalGraffitialbumcover.jpg	February 24, 1975	Physical Graffiti
File:LedZeppelinPresencecover.jpg	March 31, 1976	Presence
File:LedZeppelinTheSongRemainsTheSamealbumcover.jpg	September 21, 1976	The Song Remains The Same
File:LedZeppelinInThroughTheOutDoorcover.jpg	August 15, 1979	In Through The Out Door
	November 19, 1982	Coda
File:Led zeppelin bbc sessions cover.jpg	November 11, 1997	Led Zeppelin BBC Sessions
	May 27, 2003	How The West Was Won

Compilations and other releases

• Remasters (September 9, 1990)
• Profiled (September 21, 1990) - Promotional interview CD
• Led Zeppelin (boxed set, volume 1) (September 7, 1990) ‡
• Led Zeppelin (boxed set, volume 2) (21 September 1993) ‡
• Complete Studio Recordings (boxed set) September 24, 1993 ‡
• Early Days: Best of Led Zeppelin Volume One (November 23, 1999)
• Latter Days: Best of Led Zeppelin Volume Two, (March 21, 2000)
• Early Days & Latter Days (2 CD set) (November 19, 2002)

‡ Contains some tracks not available elsewhere

Filmography

• The Song Remains the Same (1976)
• Led Zeppelin DVD (2003)

See also

• Led Zeppelin Concert Tour Chronology
• Led Zeppelin bootleg recordings
• List of best-selling music artists.

Sources

• Electric Magic: Led Zeppelin fan site
• Bron-Yr-Aur: Italian Led Zeppelin fan site
• Achilles Last Stand: Led Zeppelin fan site
• Led Zeppelin – East Grinstead Hall of Fame
• Tight But Loose: Led Zeppelin fan magazine
• Classic Led Zeppelin photos by photographer Chris Walter
• 100 Greatest Guitar Solos
• The Garden Tapes - An indepth study of Led Zeppelin live releases.

External links

• Official site
• Rock and Roll Hall of Fame bio
• Rolling Stone Magazine
• Billboard Magazine
• VH1 Bio
• Led Zeppelin discography at MusicBrainz