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-THE ISLAND LIFE-
ON THIS DATE (53 YEARS AGO)
November 8, 1971 – Led Zeppelin: IV (ZOSO) is released.
The fourth album by Led Zeppelin was released in the US on November 8, 1971 (November 12 in the UK). It reached #2 on the Billboard 200 Top LP's chart and topped the UK Albums chart. In 2003, the album was ranked 66th on Rolling Stone magazine's list of "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time".
In 1998, Q magazine readers voted Led Zeppelin IV the 26th greatest album of all time; in 2000 Q placed it at #26 in its list of the 100 Greatest British Albums Ever.
No title is printed on the album, so it is generally referred to as Led Zeppelin IV, following the naming standard used by the band's first three studio albums. The album has alternately been referred to as the Four Symbols logo, Four Symbols, The Fourth Album (those two titles each having been used in the Atlantic catalog), Untitled, The Runes, The Hermit, and ZoSo, the latter of which is derived from the symbol used by Jimmy Page for the album sleeve.
The album was initially recorded at Island Records' newly opened Basing Street Studios, London, at the same time as Jethro Tull's Aqualung in December 1970. Upon the suggestion of Fleetwood Mac, the band then moved to Headley Grange, a remote Victorian house in East Hampshire, England, to conduct additional recordings. Here they used the Rolling Stones Mobile Studio. Jimmy Page later recalled: "We needed the sort of facilities where we could have a cup of tea and wander around the garden and go in and do what we had to do." This relaxed, atmospheric environment at Headley Grange also provided other advantages for the band. As is explained by Dave Lewis, "By moving into Headley Grange for the whole period of recording, many of the tracks [on the album] were made up on the spot and committed to tape almost there and then."
Once the basic tracks had been recorded, the band later added overdubs at Island Studios, and then took the completed master tapes to Sunset Sound in Los Angeles for mixing. However, the mix ultimately proved to be less than satisfactory, creating an unwanted delay in the album's release. Further mixing had to be undertaken in London, pushing the final release date back by some months.
Three other songs from the sessions, "Down by the Seaside", "Night Flight" and "Boogie With Stu" (featuring Rolling Stones co-founder/collaborator Ian Stewart on piano), did not appear on the album but were included four years later on the double album Physical Graffiti.
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Led Zeppelin / Light and Shade (excerpt)
by Cameron Crowe
Hollywood 1973.
Led Zeppelin IV, was a watershed moment in the band's history. The lp slipped into stores in 1971 with little fanfare. Here was a more "mature" work that also rocked as hard as any of their previous efforts. It was remarkable music for a band that was still, essentially, a trio with a great singer.
Bonham and Jones had begun to feel their confidence. It was Bonham who spontaneously interrupted work on another (never-finished) track by playing the drum-part from Little Richard's "Keep A-Knockin'." And Jones had brought in another idea, inspired by the Muddy Waters album Electric Mud.
"I wanted to try an electric blues with a rolling bass part," Jones recalls, humming the part. "But it couldn't be to simple. I wanted it to turn back on itself. I showed it to the guys, and we fell into it. We struggled with the turn-around until Bonham figured out that you just count four-times as if there's no turn-around. That was the secret. Anyway, we titled it after a dog that was wandering in and out of the studio. The dog had no name, so we just called the song 'Black Dog.'"
The highlight of the album, of course, was "Stairway to heaven." The most-played track in radio history, it began like many Zeppelin classics...on a tape from Page's home studio. Recording at Headley Grange, a converted poorhouse in Hampshire, Page first played the track to John Paul Jones. "Bonzo and Robert had gone out for the night, and I worked really hard on the thing. Jonesy and I then routined it together, and later we ran through it with the drums and everything. Robert was sitting there at the same time, by the fireplace, and I believe he came up with 80% of the lyrics at that time. He was just sort of writing away and suddenly there it was...."
Plant picks up the story: "Yeah, I just sat next to Pagey while he was playing it through. It was done very quickly. It took a little working out, but it was a very fluid, unnaturally easy track. It was almost as if--uh-oh--it just had to be gotten out at that time. There was something pushing it, saying 'you guys are okay, but if you want to do something timeless, here's a wedding song for you."
