Elijah Warren
P.1

Led Zepplin Over a ten year, nine album career from 1969-1979 Led Zepplin was the most popular rock group in the world, ultimately selling over 50 million records in the U.S. alone (more than 200 million worldwide), developing the blues-based power trio-plus-lead singer archetype in many directions including mystical English folk-rock, Middle-Eastern- influenced exotica, quirky pop and every manner of heaviness. They also came to symbolize the Dionysian excesses of the rock lifestyle. Jimmy Page, who had led the last incarnation of the Yard birds and had been and extremely successful session guitarist formed he band in 1968 with veteran session bassist/keyboard John Paul Jones, 19-year-old singer Robert Plant and Plant’s friend, drummer John Bonham. Commenting upon Paige’s low expectations for the success of the band, Keith Moon suggested the name “Led Zepplin.” They were both wrong: “Led Zepplin 1” (“Good Times Bad Times,” “Babe, I’m Gonna Leave You,” “Dazed and Confused”, “Communication Breakdown”), “Led Zepplin 2” (“Whole Lotta Love,” “The Lemon Song,” “Heartbreaker,” “Living Loving Maid,” “Ramble On”) and “Led Zepplin 4” (a.k.a. “Zoso,” with “Black Dog,” “Rock and Roll,” “When the Levee Breaks,” “Stairway to Heaven”) are among rock’s greatest albums. Led Zepplin are one of the best-selling music artists. Their 111.5 million certified units in the United States rank them as the second-best-selling band in the US. Each of their nine studio albums reached the top 10 of the Billboard album chart in the US, with six reaching the number-one spot. Rolling Stones magazine described them as “the heaviest band of all time”, “the biggest band of the 70’s” and unquestionably, one of the most enduring bands in rock history. Similarly, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame stated that in the 1970’s the band were “as influential