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Every good story has a beginning. For all the renowned , inspirational, influential, successful, monolithic figures in rock and roll music, nearly all came from humble beginnings. Led Zeppelin was no exception to this. London native Jimmy Page had already made a name for himself as a session guitarist when he joined The Yardbirds in 1966, and he spent the next 2 years partaking in the group’s quick rise to prominence. When The Yardbirds broke up in 1968 over creative differences, Page was left with a drive for newer, heavier music, the band’s name, and an already booked tour of Denmark and Sweden. Setting out to make a new group he recruited multiinstrumentalist John Paul Jones as a bassist, and was directed to small-time singer Robert Plant for a vocalist.
Page and Plant clicked as music makers, and with John Bonham (then drummer for Plants old band Hope Joy) rounding things out, this new band got together in mid 1968 and then played said Scandinavian tour, initially billing themselves as ‘The New Yardbirds’ with the group’s proper name coming after. With much of their new material already rehearsed, their debut album was recorded quickly through October of ‘68, only taking a rough total of 36 hours to record and mix, with Page filling the role of producer. So well rehearsed they were that much of it was recorded live with minimal editing or overdubbed parts recorded over what was already done. Snatching a deal with Atlantic Records, the finished product, a display of this quartet’s new heavy take on blues-rock, was released first in the US on January 13, 1969, and then in the UK on March 31.
Being the public's first taste, this record wastes no time getting to what matters, and hits the listener right out of the gate with Good Times Bad Times, a rocker that serves as an instant encapsulation of much of what Led Zeppelin would become famous for. It’s rock and roll, heavy but rhythmic. The whole thing starts with guitar and cowbell to build anticipation and then kicks into gear to a loose but driving rhythm. The rhythm section is punchy and full of crashing cymbals, with Bonham adding kick-drum triplets and offbeat fills (something he would eventually be famous for) to give the song more groove than your bog standard rock beat. While it does get lost in the mix at times, Jones’ bass line rides the beat and bolsters the simple but hummable melody well. All this serves as the foundation for Page’s crunchy, tuneful playing and Plant’s vocals, with the former giving a taste of his wailing blues-influenced brand of guitar solo half way through. It hammers and skitters at the same time, a microcosm of what Zeppelin usually does. An audio hook for the casual listener giving this (then new) band a try.
Rather than stay in one lane, track 2, a cover of “Baby I’m Gonna Leave you ” by folk singer-songwriter Anne Bredon, shows these lads can pull back from their hard rock and tone things down a little, spending its 6 minute runtime (the first of 3 such longer numbers) alternating between a big driving riff and Plant doing some soft, high crooning over folky noodling and soft acoustic guitar arpeggios. It’s a little repetitive but it switches enough to not get too boring and is a nice change of pace. This leads into a bigger show of their blues influence, where Led Zeppelin takes Muddy Waters’ “ You Shook Me” slow it down, and in between Plant’s howling spend most of the track soloing over a basic little fuzz-dipped blues riff. Page plays slide guitar in another shift, Plant gets to show he can play harmonica as impressively as he sings, and my personal favorite, John Paul Jones showing his keyboard chops by playing a multifaceted, slithering chiming organ solo. It’s a sudden but pleasant change from all the standard rock tropes up to the point, and gives his portion of the instrumental an almost soul-like quality. Ending the first half of the record is what would become one of the band’s signature songs, “ Dazed & Confused ”. It has what feels like a standard formula by this point in listening, and is just as long, but spices things up with a tempo change for the dazing, echo drenched midsection and Page playing his guitar with a violin bow, a trick he would pull regularly in the following years.
Side B of this self-titled LP brings another round of Jones on his Hammond organ with the thick, warm, swirling, almost church-procession like intro to “ Your Time Is Gonna Come” which then kicks into a relaxing mid tempo number with steel guitar thrown in for a nice sonic touch. This fades into a short acoustic instrumental “ Black Mountainside” which for 2 minutes of alternate tuned guitar and tabla show the softer side of this group and some eastern influence that certainly raise them above any old band of scruffy Englishmen covering old American blues records.
In another twist this leads into another 180 degree turn with “ Communication Breakdown”. This track is another standout among the many long tracks on this album. It’s short, sweet, and to the point, with the combination of a fast rhythm, Plant’s near screaming vocals, Page’s tight riffs and equally screaming guitar solo, all building into an exhilaratingly chaotic two and a half minutes of unabashed rock and roll. Closing things out are a decent cover of “ I Can’t Quit You Baby” , another Chicago blues number, and “ How Many More Times ” another long jam with a half-rocking-half -trippy breakdown. But even then the whole album ends on a triumphant crash of drums and guitars in a confident goodbye.
Critical reception to Led Zeppelin’s debut was mixed initially, with Rolling Stone giving a very uncharitable review deriding them as superfluous among the many rising British blues bands of the day. However, it was not all negative, and a little bad press didn’t stop the record from reaching the Top 10 on both the American and British charts, and getting them a quickly forthcoming following. Today it has sold over 8 million copies in the US alone. As a debut it does a good job of showing the ethos of what this band was: heavy (for the time) rock and roll with a clear American blues influence, with a mix of other styles thrown in for flavor. It has traces of all that they became known for, and signs of the experimenting and genre hopping that peppered the rest of their discography. The inclusion of organ on tracks 3 and 5 is a cheerful choice. It may not be for everyone, with its long tracks and extended solos, but even when broken down it has short, fun rockers and nice odds and ends. Unlike the striking photo chosen for the album cover, this record did not crash and burn, and it was no musical misfire. It’s good rock n’ roll and an introduction to a band that in a few short years would be legendary.