The first of Zeppelin’s masterpieces, it’s a wonder how the album was recorded. Performing on an intense and often painful American tour from January to August 1969, the band’s second album was recorded in studios whenever they were free from performances. However, their live prowess had jumped by leaps and bounds, attributes they brought with them to five established UK and US studios (one of which, as Jimmy Page later recalled, lacked headphones! ).

‘led zeppelin‘ (1969) had shown promise, yes, but it was largely due to Jimmy Page’s guitar playing, while Robert Plant took on a less significant role. Here, he proved himself a match for Page, receiving writing credits on eight of the nine tracks and creating a vocal style that changed rock forever.

Singing over Page’s beautiful crescendo (a tuning called DAGGAD, one that would be used at the zenith of his studio)cashmere‘), Plant’s sexual deviation in ‘lots of love‘ pushed any rock of grace it may have previously held into the depths of hell. “I want to be your back door man,” she yells during the song’s coda, a line that pushed the sexual innuendos into the mainstream. A brilliant opening song (its riff would go on to be voted ‘Best Riff’ by BBC listeners in 2014), its theme would drive again on the lusty ‘the lemon song‘.

The third last rocker of the albumheartbreaker‘featured a guitar solo that Iron Maiden and Van Halen would make a career of, though neither of those bands have the diverse musicality’heartbreaker‘only appears. Beneath Page’s metallic riff, John Paul Jones played an amplified bass solo, garage rock with Page’s metal, the sound Jack White would use to great effect on his monstrous hit.7th section of the armyThirty-odd years later.

If Page and Jones provided the songs with the juice to lubricate the music, John Bonham’s percussion provided the backbone. Truly in a league of its own, Bonham’s groove is what sets the band apart from all the rest. Of the colossal thumps resounding in’What is and what should never be‘to the tenacious swing on’Alive loving maid (she’s just a woman)‘, Bonham’s playing proved irreplaceable, as the band themselves discovered after his untimely death in 1980. Strangely, it’s only during his drum solo’moby dick‘which disappoints, providing an unattractive noise. Otherwise, the drums sound fantastic, both in the way Bonham played and in the way Page set up the microphone to make it sound as good as he did (something he considered one of his greatest achievements as a producer, and has! reason!).

The band eschewed electric performance on two acoustic, Tolkien-inspired tracks.Ramble‘ (which showcased Page’s excellent folk style playing at its peak) and the dark ballad ‘Thank you‘ (Plant’s first composition for the band). Both provide the shadow and respite of the performance, a trick used even more effectively on the album Closer’Bring it home‘ which begins slowly with Plant’s bluesy wails and harmonica playing, before being hemmed in by a wall of guitar sounds, a trick Page would be perfect on his fourth album at the album opener’black dog‘and closer’When the dam breaks‘.

If the album fails in one area, it’s the album’s lack of polish, something Jimmy Page would be perfect for when mixing future albums. But when the singing sounds so honest, the percussion so tight, the bass so powerful, and the guitar riffs so exciting, it’s a qualm easily forgiven!