Led Zeppelin
Entry updated 16 April 2024. Tagged: Music.
Immensely successful UK rock band formed in London in 1968 by vocalist Robert Plant (1948- ), guitarist Jimmy Page (1944- ), bassist and keyboardist John Paul Jones (real name John Baldwin, 1946- ) and drummer John Bonham (1948-1980), active until Bonham's death. The notoriety around their offstage behaviour no doubt contributed to their success as much as their exceptionally physical mix of hard rock, blues and folk. Page's love of English folk traditions and Plant's obsession with J R R Tolkien and The Lord of the Rings (1954-1955 3vols) led to several songs with fantastical themes, notably "Ramble On" from Led Zeppelin II (1969), which references Gollum and Mordor, and "The Battle of Evermore" from Led Zeppelin IV (1971), in which The Queen of Light and The Prince of Peace battle The Dark Lord in Avalon. Their outstanding sf lyric is "Kashmir" from Physical Graffiti (1975), a tale of "a traveller of both time and space" who sits with "elders of a gentle race this world has seldom seen" and ventures out to find again their lost world, set to one of their most memorable riffs and a string orchestra. [CWa]
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