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For the band's 1969 self-titled debut album, see Led Zeppelin (album) Led Zeppelin were an English rock band, and are one of the most successful and influential groups in popular music history. Led Zeppelin consisted of four men: Jimmy Page (guitar), Robert Plant (lead vocals, harmonica), John Bonham (drums), and John Paul Jones (bass guitar, keyboards and mandolin). Formed in 1968, Led Zeppelin were innovators who never lost mainstream appeal. While the band is perhaps best known as pioneers of hard rock and heavy metal, they also drew inspiration from many other musical genres, including blues, rockabilly, reggae, soul, funk, jazz, classical, Celtic, Indian, Arabic, folk, pop, Latin and country. Over 25 years after disbanding in response to Bonham's 1980 death, Led Zeppelin continue to be held in high regard for their artistic achievements, commercial success, and broad influence. To date, the group is reported to have sold more than 300 million albums worldwide,• including 109.5 million sales• in the United States.
The early days (1968-1970) In 1968, while bands like The Beatles and The Rolling Stones still dominated the charts on both sides of the Atlantic, newer, heavier styles of rock and roll were being played by groups like The Who, The Jimi Hendrix Experience and Cream. In that same year, a new British band, Led Zeppelin, began to form their own distinctly thunderous sound, and would play a critical role in the creation of a new musical genre, heavy metal. Origins/The New Yardbirds The beginnings of Led Zeppelin can be traced back to the rock band The Yardbirds. Page joined in 1966 to play bass guitar after bassist Paul Samwell-Smith left the group. Shortly after, Page switched from bass to lead guitar creating a dual-lead guitar lineup with Jeff Beck and Chris Dreja moved from rhythm guitar to bass. Following the departure of Jeff Beck in October 1966, The Yardbirds, tired from constant touring and recording, were beginning to wind down. Page discussed forming a supergroup with himself and Beck on guitar, and The Who's Keith Moon and John Entwistle on drums and bass, respectively.• Vocalists Donovan, Steve Winwood and Steve Marriott were also considered for the project.• The group never formed, although Page, Beck and Moon did record a song together in 1966, "Beck's Bolero", which is featured on Beck's 1968 album, Truth. The recording session also included bassist John Paul Jones, who told Page that he would be interested in collaborating with him on future projects. • The Yardbirds played their final gig in July 1968, after which vocalist Keith Relf and drummer Jim McCarty left the band, wishing to pursue a shared interest in folk music. However, The Yardbirds were still committed to perform several concerts in Scandinavia, so McCarty and Relf authorised Page and Dreja to use the Yardbirds name to fulfil the band's obligations. Page and Dreja began putting a new line-up together. Page's first choice for lead singer, Terry Reid, declined the offer, but suggested Plant, a Birmingham scene singer he knew. • Plant accepted the position, and also recommended John Bonham from nearby Redditch who also played regularly in Birmingham bands. • Plant and Bonham had recently played in the Band of Joy together. When Dreja opted out of the project to become a photographer — he would later take the photograph that appeared on the back of Led Zeppelin's debut album — Jones contacted Page about the empty position. Being familiar with his credentials, Page agreed he would be the band's new bassist. The band completed the Scandinavian tour as the "New Yardbirds". After some discussion, the name "Led Zeppelin" was chosen as a new name, based upon a name (Lead Zeppelin) that Keith Moon had suggested during his discussions with Page about a possible supergroup. Moon got the name from John Entwistle's term for a bad gig, describing it as "going over" (some sources say "going down") "like a lead zeppelin".• The group deliberately dropped the 'a' in Lead at the suggestion of their manager, Peter Grant, to prevent people from pronouncing it as "leed". Led Zeppelin (the first album)
Led Zeppelin II The immediate success of the first album kick-started the band's career, especially in the United States. The second record, titled Led Zeppelin II, followed similarly later that year. The second album was an even greater success than the first and reached the number one chart position in the US and the UK. Led Zeppelin II begins with the bludgeoning riff of "Whole Lotta Love," which, driven by the rhythm section, helped as much as any other song to define their sound. Other highlights from the album included the acoustic/electric "Ramble On", the catchy riff, intricate guitar solo, and powerful vocals of "Heartbreaker", and the explosive chorus of "What Is and What Should Never Be". The album also included songs which were strikingly similar to Willie Dixon's work, although Dixon was not credited. The prelude to "Bring It on Home" is a cover of Sonny Blake's "Bring it on Home" and drew