Line #143 Music/LedZeppelin


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ledzeppelin12_1459.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350: Led Zeppelin at their peak. From left to right: John Paul Jones, Robert Plant, John Bonham, and Jimmy Page.]]
3	->''"Thank you for making us the world's number one band."''
4	-->-- '''''Melody Maker'' advertisement''' for the release of ''Led Zeppelin III''
5	%%One quote is sufficient. Please do not add any more to the main page.%%
6
7	The one, the only, the hammer of the Gods.
8
9	Long story short: Led Zeppelin formed in 1968 after Music/TheYardbirds disintegrated and Jimmy Page recruited three other lads to satisfy contractual obligations for The Yardbirds, naming themselves [[SpiritualSuccessor The New Yardbirds]]. The band was originally to be a {{Supergroup}} consisting of Page, Music/JeffBeck, Nicky Hopkins on piano, [[Music/TheWho Keith Moon, and John Entwistle]]. They actually recorded one song (but with John Paul Jones on bass instead, because Entwistle couldn't make the session) called "Beck's Bolero", which made its way onto The Jeff Beck Group's ''Truth''. The group never amounted to more, as Entwistle and Moon allegedly said it would go over "like a lead balloon". After Chris Dreja threatened legal action, Page -- remembering Moon and Entwistle's quote -- changed the name from The New Yardbirds to Led Zeppelin. They went on to release many albums, tour heavily, become one of the most successful and famous bands in RockAndRoll, be a significant influence on HeavyMetal, and generally rock so hard as to blow people's minds and inspire them to form bands of their own. They broke up in 1980 after drummer John Bonham asphyxiated on vomit after a day of binge alcoholism. They were famously trashed at first by critics in TheSeventies but gained a huge fanbase, and those critics (particularly ''Rolling Stone'' magazine) have since [[VindicatedByHistory reversed themselves]] and realized that Led Zeppelin is awesome after all. They, along with [[Music/QueenBand Queen]] and Music/PinkFloyd, are as symbolic of '70s rock as Music/TheBeatles were of '60s rock.
10
11	The band have written their fair share of famous classic hard rock songs that sometimes get ''extremely'' overplayed on AOR[=/=]"classic rock" radio for new generations to get annoyed, such as: "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yO2n7QoyieM Dazed and Confused]]", "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bcIjILqORM Whole Lotta Love]]", "Heartbreaker"[[SiameseTwinSongs /]]"Living Loving Maid (She's Just a Woman)", "Immigrant Song", "Black Dog", "Rock and Roll", "Stairway to Heaven", "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFDYuO53BUk When the Levee Breaks]]", "Kashmir", and "Trampled Under Foot". Don't peg them as simple noise-merchants, though, because their discography's really varied and sometimes experimental, ranging from BluesRock and acoustic FolkRock to Eastern-influenced material, {{Funk}}, ProgressiveRock and weirder. They're widely respected for their superior musical abilities, eclectic tastes, and legendary concerts and well-known for their infamous exploits (such as the "[[NoodleIncident shark episode]]"), among others. Also, pretty much any rock and metal band formed since owes them at least a bit, whether they admit to it or not.
12
13	But, as with every mega-successful and influential band, there are downsides. Negative marks on their record include Plant's habit of lifting lyrics from old blues songs without credit (which led to the occasional lawsuit), their occasionally embarrassing lyrics (they referenced ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' about thirty years before [[Film/TheLordOfTheRings the movies]] made it [[FantasyGhetto cool to do that]][[note]]if you were a hippie and/or a college student at the time, their use of Tolkien was ''extremely'' cool, while the Professor himself didn't even notice they were doing it[[/note]]), the band inevitably allowing success to go to their heads and descending into overblown excess post-1975, including repeated dalliances with underage groupies (and worse, in the case of Page and [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lori_Mattix Lori Mattix]], who claimed Page essentially kidnapped her), and the infamous 1976 {{Rockumentary}} film ''Film/TheSongRemainsTheSame'', commonly cited as one of the [[SoBadItsGood worst concert films ever]], thanks to the subpar performances and self-indulgent [[ClicheStorm fantasy sequences]]. Also to be mentioned is their continued refusal to allow their songs into rhythm games such as ''VideoGame/GuitarHero'' and ''VideoGame/RockBand''[[note]]Reputedly this is due to Jimmy Page's contention that playing on plastic guitars is nothing like playing on real guitars. The introductions of 6-string x 17-fret play modes in ''[=Rocksmith=]'' and ''Rock Band'''s Pro Mode do not appear to have shifted Page's opinion.[[/note]].
