Led Zeppelin
IV

THE REVIEW

The year 1971 for Led Zeppelin includes several dates to remember: the first one is a hot summer evening, precisely on July 3rd, when they play at the Velodromo Vigorelli in Milan as guests of the Cantagiro, and what was supposed to be a historic concert for the attendees turns out to be a real disaster. The tense atmosphere of the evening is a premonition of what will happen, after the band had played only three pieces. Riots between frantic fans and law enforcement, smoke everywhere leading the band to take refuge in the emergency room, until the clashes end and it becomes apparent that the stage and equipment are largely destroyed. On August 19th begins what will be remembered as the best season of Led Zeppelin, which will be followed by the first Japanese tour occupying a week in the month of September. But surely the most significant day of this period, will be November 8th. The day when the fourth chapter of the Zeps' history hits store shelves. Four Symbols, Zoso, Untitled, and Led Zeppelin IV are the various unofficial names given to this work, since the cover (with the old man with a bundle on his back representing nature - the past - and the crack in the wall and the buildings following on the back - the present -, represent the abandonment of the suburbs that pollution ruins), does not bear any other words that might distinguish it.

Like the previous work, the Hampshire countryside was the band's favorite place to lay the foundation of what would be the album that made them universal, while for the final mixing, it would be the Olympic and Island Studios in London, after what was supposed to be the last assembly performed at Sunset Sound Studios in Los Angeles had left everyone dissatisfied, primarily Jimmy Page himself.

"Hey, hey mama said the way you move, Gon' make you sweat, gon' make you groove", is the vigorous line that launches the wild and enterprising rock of "Black Dog", demonstrating how that fervor scattered here and there on the debut album, erupted without hesitation on the second and was appropriately metered on the third, manifests in this track under a new guise, showing its most disruptive yet naturally uninhibited side. The opening riff is an attractive burst of notes mostly led by Jones, which almost regularly alternates with the voracious vocals of a Plant always in the mood for refined double entendres, which never fall into premeditated vulgarity. For the nervy solo, Page employs his Gibson like never before during mixing for a quadruple overdub, to which the rest of the entire track will be forever indebted for its perfect realization. Bonham warms up his hands and "Rock And Roll" starts, a song that history claims was born from the ashes of "Keep A Knockin'" by Little Richard and an instinctive and stubborn riff, which makes the jam session with the brilliant piano of Ian Stewart (as if to say the sixth member/ghost of the Rolling Stones!!!) an exuberant combination of notes and energy, for one of the songs that will forever identify the Zeppelin.

A banjo played by Page announces the princely "The Battle Of Evermore", a ballad whose lavish arrangement highlights the ancient conflicts in an ancient Scotland being sung about, where Sandy Denny's (Fairport Convention) sublime voice adds further royalty. "Stairway To Heaven" is the song that once listened to, every rock musician would have wanted to compose. The delicate acoustic guitar introduction immediately joined by a flute with a bucolic flavor and the progressive harmony of the voice, the polite presence of the electric guitar and Bonzo's decisive entry of the drums, highlight minute by minute that we are in front of something never heard before. A faint almost impalpable atmosphere, capable of gradually transforming as Page's hand begins to steer the whole now confident instrumental mix, to take possession of it with an exhilarating (multi) solo allowing Plant's vehement temper to gush out and deliver us a finale worthy of the same magic as the first minutes. At the halfway mark "Misty Mountain Hop" starts, marked by a pounding riff, predominantly launched by an electric piano and a more tempered six-string, which prudently flirts with the lyrics of a singer with a deeply hippy disposition (Walkin' in the park just the other day baby, What da ya, what da ya think I saw?   Crowds of people sittin' on the grass With flowers in their hair said "Hey boy, do you wanna score?" An’ ya know how it is. I really don't know what time it was, Hoh-hoh-hoah. So I asked ‘em if I could stay a while: Passeggiavo nel parco, l'altro giorno, baby Dì un po', cosa ho visto? Una folla di gente seduta nell'erba Con fiori nei capelli, e dicevano "Hey, ragazzo, vuoi della roba?" E sai com'è Non sapevo che ora fosse Hoh-hoh-hoah. Così ho chiesto loro se potevo restare un po'.).

The surprises never end as confirmed by "Four Sticks", a track that explores the band's darker musical side, expanding its obsessiveness also through the complex tribalism of the formidable Bonham, dealing simultaneously with four sticks. "Going To California" dazzles for the ease with which those acoustic territories, already courageously confessed on "Led Zeppelin III", are furrowed and refined. "When The Levee Breaks" (the original version dates back to 1929 and is signed by the couple Kansas Joe Mc Coy and Memphis Minnie) enhanced by a new guise, whose most substantial contribution comes from a striking bottleneck and a delightful harmonica that invigorate with that personal genius a canonical blues, managing skillfully to give an inevitable qualitative leap to the entire work.

"Untitled" (..the most legitimate among the titles) has been deservedly defined with grandiose adjectives that I won’t list here, just saying that with this platter Led Zeppelin have demonstrated to be a Superband that never stopped resting on the laurels previously won. A band, in summary, that as if by some mysterious spell, was the first to understand it had numerous arrows in its quiver and that they would all hit the target, fully aware that the enchantment of which one is protagonists, sooner or later one could become extras.

From the first to the last note a surreal sonic adventure... for one of those albums that should strictly present a fluorescent sticker on the cover with the following inscription: "Parental Advisory": Explicit Original Rock!!!