Popular Music Blog - Led Zeppelin II

Popular Music Blog 

William Vessey

Led Zeppelin, Led Zeppelin II - 1969

The second studio album released by this 'legendary' band containing huge hits such as 'Whole Lotta Love', 'Heartbreaker' and 'Moby Dick'. This album defines them as who they are and musically contributes hugely to what hard rock is all about. They brought a new sound to the world thanks to Jimmy Page's genius adaption of early blues guitar playing style and Robert Plants amazing incomparable vocal. This album has the power to inspire anyone to be a rocker. 

Production

This album was recorded in studios all around the world since it was recorded during one of their tours. Its inevitable that this method of producing an album came with plenty of influences that helped the band achieve a quality album picking up styles from across the globe especially America, recording in cities such as New York and Memphis. This unusual method of recording an album allowed them to also use a wide variety of mixing equipment to achieve specific sounds for each track. Jimmy Page was left almost unattended at the mixing desk when producing this album, this perhaps gave confidence to musicians that they could record themselves, helping to start the revolution of home studios. 

Page had a few production techniques, one was that he was to base everything around the rhythm section. He was also adamant that the drums were not recorded in a drum booth. Wanting to capture the full ambiance of the drum kit, they were recording in open spaces to give them a natural reverb, no different to how Elvis was recorded for 'Heartbreak Hotel'.  this method helped have the kick and snare drum pierce consistently throughout the album. Coupled with the thick bass sound created an ideal sounding rhythm section, having it mixed so that it was audible when tracks were softer but yet never overpowering during the heavier sections. This method of recording drums and bass to begin with has now almost become natural for producing songs and albums. 

Another preferred method of Page was recording the whole band live, using leakage between microphones to his advantage as he believed it added more tone to each instrument and created a bigger sound in the final mix. 
Over all Pages producing was simple and natural yet he sweetened the songs in sections with the use of atmospheric keyboards, guitars, and percussion instruments. He also took full advantage of the stereo field, switching certain instruments from left to right speaker all the time. A great example of this is during the middle section of “Whole Lotta Love” where an atmospheric guitar sound spirals from left to right, to help reach its peak with a fantastic solo. 

Musical Features 

Its obvious the blues once again played a major role in this album and the band them self. Having been influenced by bands such as 'Muddy Waters and 'Howlin' Wolf' they too typically structured many of their songs around the 12 bar blues chord progression. However despite using similar progressions they often sped up the tempo, added plenty of distortion and wailing vocals to redefine this blues rock genre into something heavier.  

 

John Paul Jones - Bass, keyboards

John Bonham - Drums

Jimmy Page - Electric Guitar

Robert Plant - Vocals 

Having four members in a band was now almost accustom in the blues and rock genres since it allows for a clearer, simpler sound on stage. Although the band had ben brought up from different background their influences remained the same which is why they became such an unstoppable force during the 1970's. With each member of the band working in what seemed to be a perfect harmony throughout their earlier work, especially on this album. Plants vocals and Pages guitar tones were almost competing with eachother in the way that they remained ever so powerful working with eachotehr on every track and having such a tight rhythm section supporting them helped to shed a new light on the blues. 

In terms of equipment the they were using the stereotypical instruments of Gibson Les Pauls with Marshall Stacks which became the standard setup of any hard rock guitarist. John Bonham was believed to be an expert at tuning drums which gave his 5 piece Ludwig kit a distinctive tone. As for John Paul Jones, he played a variety of instruments as well as his Fender Bass guitar he played the mandolin, keyboards and Hammond Organs. Contributing to the nature of some of the songs giving them very atmospheric feel.

Style

Jimmy Page was known for using small guitar amps in the studio yet cranking them up to distorting levels to create his signature guitar tone. The small amp was much more convenient due to the fact he was recording in studios around the world. Despite Page not using many effects apart from small amounts of reverb he was admired for he creativity and capability to create so many different guitar tones using volume control on different tracks and layers using  yet almost the same equipment. 

The bands style took inspiration from the blues rock bands of the 1960s such as 'Jimi Hendrix', 'Rolling Stones' and  'Elvis Presley'. Other international bands also shaped the style of  Led Zeppelin since Page took inspiration from a Scottish Folk Guitarist 'Bert Jansch' who used alternative tuning and time signatures. 

   

Lyrical Themes

Robert Plant wrote lyrics about a numerous things. He was very interested old mythology and legends. Taking inspiration from the books of J.R. Tolkien, 'Lord Of The Rings' and 'The Hobbit'. For example “Ramble On” from this album was written with the journey of The Hobbit in mind. Plant also used sexual innuendo as a theme for a lot of his songs, for example “The Lemon Song”. Sexual subjects were still considered taboo in the early 70’s, and Plant helped set the boundaries for more provocotive song lyrics through the 70’s and 80’s, inspiring artist’s such as Guns ’n’ Roses to push the limits of song lyrics. Plant would also improvise lyrics regularly in live situations,  mimicking the effects on Jimmy Page’s guitar by wailing in unison with him. 

Affect on Modern Music

Led Zeppelin had one of the most profound effects on the music industry that there has ever been. Every guitar band after them has directly, or indirectly taken inspiration from them. Something as simple as using large amounts of gain for lead guitar tones, can be largely credited to Jimmy Page. Through the 70’s and 80’s their influence was more prominent as Rock was more in the mainstream than it is today. Bands like Aerosmith, Guns ’n’ Roses, Black Sabbath, and many more mimicked Plant’s singing style and Page's tone. Today emerging rock bands such as The Black Keys, Rival Sons, and Royal Blood can be heard using the same scales and tones, with a similar lyrical and singing style too. Led Zep will forever be the band that set the benchmark for rock music and their albums, making albums such as this, still sound fresh today.