And virtually all of Zeppelin's records, with the possible exception of its posthumous Coda (Swan Song, 1982)released two years and one week less than two months after Bonham's death are classics that are worth revisiting. While Zeppelin's catalog has been available in its entirety on CD for many years (the last definitive editions being Page's 1994 remasters), with advances in technology and what has become a lucrative market for new upgradesdeluxe and super deluxe editions of classic recordingsPage is launching his own newly mastered versions of the group's entire discography, in a total of six different editions, aimed at different pocket depths and listener dispositions. But from the very beginning, the brainchild of the Yardbirds' last lead guitaristand final member of the "big three" of British rock guitar gods to pass through the group, which also included, at different and sometimes synchronous times, Eric Clapton and Jeff Beckwas something more than just a blues-based, hard rock band, though tracks like "You Shook Me" and "I Can't Quit You Baby" from the quartet's eponymous 1969 Atlantic debut made clear that Page, along with fellow studio session ace, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and two relative unknowns bound for both superstardom and tragedy, singer Robert Plant and drummer John Bonham, were capable of being a more than credible white blues band.ĭespite being relegated to history for more than three decades, the group disbanding after Bonham's tragic deaththe result of a consuming well over a litre of vodka in a 24 hour period and dying, in his sleep, of asphyxiation from choking on his own vomit (strangely similar to the death of Jimi Hendrix almost ten years earlier to the day, the guitar icon similarly choking on vomit but, rather than alcohol, from barbiturate abuse)Led Zeppelin has remained a popular band, not just in terms of commercial sales of its relatively small, nine-album studio discography but thanks to classic rock radio keeping so many of its hit songs ("Whole Lotta Love," "Immigrant Song," "Black Dog" and the long-overplayed "Stairway to Heaven," to name just four) in regular rotation. Born out of the ashes of the Yardbirdseven operating, very briefly, under the moniker the New Yardbirds, Led Zeppelin came to symbolize the word hard in "hard rock," its ear-bursting, high-decibel performances the epitome of heavy. For a time, Led Zeppelin was one of the biggestif not the biggestbands in the world, eclipsing the The Rolling Stones, the Who.even The Beatles.
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