But, if you leave thataside, Untitled, ZoSo, Runes or whatever else you might want to call the bandsbiggest ever success is a clanger. True to Led Zeppelin tradition, the musicdoesn’t ease you in, but picks you up and tosses you around from track 1,‘Black Dog’. Then to a maniacal drum intro and Robert Plant’s screaming vocalsfor ‘Rock and Roll’. And the ‘fun’ doesn’t stop there, Messrs Page, Plant,Bonham and Jones then treat you to an acoustic and vocal harmony laden ‘TheBattle of Evermore’ before going into probably the track that defined theircareer, ‘Stairway to Heaven.’ Four tracks after that and you just want to putthat album on loop and listen to of the greatest blues rock guitars gods andhis partner in crime, one of the craziest vocalists ever to grace the rock androll stage.
Led Zeppelin was greatnot just because all four musicians were virtuosos in their own right but morebecause they all came together to make great music. The band took blues andtwisted it around to deliver rock hard vocals, guitar leads that could movemountains, bass grooves that drove songs harder and drum rolls and solos thatevery drummer henceforth wanted to emulate. The songs that you hear in 4 areactually much improved from the first time they aired a few of them in theirBBC concerts in 1970. They went back, re-worked riffs, solos and intros andcame up with what you hear from the first time you press play.
Led Zeppelin 4 broughtthe band major commercial success. It also took rock music to new heights in1971, topped charts in a few places and achieved record success in America,where electric blues was still a bourgeoning genre. Critically, you can’t faultLed Zeppelin 4, apart from the one thing that’s missing, more songs.
