Aug 31 AOTD: Led Zeppelin IV

Aug 31 AOTD: Led Zeppelin IV

1971


Link to Listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIiu0JI3I5g&list=PLXRJ0SLXQeZrRxcRgkjPCffmHzPilLd4D


It's all here - and never better - guitar solos from heaven, bass lines that loosen boulders, a drummer who sounds like he's wielding Thor's hammer, and a singer who can transition from caterwauling that can summon demons to a wistful delivery resonating a wayfaring, melancholy young man.

"Black Dog" puts the listener squarely in the maximum rhythm and blues camp, stealing the torch from The Who and lighting afire Zeppelin's own brand of the delta blues sojourning to Chicago on a heavy metal harmonica.

"Rock and Roll" ramps up the rhythm, sounding like Chuck Berry on steroids. And then the album deftly shifts to an English folk-sounding duet between Robert Plan and Sandy Denny wherein Denny is the town crier and Plant the narrator in a retelling of a battle out of Lord of the Rings. The use of only a mandolin and acoustic guitar evokes a dark,  primal Middle Earth, or a doomed medieval English country side.

The acoustics of "Evermore" make a perfect segue for the opening of "Stairway to Heaven," which begins instrumentally with only an acoustic guitar and recorder.  But the song has two more parts that follow as it increases with electric instruments and intensity. In the 80s whenever I walked into a music store, some young dude would, inevitably, be strumming this tune on a guitar. As one of the most played classic rock songs ever, not much more needs to be said.

The album stays electric and hard-rocking for the next two songs, before it settles down again into one of the finest ballads by Led Zeppelin or any other rock band of that era. "Going to California" showcases Plant capitalizing on lower register, then rising in pitch, much like the rise and fall of the mountains he has to cross to get to California.  This is Plant at his pensive best.

The closer "When the Levee Breaks" is a stomper with enough reverb on the kick drum to resound like the inside of Smog's mountain cave.  As it slides into its groove with harmonica, an ominous tone, like marching Orcs, resounds with an eery heaviness.  Then plant lays down the forecaster's report and his intent to escape to the blues haven of Chicago.

I know, I barely mentioned Jimmy Page or John Paul Jones or John Bonham - I'll let their instruments speak for themselves.