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THE FOUR SYMBOLS
The idea for each member of the band to choose a personal emblem for the cover was Page's.
In an interview he gave in 1977, Page recalled:
"After all this crap that we'd had with the critics, I put it to everybody else that it'd be a good idea to put out something totally anonymous. At first I wanted just one symbol on it, but then it was decided that since it was our fourth album and there were four of us, we could each choose our own symbol. I designed mine and everyone else had their own reasons for using the symbols that they used."
Page stated that he designed his own symbol and has never publicly disclosed any reasoning behind it. However, it has been argued that his symbol appeared as early as 1557 to represent Saturn. The symbol is sometimes referred to as "ZoSo", though Page has explained that it was not in fact intended to be a word at all.
Bassist John Paul Jones' symbol, which he chose from Rudolf Koch's Book of Signs, is a single circle intersecting three vesica pisces (a triquetra). It is intended to symbolize a person who possesses both confidence and competence.
Drummer John Bonham's symbol, the three interlocking rings, was picked by the drummer from the same book. It represents the triad of mother, father and child, but also happens -- inverted -- to be the logo for Ballantine beer.
Singer Robert Plant's symbol of a feather within a circle was his own design, being based on the sign of the supposed Mu civilization.
There is also a fifth, smaller symbol chosen by guest vocalist Sandy Denny representing her contribution to the track "The Battle of Evermore"; it appears in the credits list on the inner sleeve of the LP, serving as an asterisk and is shaped like three triangles touching at their points.
During Led Zeppelin's tour of the United Kingdom in winter 1971, which took place shortly following the release of the album, the band visually projected the four symbols on their stage equipment. Page's symbol was put onto one of his Marshall amplifiers, Bonham's three interlinked circles adorned the outer face of his bass drum, Jones had his symbol stenciled onto material which was draped across his Fender Rhodes keyboard, and Plant's feather symbol was painted onto a side speaker PA cabinet. Only Page's and Bonham's symbols were retained for subsequent Led Zeppelin concert tours.
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ALBUM COVER
The 19th-century rustic oil painting on the front of the album was purchased from an antique shop in Reading, Berkshire by Plant. The painting was then juxtaposed and affixed to the internal, papered wall of the partly demolished suburban house for the photograph to be taken.
Page has explained that the cover of the fourth album was intended to bring out a city/country dichotomy that had initially surfaced on Led Zeppelin III:
"It represented the change in the balance which was going on. There was the old countryman and the blocks of flats being knocked down. It was just a way of saying that we should look after the earth, not rape and pillage it."
However, regarding the meaning of the album cover, he has also stated:
"The cover was supposed to be something that was for other people to savor rather than for me to actually spell everything out, which would make the whole thing rather disappointing on that level of your own personal adventure into the music."
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ORIGINAL MELODY MAKER REVIEW
By Chris Welch, November 13, 1971
Take a deep breath. Robert Plant does this just before "Going To California". It is their fourth and not their "best" or their "worst". It is a fine new album by a group who can now take a step outside the environment of controversy that expands like a conurbation around the newly successful
Heated discussion in terms of comparison can end here. Page, Plant, Bonham and Jones are the band, and they have deliberately left their work untitled. It is not a denial of the past but a springboard to better things. Not all tracks are brilliant.
"Four Sticks" is not a riff that knocks me out overmuch. So it is not a perfect album, but there is a thread of consistency that winds through all the music and there is a bond between the players that reveals strength and a sense of attractive "Battle Of Evermore", and sings a pretty but lusty duet with Bob over a choir of mandolin and acoustic guitars. To complete the goodies on Side One is "Stairway To Heaven", one of the band's best songs, and another splendid performance by Robert. "There's a sense of direction not so apparent on their last album" direction not so apparent on their last album.
The sound of Zeppelin in full cry is most satisfying, and "Black Dog", the opener, is a beefy stomp, with Robert throwing his head back at some point midway between speakers and the Page guitar and Bonham drums marching on triumphant.
