Hard Rock Lives On in Led Zeppelin Albums

A lot of music authorities would rate Led Zeppelin merch and albums as among the best in music history. Even experts who belong outside of the metal and hard rock genres tend to agree. Obviously, other equally talented musical groups would argue against this but there is more support for the band and its music’s greatness. The group has been cited and praised on different occasions by such established institutions as VH1, the Rolling Stone magazine and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

The band’s origins are without fanfare. It all began when Jimmy Page played for The Yardbirds. This band eventually broke up and Page came together with Robert Plant, John Bonham and Chris Dreja who was later replaced by John Paul Jones. They originally played as the New Yardbirds but decided on the name change to disassociate themselves from the defunct group.

Nearly every Led Zeppelin album soon carried the new name in place of the New Yardbirds. The name was originally a term used to refer to a bad gig but the association with a famous European family which pioneered the Zeppelin airships led to some threat of legal action. Despite the statements from a countess in the family however, the protest seems to have been isolated on a local level. Today, the band has retained its popular name.

Before they took to recording, the young group first got into tours, playing first in English premises in 1968 before reaching out to US territory. They weren’t able to make their first eponymous release until 1969. After five years, their first album was said to be so successful that it had already generated $7,000,000 in sales despite having been produced on the cheap.

Their first success was quickly followed by second and third self-titled Led Zeppelin albums. The second one was again recorded while on tour but the end result was so outstanding that this second release is widely credited as being the basis for the music produced by other bands. Work on a third self-titled collection of songs began in 1970. Unlike its first two predecessors however, many tracks in it were recorded away from touring and carried strongly acoustic elements and folk tunes.

The fourth album is an entirely unique one because it is officially still untitled. This was done intentionally so the band could prove a point. They wanted to show their critics that they could sell their music even if it didn’t have a name to it. They were able to predict the commercial outcome since the album was able to sell millions of copies in America and beyond.

With their point proven, the group went on to work on more albums, this time with original names that did not capitalize on the Led Zeppelin name. Up to 1982, they released Houses of the Holy, Physical Graffiti, Presence, In Through the Out Door and Coda.

The last of the Led Zeppelin albums is aptly named. It is a coda because the band had officially disbanded in 1982 after the death of Bonham. For a band that had played together with hardly any line-up changes, the loss of one member seemed to disturb the existing harmony. Nonetheless, the band’s music is arguably endures as the best there is.