Tell someone
to name a band from the 1960s and '70s and you could probably listen to a dozen
answers before hearing the same one twice.
The overwhelming amount of talent squeezed into these two decades has
produced some of the most popular, most powerful, and in some cases, the most
bizarre music ever. Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, The Rolling
Stones, The Yardbirds, Janis Joplin, Bob Dylan, Elvis Presley, Queen,
Aerosmith, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, The Eagles.... All were from this
era that seemed to glorify music as no other time period did, or ever will.
The amount of
evolution of music that occurred in this time period is amazing as well. The mainstream went from listening to songs
like Bill Haley and the Comet's "Rock Around The Clock," to The
Beatles' frightening "Revolution 9."
While these
two examples may seem completely different, they are not as distant as one
might think. Nearly all music from the
'60s and '70s was bred from its earlier ancestors. Music has been constantly evolving, and
during the two decades in question, it underwent a radical change like never
before.
The New Yardbirds
In early 1968
the music group The Yardbirds was in shambles.
Their last, and half-put --together album "Little Games" was a
total flop and the band had to struggle to have the release of the album in the
UK stopped. On March 30, the group
allowed a taping of their concert in Madison Square Garden to be considered for
a live album to be released later. They
easily convinced their record contractor, Epic Records, to ditch the
project. The lead guitarist of The
Yardbirds, Jeff Beck, had suffered from a mental breakdown a few years earlier
and could no longer handle the pressure of touring. The band members, Keith Relf, Chris Dreja,
Jim McCarty, and Jimmy Page decided to throw in the towel and let the band
collapse. Playing wasn't the same rush
it used to be, and it just wasn't fun anymore.
Each member elected to follow their own projects. Dreja planned a career in photography,
McCarty and Relf intended on starting bands of their own. Lead guitarist, Jimmy Page was given legal
rights to the band's name, songs, and albums.
However, along with the rights that Page was given, were 10 tour dates
that still needed to be honored in Scandinavia.
Page needed to construct a new band in a matter of two months time.
In July '68,
Page met ex-session guitarist and phenomenal arranger John Paul Jones (b. John
Baldwin, June 3, 1946, Sidcup, Kent).
Willingly joined in on bass. 19-year
old vocalist, Robert Plant (b. August 20, 1948, West Bromwich, W. Midlands.) is
asked to perform with The New Yardbirds. Plant accepts and leaves his homeland
in the Midlands with only his subway fair in his pocket. The last link to the chain was John Bonham
(b. May 20, 1948, Bromwich) on drums.
The band
finished their ten date tour of Scandinavia with some unexpected success. Everywhere they went people were asking how a
band like this could go unnoticed. The
unique blend of blues-influenced rock, and guitar-riff based songs blew their
audience away.
On October
15, 1968, Led Zeppelin, made up of Page, Plant, Jones and Bonham, made it's
official debut at Surrey University. The
group began touring the US, backing up such headliners as Vanilla Fudge, and
The MC5 shortly thereafter.
Instantaneous recognition followed.
The groups popularity was soaring.
On January 31, '69, Led Zeppelin opened for Iron Butterfly, then one of
the world's biggest bands. Led Zeppelin
received such a resounding approval from the audience, that Doug Ingle, lead
singer for Iron Butterfly decided to scrap the show. Reason being are that Iron Butterfly was
afraid that they can't produce such an effect on their crowd... in their own
concert...in which they are headlining.
Led Zeppelin
soon became a headliner in their own right.
Within eight months of their official debut, Led Zeppelin were at the
top of the bill at the Playhouse Theater in London, and the Pop Proms at the
Royal Albert Hall in London. On October
17, '69, a year and two days from the bands conception, Led Zeppelin played in
Carnegie Hall, ending a ban on rock groups at the concert hall, originally
caused by the Rolling Stones in 1965.
While playing in Denmark, Eva von Zeppelin, relative of the designer of
the airship, Ferdinand von Zeppelin, threatened to sue the band if they used
the name in the country. Led Zeppelin
played under the alias The Nobs.
The first
album Led Zeppelin climbed to #10 in the US and to #6 in the UK. Album two, entitled Led Zeppelin 2, moved up
to #1 in both the US and the UK, staying on the charts for 98 in the States and
an astounding 138 weeks in Britain.
Six straight
#1 albums in either the US or the UK.
Countless sellout concerts.
Records for box office drawings. Records
for attendance. 51,000 tickets for 3
shows Earls Court, London sell out in less than two hours. International fame.
No other group had ever become so popular in such a small period of time. Led
Zeppelin was revolutionizing music as they went. While most bands were shunned from playing a
song different from it sounds on the record, Led Zeppelin was free to roam in
their music. It wasn't unusual to hear a
song that would be half-an-hour long, as opposed to its counterpart on the
album, which was only five minutes long.
These lengthy jam sessions diguised as concerts gave way to new ground
being touched musically. Led Zeppelin
introduced the world to the music of black artists such as Muddy Watters, Otis
Rush, Otis Redding, and Willie Dixon.
Pieces of songs from the 1930s were being worked into their own music,
as in their covers of Dixon's You Need Love, and Rush's Can't Quit You, and it
was working. The blues riffs
incorporated into their own music later influenced bands heavily, and opened
doors to new tastes in music for the predominately American audience. The most significant thing about Led
Zeppelin's music today, is that it doesn't sound dated. The music seems similar to music today. The lasting impression of their music is
obvious, and can be heard in any Rock band of today.
Unfortunately,
the machine that was Led Zeppelin came to a screeching halt on the morning of
September 25, 1980. When band members decided to go into Bonham's
bedroom to pull a prank on him in his sleep, Bonham was found dead. After a night of heavy drinking, Bonham had
turned the wrong way in his sleep, and asphyxiated himself upon his own
vomit. A statement was released on
December 4, 1980, stating that the band could not go on in its present
state. After 11 incredible years, the
band could not function with "the loss of our dear friend." Led Zeppelin had owned the 70s, and they were
going to finish their reign quietly, and let the throne open to the next "supergroup." As suddenly as Led Zeppelin began, it had
ended even more so. The giant had
fallen.
"As it
was, then again it will be,
Though the
course may change sometimes,
Rivers always
reach the sea."
-Ten
Years Gone
Led
Zeppelin
