LED ZEPPELIN ARTICLE

In my creative writing course, Creative Journalism, we were tasked with the job of writing an article based on what we are interested in. As a hardcore rock fan, especially classic rock, it was easy to come up with a topic for my article. The hard part was choosing which band to write about. I finally settled on one of the most iconic rock bands, and just bands in general, to be the basis of my work.
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             Led Zeppelin is one of the most successful rock bands of all time.  Appearing almost out of nowhere, the folk and blues inspired rockers originated in 1968, in London, England.

            The band was composed of singer-songwriter Robert Plant, guitarist Jimmy Page, Bassist and keyboardist John Paul Jones, and the late drummer John Bonham.

            Though the classic rock band used folk and blues influences heavily, they also used plenty of guitars and are credited with eleventh spot of the top one hundred best selling albums with their worldwide phenomenon, Untitled or Led Zeppelin IV. They beat out an infinite amount of bands such as Guns N’ Roses, Nirvana, The Beatles, Linkin Park, and Metallica.

            Page originally wrote most of the bands music while Plant wrote most of the bands lyrics. To get to this point, they signed on with Atlantic Records and dropped their original name, The New Yardbirds. They kept the deal with Atlantic Records throughout their entire music careers.

            The band gained moderate success with their first three self-titled albums, but was initially panned by critics. Some memorable and now classic tracks from these albums are:

·      “Dazed and Confused”-Led Zeppelin

·      “Whole Lotta Love”-Led Zeppelin II

·      “Immigrant Song”-Led Zeppelin III

It was the recording of Led Zeppelin IV and “Stairway to Heaven” that really launched the band members into their lives of fame and fortune. Their previous efforts had gained a small following, but after Led Zeppelin IV they gained an incredible amount of mainstream recognition. Critic’s previous accusations about them had been transformed into words of praise.

      “Stairway to Heaven” was Led Zeppelin’s most famous and accumulative song from their twelve-year lifetime.  Rolling Stone Magazine published a list of 500 greatest songs of all time in 2003. “Stairway to Heaven” made it to the short list, ranking at number thirty-one. Classic Rock, a British magazine that focused on rock and roll culture, stated that it was the number one song of all time in 1999. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame stated that it was one of the 500 songs that shaped rock and roll history.

      Led Zeppelin was inducted in The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995, at the tenth annual induction dinner. This was twenty-seven years after the formation of the band. Steven Tyler and Joe Perry of Aerosmith, who were inducted in 2001, presented the award. While delivering the award, Perry said, “ Everything you ever heard about Led Zeppelin was true… No way was it for the faint-of-heart. Led Zeppelin was the real deal.”

-Mitchell Duncan