Connections #5 - An album without name… and without time by Gualtiero Tronconi

iRobert Plant, Led Zeppelin's singer, has recently published a new solo album: Lullaby and … The Ceaseless Roar.
© Carl Dunn - Warner Music Group.

The fourth Led Zeppelin album was released in 1971 and brought the band to a new and higher success. It still remains an incomparable work of art that currently has been brought back to shine again

Ahmet Ertegun was a genius. At the end of the 40s he founded Atlantic Records and during the years he was a big talent scout.
One of the bands which interested the Turkish businessman was made up of 4 British guys whose leader was a very talented session man who had lent his guitar to various artists, his name was Jimmy Page and his band was Led Zeppelin. In 1968 Etergun managed to have the band sign a deal with his label and since then those guys have conquered one success after another on both sides of the ocean. They became the leaders of a new wave of heavy sound bands, of a new genre: Hard rock.
However, in 1971 the relationship between Led Zeppelin and Atlantic started to shift. Jimmy Page, the other members, and their manager Peter Grant, were well aware of their success and the money they were bringing to the label and started to demand more independence. The first step towards emancipation was in fact the cover of Led Zeppelin IV.
The day after a fantastic sold out concert at Madison Square Garden in New York, the band showed up at the offices of Atlantic Record. Peter Grass told Ertegun the new album cover would have had no name or title. The business man almost had an heart attack and started shouting hysterically; the label's most successful group, their golden goose, wanted to release an untitled album that nobody would have bought as people would not know it was their album.

Grant stopped the discussion and said: «This album would sell even if it were wrapped in newspaper», there was nothing left to say.

Today their choice for the cover of their fourth album still remains a wonderful hazard and a smart and powerful marketing operation.
Four symbols substitute the name of the group – one for each member. The album today is still called Four Symbols or ZoSo, from the character that Jimmy Page chose to represent on it. The guitarist, a true deus ex machina and the founder of the band, has recently presented to the public the remastered version of the untitled album and of House Of The Holy, the following album released in 1973. Two masterpieces recollecting some of the most famous tunes of the band; Misty Mountain Hop, Four Sticks, The Song Remains The Same and the legendary Stairway To Heaven.
The two albums over the years have sold something close to 34 million copies only in the USA and they are now presented with unreleased arrangements of the original tunes, alternative mixes and seven songs unheard of before, a real treat for the fans of the band.

[ Gualtiero Tronconi ]

iThe cover of Houses Of The Holy (1973).
≡ A ROCK AND ROLL VIDEO

To celebrate the release of the new editions of Led Zeppelin IV and Houses Of The Holy, the band has produced a new video for the masterpiece Rock And Roll in its alternate arrangement. The video mixes live footage and new visual concepts with a very modern and interesting result.

iThe English band below the wing of the boeing 720B called Starship.
The plane was furbished with chairs, tables, an office, a living room with an electric organ and a bathroom with bath tub and shower and it was the main transport for the band in the US tours from 1973 to 1977.
© Bob Gruen - Atlantic Records.
≡IT IS ALL ABOUT SYMBOLISM...

The four symbols on the side of Led Zeppelin IV represent the members of the band.
From top right, clockwise: Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones, John Bonham and Robert Plant.

iLed Zeppelin on stage during the Houses Of The Holy tour.
© Carl Dunn - Warner Music Group.

iThe Zeppelin in 1971.
From right to left: the singer Robert Plant, the bassist John Paul Jones, the drummer John Bonzo Bonham and the guitarist Jimmy Page.
© Armado Gallo - Warner Music Group.
≡THE COVER
Led Zeppelin IV

The cover of Led Zeppelin IV is the picture of an old oil painting from the XIX century. Robert Plant bought it in a shop in Reading, hanging on a wall with old shabby wallpaper. When opening the cover, one immediately realises that the wall has fallen down and behind it there are other demolished houses with new buildings looming over them.
Regarding this, Jimmy Page said: «It represents the change in the balance of things, a warning that should make us stop and focus. The old farmer and the old demolished houses are telling us that we should take more care of the planet we live on, without raping or ransacking it». The more prosy John Bonham, who lived for a while in a house very close to the big building in the background, simply said: «It only means that I prefer to live in an old house rather than a block of flats».

iThe three remaining members of the group in a picture taken at O2 Arena concert in London, on the 10^th of December 2007.
At the drums there was Jason Bonham, the son of the beloved John who died in 1980.
≡THE BOOK
Jimmy Page by Jimmy Page

The front and back cover of Jimmy Page's photographic autobiography has the big golden letters of the ZoSo symbol which identifies the English guitarist and producer. The book is 511 pages long and has been printed in big format, it weights 3 kilos and contains almost 600 pictures narrating Page's life and career, from his childhood till today. There is no writing, except for the captions revealing a few nice anecdotes that will certainly please his fans. On this matter, the guitarist said: «I was asked on several occasions to write an autobiography and I started thinking instead at the other side of the coin; it would have been unique to have a photographic autobiography».

FPmag 001

« »