How Zeppelin's First Three Albums Changed Music Forever

It was forty-five years ago this week that Led Zeppelin released their pivotal third album. Led Zeppelin III embraced the bombast of their first two records, but brought an almost gentler and more considered component to the band.

It afforded them both light and shade. From *Immigrant Song *to Since I’ve Been Loving You, both destined to become staples of their live show, it showcased a relatively short-lived band now at the peak of their powers, but how did they get here?

In an extended interview with Nicky Horne on The Classic Rock Magazine Show, Jimmy Page tells the story of the writing and recording of those first three, landmark records and how it felt to go back and remaster and remix them decades later.

As he tells Nicky Horne, “It was an epic task to go back through all that music, but there are so many treats for people who like Led Zeppelin, I knew they’d get so much out of this.

“Listen to something like Living Loving Maid, Bonham and Jones, that syncopation, the way they fused together, but we all had that, all four of us. The way John was playing was so musical, it would have been criminal for something like that not to be heard. It was almost divine intervention the way these four musicians came together, in the space of five months we were rehearsing, recording and then we’d broken America, I still think it’s extraordinary.”

For more on what Jimmy Page and Led Zeppelin did next (how does Led Zeppelin IV and Houses Of The Holy sound?) then click on the link below.

"The fourth album? It's good, isn't It?"

Philip Wilding

Philip Wilding is a novelist, journalist, scriptwriter, biographer and radio producer. As a young journalist he criss-crossed most of the United States with bands like Motley Crue, Kiss and Poison (think the Almost Famous movie but with more hairspray). More latterly, he’s sat down to chat with bands like the slightly more erudite Manic Street Preachers, Afghan Whigs, Rush and Marillion.