YMMV / Led Zeppelin

• Awesome Music (duh, this is Led Zeppelin):
  • "Stairway to Heaven" is considered by some to be the greatest rock song of all time. Coincidentally, others (even some who are Led Zeppelin fans) consider it to be the most overrated. Fans would nominate everything the band recorded up until 1975, with particular emphasis on Led Zeppelin IV and Physical Graffiti.
  • Let's not forget Presence here. Page thinks "Achilles Last Stand" is the band's best song for good reason, and several of the other tracks on that album are pretty great too (in particular, no one should skip "Nobody's Fault But Mine" or "Tea for One", though even the filler tracks like "Royal Orleans" and "Candy Store Rock" are pretty fun).
  • "Misty Mountain Hop" is the stuff of LEGENDS.
  • "Kashmir". To the point where Robert Plant considers it to be their best song.
  • "Since I've Been Loving You", especially the live version, contains some of Page's best guitar playing. Along with the pain in a fantastic blues vocal by Plant, the keyboard and bass parts by Jones and and drums by Bonham, it bleeds blues.
• Creator Worship: The band certainly gets this amongst the rock music community and the music community as a whole, considering their reputation as The Beatles of The '70s and of Hard Rock in general, as well as arguably the trope codifiers of rock music as a whole, to the point where they're considered arguably the greatest rock band of all time. The fact that they're behind some of the most celebrated rock songs of all time (with "Stairway to Heaven" probably the foremost example, with "Whole Lotta Love" and "Kashmir" not falling too far behind) helps cement this even further.
• Critical Dissonance: Although they were wildly popular with rock fans, Led Zeppelin was hated by music critics in their heyday. Rolling Stone magazine gave negative reviews to every single album they released during the 1970s except Physical Graffiti; then, strangely, in 2006 they put them on the cover of the magazine and called them the greatest rock band of all time.
• Ending Fatigue: As great as they were in pretty much all other respects, some of their songs suffer from this to a certain degree. "In My Time of Dying" should probably have just ended at the Fake-Out Fade-Out, for example — Robert Plant, while a great vocalist in most other respects, unfortunately is a rather tiresome scat singer.
• Epic Riff:
  • So many of their songs have at least one that The Onion even based an article around Page's reputation for awesome guitar riffs.
  • And not just on guitar, either. Play anyone the drum intro of "When the Levee Breaks" and they will immediately know what song it is. The Echoing Acoustics help, but Bonham's drumming would be unmistakable anyway. Bonham is still considered by critics and fellow musicians as one of the greatest drummers in rock history.
• Epileptic Trees: Whatever "Stairway to Heaven" is about, which could be anything from a Rich Bitch, to simply being Word Salad Lyrics, to The Lord of the Rings.
• Fan Nickname:
  • "Loop Zoop" is occasionally used by fans as a joking nickname for the band, stemming from a notorious 4chan post where the writer claimed◊ that they inadvertently kept using this term when searching for Led Zeppelin videos on YouTube in an anesthesia-induced state of delirium.
  • "Led Zeppelin IV" — or, somewhat less commonly, "Zoso" or "The Runes" — for the band's fourth album, which is officially untitled and is cataloged by Atlantic Records as Four Symbols and The Fourth Album. The former nickname acts as a continuation of Led Zeppelin II and Led Zeppelin III, while the latter two nicknames are derived from the four symbols used to represent the band members on the album's packaging; "Zoso" is specifically a reading of Jimmy Page's symbol, the only one that resembles Latin characters. The "Led Zeppelin IV" nickname ended up becoming so widespread that Wikipedia's article on the album uses that as its title.
• First and Foremost: Quick, can you name a single band that's managed to cover up Led Zeppelin? Thought not. ^note  Frank Zappa's cover of "Stairway to Heaven" from The Best Band You Never Heard in Your Life is a great rendition, though it's a straight parody at the same time; (It's performed in a reggae style!) and Heart did a live cover of "Stairway to Heaven" during the band's Kennedy Center honors that brought Robert Plant to tears. Then there's a NYC-based, all-female, sort-of tribute band, Lez Zeppelin, that has recorded Zep's first album in its entirety, as well as other Zeppelin songs, and they recreate the band's sound very well indeed. Note that they do not change the gender in the lyrics. You will never hear "Whole Lotta Love" the same way ever again once you've heard a woman singing "Gonna give you every inch of my love!"
• Funny Moments: "The Crunge".
  Plant: Where's that confounded bridge?!
