Album Title: Led Zeppelin IV
Artist: Led Zeppelin
Release Date: November 8, 1971
Side One
Black Dog (Jones/Page/Plant)
Rock and Roll (Bonham/Jones/Page/Plant)
Battle of Evermore (Page/Plant)
Stairway to Heaven (Page/Plant)
Side Two
Misty Mountain Hop (Jones/Page/Plant)
Four Sticks (Page/Plant)
Going to California (Page/Plant)
When the Levee Breaks (Memphis Minnie[/Kansas Joe McCoy]/Bonham/Jones/Page/Plant)
All of Led Zeppelin's albums were huge in the 1970s, a decade that was the heyday of "album rock", in no small part because of Zeppelin themselves (granted, the band's first two albums were actually released at the tail end of the 1960s, but even those albums remained radio staples throughout the following decade) and continued to sell well for years afterward. However, their fourth album
has to be their most well-known, largely though not entirely because of the presence of "Stairway to Heaven", the song that consistently topped "best songs of all time" votes on classic rock radio for decades after its release. Whether it is actually their best album is of course highly subjective; I'd say a good case can be made for Houses of the Holy and Physical Graffiti (II and III are also very good, if not quite as varied, and I'm even quite fond of much of the somewhat inconsistent In Through the Out Door, but none of these can match the middle three albums - in my opinion, of course). But this album is certainly one of their best, and not just because of "Stairway". Several of the eight songs on the album are almost universally regarded as classics, and none of them are truly weak. I'd say that if this album falls short anywhere in comparison with its two successors, it's in terms of variety. Not that it lacks variety - songs like "Going to California" and "The Battle of Evermore" are quite different both from each other and from the stereotypical heavy rock song that many people associate with Zeppelin. But there is even greater variety on Houses of the Holy and Physical Graffiti, particularly the latter - though that is a somewhat unfair comparison, since Physical Graffiti, as a double album, has far more songs. The other two albums also each have a number of songs that rank among the band's best, though that is true of IV as well.
Note on album title: Technically, this album doesn't have an official title, since there isn't one on the cover. It is sometimes referred to using the four symbols that appear on the inner sleeve, each representing a band member, for example as Runes, Four Symbols, or Zoso (after Jimmy Page's symbol, the first of the four, which resembles those letters). It is also sometimes called simply Untitled. But since the band's first three albums were titled Led Zeppelin, Led Zeppelin II, and Led Zeppelin III, the title most commonly given to the fourth album is Led Zeppelin IV, a title often used by Page himself.
Note on links: There don't seem to be links to the studio versions of a few of these songs on You Tube (presumably either the record company or the band blocks any attempts to upload them), so some of the links are to live versions, which are often noticeably different from the studio versions.
Led Zeppelin IV Song by Song
Black Dog: The iconic opening track, famous for its call and response structure (which Peter Green had previously used to great effect in the Fleetwood Mac song "Oh Well") and the riff written by bassist John Paul Jones. Pretty much anyone who has listened to any amount of classic rock will recognize Robert Plant's opening line and then the thundering riff. Some of Plant's lyrics are (not
for the first time in the band's career) on the misogynistic side, but that aside the song is very much deserving of its classic status.
Rock and Roll: Another widely recognized classic, powered by some intense drumming by John Bonham. Plant's vocals are excellent, though his lyrics (paying tribute to the early rock & roll of the 1950s) are not always intelligible - again not unusual for the band. Rolling Stones pianist Ian Stewart also played on the track, his piano connecting the song more closely to the music it celebrates, though of course Zeppelin's version of "rock & roll" is kicked up a notch. Another high point on an album full of them.
Battle of Evermore: After two hard rocking tunes, the band wisely decided to slow things down with this song, the music for which Page wrote on Jones's mandolin. The mandolin alone makes the song unique in the band's catalogue, and Plant's Tolkienesque lyrics add to the medieval atmosphere. The song is a duet between Plant and folk singer Sandy Denny, another unique feature of the song, as it
is the only time the band featured a guest vocalist. While this song doesn't have quite the classic status of the two that precede it (or the one that comes after it), it is a solid album track and gives the album greater variety.
Stairway to Heaven: What hasn't already been said about this song? The features of it that appeal to me are the same that appeal to many others - its slow build up from gentle folk tune to powerhouse rock song, the musical variety encompassed in its eight minutes of playing time, the vague yet appealing poetry of the lyrics, and the impressive performance by the band. As it was for some many
others (to the point that the movie Wayne's World made a joke out of it), its opening was one of the first things I learned to play on the guitar (I got to the point where I could play the whole song, though not with any great facility and without any soloing, but now I just remember the beginning and a few bits here and there through the remainder of the song). It is still one of my favorite
Led Zeppelin songs, though nowadays I'd have to say I like "Kashmir", "Over the Hills and Far Away", "Houses of the Holy" and a few others about as much. As for the question that recently has been debated widely in the media and the courts, i.e., did Zeppelin and Page in particular rip off the tune "Taurus" by the band Spirit and its guitarist Randy California? I have to say that the jury probably made the right choice in denying the claim (though apparently the decision is being appealed). There is unquestionably a close resemblance between the opening bars of "Taurus" and "Stairway", and I have no doubt Page was, consciously or unconsiously, influenced by the Spirit track. But even the opening bit is not completely identical, and the progression is a rather obvious one that had been used many times before in the past, as was pointed out in Zeppelin's defense, meaning that while Page's "composition" wasn't entirely original, but then neither was Randy California's. As for the rest of the song, it is completely different. So this is not a case where Zeppelin should be forced to share credit, unlike "Dazed and Confused" or "Babe, I'm Gonna Leave You". The fact that the iconic opening is not as original as many fans thought does puncture somewhat the song's aura of near sacredness, but then no song, however good, deserves to be treated like it's a holy relic, and anyone who knows music history well knows that complete originality is virtually impossible, at least in any song that has mass appeal.
Misty Mountain Hop: While this song isn't played quite as often as some of the others on the album, I've always been quite fond of it, and its a contender for my favorite track on side two, though "Going to California" in particular is hard to beat. This one is a pretty straight forward rocker with a nice groove to it, and some fun, California hippy inspired lyrics by Plant.
Four Sticks: This is another solid track, and one I enjoy when I'm actually listening to it, but for some reason I've never found it quite as memorable as the rest of the album. Still, most heavy rock bands would no doubt be thrilled to have something as good in their catalogs.
Going to California: A folk ballad inspired by Joni Mitchell is pretty far from most people's idea of a typical Led Zeppelin song, but that's exactly what this is, and it's a great piece of work. Page demonstrates his acoustic guitar chops and Plant shows his versatility as a vocalist. This song is regarded by many as one of the band's best, and with good reason.
When the Levee Breaks: Another song generally regarded as a classic, with Bonham's crashing drums in particular inspiring a generation of drummers and ending up widely sampled in hip hop. I tend to prefer "Going to California" or even "Misty Mountain Hop" from this side of the album, but it's a pretty close call. Notably, this song harkens back to the band's first two albums in that it is a total rewrite of an old blues song, in this case one from the 1920s originally written and performed by the husband and wife team of Kansas Joe McCoy and Memphis Minnie. Zeppelin co-credited Memphis Minnie on their original release (unlike some other recordings where they failed to credit the original writers of the songs they redid, though in many cases probably through ignorance of the song's origins). But as with similar tracks on earlier albums, the band drastically transformed the song, making it into something quite different from the original song.
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