14	----
15	!!Members:
16	* '''John Baldwin (John Paul Jones)''' -- bass, keyboard, mandolin, ukulele, guitars, sitar, cello, recorder, piano, organ, vocals (1968-1980, 1985, 1988, 1995, 2007)
17	* '''John Bonham (Bonzo)''' -- drums, percussion, vocals, timpani (1968-1980, died 1980)
18	* '''[[Music/TheYardbirds Jimmy Page]]''' -- guitar, vocals, theremin (1968-1980, 1985, 1988, 1995, 2007)
19	* '''Robert Plant''' -- lead vocals, harmonica (1968-1980, 1985, 1988, 1995, 2007)
20	----
21	!!Studio Discography:
22	[[index]]
23	* 1969 -- ''[[Music/LedZeppelin1969 Led Zeppelin]]''
24	* 1969 -- ''Music/LedZeppelinII''
25	* 1970 -- ''Music/LedZeppelinIII''
26	* 1971 - Untitled (informally called ''Music/LedZeppelinIV'', ''Four Symbols'', or ''[=ZoSo=]'')
27	* 1973 -- ''Music/HousesOfTheHoly''
28	* 1975 -- ''Music/PhysicalGraffiti''
29	* 1976 -- ''Presence''
30	* 1979 -- ''In Through the Out Door''
31	* 1982 -- ''Coda''[[note]]A rarities compilation album[[/note]]
32	----
33	!!Live Discography:
34	* 1976 -- ''Film/TheSongRemainsTheSame''[[note]]Recorded in 1973[[/note]]
35	* 1990 -- ''Profiled''
36	* 1997 -- ''BBC Sessions''
37	* 2003 -- ''How the West Was Won''[[note]]Recorded in 1972[[/note]]
38	* 2012 -- ''Celebration Day''[[note]]Recorded in 2007[[/note]]
39
40	[[/index]]
41	----
42	!!Non-album singles:
43	* 1970 -- "Immigrant Song"[[note]]Otherwise available on their 1970 album ''Led Zeppelin III''[[/note]] / "Hey, Hey, What Can I Do?"
44	----
45	!!Gotta whole lotta tropes:
46	* TheAce: Just take a look above at the range of instruments John Paul Jones played. It's safe to say he was the most talented musician in the group.
47	* TheAlcoholic: Bonzo could drink an absurd amount. On the night he died, he reportedly drank 30 screwdrivers (vodka and orange juice).
48	* AllDrummersAreAnimals: [[Music/TheWho Keith Moon]] may be considered the quintessential example of this, but Keith just trashed hotel rooms. Bonzo trashed ''people''.
49	* AppropriatedAppellation: Led Zeppelin got their name when Keith Moon and John Entwistle suggested that a supergroup with them, Jimmy Page, and Jeff Beck, would "go down like a lead balloon".
50	* ArtisticLicenseGeography: The scenery described in "Kashmir" has nothing to do with the region in India. According to Robert Plant, the lyrics were inspired by a drive through the deserts of Southern Morocco. Kashmir was merely an attractive far-off place he wanted to visit.
51	* AuthorVocabularyCalendar: If you had a dollar for every single time Robert Plant says "baby", you would never have to work another day.
52	** He also has something that (he thinks) you really ought to know.
53	* BatmanGambit: Jimmy Page had the length of "How Many More Times" erroneously listed as 3:23 on the back cover of their first album (it's actually 8:26) in order to trick radio stations into playing it.
54	* BritishRockstar: The band's penchant for backstage mayhem helped to codify this trope.
55	* CarefulWithThatAxe: Robert Plant, when he gets excited, tends to do this. One of the best-recorded examples is his emotionally charged scream near the end of "I'm Gonna Crawl". Most of the time, however, it's just an ImmodestOrgasm.
56	* ChristianRock: Seriously, their songs "In My Time Of Dying" and "Nobody's Fault but Mine" are both based on gospel blues songs by Blind Willie Johnson.
