Led Zeppelin

Led Zeppelin

Led Zeppelin was an English rock group that formed in 1968 and featured the members Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Bonham and John Paul Jones. They were considered to be the first true heavy metal bands because of their heavy guitar driven sound. This sound shaped the new face of rock and roll, adding a new genera of music to an era desperate for a new sound. They were also very big in producing album orientated rock and not simply releasing singles like many other bands of the era.
The early days of Led Zeppelin was actually not Led Zeppelin at all, Jimmy Page played bass in “The Yardbirds” in 1966 with Paul Samwell Smith, McCarty, Relf and Jeff Beck until Smith left the band and Page took over second lead guitar with Beck. The Yardbirds began to break up over the next year or so and Page decided he wanted to start a “supergroup” with himself and Beck on guitar. After touring and playing shows for some time, Page and Chris Dreja got permission from the rest of the group to use the name “Yardbirds”; and to fulfill the bands previous obligations of a Scandinavian tour. From this point they began to build a new band and found Robert Plant, a singer from Birmingham and John Bonham from near by Redditch. After a short time Dreja left the group to become a photographer leaving an open space which was filled by the final piece of the band, John Paul Jones.
The band completed the Scandinavian tour as "The New Yardbirds" before changing their name to "Led Zeppelin" which was chosen as their new name after a newspaper review predicted they would go down like a lead zeppelin, a term used to describe a bad gig. After some discussion, the band decided to stick with it thinking that it fit their newly found style of music, but decided to drop the “a” to keep from “dumb Americans” calling them leed. Their manager Grant secured an advanced deal of $200,000 from Atlantic Records in November 1968, which at that time was the biggest deal of its kind for a new band, especially when they had never seen them. With their first album not yet released, Zeppelin made their live debut at the University of Surrey in Guildford on October 15, 1968. This was followed by a U.S. concert debut on December 26, 1968 before moving on to the west coast for dates in Los Angeles, San Francisco and other cities.
The success of Led Zeppelin's early years would be categorized by a five year period in which the band would release their best selling albums and ascend to musical success in the 1970s. The band's image also changed as members began to wear elaborate, colorful clothing and jewelry similar to other popular performers of the era. If the band's popularity on stage was impressive, so too was its reputation for off-stage wildness and excess partying. Led Zeppelin began traveling in a private jet airliner, rented out entire sections of hotels, and became the subject of many of rock's most famous stories of unrestrained, self indulgent behavior.
By 1976, Led Zeppelin was becoming increasingly popular, having outsold most bands of the time, including the Rolling Stones. Their live shows increased even further theatricality, featuring larger stage areas and complex lights shows. While there were still massive musical and commercial successes for the band during this period, problems such as the 1977 death of Robert Plant's son, Jimmy Page's heroin use, changing musical tastes, and John Bonham's 1980 death would finally bring an end to Led Zeppelin. Led Zeppelin changed the face of rock as we know it and they continue to be one of the most influential and known bands of all time. They currently have three songs on the top ten rock and roll list of all time, including “Stairway to Heaven” which sits at number one. Zeppelin changed the face of music and gave a new name to rock and roll, their talented guitar and incredible vocals alongside their notorious partying will forever hold a place in the world of rock and roll and bands in the future will have a hard time matching the social influence that Led Zeppelin gave not only the United States but the rest of the world as well.