ON THIS DATE (40 YEARS AGO)
November 8, 1971 – Led Zeppelin IV (ZOSO) is released.
# ALL THINGS MUSIC PLUS+ 5/5
# Allmusic 5/5
# Rolling Stone, Billboard, Circus, Playboy (see original reviews below)
The fourth album by Led Zeppelin was released on this date in November 1971. No title is printed on the album, so it is generally referred to as Led Zeppelin IV, following the naming standard used by the band's first three studio albums. The album has alternatively been referred to as the Four Symbols logo, Four Symbols, The Fourth Album (those two titles each having been used in the Atlantic catalog), Untitled, The Runes, The Hermit, and ZoSo, the latter of which is derived from the symbol used by Jimmy Page for the album sleeve.
Upon its release, Led Zeppelin IV was a commercial and critical success. The album is one of the best-selling albums worldwide at 32 million units. It has shipped over 23 million units in the United States alone, making it the third-best-selling album ever in the US. In 2003, the album was ranked 66th on Rolling Stone magazine's list of "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time".
The album was initially recorded at Island Records's newly opened Basing Street Studios, London, at the same time as Jethro Tull's Aqualung in December 1970. Upon the suggestion of Fleetwood Mac, the band then moved to Headley Grange, a remote Victorian house in East Hampshire, England, to conduct additional recordings. Here they used the Rolling Stones Mobile Studio. Jimmy Page later recalled: "We needed the sort of facilities where we could have a cup of tea and wander around the garden and go in and do what we had to do." This relaxed, atmospheric environment at Headley Grange also provided other advantages for the band. As is explained by Dave Lewis, "By moving into Headley Grange for the whole period of recording, many of the tracks [on the album] were made up on the spot and committed to tape almost there and then."
Once the basic tracks had been recorded, the band later added overdubs at Island Studios, and then took the completed master tapes to Sunset Sound in Los Angeles for mixing. However, the mix ultimately proved to be less than satisfactory, creating an unwanted delay in the album's release. Further mixing had to be undertaken in London, pushing the final release date back by some months.
Three other songs from the sessions, "Down by the Seaside", "Night Flight" and "Boogie With Stu" (featuring Rolling Stones cofounder/collaborator Ian Stewart on piano), did not appear on the album, but were included four years later on the double album Physical Graffiti.
ORIGINAL ROLLING STONE, BILLBOARD, CIRCUS, PLAYBOY REVIEWS
It might seem a bit incongruous to say that Led Zeppelin -- a band never particularly known for its tendency to understate matters -- has produced an album which is remarkable for its low-keyed and tasteful subtely, but that's just the case here. The march of the dinosaurs that broke the ground for their first epic release has apparently vanished, taking along with it the splattering electronics of their second effort and the leaden acoustic moves that seemed to weigh down their third. What's been saved is the pumping adrenalin drive that held the key to such classics as "Communication Breakdown" and "Whole Lotta Love," the incredibly sharp and precise vocal dynamism of Robert Plant, and some of the tightest arranging and producing Jimmy Page has yet seen his way toward doing. If this thing with the semi-metaphysical title isn't quite their best to date, since the very chances that the others took meant they would visit some outrageous highs as well as some overbearing lows, it certainly comes off as their most consistently good.
One of the ways in which this is demonstrated is the sheer variety of the album: out of the eight cuts, there isn't one that steps on another's toes, that tries to do too much all at once. There are Olde English ballads ("The Ballad of Evermore" with a lovely performance by Sandy Denny), a kind of pseudo-blues just to keep in touch ("Four Sticks"), a pair of authentic Zepplinania ("Black Dog" and "Misty Mountain Hop"), some stuff that I might actually call shy and poetic if it didn't carry itself off so well ("Stairway to Heaven" and "Going To California"), and a couple of songs that when all is said and done, will probably be right up there in the gold-starred hierarchy of put 'em on and play 'em agains. The first, coyly titled "Rock And Roll," is the Zeppelin's slightly-late attempt at tribute to the mother of us all, but here it's definitely a case of better late than never. This sonuvabitch moves, with Plant musing vocally on how "It's been a long, lonely lonely time" since last he rock & rolled, the rhythm section soaring underneath. Page strides up to take a nice lead during the break, one of the all-too-few times he flashes his guitar prowess during the record, and its note-for-note simplicity says a lot for the ways in which he's come of age over the past couple of years.
The end of the album is saved for "When The Levee Breaks," strangely credited to all the members of the band plus Memphis Minnie, and it's a dazzler. Basing themselves around one honey of a chord progression, the group constructs an air of tunnel-long depth, full of stunning resolves and a majesty that sets up as a perfect climax. Led Zep have had a lot of imitators over the past few years, but it takes cuts like this to show that most of them have only picked up the style, lacking any real knowledge of the meat underneath.
Uh huh, they got it down all right. And since the latest issue of Cashbox noted that this 'un was a gold disc on its first day of release, I guess they're about to nicely keep it up. Not bad for a pack of Limey lemon squeezers.
- Lenny Kaye, Rolling Stone, 12-23-71.
*****
The fourth powerhouse album release for Led Zeppelin offers all the play and sales potency of the other three smash hit packages. Heavy cuts include "Rock and Roll," "Misty Mountain," "Going to California," and "Black Dog," all of which will put the package at the top of the charts.
- Billboard, 1971.
*****
Some rock stars want to do folk. Some folk stars yearn to be rock 'n' rollers. Led Zeppelin seems to want both. So much for the schizoid nature of Led Zeppelin. The group's roots have always been in hard bluesy British rock, and on this LP there are several good examples of this -- the most outstanding is "When The Levee Breaks." But, as with the third album, they have spliced in some folky things and these provide a pleasant contrast. "Going To California" is a dreamlike acoustic piece which segues in and out of the echo chamber. Ex-Fairport Convention lead singer Sandy Denny shows up on "The Battle of Evermore" lending a shimmeringly beautiful voice to what is already a splendid selection. Then, for all the no-nonsense freaks out there, comes "Rock and Roll" -- three minutes and forty of the stuff of which livin' lovin' maids are made. If you don't mind shifting moods suddenly from the heavy to the soft, and vice versa, you should find this a relatively satisfying set.
- Ed Kelleher, Circus, 1-72.
*****
Call it Led Zeppelin IV, since it carries no printed information on its cover, only a picture of a bent old gent bearing a great faggot of sticks. Inside are four arcane-looking symbols that, word has it, are ancient runes that Jimmy Page may have used to represent each of the four members of the group. But the real mystery here is that the old Zepp has become so good. The group finally has made its own brand of high-volume tastelessness into great rock, and not all of it is at high volume, either. Besides the flamboyant Page solos and the typical, heavily layered sounds of tunes such as "Rock and Roll," there are subtle instrumental effects (the dulcimer on "The Battle of Evermore," for example). With "Stairway to Heaven," the group ascends into the realm of seriousness -- getting into madrigals, yet, and quasi-poetry -- and does it without stumbling.
- Playboy, 3-72
Side One
1. Black Dog (Jimmy Page/Robert Plant/John Paul Jones)
2. Rock and Roll (Page/Plant/Jones/John Bonham)
3. The Battle of Evermore (Page/Plant)
4. Stairway to Heaven (Page/Plant)
Side Two
5. Misty Mountain Hop (Page/Plant/Jones)
6. Four Sticks (Page/Plant)
7. Going to California (Page/Plant)
8. When the Levee Breaks (Memphis Minnie/Page/Plant/Jones/Bonham)