57	* ChronologicalAlbumTitle: ''Music/LedZeppelinII'' and ''III'' officially, and ''IV'' unofficially.
58	* ControlFreak:
59	** Jimmy Page was sole producer and even admitted he changed engineers for the first three albums just to make it clear ''he'' was the architect of the band's sound. A good example of this would be the recording of "You Shook Me" as described by Jimmy:
60	--->''Later, when we recorded "You Shook Me", I told the engineer, Glyn Johns, that I wanted to use backwards echo on the end. He said, "Jimmy, it can't be done." I said, "Yes, it can. I've already done it." Then he began arguing, so I said, "Look, I'm the producer. I'm going to tell you what to do, and just do it." So he grudgingly did everything I told him to, and when we were finished he started refusing to push the fader up so I could hear the result. Finally, I had to scream, "Push the bloody fader up!" And lo and behold, the effect worked perfectly.''
61	** Manager Peter Grant, the big intimidating former wrestler who traveled with the band at all times, remained in charge through the chaos of touring, negotiated their contract with Atlantic Records, had complete faith in them, and personally made sure that most of the profits from live performances went to the band -- bootleggers and unauthorized photographers were lucky to get off with a stern talking-to. His most famous appearance was in the concert movie ''The Song Remains the Same'', where he deployed a ClusterFBomb against a concert promoter who failed to stop illegal poster sales, and he was depicted in a fantasy sequence as a hitman alongside tour manager Richard Cole.
62	** The surviving band members were famous for rarely licensing their stuff for movies and TV shows (unless it involved Creator/CameronCrowe, who was the only music journalist to ever give them positive reviews in ''Rolling Stone''), and never for video games (Page at least in the latter case; Jones seems to be okay with it, as we know from the Music/ThemCrookedVultures songs in ''VideoGame/RockBand''[[note]]however, the two other members of Them Crooked Vultures, Josh Homme (Music/QueensOfTheStoneAge) and Music/DaveGrohl (Music/FooFighters and Music/{{Nirvana}}), are staples in the ''VideoGame/RockBand'' franchise[[/note]], and one of Plant's solo songs is in ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV'' -- which is not a rhythm game, but it's still a game for which a song by a Led Zeppelin member is licensed).
63	* CoverVersion: You know they've had their share. Examples include, but are not limited to: ''Babe I'm Gonna Leave You'', ''You Shook Me'', ''I Can't Quit You Babe'', ''Bring It On Home'', ''Gallows Pole'', ''When the Levee Breaks'', ''Boogie with Stu'', etc.
64	** Averted with ''Houses of the Holy'' and ''In Through the Out Door'', which contains no covers of any sort.
65	** Inverted with "Dazed and Confused". A song by that title written and recorded by Jake Holmes in 1967 was reworked by The Yardbirds, originally utilizing Holmes' original lyrics. The arrangement by The Yardbirds became the basis for the Led Zeppelin version, but with a completely new set of lyrics and no writing credit to Holmes, who contacted Page about the matter in the 1980s without any response. Holmes later sued, but settled out of court, with the song now being credited to Page and credited as being inspired by Holmes.
66	* {{Cosplay}}: John Bonham famously donned [[Film/AClockworkOrange Alex DeLarge's]] gang attire during some shows of the band's 1975 North American tour.
67	* DeadGuyJunior: Jason Bonham took his father's place in the band for the few occasions they still play together (except for the Live Aid "reunion", where Music/PhilCollins sat behind the kit).
68	* TheDrifter: Song-wise, Plant has often mentioned that he has to leave his girlfriend or some town or whatever because he has to "ramble on" or something like that, for example: "Babe, I'm Gonna Leave You", "Ramble On", "Bron-Y-Aur Stomp", "Misty Mountain Hop" and "Going to California".
