The Legacy of Led Zeppelin (Part 1)

Hey folks

A lot of people who know me (or think they know me) tend to make an understandable assumption about my taste in music. They would say I listened to hip hop music. And they'd be right, partly. If I had to put a number on it, I would say I listen to hip hop/rap music roughly 60-70% of the time. That's a hefty majority of my time dedicated to good hip hop music, which I DON'T believe includes the abhorrent shit that the radio (especially here in Toronto *ahem* Flow 93.5 *cough*) plays on a regular basis. But I listen to anything that sounds good to my ear, whether it be hip hop or not. As of recent, I have grown increasingly obsessed with Jazz, specifically the Blue Note catalog (which is a great place to start, I'm told).

Rock, however, has its place. Or should I say, had its place. The current rock-pop infusion that is playing on the radio is the same kind of below-dirt cacophony that the hip hop community seems content with in their own genre. But enough about them, I'm here to talk about the music that banged out in the '70s, which in my opinion is probably the best decade for music AND movies ... ever.

One of the bands that grew insanely famous during that same decade is the British band, Led Zeppelin. Now, I am not going to pretend that I am a certified expert on the band (come to think of it, I don't know anyone who is), but after listening to their entire discography chronologically, I am confident that I have a firm grasp on the insatiable group and I wanted to share that with all of you.


The band consisted of Jimmy Page (lead guitarist), Robert Plant (vocals & harmonica), John Paul Jones (who was the bass guitarist, mandolin player and manned the keyboard on several occasions) and finally John Bonham (drums).

To me, Led Zeppelin's music is best described as a jazzy, instrument-driven heavy metal-esque sound that when combined with Robert Plant's psychedelic vocals, results in a very rich, and very original piece of music. The real star of the group is without doubt, Jimmy Page who orchestrated pretty much everything, from song structure to vocals and even chose the sound engineer.

One of the most unique decisions the band made was to NOT release singles. Their music was strictly meant to be heard through the album structure and they didn't want that structure to be rendered moot by releasing radio singles. They were adamant about it as they wouldn't sign a contract without that provision being included which, amazingly, they got through the indelible shrewdness of their manager by the name of Peter Grant.


What initially got me hooked was when I listened to their debut album, with a confident title of Led Zeppelin I. I guess the band had more foresight than anybody, because the band knew their music would catch on and they would make more albums.

All in all, the band released 10 studio albums within roughly 15 years. I will dive much more deeply into the band and their work in later posts, but all you need to know at this point is that Led Zeppelin is one of the most influential musical acts ever to be created and that fact is wholly justified by the legions of new fans the group receives every year. That kind of sums up what this band is all about - a legacy from a time when music was just music, and no amount of histrionics from the likes of record producers and/or studio executives could have changed Zeppelin's mind on what music meant to them. I miss those times, even though I never lived in them. And that, my friends, is no overstatement.