• Gateway Series:
  • Being one of the most famous rock bands, many people have got into classic rock with this band.
  • How many people would have discovered Sandy Denny and Fairport Convention had Denny not sung on "The Battle of Evermore"?
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: Led Zeppelin was always more popular in the United States than their home country, especially early in their career. That might explain why they did much more touring of the U.S. than anywhere else in their career.
• Growing the Beard: Led Zeppelin IV.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • Sandy Denny, who lent some vocals on IV — you know, the one with "Stairway to Heaven" on it? — died a few years later after falling down a flight of stairs.
  • The Icarus ^note  It's actually Apollo from a drawing by William Rimmer called "Evening Fall of Day", but Robert Plant has said the band reappropriated the image to be Icarus image used as the logo for the Swan Song label. It was used as the primary promotional art for the 1977 American tour and was featured on the tour program, posters and T-shirts. The tour was plagued with incidents, including rioting, assaults and lawsuits. Also, Jimmy Page's heroin addiction was starting to effect him and his playing, leading to illness and less than inspired playing. It came to a head when Robert Plant's five-year old son Karac died and the tour was cancelled. It took two years for the band to return to the stage and by that time Page's addiction had gotten even worse, Plant was visibly aged by the loss of his son, and punk was big enough to make the band look old, tired and pretentious. The 1977 tour was the band's fall from grace, making the Icarus imagery sadly appropriate in hindsight.
• Ho Yay: "That's the Way" is addressed to "My friend the boy next door."
  And when I'm out I see you walking
  Why don't your eyes see me
  Could it be you've found another game to play?
• Hype Backlash:
  • There are entire communities of music lovers who think they are the most overblown, pretentious band in the history of music who ripped off countless songs from African-American blues artists and as well as other bands like Spirit.
  • Also, amongst the Led Zeppelin fans, there are a good portion who despise "Stairway to Heaven" — considering other songs from the band's catalogue to be far superior. The fact that lead singer/lyricist Robert Plant has stated that he has come to hate the song emboldens this sub-group further. This was famously lampshaded in Wayne's World, with the music shop that Wayne and Garth like to visit carrying a strict "No Stairway to Heaven" policy for people interested in testing out instruments. (This was based on an actual sign in a Toronto music shop. It was put up because of the staff being sick of hearing too many amateur guitarists playing the intro in the store.)
• The Law of Fan Jackassery: Since the band's heyday is long gone, but the band is still widely well-regarded — the fanbase is pretty much at the peak.
• More Popular Spin-Off: Led Zeppelin was born out of the final days of The Yardbirds.
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • Their rendition of "When the Levee Breaks". See Harsher in Hindsight.
  • Also the middle section of "Whole Lotta Love". John Bonham's hypnotic drumming, Jimmy Page making weird noises on a theremin, and Robert Plant making some, well... orgasmic vocals make it sound like you are having sex with someone while having a very bad acid trip.
    Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah!
  • From "No Quarter": "The Dogs of Doom are howling more..."
• Once Original, Now Common: John Bonham's drum beats, especially in "When the Levee Breaks". His influence is so pervasive in modern rock that many younger listeners probably are legitimately baffled as to what's the big deal about him. The same goes for the band's blues-inflected hard rock style, which has also been widely copied. Zeppelin is often credited as one of the founders of Heavy Metal along with Black Sabbath, but they tend to be mild by comparison.
• One-Scene Wonder: Folk singer Sandy Denny's vocals on "The Battle of Evermore" — the only Zeppelin guest singer.
• Overshadowed by Controversy:
  • The band is at least as known for its litigiousness as it is for being a hard rock pioneer, to the point where prominent independent film directors Brian De Palma, Penelope Spheeris, and Abel Ferrara have nothing nice to say about the band.
  • The band is notorious for "borrowing" from other artists. This piece outlines several examples of the band lifting riffs and even entire tunes from other musicians and being taken to court for it.
  • After the onset of the Me Too movement, which resulted in renewed scrutiny towards rock musicians' histories with underage groupies, guitarist Jimmy Page's musicianship and achievements were eclipsed by the discovery that he had a lengthy romantic and sexual relationship with 13-year-old Lori Mattix. While Mattix made dubious (and in some cases debunked) claims about trysts with various '70s rock stars, the sizable amount of photographic and anecdotal evidence confirming her relationship with Page meant that it would redefine his public image the most.
