Led Zeppelin II – Part One

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Let’s talk about the monolithic Led Zeppelin II.

If you were to ask the average music fan to name the biggest bands in rock n’ roll history inevitably you’ll hear the names Elvis Presley, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who, and Led Zeppelin mentioned first. After that it’s pretty much a matter of personal preference and taste.

We here at Dandy Classic have consciously and conspicuously avoided doing a track-by-track on any of those acts. But the time has come to finally acquiesce to a time when rock n’ roll dinosaurs roamed the earth and talk about the monolithic Led Zeppelin 2.

The band was born from the ashes of Jimmy Page’s time in The Yardbirds and he decided he really wanted a band after being one of the UK’s go-to session men for years and introduced to world to bassist John Paul Jones, vocalist Robert Plant and world-class drummer John Bonham. You’d be hard pressed to find a band with as many world-class musicians under one umbrella and the fact all those eclectic skill-sets and egos could co-exist and thrive will forever be to our benefit and music historians wonderment.

Page was the musical alchemist, producer and peerless visionary, while Plant had a signature yowl perfect for the powerful music the outfit produced, Bonham was a jack-of-all-trades and could subvert his style as needed perfectly and John Bonham was a drummer that is looked on as someone with few, if any, peers even fifty years on.

As for Led Zeppelin 2, the LP was the bands true breakthrough into the mainstream. They had made quite a bit of headway to being known with their self-titled debut album and toured relentlessly in America mostly. While they were touring behind said record, most of this album was recorded, drive-by style, in about a dozen different studios while on the road. While they were on stage much of the genesis of the material on this album was being born and because the music business dictated much quicker turnarounds from bands to strike while the iron was hot, they couldn’t stop to regroup and record over a period of weeks, let alone months or years.

Continued in Part Two…