comparisons with Dixon's "Bring It on Back". "Whole Lotta Love" was reputed to be similar to Dixon's "You Need Love" although the phrase had been used before. In the 1970s, Arc Music, the publishing arm of Chess Records, brought a lawsuit against Led Zeppelin for copyright infringement over "Bring It on Home" and won an out-of-court settlement. Dixon himself did not benefit until he sued Arc Music to recover his royalties and copyrights. Years later, Dixon filed suit against Led Zeppelin over "Whole Lotta Love" and a generous out-of-court settlement was reached. Later pressings of Led Zeppelin II credit Dixon. Page was once quoted in an interview as saying: "I've often thought that in the way the Stones tried to be the sons of Chuck Berry, we tried to be the sons of Howlin' Wolf." A version of Howlin' Wolf's song "Killing Floor" which was featured prominently in Led Zeppelin's early live performances, also found its way onto Led Zeppelin II in a different arrangement, entitled "The Lemon Song". During this early period Led Zeppelin made several tours of the United States. They played often, initially in clubs and ballrooms, then in larger auditoriums as their popularity grew. Led Zeppelin concerts could last more than three hours, with expanded, improvised live versions of their song repertoire often incorporating elements of James Brown, Stax and Motown-influenced soul music and funk (favourites of bassist Jones and drummer Bonham). The quartet also loved American rock and roll, being inspired by the exuberant styles of Fats Domino and Little Richard. Led Zeppelin would additionally perform rockabilly songs originally made famous by Elvis Presley and Eddie Cochran. Many of these shows were the sources of Led Zeppelin bootleg recordings which continue to be prized by collectors and fans. Led Zeppelin III
“The biggest band in the world” (1971–1975) The success of Led Zeppelin's early years would be dwarfed by this five year period in which the band would release their most famous albums and ascend to the very peak of musical success in the 1970s. The band's image also changed as members began to wear elaborate, colorful clothing and jewellery similar to other popular performers of the era such as Liberace. If the band's popularity on stage was impressive, so too was its reputation for off-stage wildness and excess. Led Zeppelin began traveling in a private jet airliner (nicknamed The Starship), rented out entire sections of hotels (most notably the Continental Hyatt House in Los Angeles, known colloquially as the "Riot House"), and became the subject of many of rock's most famous stories of debauchery. One escapade involved John Bonham throwing televisions out of the windows of the Riot House during a drunken rampage and then blaming the damage on Led Zeppelin groupies. But perhaps the most notorious story of Led Zeppelin excess was the infamous Shark episode, or red snapper incident, which took place at the Edgewater Inn in Seattle, Washington, on July 28, 1969. The fourth album (officially untitled) Led Zeppelin's fourth album was released on November 8, 1971. There was no indication of a title on the original cover, but on the LP label four symbols were printed - . The album is referred to as Four Symbols and The Fourth Album (both titles were used in the Atlantic Records catalogue), and also Untitled, Zoso, Runes, Sticks, Man With Sticks, and Four. It is still officially untitled, and most commonly referred to as Led Zeppelin IV. In an interview with Rolling Stone magazine in 2005 Plant said that it is simply called The Fourth Album. further refined the band's unique formula of combining earthy, acoustic elements with heavy metal and blues emphases. The album included examples of conventional hard rock, such as "Black Dog" (supposedly in tribute to a dog which loitered around the recording studio) along with a gentler, acoustic folk track, "Going to California" (a tribute to Joni Mitchell), and "Four Sticks" (so named because it features John Bonham drumming with four drumsticks). "The Battle of Evermore" is the only Led Zeppelin song to feature a guest vocalist, the late Sandy Denny. On the inside cover of the album, next to the "Battle of Evermore" song title, there is another symbol of three interlocked triangles. This is Sandy Denny's own symbol given to her by the band. This song and the buoyant "Misty Mountain Hop" both include lyrical references to The Lord of the Rings. However, it was three of the album's tracks, "Rock and Roll", "When the Levee Breaks", and particularly "Stairway to Heaven", which have come to be known as three of the band's greatest and most famous songs. "Rock and Roll" is a lively tribute to the early rock music of the 1950s but with a heavy metal twist, featuring John Bonham's memorable drum introduction. For several years it was frequently chosen as the opening number for Led Zeppelin concerts. Recently (as of 2006), the song has been used prominently in Cadillac automobile commercials--one of the few instances of Led Zeppelin's surviving members licensing songs. concludes with a radically