Led Zeppelin III: Difference between revisions

Led Zeppelin III is the third album by English rock band Led Zeppelin. It was recorded between January and July 1970 and was released October 5, 1970 by Atlantic Records.

Recording sessions

Many of the songs featured on the album were conceived in mid-1970 at Bron-Yr-Aur, an 18th century cottage in Gwynedd, Wales, on a hilltop overlooking the Dyfi Valley, three miles north of the market town Machynlleth. There, Led Zeppelin vocalist Robert Plant and guitarist Jimmy Page spent time after a concert tour of the United States to play and compose new music. This remote setting had no running water or electric power, which encouraged a slight change of direction for the band towards an emphasis on acoustic arrangements.^[1] As Page explained:

After the intense touring that had been taking place through the first two albums, working almost 24 hours a day, basically, we managed to stop and have a proper break, a couple of months as opposed to a couple of weeks. We decided to go off and rent a cottage to provide a contrast to motel rooms. Obviously, it had quite an effect on the material that was written.^[2]

After preparing the material that would emerge on the album, Page and Plant were joined by the other members of the band (drummer John Bonham and bass player John Paul Jones) at Headley Grange, a run-down mansion in East Hampshire, to rehearse the songs. With its relaxed atmosphere and rural surroundings, Headley Grange proved to be the favoured alternative to the discipline of a conventional studio.^[1]

The album was then recorded in a series of sessions in May and June 1970 at both Headley Grange and at Olympic Studios, London. Some additional work was put in at Island Records' new Basing Street Studios in Notting Hill, London, in July, then mixed at Ardent Studios, Memphis in August 1970 during Led Zeppelin's sixth American concert tour.^[1] The album was produced by Page and engineered by Andy Johns and Terry Manning.

Music

Led Zeppelin III marked a change in focus for the band from late 1960s hard rock to a more

The album contains two songs which became key components of the band's live concert performances for many years: "Immigrant Song" and "Since I've Been Loving You". The first of these, written by Jimmy Page and Robert Plant, is about the Norse invasions of England and was inspired by the band's recent live performance in Iceland. "Since I've Been Loving You" is a classic, original blues in the key of C minor featuring heartfelt interplay by all four group members. It would become a performance staple, especially from 1971 through 1973, replacing Willie Dixon's "I Can't Quit You Baby" from the first album as the band's slow blues showcase.

The album also featured the rock songs "

Led Zeppelin III was one of the most eagerly awaited albums of 1970, and advance orders in the United States alone were close to a million mark.^[1] Its release was trailered by a full page advertisement taken out in Melody Maker magazine at the end of September, which simply said "Thank you for making us the world's number one band."^[1]

Although the band's expanding musical boundaries were greeted warmly by some, detractors attacked the heavier tracks as being mindless noise, whilst the acoustic material was criticised by others for merely imitating the music of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.^[4] Page commented that this comparison was unwarranted, stating in an interview he gave to Cameron Crowe that:

when the third LP came out and got its reviews, Crosby, Stills and Nash had just formed. That LP had just come out and because acoustic guitars had come to the forefront all of a sudden: LED ZEPPELIN GO ACOUSTIC! I thought, Christ, where are their heads and ears? There were three acoustic songs on the first album and two on the second.^[5]

Led Zeppelin III was a trans-Atlantic #1 hit. It spent four weeks at the top of the Billboard chart, while it entered that British chart at number one and remained there for three weeks (returning to the top for a further week on December 12).^[1]

Following the lukewarm, if not confused and sometimes dismissive reception from critics, sales lagged after this initial peak.

The concept of a volvelle, based on crop rotation charts, was initially Jimmy Page's idea.^[1] However, the result was a meeting of minds as Zacron had been working on rotating graphics from 1965. Zacron felt that by not including text on the front of the cover, the art would endure.^[8]

In an article featured in the December 2007 issue of

I thought it looked very teeny-bopperish. But we were on top of a deadline, so of course there was no way to make any radical changes to it. There were some silly bits - little chunks of corn and nonsense like that.^[10]

The album cover featured on the front page of

The first pressings of the album included the phrases "Do what thou wilt" and "So mote it be", inscribed on the record acetate itself by engineer Terry Manning during the final mastering process. This phrase is from the core tenet of Aleister Crowley's philosophy of Thelema: "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law. Love is the law, love under will. There is no law beyond do what thou wilt." Page was a scholar of Crowley's work, owns one of the world's most extensive private collections of Crowley manuscripts, artwork and other ephemera, and in the 1970s even bought one of his residences, Boleskine House on the shores of Loch Ness in Scotland.

Track listing

Side one

1. "Immigrant Song" (Jimmy Page, Robert Plant) – (2:25)
2. "Friends" (Page, Plant) – (3:54)
3. "Celebration Day" (Page, Plant, John Paul Jones) – (3:29)
4. "Since I've Been Loving You" (Page, Plant, Jones) – (7:23)
5. "
   Out on the Tiles" (Page, Plant, John Bonham
   ) – (4:08)

1. "Gallows Pole" (traditional, arr. Page, Plant) – (4:58)
2. "Tangerine" (Page) – (3:12)
3. "That's the Way" (Page, Plant) – (5:39)
4. "Bron-Y-Aur Stomp" (Page, Plant, Jones) – (4:18)
5. "
   Hats Off to (Roy) Harper
   " (traditional) – (3:42)

Personnel

• acoustic guitar, electric guitar, pedal steel guitar, backing vocals, banjo
• Robert Plant – vocals, harmonica
• synths, mandolin
  , backing vocals
• John Bonham – drums, percussion, backing vocals

Technical personnel

• Jimmy Page – producer ^[12]
• Andy Johns - recording engineer, mixing engineer ^[12]
• Eddie Kramer - mixing engineer ^[13]
• Terry Manning - mixing engineer, mastering engineer (original LP, 1970) ^{[12] [14]}
• Paul Richmond – mastering original (original LP, 1970) ^[14]
• Barry Diament - mastering engineer (original CD, 1986) ^{[12] [14]}
• George Marino - mastering engineer (remastered CD, 1990) ^[12]
• Peter Grant - executive producer ^[12]

Charts

Album

Single

Certifications

External links

• Led Zeppelin III ⚠ "mbid" is missing! at MusicBrainz
• Interview with Jimmy Page on the making of Led Zeppelin III

References