• Periphery Demographic:
  • Despite mostly being seen as a "dad rock"/"boomer" band, Led Zeppelin is still enjoyed by a good portion of today's youth. Especially given that new bands like The White Stripes, The Black Keys, Tame Impala, and most egregiously Greta Van Fleet have been inspired by them.
  • While they primarily appealed to hard rock fans, they attracted a number of Progressive Rock fans as their music got more experimental. For that reason, Prog Archives lists them as "prog-related."
• Refrain from Assuming: "What Is and What Should Never Be" is often incorrectly listed on listening/downloading sites as "Tomorrow".
• Signature Song: “Stairway to Heaven” is by far their most celebrated song as a whole and arguably one of the most iconic rock songs ever, though "Immigrant Song", "Black Dog", "Whole Lotta Love" and "Kashmir" aren’t too far behind in terms of recognizability and cultural impact. If you were to go by album…
  • Led Zeppelin: "Good Times Bad Times", with "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You", "Dazed and Confused" and "Communication Breakdown" not too far behind.
  • Led Zeppelin II: "Whole Lotta Love" and "Ramble On", with "Heartbreaker" as a runner-up. Also quite well-known are "Thank You" and "What It Is and What Should Never Be".
  • Led Zeppelin III: "Immigrant Song", though "Since I've Been Loving You" and "Tangerine" are also well-known.
  • Led Zeppelin IV: "Stairway to Heaven" is their Signature Song, but "Black Dog", "Rock and Roll", "Going to California", "The Battle Of Evermore" and "When the Levee Breaks" are all among the band's major classics.
  • Houses of the Holy: "Over the Hills and Far Away" and "D'yer Mak'er"; "The Song Remains the Same", "No Quarter", "The Ocean" and "The Rain Song" are also fairly well-received.
  • Physical Graffiti: "Kashmir"; well-known are also "Houses of the Holy" and "Trampled Under Foot" and "Ten Years Gone".
  • Presence: "Nobody's Fault But Mine" or "Achilles Last Stand".
  • In Through the Out Door: "In the Evening", "Fool In the Rain", and especially "All My Love", often considered as the band's last great song.
  • Led Zeppelin Boxed Set: "Hey Hey What Can I Do" and "Travelling Riverside Blues".
• Suspiciously Similar Song: They have been sued for reworking old songs (mostly blues ones, and mostly lyrics) and not crediting the original artist. The band was successfully sued for it several times, and reissues of the albums often add credits that were omitted in the original releases.
• Tear Jerker:
  • "All My Love" is a Grief Song that Robert Plant wrote after his five-year-old son died of a stomach virus.
  • Can also include: "Stairway to Heaven", "Over the Hills and Far Away", "Thank You", "Hey, Hey, What Can I Do", "That's the Way", "The Rain Song", "Tangerine", "Ten Years Gone", "Tea for One", "Going to California", "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You", "No Quarter", and "The Battle of Evermore".
  • The scenes from the Rockumentary film The Song Remains the Same that Robert Plant's children appear in can also bring one to tears — when you watch how happy and playful young Karac is, and realize that his life will come to a tragic end in a couple of years.
  • The second half of The '70s was one big Humiliation/Trauma Conga Line for the band. First Robert and his wife were critically injured in a car accident in Greece, leaving him in a wheelchair for a while. Then their 1977 American tour ended with their manager and John Bonham being charged with assault, which resulted in promoter Bill Graham refusing to ever book LZ ever again...which was shortly followed by Karac Plant's tragic death. Robert was understandably too stunned to go back to singing for a while after that. And then, when Robert had largely recovered and the band was about to record a new album and embark on another tour, John Bonham died, sealing the band's fate.
• Vindicated by History:
  • Led Zeppelin was initially trashed by music critics, including Rolling Stone (though Rolling Stone actually praised Physical Graffiti when it came out, calling it "the band's Tommy, Beggars Banquet and Sgt. Pepper rolled into one.") There's also a brutal Melody Maker review of Led Zeppelin III that, for a while, seemed to be something of a Berserk Button for Jimmy Page. Now, of course, both publications have "revisited" those assessments after Led Zeppelin fans grew up and began writing for them.
  • On a smaller scale, Presence was initially dismissed even by people who liked the band, but its stature has improved a lot in the intervening years, in no small part due to the three major works on it, "Achilles Last Stand", "Nobody's Fault But Mine", and "Tea for One". The other songs aren't bad either. It's not uncommon these days for people to cite "the first seven Zeppelin studio albums" as being the band's essential works.
• What Do You Mean, It's Not Symbolic?: Pretty much the entirety of Led Zeppelin IV.

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