69	* EchoingAcoustics: ''Led Zeppelin IV'' was famously recorded in an old mansion, and has a massive, echoing sound as a result. This is especially noticeable with the huge drum sound on "When The Levee Breaks", which had its drum part recorded at the bottom of a stairwell with microphones positioned on the third-floor landing.[[note]]It is, however, a matter of record that Jimmy Page also used an echo effect on the drum part.[[/note]]
70	* EpicRocking: They have three songs that go over the ten-minute mark, and dozens of others that are at least five. Also, on their live album, ''The Song Remains the Same'', except for the first few, every song is at least ten minutes long, including a version of "Dazed and Confused" that clocks in at ''twenty-seven minutes''. One recording of "Dazed and Confused" sits at ''forty-five minutes''. "Moby Dick", Bonham's face-melting drum solo, appears as a ''twenty'' minute piece on ''How the West Was Won'', though it was known to go on longer. "Whole Lotta Love" often extended well past the ten-minute mark in concert as well, often as a blues/rockabilly medley.
71	* ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: "Four Sticks" gets its name from the fact that John Bonham played the song while using four drumsticks, two in each hand.
72	* FakeOutFadeOut: "Thank You".
73	* FourMoreMeasures: "Tangerine".
74	* FourTemperamentEnsemble: Plant is Choleric, Page is Melancholic, Bonham is Sanguine, and Jones is Phlegmatic.
75	* FunetikAksent: On their manager Peter Grant's suggestion, they changed the spelling to "Led Zeppelin" to prevent "thick Americans" from pronouncing it "leed".
76	* GagPenis: [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything "Gonna give you every inch of my love."]]
77	* GenreMashup: They were a lot more stylistically diverse than most hard rock bands, drawing on blues, folk, ProgressiveRock, and Middle Eastern music, among others.
78	* GreatestHitsAlbum: They avoided releasing one for many years, finally breaking down in 1990 with the self-titled, Page-sequenced 4-CD box set. The ensuing two decades have seen several other compilation discs and sets.
79	* GreenAesop: Some songs have subtle or not-so-subtle environmentalist themes, such as "The Rover" and "That's the Way".
80	* GriefSong: "All My Love", written on [[OutlivingOnesOffspring the death of Robert Plant's son Karac]].
81	* HeavyMeta: "Rock and Roll".
82	* HeavyMithril: The TropeMakers.
83	* HopeSpot: The 1980 tour of Europe. Three years after their doomed 1977 tour the band was on the road again and were rejuvenated by punk, which motivated them to cut down on the outrageous solos, jamming, clothing, and effects for a more stripped-down approach reminiscent of their earlier tours. Even better, Page was pulling himself out of his downward spiral of heroin and the band was looking forward to touring America again. Then Bonham had too much to drink and died in his sleep.
84	* IAmTheBand: Subverted. Jimmy Page started the band, hired the other three members, wrote the bulk of the music, and produced all of the albums, so from an outside perspective, it could have been seen as Jimmy starting a solo career after The Yardbirds. In truth, the four members were equals. When Bonham died [[TrueCompanions they chose to disband rather than replace their fallen friend]].
85	* TheImmodestOrgasm: Robert Plant has one during "Whole Lotta Love".
86	** Also in "Anniversary" from Robert Plant's 1990 solo album "Manic Nirvana".
87	** To be frank, a lot of Robert Plant's vocal ad-libs he does live on stage sounds like he seems to be enjoying himself quite a lot...
88	* InsistentTerminology: Although music historians believe Led Zeppelin to be a major influence on early HeavyMetal bands, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant ''hate'' it when people refer to their music as heavy metal. They once even refused to speak to a film crew that was making a documentary about the history of heavy metal because they didn't want to be associated with the term.
89	* InsultBackfire: Responding to a derisive remark that only potheads listened to Led Zeppelin, Jimmy Page once famously said, "That's a relief, we were afraid the music would be too loud for stoned people."
90	* IntercourseWithYou: A large portion of their songs are this.
91	* InTheStyleOf: "Trampled Under Foot" is a Led Zeppelin song in the style of Music/StevieWonder (specifically, "Superstition"). "D'yer Mak'er" is a reggae song, and "The Crunge" is a funk song in the style of Music/JamesBrown.
92	* ItWillNeverCatchOn: "This band will never work -- it'll go over like a Lead Zeppelin!" FromACertainPointOfView it was technically true, though: The Page / Beck / Hopkins / Entwistle / Moon lineup never did catch on.
