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Led Zeppelin IV, an endless legend
One of the albums that have marked the history of rock turns thirty. The myth continues over time also thanks to the 23 million copies sold just in the USA. The album has undoubtedly marked the history of rock. From the indelible track "Stairway To Heaven", the song most played by FM radios worldwide along with "Yesterday," to the riffs of "Black Dog" and the other classics on the record, which have been revisited by a multitude of musicians even educationally. The magic of Led Zeppelin IV continues over time also thanks to the 22 million copies sold just in the States, making it the 4th best-selling album of all time.
The album opens with two gritty tracks: "Black Dog" is one of the most appreciated Zeppelin songs: it's an elegant rock characterized by a complex arrangement with as many as four overdubbed guitars in the solo; the following track, "Rock And Roll," is what the title says: a musical genre compressed into 3'40", an explosive hit right from the start, with a powerful drum introduction that gives way to Page's excellent guitar accompanied by a rolling bass, which is then joined by a sizzling Hammond organ, played by the Rolling Stones' "sixth outsider," Ian "Stu" Stewart. The next track brings a decidedly folk atmosphere: "The Battle Of Evermore" is a wonderful acoustic guitar and mandolin ballad sung in duet by Plant and Sandy Denny, the unfortunate and very talented folk-singer of Fairport Convention; the result is a real masterpiece. And then there's the legendary "Stairway To Heaven," the jewel in the Zeppelin's crown, the entire Zeppelin discography's zenith, the song that consecrated them as icons of rock history, the symbol song of rock itself.
The song was born from a simple guitar progression devised by Page, later developed by all four members, with Plant's inspiration due to certain pages of Celtic literature. "Stairway To Heaven," The Song; one of the most beautiful songs of the Century, is a perfect fusion between folk ballad and classic rock: the beginning characterized by an acoustic guitar and the magical medieval flute, then the more complex arpeggio and the entry of the drums, which imposes a more lively rhythm and gives way to the final rock explosion, with Jimmy Page's visionary solo over Bonzo's powerful drum carpet and the last verses screamed by Plant, which at the end brings back that state of magical trance of the beginning.
The next two tracks return to the path of rock: "Misty Mountain Hop," whose lyrics are inspired by Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, has an informal air, with "drunken" choruses accompanied by John Paul Jones' electric piano, more elaborate is "Four Sticks," so-named for the four sticks Bonham used to play the piece: Page's guitar designs an oriental-like air well inserted into Bonham's strong percussion rhythm. The subsequent "Going To California" is an enjoyable acoustic west coast ballad, with a typically country sound, on the wave of the third album. The last track of the album belongs to the blues sphere: "When The Levee Breaks" derives from a composition written in 1929 by Memphis Minnie in New York. The main feature of the piece is undoubtedly the strong drum imprint created by Bonzo with a particular microphone arrangement at Headley Grange, where the track was born, into which Page's guitar embellishments and Plant's harmonica notes fit well.
Led Zeppelin's fourth album was released without a title and without any mention of the album's authors, except for the producers: Jimmy Page and Peter Grant (executive producer). Instead of their names, the four Led Zeppelin each chose a symbol to represent them on the album cover. It is often called 'Untitled', 'zoso' (from the symbol chosen by Jimmy Page), 'Four Symbols'. Jimmy Page says: "We decided that on the fourth album we would deliberately minimize the band's name, and that there would be no information on the outer cover. Names, titles, and such things mean nothing... What matters is our music. We decided that we would rely solely on the music."
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