A Book Of Led Zeppelin

LED ZEPPELIN II

- Led Zeppelin II was released in October 1969. The name is self-explanatory, it's their second album.

- II was their first record to reach No. 1 on the US and UK charts - knocking the Beatles' Abbey Road down twice - and is often described as their heaviest album

- Despite the commercial success, it was not received well critically at first. A journalist wrote a review for Rolling Stone, saying that "until you've listened to the album eight hundred times, as I have, it seems as if it's just one especially heavy song extended over the space of two whole sides". 

- Another journalist, Robert Christgau, wrote Zeppelin were "the best of the wah-wah groups, so dirty they drool on demand", while complaining that "all the songs sound alike" and the album was B grade. Christgau later said in 1970 that "Led Zeppelin simply out-heavied everyone" the previous year, "pitting Jimmy Page's repeated low-register fuzz riffs against the untiring freak intensity of Robert Plant's vocal. This trademark has only emerged clearly on the second album, and more and more I am coming to understand it as an artistic triumph."

- The album was recorded in various studios across America and the UK as a result of pressure from the record company, their original songs written on tour, in the few hours between concerts. This spontaneity and urgency is reflected in the sound, with several songs resulting from improvisation, being recorded live in the studio. The quality of the studios varied from a 'hut' in Vancouver without even any headphone facilities, to state of the art studios in Hollywood.

- In late 1969, Page said, "It [the second album] took a long time on and off, having to write numbers in hotel rooms. It was insane, really. We'd put down a rhythm track in London, add the vocals in New York, put in a harmonica, say, in Vancouver, and then go back to New York to do the mixing. By the time the album came out I'd lost confidence with it."

- Whole Lotta Love was released as a single in the US by Atlantic Records, against the band's wishes. Many radio stations saw the middle section as unfit to air, so simply created their own edited versions. Atlantic Records responded with the release of a 3:10 version of the track with the freeform section removed, and with an earlier fade-out.

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Whole Lotta Love

Starts with one of the best riffs in rock n roll history, catchy, gritty, tense and heavy already, with only the guitar playing. The entrance of the bass mirroring the riff is perfect (I have noticed listening through this whole album in detail, you can definitely hear the bass more than on many Zeppelin albums). Then the lyrics come in, soaring and bluesy, raw and fairly simple but fitting the mood perfectly. The moment the drums kick in the song gets even better, along with the wail of 'oh, whole lotta love', and what I think is the reversed guitar effect in the chorus. The drums seem to be keeping an anti rhythm but the whole thing is very tight and put together. Then there's the theremin section where the texture thins out somewhat; the drumming here is masterful, creating the air of confusion and the all-over-the-place, building-up mood along with the whoosh guitar sounds and vocal, which can only be described as sex noises. This section is rather odd in many places, and maybe goes on a bit too long, but all in all it fits with the song and is a great display of the musicianship and production techniques that went into this album. The section ends with a drum fill, and the drum-guitar call and response that follows is a perfect lead into the next verse, a welcome return to the familiar groove from the start. The refrain, with the wailing voice so strong that bleeds onto the other track, is incredible, and the song returns to the original riff for the fade out. I have to say that I love the panning job done on this song, everything is all over the place, and it works.  A legendary start to the album.