Led Zeppelin Stairway to Heaven -
Led Zeppelin was an English rock group formed in London in 1968. The group consisted of vocalist Robert Plant, guitarist Jimmy Page, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham. With an important, guitar-driven sound, they're cited together as the progenitors of hard rock and heavy metal, although their style drew from a spread of influences, including blues and ethnic music. Led Zeppelin is credited as significantly impacting the character of the music industry, particularly within the development of album-oriented rock (AOR) and stadium rock. Many critics consider Led Zeppelin one among the foremost successful, innovative, and influential rock groups in history.
Led Zeppelin - Stairway To Heaven (Official Audio)
You're listening to the remastered version of Led Zeppelin's epic masterpiece "Stairway To Heaven" originally released in 1971 on the album "Led Zeppelin IV". "Stairway To Heaven" is co-written by Jimmy Page and Robert Plant, and in 2010, Rolling Stone ranked "Stairway to Heaven" #31 on its list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
Originally named the New Yardbirds, Led Zeppelin's effect Atlantic Records gave them considerable artistic freedom. Initially unpopular with critics, they achieved significant commercial success with eight studio albums over ten years. Their 1969 debut, Led Zeppelin, was a top-ten album in several countries and featured such tracks as "Good Times Bad Times", "Dazed and Confused" and "Communication Breakdown". Led Zeppelin II (1969) was their first number-one album, and yielded "Ramble On" and "Whole Lotta Love". In 1970 they released Led Zeppelin III which featured "Immigrant Song".
Their untitled fourth album, commonly referred to as Led Zeppelin IV (1971), is one of the best-selling albums in history with 37 million copies sold. The album includes "Black Dog", "Rock and Roll" and "Stairway to Heaven", with the latter being among the foremost popular and influential works in rock history. Houses of the Holy (1973) yielded "The Ocean", "Over the Hills and much Away" and "The Rain Song". Physical Graffiti (1975), a double album, featured "Trampled Under Foot" and "Kashmir".
Page wrote most of Led Zeppelin's music, particularly early in their career, while Plant wrote most of the lyrics. Jones's keyboard-based compositions later became central to their music, which featured increasing experimentation. The latter half of their career saw a series of record-breaking tours that earned the A reputation for excess and debauchery. Although they remained commercially and critically successful, their touring and output, including Presence (1976) and In Through the Out Door (1979), grew limited, and therefore the group disbanded following Bonham's death in 1980. Since then the surviving former members sporadically collaborated and took part in one-off reunions. the foremost successful of those was the 2007 Ahmet Ertegun Tribute Concert in London, with Bonham's son Jason Bonham on drums.
Led Zeppelin is one of the best-selling music artists of all time; various sources estimate the group's record sales at 200 to 300 million units worldwide. With RIAA-certified sales of 111.5 million units, they're the third-best-selling band and fifth-best-selling act within the US. They achieved eight consecutive UK number-one albums and 6 number-one albums on the US Billboard 200, with five of their albums certified Diamond within the US. Rolling Stone magazine described them as "the heaviest band of all time", "the biggest band of the Seventies", and "unquestionably one among the foremost enduring bands in rock history". They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995; the museum's biography of the band states that they were "as influential" during the 1970s because the Beatles were during the 1960s.
History Led Zeppelin
Formation: 1966–1968
The name Led Zeppelin in irregular capitals in black and white. The band's logotype, used since 1973.
In 1966, London-based session guitarist Jimmy Page joined the blues-influenced rock group the Yardbirds to exchange bassist Paul Samwell-Smith. Page soon switched from bass to steer guitar, creating a dual lead guitar line-up with Jeff Beck. Following Beck's departure in October 1966, the Yardbirds, tired from constant touring and recording, began to wind down. Page wanted to make a supergroup with Beck and him on guitars, and therefore the Who's Keith Moon and John Entwistle on drums and bass, respectively. Vocalists Steve Winwood and Steve Marriott were also considered for the project. The group never formed, although Page, Beck, and Moon did record a song together in 1966, "Beck's Bolero", during a session that also included bassist-keyboardist John, Paul Jones.
The Yardbirds played their final gig in July 1968 at Luton College of Technology in Bedfordshire. They were still committed to many concerts in Scandinavia, so drummer Jim McCarty and vocalist Keith Relf authorized Page and bassist Chris Dreja to use the Yardbirds' name to satisfy the band's obligations. Page and Dreja began putting a replacement line-up together. Page's first choice for the lead singer was Terry Reid, but Reid declined the offer and suggested Robert Plant, a singer for the Band of Joy and Hobbstweedle. The plant eventually accepted the position, recommending former Band of Joy drummer John Bonham. John Paul Jones inquired about the vacant position of bass guitarist, at the suggestion of his wife, after Dreja dropped out of the project to become a photographer. Page had known Jones since they were both session musicians and agreed to let him join because of the final member.
