Led Zeppelin Communication Breakdown
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Born in the west London suburb of Heston, which today forms part of the London Borough of Hounslow, James Patrick "Jimmy" Page went on to become one of the greatest guitarist of all time.
In their first year of existence, Led Zeppelin managed to complete four US and four UK concert tours, as well as find time to release their second album, entitled Led Zeppelin II. Recorded almost entirely on the road at various North American recording studios, the second album was an even greater success than the first and reached the number one chart position in the US and the UK. Here the band further developed ideas established on their debut album, creating a work which became even more widely acclaimed and arguably more influential. It has been suggested that Led Zeppelin II largely wrote the blueprint for 1970s hard rock.Following the album's release Led Zeppelin completed several more tours of the United States. They played often, initially in clubs and ballrooms, then in larger auditoriums and eventually stadiums as their popularity grew. Led Zeppelin concerts could last more than three hours, with expanded, improvised live versions of their song repertoire. Many of these shows have been preserved as Led Zeppelin bootleg recordings.
For the composition of their third album, Led Zeppelin III, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant retired to Bron-Yr-Aur, a remote cottage in Wales, in 1970. The result was a more acoustic sound (and a song, "Bron-Yr-Aur Stomp", misspelled as "Bron-Y-Aur Stomp" on the album cover), strongly influenced by folk and Celtic music, and revealed the band's versatility.
Led Zeppelin's fourth album was released on 8 November 1971. There was no indication of a title or band name on the original cover, but on the LP label four symbols were printed—. The band were motivated to undertake this initiative by their disdain for the media, which labelled them as hyped and overrated. In response, they released the album with no indication of who they were in order to prove that the music could sell itself. The album is variously referred to as Four Symbols and The Fourth Album (both titles were used in the Atlantic Records catalogue), and also IV, Untitled, Zoso, Runes, Sticks, Man With Sticks, and Four. It is still officially untitled and most commonly referred to as Led Zeppelin IV. In an interview with Rolling Stone magazine in 2005, Plant said that it is simply called The Fourth Album.
Born in Sidcup, Kent, now part of Greater London, John Baldwin "John Paul Jones" went on to become one of the best bass and keyboard players of all time.
The recording of "Stairway to Heaven" started in December 1970 at Island Records' new Basing Street Studios in London. The song was completed by the addition of lyrics by Plant during the sessions for Led Zeppelin IV at Headley Grange, Hampshire, in 1971. The complete studio recording was released on Led Zeppelin IV in November 1971.
The inaugural public performance of the song took place at Belfast's Ulster Hall on 1971-03-05. Bassist John Paul Jones recalls that the crowd was unimpressed: "They were all bored to tears waiting to hear something they knew". Bootleg recordings of this show, however, indicate that the Irish crowd gave a loud and long applause as soon as the last words were sung. Page stated about an early performance at the LA Forum that:
“ I'm not saying the whole audience gave us a standing ovation - but there was this sizable standing ovation there. And I thought, This is incredible because no one's heard this number yet. This is the first time hearing it! It obviously touched them, so I knew there was something with that one."
Following the first performance, "Stairway to Heaven" was performed at almost every Led Zeppelin concert until the band stopped perfoming.