93	* {{Jerkass}}: The executioner in "Gallows Pole" accepts monetary and sexual bribes from a condemned prisoner's family and then goes on to execute him ''anyway''. Notably, this is a change from the traditional ending of the song, in which the prisoner was released at the end. Could be considered AnAesop against capital punishment, although it's not clear if the band intended it this way.
94	* LargeHam: Robert Plant, who can be expected - aside from moody songs such as "No Quarter" and "All My Love" - to wail, moan, and overall just ham it up in any song.
95	* LastNoteNightmare: The abbreviated crashing guitar squall of "When The Levee Breaks"; the freakout section in the middle of "Whole Lotta Love".
96	* LeadBassist: During ''In Through the Out Door'', Bonham was struggling with alcoholism and Page battling heroin addiction, leading John Paul Jones to have a bigger part in the album (shown primarily by more keyboard-heavy songs).
97	* LiveAlbum: Four of them. The first, the soundtrack to the concert film ''The Song Remains The Same'', was the only one released while the band was still together. It was heavily truncated and didn't have many of the songs featured in the film. In 2007, an expanded version featuring every song in the film plus a few extra from the same tour was released, and the original is out of print.
98	** The second, ''BBC Sessions'', was released in 1997. Notably, it has songs not featured on any studio albums, like "The Girl I Love She Has Long Black Wavy Hair", "Something Else", and "Travelling Riverside Blues".
99	** The third, ''How the West Was Won'', was released in 2003 but was taken from their 1972 tour of the United States. Jimmy Page called this one of their best tours and a high watermark for the band.
100	** The fourth, ''Celebration Day'', is taken from their reunion show in December 2007, and was released in 2012, accompanied by a limited theatrical run of the concert.
101	* LongHairedPrettyBoy: The whole band during most of their 1970s heyday, but Robert Plant takes the cake, thanks to him being MrFanservice as in the above picture.
102	* LongRunnerLineUp: To the logical extreme; they never changed their lineup during their 12-year existence.
103	* LosingTheTeamSpirit: The band broke up after John Bonham's death.
104	* LoudnessWar: Averted on all issues of their albums to date. Jimmy Page is very much a perfectionist about sound quality and won't release something that's brick-walled. While original vinyl editions are often highly prized for obvious reasons, Page recently remastered their entire catalogue himself and it sounds great. George Marino's remasterings from TheNineties sound good too. Occasionally, compilations suffer from this, however; ''Mothership'' is a particularly egregious example.
105	* LuckyCharmsTitle: Technically, the name of their fourth album is the [[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/6b/Led_Zeppelin_%28untitled%29.jpg symbols on the label]]. It's just easier to say "''Untitled''" or "''IV''".
106	* LyricalColdOpen: "I Can't Quit You Baby", "What Is and What Should Never Be"
107	* LyricalDissonance: "Hey, Hey, What Can I Do?".
108	* MetalScream: "Immigrant Song" has an early one.
109	* MindScrew: Many of Zeppelin's songs are strange. "Stairway to Heaven" is their most famous example. "Dancing Days", a song about taking a girl on a date, contains the line "I saw a lion / He was standing along / With a tadpole in a jar".
110	* MrFanservice:
111	** As seen in the above picture, Robert Plant typically performed wearing an [[WalkingShirtlessScene open shirt]] and PaintedOnPants. Correlation is not causation, but Led Zeppelin was one of the few hard rock bands to have a large number of female fans.
112	** Jimmy Page as well. In fact, both Plant and Page tend to be the two main subjects of epic squee-fests in general.
113	* MyspeldRokband: They most likely [[TropeCodifier popularized it]]. WordOfGod was that they wanted to make sure Americans would pronounce "Lead" like the heavy metal and not like the Zeppelin that is in the front.
114	* NewSoundAlbum: Basically, each album had a slightly different style from the previous. Probably the most noteworthy is with ''Led Zeppelin III'', where the band had actually experienced critical backlash for deviating from their blues-rock sound. Also, ''Houses of the Holy'' has a less raw sound from their previous albums. Then you have ''Presence'' and ''In Through the Out Door'', which generally receive lower reviews than the rest of their catalog.
115	* NobodyLovesTheBassist: John Paul Jones is often forgotten. Jones himself didn't mind and took advantage of his relative lack of recognition to walk around the streets of where they toured.
