Produced by Jimmy Page
Released: 1971
There was plenty of good stuff on the first three Led Zeppelin albums, but the fourth is where all the elements of their sound finally coalesed properly. Unadorned, with a non-descript cover, no title and not even a track listing, this album was intended to be judged purely on its contents alone. After only their second full year as a band, no other group in history would have had the temerity to attempt such an unconventional experiment, but Led Zeppelin were already massive superstars by the time of this release, so anything with their name on it was going to be pre-judged even before it had been heard.
Dominated by the epic masterpiece of "Stairway to Heaven", this album was the culmination of all the band's eclectic aspirations, leanings and inspirations from bombastic heavy rock to psychedelic stomps, folk rock to enormous blues work-outs. No matter what the guise, Led Zeppelin managed to wear it with consummate ease here, as they would for the rest of their career. It was the perfect amalgam of excess and subtlety that set them apart from every other band of their era, and most others to follow.
With its curious "backwards" riff, "Black Dog" got things underway, showing Led Zeppelin at their most primal: Robert Plant's remarkable shriek, Jimmy Page's urgent guitar splats and John Bonham's huge, booming drums. Bonham's immense sound is an integral part of what made this band so special, and here they were recorded with him playing at the bottom of a stairwell and the mikes at the top for maximum echo and reverb. On top of that, on "Four Sticks" he plays with two sticks in each hand! There's more than one reason why Bonzo is still revered as a drum monster, and many of them are on display on this album.
This also marked the full flowering of Plant's lyrical mysticism, marrying mythological elements with Tolkienesque themes and characters in the mandolin-driven folk tune "The Battle of Evermore". Also featuring his vocals intertwining with those of Fairport Convention's Sandy Denny, this is a rare moment of rock magic that is another gem in the crown of an album already spilling over with them.
The centrepiece of course is "Stairway to Heaven", a classic so insurmountable that it lingers to this day as one of the greatest rock songs of all. There's no need for an elaborate description; this song is a microcosm of everything Led Zeppelin was about, and this album is sheer genius from beginning to end.
- Black Dog
- Rock and Roll
- The Battle of Evermore
- Stairway to Heaven
- Misty Mountain Hop
- Four Sticks
- Going to California
- When the Levee Breaks
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