altered version of a Memphis Minnie/Kansas Joe McCoy blues song, "When the Levee Breaks". Led Zeppelin's version opens with a distinctive, pounding drum beat, which has been sampled for use in many modern rock and rap releases. The distinct resonance of the drums in the song was achieved by recording them in a stairwell. Folk and metal are fused together in the eight-minute, suite-like "Stairway to Heaven", which became a massive album-oriented rock FM radio hit despite never being released as a single. The song features three distinct movements: a slow acoustic introduction, a more up-tempo acoustic middle section, and an electric finale marked by Page's iconic guitar solo. "Stairway to Heaven" is undoubtedly the best-known song in Led Zeppelin's catalogue, and many rumours surround it. The most famous of these is that when the recording is played backwards, Satanic messages can be heard. This, along with Page's admitted interest in occultist Aleister Crowley, has fueled speculation that Page has dabbled in Satanism. Both Page and Plant have repeatedly denied the presence of Satanic messages. Another subject of much speculation has been the elusive meaning of the lyric of "Stairway to Heaven", which Robert Plant supposedly wrote during a single day. In the 1973 concert film The Song Remains The Same, before performing the song live, Plant says "I think this is a song of hope". Critics have noted that the opening riff of "Stairway to Heaven" is similar to a riff in the song "Taurus" by the rock group Spirit, for whom Led Zeppelin opened on their first American tour. Led Zeppelin have maintained that this resemblance is purely coincidental. In 2005, the magazine Guitar World held a poll of readers in which "Stairway to Heaven" was voted as having the greatest guitar solo of all time. As of July 31, 2006, has sold 23 million copies in the US, making it one of the top four best selling albums in the history of the US music industry. Worldwide, it ranks at number eleven for album sales. Houses Of The Holy The band's next studio album, 1973's Houses of the Holy, featured further experimentation, with powerful melodies, longer tracks and expanded use of synthesisers and Mellotron orchestration. The album exhibits fewer blues influences than any of Led Zeppelin's other albums, instead turning to jazz and classically-inspired riffs. In particular, the multi-layered guitar symphony of "The Song Remains the Same", the atmospheric keyboards in "No Quarter", and the complex string arrangements in "The Rain Song" demonstrate a greater willingness by the band to explore new sonic territory, resulting in the band's most progressive work. The album also included the explosive ballad "Over the Hills and Far Away", which remains an FM radio staple, and "The Ocean", written largely by John Bonham. The song "Houses of the Holy" does not appear on its namesake album, even though it was recorded at the same time as other songs on the album; it eventually made its way onto the 1975 album Physical Graffiti. The striking orange album cover of "Houses of the Holy" features images of nude children (girls) climbing up the Giant's Causeway (in County Antrim, Northern Ireland) to an unseen idol. Although the children are not depicted from the front, this was highly controversial at the time of the album's release, and in some areas, such as Spain, the record was banned. The album topped the charts, and Led Zeppelin's subsequent Houses of the Holy concert tour of the United States in 1973 broke records for attendance, as they consistently filled large auditoriums and stadiums. At Tampa Stadium, Florida, they played to 56,800 fans (breaking the record set by The Beatles' at Shea Stadium in 1965), and grossed $309,000 . Three sold-out shows at Madison Square Garden in New York were filmed for a motion picture, but the theatrical release of this project (The Song Remains the Same) would be delayed until 1976. In 1974, Led Zeppelin launched their own record label, Swan Song, named after one of only five Led Zeppelin songs which the band never released commercially (Page later re-worked the song with his band, The Firm, and it appears as "Midnight Moonlight" on their first album). The record label's logo, based on a drawing called Evening: Fall of Day (1869) by William Rimmer, features a picture of Apollo (although it is often misinterpreted as a picture of Icarus, Daedelus, Satan, or Lucifer). The logo can be found on much Led Zeppelin memorabilia, especially t-shirts. In addition to using Swan Song as a vehicle to promote their own albums, the band expanded the label's roster, signing artists such as Bad Company, Pretty Things, Maggie Bell, Detective, Dave Edmunds, Midnight Flyer, Sad Café and Wildlife. The label would be successful while Led Zeppelin existed, but folded less than three years after they disbanded. Physical Graffiti