116	* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Dorian Red Gloria, the fabulously gay art thief from ''Manga/FromEroicaWithLove'', was physically modeled after Robert Plant. (Three of his subordinates in the Eroica gang are modeled after the other Zeppelin band members.)
117	* NonAppearingTitle: "Immigrant Song", "Out on the Tiles", "Bron-Y-Aur Stomp", "Hats Off to (Roy) Harper", "Black Dog", "The Battle of Evermore", "Four Sticks", "Over the Hills and Far Away", "The Crunge", "D'yer Mak'er", "The Rover", "Trampled Under Foot", "Boogie with Stu", "Black Country Woman", "Sick Again", "Candy Store Rock", "Hots On for Nowhere", "Tea for One", "Fool in the Rain", "Carouselambra", "Ozone Baby", and "Wearing and Tearing".
118	* NoodleIncident: The mudshark incident. [[TheRashomon Depending on who you ask]], during the band's stay at Seattle's Edgewater Hotel in 1969, one or more members of the band and/or crew [[spoiler: sodomized one or more groupies with one or more fish and/or mudsharks, living or dead, which the band had just caught while fishing off their balcony]]. Since this event has never been confirmed by any of the band members nor consistently described by those actually present at it, it remains a mysterious episode in the group's history. It became infamous enough to be spoofed by Music/FrankZappa on his LiveAlbum ''Music/FillmoreEastJune1971''.
119	* OutlivingOnesOffspring: Robert Plant's five year old son Karac died of stomach illness in 1977. ''All My Love'' was written in tribute to him.
120	* PaintedOnPants: Plant's trademark attire. Little wonder that his "girly whine" is his ''other'' trademark...
121	* PirateSong: "Immigrant Song", a song about Vikings:
122	-->We come from the land of the ice and snow,\
123	From the midnight sun where the hot springs flow.\
124	How soft your fields so green. Can whisper tales of gore.\
125	Of how we calmed the tides of war. We are your overlords.\
126	Always sweep with threshing oar,\
127	Our only goal will be the western shore.\
128	So now you'd better stop and rebuild all your ruins.\
129	For peace and trust can win the day despite of all your losing.
130	* PopCulturalOsmosis
131	* PosthumousCollaboration: On the rare occasions Led Zeppelin has reunited for an award ceremony or one-off show, John Bonham’s son Jason has been the drummer. After the triumphant ''Celebration Day'' concert, Page and Jones were eager to tour with Bonham as Led Zeppelin, but Robert Plant decided to focus on his solo career.
132	* PrecisionFStrike: While many of Led Zeppelin's songs are known for being very innuendo-laden, "Hots On for Nowhere" is the only Led Zeppelin song to contain a swear word:
133	-->I've got friends who will give me fuck all
134	* PrematureEncapsulation: ''Houses of the Holy'', whose {{title track}} was held until their next album, ''Music/PhysicalGraffiti''.
135	* ProtestSong: "When the Levee Breaks".
136	* {{Pun}}: Aside from the title of "D'yer Mak'er", the cover of ''Led Zeppelin II'' manages to have a VisualPun. The story goes like this: Designer David Juniper, asked to just come up with something "interesting", took a photo of Manfred "The Red Baron" von Richthofen and his Flying Circus from UsefulNotes/WorldWarI, filtered it, and airbrushed the band members' heads onto the bodies. All good. He then put in manager Peter Grant and tour manager Richard Cole's heads. So far so good. But then, you notice there's a woman on the cover too, namely actress Creator/GlynisJohns. You may ask what she has to do with Led Zeppelin. The answer is: Bugger-all. She was just thrown on there because she has a similar name to Glyn Johns, who engineered the band's first album. One wonders why Juniper even bothered since Glyn's brother Andy replaced him as the engineer for ''II''.
137	* PunnyName: The band's name is a pun for "lead zeppelin".
138	* RearrangeTheSong: [[GenreShift Turning old blues songs into massive rock-outs]].
139	* RecordProducer: Jimmy Page produced the albums himself. He made a point of using different studios and engineers for each album to prove that he was in charge of the band's sound. John Paul Jones was also an experienced producer before joining the band and helmed ''In Through the Out Door'' when Page was too strung out to work. Jones continued his production career after the band broke up, his most high-profile contribution being string arrangements for Music/{{REM}}'s ''Music/AutomaticForThePeople''.
