Led Zeppelin
Houses Of The Holy

Following the tours (Australia, North America, U.S.A., etc.) to support the unnamed fourth chapter of Led Zeppelin's discography, the results achieved include the awareness that the increase in popularity is no longer merely based on the endless quest for excitement of those adolescents who find satisfaction in the music of the four through increased volume and the group's live-act histrionics. Events like the pandemonium unleashed at the Vigorelli show in Milan on July 3, 1971 and the hurdle imposed by the conservative Singapore government, which barred the landing of the plane carrying the band and effectively prevented the planned show from taking place in the namesake Southeast Asian Republic on February 14, 1972, strengthened the myth of that rebellious image that was skillfully and naturally consolidating around the group.

It's 1973, the year when the Zeps must prove they are the greatest rock band around. There's a magical atmosphere in the air that can favor making a difference, given that the packed concert arenas and sensational record sales, as well as numerous tasks diligently carried out by a persistent publicist like B.P. "Beep" Fallon, are no longer enough; the four need to be endorsed by the foreign press, and the newly hired Danny Goldberg, part of the team of America's star system leader, Lee Solters, will handle this.

The groundwork is laid for the fifth work, destination Stargroves, specifically an equipped country house belonging to Sir Michael Philip "Mick" Jagger, towards which many other stars will move in the years to come. The recordings also shift to Hampshire at Headley Grange with the support of the Rolling Stones' mobile studio, and pass through the Island and Olympic Studios in London and the Electric Lady based obviously in New York. Personal events like the birth of Karac, Plant's second child, and Page's obsessive infatuation with the fourteen-year-old model Lori Maddox, who will become his official partner, characterize this phase of the band's life; it's precisely in this period that the 4 Zeppelins will no longer be credited just as simple musicians, but as true officiants of their enchanting concerts whose allure can be participated in simply by purchasing a ticket to one of their shows.

A large quantity of material is put in place for "Houses Of The Holy" (for everyone "le case sacre"), which will result in the exclusion of some tracks that will be retrieved later for subsequent use. Further delays in publication were caused by the choice of cover for which the "Floydian" Studio Hipgnosis was employed, entrusted with the meticulous processing of the image of the two nude children portrayed on the famed Giant's Causeway in Ireland.

Just pressing the play button reveals that this time too, the opening of the work is a complex activity of instrumental coordination with Page's layered guitars and Bonham's hard-hitting style taking center stage, preparing a fertile ground for the raw rhythmic completion emanating from Jones' hands for a track that, before reaching the conception of the historical definitive title "The Song Remains The Same", went through the unremarkable "The Overture" and "The Campaign." For "The Rain Song" (already conceived almost entirely by Page in the Plumpton studio), a song in which a sombre air is accentuated by the mellotron and a prog weave, which was very popular in those years. The atmosphere of affliction then finds expression through Plant's innate expressiveness which gives so much through a text perhaps among the most inspired with an intimate-sentimental character (I watched the fire that grew so low It is the summer of my smiles Flee from me Keppers of the Gloom Speak to me only with your eyes, it is to you I give this tune = I watched the fire that grew so low It is the summer of my smiles Flee from me Keepers of the Gloom Speak to me only with your eyes, to you I give this song). With "Over The Heels And Far Away" the band’s dichotomous soul emerges, confirming in the captivating succession of electric and acoustic parts, the exemplary state of grace where the involved elements find full balance. A profitable glance at musical environments not strictly tied to rock must have led the four Zeps to compose a typically funky track like "The Crunge" (also used as the B-side of "D'yer Mak'er") which leads the good Plant to humorously echo James Brown, without ever succumbing to bad taste.

A sincere reflection of the carefree enjoyment that reigned at Stargroves is certainly "Dancing Days", where Page leads the entire track with a brilliant and only seemingly repetitive touch, capable in this case as well to give the track a unique identity. A radiant atmosphere is perceived by listening to Bonham’s inspired attempt to reproduce a heady 1950s doo-wop atmosphere that is titled "D'yer Mak'er", nothing more than a playful distortion of the term Jamaica, to indicate the reggae connotation defined by the bouncing rhythm. In an album like this, one has to wait for "No Quarter" to ensure that the boundaries of the creative perfection tasted so far are surpassed — in the opinion of the writer —, by these seven minutes of immense auditory pleasure. A track that gives Page the opportunity to showcase a memorable finishing activity with a crystalline sound apt to highlight a text with a mythological temperament that introduces us to a Plant that’s disturbing and distressed (Close the door, put out the light You know they won’t be home tonight The snow falls hard and don’t you know The winds of Thor are blowing cold They’re wearing steel that’s bright and true They carry news that must get through They choose the path where no one goes