The latter days (1976-1980) By 1975, Led Zeppelin was a household name in both the United States and Europe, perennially topping the charts on both continents, as they would continue to do throughout these years. Their live shows would increase even further in theatricality, featuring larger stage areas and complex lights shows that were popular with other bands of the era, such as Pink Floyd. While there were still massive musical and commercial successes for the band during this period, problems such as the tragic death of Robert Plant's son, a car crash, Jimmy Page's heroin use and heavier smoking to curb those cravings, changing musical tastes, and finally John Bonham's alcoholism would ultimately bring an end to Led Zeppelin. Presence Following the triumphant Earl's Court appearances, Led Zeppelin took a break from touring. In August 1975, Robert Plant and his wife Maureen were involved in a serious car crash whilst on holiday in Rhodes, Greece. Robert suffered a broken ankle and Maureen was very badly injured; a timely blood transfusion saved her life. Unable to tour, Led Zeppelin returned to the studio, and, with Plant sitting on a stool during the sessions, the band recorded their seventh studio album, Presence, in Munich, Germany. Released in March 1976, the album marked a change in the Led Zeppelin sound towards more straightforward, guitar-based jams. Whereas their previous albums contain electric hard rock anthems balanced with acoustic ballads and intricate arrangements, Presence is an almost wholly aggressive album that dabbles in simplified punk-like riffs, and is arguably the heaviest collection of songs the group produced. The album's magnum opus, "Achilles Last Stand", is a ten-and-a-half minute metal epic featuring a galloping bass line, lightning fast drumming, melodic multi-layered guitar riffs and one of Page's most revered solos, along with a haunting vocal performance from Plant delivered entirely in his wheelchair while recovering from his car accident. This and another track, "Nobody's Fault But Mine" (a tune first recorded by Blind Willie Johnson in the 1920s), became staples of the live concert performances which Led Zeppelin delivered after 1976. Though the album was a platinum seller, it received mixed responses from critics and fans. While many appreciated the looser style, others dismissed it as "sloppy", and some critics speculated that the band member's legendary excesses might have finally caught up with them, resulting in a sub-standard album release. The recording of Presence coincided with the beginning of Page's heroin use, which may have interfered with Led Zeppelin's later live shows and studio recordings, although Page has denied this. Despite the original criticisms, Jimmy Page has called Presence his favorite album, and "Achilles Last Stand" his favorite Led Zeppelin song. Robert Plant has also stated that he thinks Presence is the album that probably sounds the most "Led Zeppelin" of all their LPs. The concert film (The Song Remains The Same)
In Through The Out Door
"A tragic end"
1980s In 1982 the surviving members of the group released a collection of out-takes from various sessions during Led Zeppelin's career, entitled Coda. It included two tracks taken from the band's performance at the Royal Albert Hall in 1970, one each from Led Zeppelin III and Houses of the Holy sessions, and three from the In Through the Out Door sessions. It also featured a 1976 John Bonham drum instrumental with electronic effects added by Jimmy Page, called "Bonzo's Montreux". In the years that followed, a steady stream of boxed sets, never previously-released material, and greatest hits collections kept the band on the charts along with their major albums, which perennially sell in the millions. Led Zeppelin continues to garner heavy radio airplay. Because of the band's popularity many FM stations around the United States, have developed a "Get the Led Out" segment (usually occurring around 6 P.M.), during which Led Zeppelin songs are played back to back. Jimmy Page stopped playing guitar regularly until 1983, when he embarked on a short charity tour with the ARMS project (Action Research for Multiple Sclerosis). The tour also included the other former Yardbirds guitarists, Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck. Each artist performed separately, with Page playing tunes from his Death Wish II soundtrack along with an instrumental version of "Stairway to Heaven", although performances of other Led Zeppelin songs were rare. For the finale, all three guitarists shared the stage, trading blues solos. In 1984, Page teamed up with Paul Rodgers (of Bad Company and Free fame) to record two albums under the name The Firm. The first album included an old Page arrangement originally intended for release by Led Zeppelin, and now re-worked as "Midnight Moonlight". Robert Plant launched his own successful solo career in 1982 with the album Pictures at Eleven, and in 1984 teamed with Page for the commercially successful EP The Honeydrippers: Volume One, which also featured another former Yardbirds guitarist, Jeff Beck. On July 13, 1985 Page, Plant and John Paul Jones reunited at the Live Aid concert at JFK Stadium, Philadelphia, for a short Led Zeppelin set featuring drummers Tony Thompson and Phil Collins. Collins