140	* RefugeInTheWest: ''Immigrant Song'', which expresses a yearning to find new homelands in the West:
141	-->On we sweep, with flashing oars,
142	-->Our only goal will be the western shore!
143	* RepurposedPopSong: "Rock and Roll".
144	* RichBitch: "Stairway to Heaven" is about one. [[MindScrew Probably]].
145	* {{Sampling}}: Lots of people love the drumbeat of "When the Levee Breaks".
146	* {{Scatting}}: Often, most notably in "D'yer Mak'er", "Nobody's Fault But Mine" and "The Ocean".
147	* SelfPlagiarism: Jimmy Page took many late Yardbirds songs and reworked them. "Tangerine", for example, is an almost note-by-note copy of "Knowing That I'm Losing You", an unreleased Yardbirds track from just before they broke up.
148	* SelfTitledAlbum: Three of them, officially. Four unofficially.
149	* SensitiveGuyAndManlyMan: Drummer John Bonham compared to the rest of the group. Bonham was a hard-drinking "manly man" who didn't care much about being a rock star. When filming the concert movie ''The Song Remains the Same'', each member of the group, and their manager Peter Grant were allowed to film a fantasy sequence that they felt reflected their personalities. While the others went with exaggerated, elaborate, and pretentious fantasies, Bonham's "fantasy" was just real-life footage of him spending time with his family, working at his farm, drinking at a pub, and racing his car.
150	* SeriousBusiness: Allegations of plagiarism equals not very fun indeed.
151	* ShoutOut:
152	** Most famously, ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' references in "Ramble On", "Misty Mountain Hop," and "The Battle of Evermore".
153	** The cover of ''Houses of the Holy'' is a depiction of the end of Creator/ArthurCClarke's ''Literature/ChildhoodsEnd.''
154	** The ''Presence'' object, according to the band members, was an artistic depiction of the ''2001'' monoliths.
155	** In an example of a ''literal'' ShoutOut, Plant can be heard saying [[Music/JoniMitchell "Joni!" (Mitchell)]] on the live version of "Going to California" from ''How the West Was Won''. Fitting, considering the song was basically about how the band was big fans of Music/JoniMitchell.
156	** The Pan imagery from "Stairway to Heaven" appears to be inspired by ''Literature/TheWindInTheWillows''.
157	** Jimmy Page performed Music/ChuckBerry's duckwalk at concerts.
158	** Kashmir has the line "I am a traveler of both time and space". It's obvious [[Series/DoctorWho what]] it is referring to.
159	* SiameseTwinSongs: "Heartbreaker" and "Living Loving Maid (She's Just a Woman)".
160	* SnowMeansDeath: "No Quarter".
161	* SomethingBlues: "Travelling Riverside Blues".
162	* TheSomethingSong: "The Lemon Song", "Immigrant Song", "The Rain Song", and "The Wanton Song".
163	* TheSongRemainsTheSame: The TropeNamers.
164	* SongStyleShift: "Over the Hills and Far Away" starts out as an acoustic guitar folk ballad, and then it abruptly transitions into a faced-paced hard rock tune (with the acoustic guitar providing the rhythm), and then slows down into an echo-y finish.
165	** "Stairway to Heaven" does something similar, starting off quite wistful, folksy, and gently lilting (even including recorders), becoming increasingly blunt, bold, and vigorous, and eventually turning into all-out harsh, wild hard rock in the last verse.
166	* SpecialGuest:
167	** Sandy Denny, of English folk-rock band Music/FairportConvention, contributes duet vocals on "The Battle of Evermore".
168	** Ian Stewart, Music/{{The Rolling Stones\|Band}}' pianist/road manager/SixthRanger plays piano on "Rock & Roll" and "Boogie With Stu"
169	* SpellMyNameWithAnS: They have two songs named after the Bron-Yr-Aur cottage where they recorded. One of them gets it right ("Bron-Yr-Aur"), but the other spells it wrong ("Bron-Y-Aur Stomp").
170	* SpinningPaper: In the band's movie ''The Song Remains the Same''; "Led Zeppelin Robbed of $203k".