"Rock And Roll" is just that, and winds up the tempo to feature Jimmy in a looping, exultant solo while John Paul's piano clinks in the time-honoured fashion. Sandy Denny makes a welcome guest appearance on the attractive "Battle Of Evermore", and sings a pretty but lusty duet with Bob over a choir of mandolin and acoustic guitars. To complete the goodies on Side One is "Stairway To Heaven", one of the band's best songs, and another splendid performance by Robert
It's back to the best on "Misty Mountain Hop", and it is here the strange contrast between songs becomes most apparent. There is a cliff -hanging sensation from the soft moods of "Stairway" to the drive of "Hop", which jumps in all directions with good country cheer.
"Four Sticks" is a powerful piece and features Bonham using four drumsticks. But the repetitive riff Jimmy employs here is not particularly inventive. "Going To California" gives Robert another opportunity to sing in his lower register, which he does so well.
"When The Levee Breaks", their final statement, is a good example of the full band in action. Taken at mid-tempo, it has a hypnotic effect as Bonham's bass drum drops bombs into the cellar.
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ORIGINAL ROLLING STONE REVIEW
It might seem a bit incongruous to say that Led Zeppelin -- a band never particularly known for its tendency to understate matters -- has produced an album which is remarkable for its low-keyed and tasteful subtly, but that's just the case here. The march of the dinosaurs that broke the ground for their first epic release has apparently vanished, taking along with it the splattering electronics of their second effort and the leaden acoustic moves that seemed to weigh down their third. What's been saved is the pumping adrenalin drive that held the key to such classics as "Communication Breakdown" and "Whole Lotta Love," the incredibly sharp and precise vocal dynamism of Robert Plant, and some of the tightest arranging and producing Jimmy Page has yet seen his way toward doing. If this thing with the semi-metaphysical title isn't quite their best to date, since the very chances that the others took meant they would visit some outrageous highs as well as some overbearing lows, it certainly comes off as their most consistently good.
One of the ways in which this is demonstrated is the sheer variety of the album: out of the eight cuts, there isn't one that steps on another's toes, that tries to do too much all at once. There are Olde English ballads ("The Ballad of Evermore" with a lovely performance by Sandy Denny), a kind of pseudo-blues just to keep in touch ("Four Sticks"), a pair of authentic Zepplinania ("Black Dog" and "Misty Mountain Hop"), some stuff that I might actually call shy and poetic if it didn't carry itself off so well ("Stairway to Heaven" and "Going To California"), and a couple of songs that when all is said and done, will probably be right up there in the gold-starred hierarchy of put 'em on and play 'em agains. The first, coyly titled "Rock And Roll," is the Zeppelin's slightly-late attempt at tribute to the mother of us all, but here it's definitely a case of better late than never. This sonuvabitch moves, with Plant musing vocally on how "It's been a long, lonely lonely time" since last he rock & rolled, the rhythm section soaring underneath. Page strides up to take a nice lead during the break, one of the all-too-few times he flashes his guitar prowess during the record, and its note-for-note simplicity says a lot for the ways in which he's come of age over the past couple of years.
The end of the album is saved for "When The Levee Breaks," strangely credited to all the members of the band plus Memphis Minnie, and it's a dazzler. Basing themselves around one honey of a chord progression, the group constructs an air of tunnel-long depth, full of stunning resolves and a majesty that sets up as a perfect climax. Led Zep have had a lot of imitators over the past few years, but it takes cuts like this to show that most of them have only picked up the style, lacking any real knowledge of the meat underneath.
Uh huh, they got it down all right. And since the latest issue of Cashbox noted that this 'un was a gold disc on its first day of release, I guess they're about to nicely keep it up. Not bad for a pack of Limey lemon squeezers.
~ Lenny Kaye (December 23, 1971)
TRACKS:
Side one
1 Black Dog (Jimmy Page/Robert Plant/John Paul Jones) - 4:54
2 Rock and Roll (Page/Plant/Jones/John Bonham) - 3:40
3 The Battle of Evermore (Page/Plant) - 5:51
4 Stairway to Heaven (Page/Plant) - 8:02
Side two
1 Misty Mountain Hop (Page/Plant/Jones) - 4:38
2 Four Sticks - (Page/Plant) - 4:44
3 Going to California (Page/Plant) - 3:31
4 When the Levee Breaks (Memphis Minnie, Led Zep) - 7:07
Credits Goes to the respective
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