was chosen by Plant as Collins had played on Plant's first two solo albums. The performance, which included three songs ("Rock and Roll", "Whole Lotta Love" and "Stairway to Heaven"), was marred by bad broadcast sound and uneven drumming by Thompson and Collins (Thompson messed up on the intro to "Rock and Roll" and came in a bar too early for "Whole Lotta Love", and Collins was fatigued from his flight from London to Philadelphia), a sub-standard vocal performance from Plant, and Page's apparent inebriation and badly tuned Gibson Les Paul guitar (the Gibson EDS-1275 was in tune). When Live Aid footage was released on a four-DVD set in late 2004, the group unanimously agreed not to allow footage from their performance to be used, agreeing that it was not up to their usual standards. However, Page and Plant donated proceeds from their Unledded DVD to the Live Aid charity, and Jones donated a portion of the profits from his United States tour with the Mutual Admiration Society. In 1986, Page, Plant and Jones gathered at Bath, in South West England, for rehearsals with Thompson with a view to playing as a group again, but a serious car accident involving Thompson ended the plans. The year 1988 turned out to be a significant one for the surviving members of Led Zeppelin, with much talk about a reunion tour. A newer band, Kingdom Come, had a hit single called "Get It On", which sounded so much like Led Zeppelin that many listeners thought that the band had reformed. Additional excitement was generated by Page's appearance on Plant's album Now and Zen, where he performed on the tracks "Heaven Knows" and "Tall Cool One" (the latter also featuring samples of Page's guitar riffs from the original Led Zeppelin recordings). Plant later sang on track four ("The Only One") of Page's album Outrider, released in June. For the first time since Bonham's death, Plant began performing Zeppelin tunes on his solo tour. When Plant's European tour visited London's Hammersmith Odeon on April 17, 1988, Page joined Plant on stage for several numbers. Both Page and Plant mounted tours in the United States later in the year, each performing Led Zeppelin numbers to ecstatic audiences. Led Zeppelin reunited again in May of 1988, for Atlantic Records' 40th Anniversary concert, with Bonham's son, Jason Bonham, on drums. As at Live Aid, the performance was flawed, this time by a lack of keyboards in the mix and by Page's unusually lackluster performance during "Heartbreaker". A Rolling Stone critic summed up at year's end that "1988 was the biggest year Led Zeppelin ever had, and they only played once." In 1989 Page and Plant performed with Jason Bonham again at the 21st birthday party of Plant's daughter, Carmen, and in 1990 at Jason Bonham's wedding. These appearances caused much speculation in the media about a possible Led Zeppelin reunion tour, though no such tour materialised. 1990s On June 30, 1990, while Plant was touring in support of his album, Manic Nirvana, Page joined him for a brief set at the Knebworth music festival. The set included "Wearing and Tearing", "Misty Mountain Hop" and "Rock and Roll". The concert was broadcast by radio stations around the world, and highlights of the event, including the entire Page/Plant set, were later shown on MTV. On other dates of the tour, Plant performed wearing a Jimmy Page t-shirt. Robert Plant appeared as a guest at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert, performing "Innuendo" and a Medley of Zeppelin's "Thank You" and Queen's "Crazy Little Thing Called Love", with the three surviving Members of Queen. Page and Plant reunited in 1994 for an MTV Unplugged performance (dubbed Unledded) which eventually led to a world tour with a Middle Eastern orchestra, and a live album entitled No Quarter. The bass player was Charlie Jones, who had been the bassist with Plant's own band for several years (and was now his son-in-law, having married Carmen Plant). Many see this as the beginning of discord with John Paul Jones, who was upset with Page and Plant for touring without asking him first. Tensions were further increased when Plant was asked at a press conference where Jones was, and he jokingly replied that Jones was parking the car. Jones later commented that he was unhappy about Plant and Page naming the album after a Led Zeppelin song which was largely his work. In a 1995 interview with Spin magazine, Page kicked the interviewer out of the room simply for mentioning Jones. On January 13, 1995, Led Zeppelin was inducted into the United States Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. At the induction ceremony, the band's inner rift became apparent when Jones joked upon accepting his award, "Thank you, my friends, for finally remembering my phone number," causing consternation and awkward looks from Page and Plant. The three jammed with Aerosmith's Steven Tyler and Joe Perry on "Bring It On Home" and "D'yer Ma'ker", and with Neil Young on "When the Levee Breaks." November 11, 1997 saw the release of Led Zeppelin BBC Sessions, the first Led Zeppelin album in more than fifteen years. The two-disc set included almost all of the band's recordings for the BBC. In 1998, Page and Plant continued their collaboration with Walking into Clarksdale, the pair's first album-length collaboration on entirely new material since Led Zeppelin disbanded in 1980. The subsequent tour featured Led Zeppelin songs (including the epic "How Many More Times") along with a few songs from the new album, including "Most High" which brought back memories of Zeppelin's raw power and had the same upbeat energy of "Kashmir". 