In August 1968, the four played together for the primary time during a room below a record store on Gerrard Street in London. Page suggested that they attempt "Train Kept A-Rollin", originally a jump blues song popularized during a rockabilly version by Johnny Burnette, which had been covered by the Yardbirds. "As soon as I heard John Bonham play", Jones recalled, "I knew this was getting to be great We locked together as a team immediately". Before leaving for Scandinavia, the group took part in a recording session for the P. J. Proby album Three Week Hero. The album's track "Jim's Blues", with Plant on harmonica, was the primary studio track to feature all four future members of Led Zeppelin.
The band completed the Scandinavian tour because the New Yardbirds, playing together for the primary time ahead of a live audience at Gladsaxe Teen Clubs in Gladsaxe, Denmark, on 7 September 1968. Later that month, they began recording their first album, which was supported their live set. The album was recorded and mixed in nine days, and Page covered the prices. After the album's completion, the band was forced to vary their name after Dreja issued a cease and desist letter, stating that Page was allowed to use the New Yardbirds moniker for the Scandinavian dates only.
One account of how the new band's name was chosen held that Moon and Entwistle had suggested that a supergroup with Page and Beck would go down sort of a "lead balloon", an idiom for disastrous results. The group dropped the 'a' in lead at the suggestion of their manager, Peter Grant, in order that those unacquainted the term wouldn't pronounce it "leed". The word "balloon" was replaced by "zeppelin", a word which, consistent with music journalist Keith Shadwick, brought "the perfect combination of heavy and lightweight, combustibility and grace" to Page's mind.
Grant secured a $143,000 advance contract ($1,051,000 today) from Atlantic Records in November 1968—at the time, the most important deal of its kind for a replacement band. Atlantic was a label with a listing of main blues, soul, and jazz artists, but within the late 1960s, it began to require an interest in British art-rock acts. Record executives signed Led Zeppelin without having ever seen them.[19] Under the terms of their contract, the band had autonomy to choose once they would release albums and tour and had the ultimate say over the contents and style of every album. they might also decide the way to promote each release and which tracks to release as singles. They formed their own company, Superhype, to handle all publishing rights.
Early years: 1968–1970
The band began their first tour of the united kingdom on 4 October 1968, still billed because of the New Yardbirds; they played their first show as Led Zeppelin at the University of Surrey in Battersea on 25 October. Tour manager Richard Cole, who would become a serious figure within the touring life of the group, organized their first North American tour at the top of the year. Their debut album, Led Zeppelin, was released within the US during the tour on 12 January 1969 and peaked at number 10 on the Billboard chart; it had been released within the UK, where it peaked at number 6, on 31 March. consistent with Steve Erlewine, the album's memorable guitar riffs, lumbering rhythms, psychedelic blues, groovy, bluesy shuffles and hints of English ethnic music made it "a significant turning point within the evolution of hard rock and heavy metal".
A color photograph of a stone cottage on a hill
Bron-Yr-Aur, near Machynlleth, the Welsh cottage to which Page and Plant retired in 1970 to write down many of the tracks that appeared on the band's third and fourth albums
In their first year, Led Zeppelin completed four US and 4 UK concert tours, and also released their second album, Led Zeppelin II. Recorded totally on the road at various North American studios, it had been a good greater commercial success than their first album and reached the amount one chart position within the US and therefore the UK. The album further developed the mostly blues-rock music genre established on their debut release, creating a sound that was "heavy and hard, brutal and direct", and which might be highly influential and regularly imitated. Steve Waksman has suggested that Led Zeppelin II was "the musical start line for heavy metal".
The band saw their albums as indivisible, complete listening experiences, disliking the re-editing of existing tracks for release as singles. Grant maintained an aggressive pro-album stance, particularly within the UK, where there have been few radio and television outlets for rock 'n' roll. Without the band's consent, however, some songs were released as singles, particularly within the US.[29] In 1969 an edited version of "Whole Lotta Love", a track from their second album, was released as one within the US. It reached number four within the Billboard chart in January 1970, selling over a million copies and helping to cement the band's popularity. The group also increasingly shunned television appearances, citing their preference that their fans hear and see them in live concerts.
Following the discharge of their second album, Led Zeppelin completed several more US tours. They played initially in clubs and ballrooms, then in larger auditoriums as their popularity grew. Some early Led Zeppelin concerts lasted quite four hours, with expanded and improvised live versions of their repertoire. Many of those shows are preserved as bootleg recordings. it had been during this era of intensive concert touring that the band developed a reputation for off-stage excess.
In 1970, Page and Plant retired to Bron-Yr-Aur, a foreign cottage in Wales, to commence work on their third album, Led Zeppelin III. The result was a more acoustic style that was strongly influenced by folk and Celtic music and showcased the band's versatility. The album's rich acoustic sound initially received mixed reactions, with critics and fans surprised at the turn from the primarily electric arrangements of the primary two albums, further fuelling the band's hostility to the musical press. It reached favorite within the UK and US charts, but its stay would be the shortest of their first five albums.[37] The album's opening track, "Immigrant Song", was released as a US single in November 1970 against the band's wishes, reaching the highest twenty on the Billboard chart.
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