171	* SpiritualSuccessor: To Music/TheYardbirds.
172	* StageName: The real name of John Paul Jones is John Baldwin.
173	* StairwayToHeaven: TropeNamers, but subverted, as she's buying the stairway to Heaven and does not AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence.
174	* StepUpToTheMic: When playing "The Battle Of Evermore" live, John Paul Jones (sometimes with help from John Bonham) would sing Sandy Denny's parts from the record.
175	* StopAndGo: "What is and What Should Never Be" and "Thank You".
176	** "Heartbreaker" ends abruptly mid-word before the next song, "Living Loving Maid" -- and as [[SiameseTwinSongs these two songs are often aired together on classic rock stations]], it has this effect.
177	* StoppedNumberingSequels: ''[[Music/LedZeppelin1969 Led Zeppelin]]'' (sometimes called ''Led Zeppelin I''), ''Music/LedZeppelinII'', ''Music/LedZeppelinIII'' and, depending on your point of view, the untitled fourth album (usually called ''Music/LedZeppelinIV''. The fifth album is called ''Music/HousesOfTheHoly'', breaking the numbering.
178	* TextlessAlbumCover: ''[[Music/LedZeppelinIV Untitled]]'', ''Music/HousesOfTheHoly'', & expect for the letters in the back "In Through The Out Door".
179	* TitleOnlyChorus: "Whole Lotta Love".
180	* TitleTrack: Subversion; see PrematureEncapsulation.
181	* TruckDriversGearChange: "Heartbreaker" and "Good Times Bad Times", though the latter returns to the original key. Also at the end of "All My Love".
182	* UncommonTime:
183	** "The Crunge" from ''Houses of the Holy'' started off in 9/8 (4/8 + 5/8) and mixed it up from there.
184	** From the same album, we get "The Ocean"; the main riff is in (4/4 + 7/8), or 15/8.
185	** The main "call and response" section in "Black Dog" from the untitled fourth album is in what sounds like (3/4 + 4/4 + 5/4).
186	** "Four Sticks" from the same album alternates between 5/8 and 6/8, with a synthesizer section in 3/4.
187	** "Kashmir" from ''Physical Graffiti'' has, in the main section, the drums playing straight 4/4 while the strings, guitar, and bass all play 3/4. There's also a bar of 9/8 before the bridge.
188	** Also from ''Graffiti'', the intro to "In the Light" is in free time.
189	** "Achilles' Last Stand" from ''Presence'' has a segment in 5/4.
190	** Also from ''Presence'', the bridge of "For Your Life" has extra beats thrown into some of the measures, and the "Do it when you wanna" section features a measure of 4/4 followed by a measure of 5/4.
191	** Again from ''Presence'', the intro to "Tea for One" is in 9/8, although Bonzo plays a straight 4/4 beat over it. The rest of the song is in a languid 6/8.
192	* UndignifiedDeath: John Bonham died by choking on his own vomit.
193	* UnusualEuphemism: "Trampled Under Foot" is ostensibly [[AutoErotica about a car]]. Try to figure out what it's actually about.
194	* VillainSong: "Immigrant Song" is sung from the perspective of Viking invaders doing what they do best. Featuring the famous "battle cry" intro.
195	-->''So now you'd better stop, and rebuild all your ruins,''
196	-->''For peace and trust can win the day despite of all your losing.''
197	* WalkingShirtlessScene: Plant often performed shirtless or with an open shirt, as seen in the page image.
198	* TheWalrusWasPaul: When Page and Plant were in concert one night after Zeppelin broke up, someone in the audience shouted, "What does your symbol mean, Jimmy?" To which Plant replied: [[Film/CarryOnScreaming "Frying tonight!"]]
199	* WordSaladLyrics: When they're not singing about IntercourseWithYou, their lyrics tend to fall into this category. "Stairway to Heaven" in particular is a collage of vaguely mystical[=/=]medieval images that may or may not mean anything. Folklore students might catch that Page and Plant were drawing on James Frazer's ''The Golden Bough'', a study of images and ideas that world religions and mythology have in common; and on Tolkien again ("There's a feeling I get when I look to the West").
200
201	----
202	[-''...and she's buying the stairway... to heaven...''-]

Context Music / LedZeppelin