2000s On May 30, 2000, Atlantic released a single edit of "Whole Lotta Love" in the US, making it the only Led Zeppelin CD single. The band have never released a single in the UK. In October 2002, the British press reported that Robert Plant and John Paul Jones had reconciled after a 20-year feud which had kept Led Zeppelin apart, and rumours surfaced of a reunion tour in 2003. This was later denied by Plant and Page's management company. 2003 saw a resurgence of the band's popularity with the release of a live album, How the West Was Won, and a video collection, Led Zeppelin DVD, both featuring material from the band's heyday. At the year's end, the DVD had sold more than 520,000 copies. Around Christmas 2004, "Stairway To Heaven" was voted the best rock song of all time by Planet Rock listeners in a poll conducted on the station's website. Two other Led Zeppelin songs were also featured in the top ten - "Whole Lotta Love" at number six and "Rock and Roll" at number eight. In 2005, Led Zeppelin received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, they were ranked On the cover of their February 2006 issue, Guitar World magazine called Led Zeppelin the "world's greatest band." The band, and Jimmy Page especially, have been featured in the magazine numerous times, whether in articles about the band itself, about topics that include the band, or in articles where other musicians cite the band as a powerful influence. In 2006, Led Zeppelin IV was named the number one guitar album for all time by a voter poll in the October issue of Guitar World. Page and Plant were slated to appear on June 30th, 2006 at the Montreux Jazz Festival for a tribute to Ahmet Ertegun, Atlantic Records' founder, but Jimmy Page did not appear, citing unnamed medical problems. Also in 2006 Led Zeppelin were chosen as inductees to the U.K. Music Hall of Fame alongside Brian Wilson, Rod Stewart, Dusty Springfield, and George Martin. The event is set to include Australian rock band Wolfmother performing a set dedicated to the band. Led Zeppelin has always been very protective of its catalogue of songs, and has seldom allowed them to be licensed for films or commercials. In recent years, this position has softened somewhat, and Led Zeppelin songs can be heard in movies such as Fast Times at Ridgemont High, One Day in September, Almost Famous, Dogtown and Z-Boys, and School of Rock, yet the surviving band members are still apprenhensive about letting their songs be used in unartistic contexts. By contrast, other rock bands of the 1960s and 1970s such as the Who and the Rolling Stones have been more loose in allowing their songs to appear in commericial contexts. On the DVD release of the last movie, a special feature shows star Jack Black and an auditorium full of extras videotaping a plea to Led Zeppelin for permission to use "Immigrant Song" in the film. In a singular concession for commercial use, the Led Zeppelin song "Rock and Roll" has been used in Cadillac television and radio ads. One Tree Hill was the first television show to be licensed use of a Led Zeppelin song (using "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You" for the Season 3 finale). Led Zeppelin has steadfastly refused to allow their catalogue to be available for online music downloads, a position unlikely to change. Legacy
Instrumental Technology For more details on this topic, see the band members' individual articles Listed below are Led Zeppelin's three instrumental band members and their respective instrument models with with they most commonly recorded and performed during their active years as a band. Lead vocalist Robert Plant is excluded, as he did not usually play an instrument except harmonica, and occasionally tambourine: Jimmy Page: Electric Guitars--1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard (Main guitar), 1958 Gibson Les Paul Standard (No. 2 guitar), 1958 Fender Telecaster (used in recordings), Danelectro 3021, and the Gibson EDS-1275 (Used for playing Stairway to Heaven live). Acoustic Guitars--Gibson J-200, Martin D28 Acoustic, and an Andy Manson custom triple neck Mandolin. John Paul Jones: Bass Guitars--Fender Jazz Bass and Custom Designed Alembic basses. Electronic keyboards-- MK Mellotron and Hammond Organs. John Bonham: Drum Kits--Ludwig-Musser Green Sparkle and Stainless Steel models. Discography Albums Compilations and other releases ‡ Contains some tracks not available elsewhere Filmography Sources | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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