Tragedies that made Zeppelin hit the heights
LED ZEPPELIN: Presence/ In Through The Out Door/ Coda (Atlantic) Verdict: Backs to the wall brilliance
THEY were the hellraising quartet whose bluesy riffs towered above the classic rock era. But even Led Zeppelin — imperious in the first half of the Seventies — found the second part of the decade hard going.
As this latest batch of re-issues reminds us, however, they were a potent force even when their backs were against the wall.
The hunger for gems from the golden years of rock remains strong, and these albums, available individually and buttressed with previously unreleased songs, confirm Zeppelin’s pedigree. For new converts, the original LPs have been re-mastered by guitarist Jimmy Page. For the more committed fans, reasonably priced ‘deluxe’ editions combine the original tracks with the unheard songs and new mixes. For real aficionados, there are three ‘super deluxe’ box sets. By the time of 1976’s Presence, Zeppelin were the biggest band in the world. And in contrast to t he previous year’s dazzlingly diverse Physical Graffiti, the album saw a return to hard-rocking roots. Made in 18 days, with producer Page working 20-hour shifts, it still sounds spontaneous today.
This was down partly to circumstance. A car crash on the island of Rhodes had left singer Robert Plant wheelchair-bound, and his vocals are less commanding than on other albums. But, with Page’s scintillating guitar even more to the fore, Presence packs a punch. Opening track Achilles Last Stand is ten minutes long, but gallops by in a blur. An echo of Zep’s first two albums, its energy was a harbinger of the wave of younger rock bands, led by Iron Maiden and Def Leppard, that would shortly follow.
With Page’s guitars drenched in special effects, the album was hardly lacking in innovation, even though it was largely a back-to-basics affair: Candy Store Rock was in thrall to Elvis, while the slow blues number Tea For One was about homesickness on the band’s long U.S. tours.
Amid the rough mixes, the bonus material also features a new instrumental in the oddly-titled 10 Ribs & All/ Carrot Pod Pod (Pod), a plaintive piano piece.
Recorded in the aftermath of a tragedy — the death of Robert Plant’s young son Karac in 1977 — the following album, In Through The Out Door was softer and more subdued, although its keyboard-led songs stressed the band’s adaptability.
Despite his sorrow, Plant took centre stage, singing of love and loss on All My Love and again summoning the spirit of Elvis on Hot Dog.
Page added a slew of exceptional solos, while the 1978 World Cup in Argentina inspired the Latin rhythms of Fool In The Rain.
By their final album in 1982, Zeppelin were no more. The band called it a day after drummer John Bonham’s death in 1980 and Coda was a posthumous LP of outtakes dating back to 1968. If the original record sounded like a resume of Zep’s career, the bonus tracks are similarly wide-ranging.
There are two completely new songs, with Sugar Mama the pick. An energetic blues jam, it finds Plant on top form. The other new track, St Tristan’s Sword, is a hardhitting instrumental. Coda’s bonus discs also contain an instrumental mix of the acoustic Poor Tom plus two Zep classics, Four Sticks and Friends, recorded with tablas and sitars in India.
Those pieces were indicative of the band’s ambition. When they formed, their name was coined by Who drummer Keith Moon, a friend who predicted they would go down ‘like a lead balloon’. He couldn’t have been more wrong.
The Led Zeppelin re-masters are out now, with single albums at £10, deluxe editions £13 and £15 and super deluxe £100.