Led Zeppelin “Led Zeppelin”

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#356 in the Series) is the self-titled debut from Led Zeppelin.

I remember back around 1977 or so. I had a friend named John Popenleur. I hope I’m spelling that correctly. One day he was going on and on about his new turntable and how much he liked it. ‘You have to hear this thing, you have to hear this thing,” he kept saying.  OK, I finally agreed to check it out.  To this day, I remember what he put on to show off its sound.  He tossed the first Led Zeppelin album onto the turntable. He fired it up, loudly!!! I can still hear how cool “Good Times, Bad Times” sounded. It was indeed, quite impressive.

When I think of classic hard rock bands from years past, there really is one that stood head and shoulders above the rest. That was Led Zeppelin. I loved Black Sabbath, Deep Purple etc., but Led Zeppelin was, is and always will be the king of the genre. Those other bands are good, but when you say Led Zeppelin, there’s just a different feeling that goes through bones.

This was the band’s debut. I’m including it in our Whale Wednesday series more for its historic place than its actual sales during its time. It peaked at #10 on the Billboard Top 200 Album chart. “Good Times, Bad Times” peaked at #80 on the Hot 100 Singles chart.

Led Zeppelin was ranked #29 on the Rolling Stone Greatest Top 500 albums albums of all-time listing.

Track listing

Side one

1. “Good Times Bad Times” (Bonham, Jones, Page) 2:47
2. “Babe I’m Gonna Leave You” (Page, Plant, Bredon) 6:41
3. “You Shook Me” (Dixon, Lenoir) 6:30
4. “Dazed and Confused” (Page, Holmes, Relf) 6:27

Side two

1. “Your Time Is Gonna Come” (Jones, Page ) 4:34
2. “Black Mountain Side” (Page) 2:13
3. “Communication Breakdown” (Bonham, Jones, Page) 2:30
4. “I Can’t Quit You Baby” (Dixon) 4:43
5. “How Many More Times” (Bonham, Jones, Page)8:28

Personnel

Led Zeppelin

• Jimmy Page – acoustic, electric, and pedal steel guitar, backing vocals, production
• Robert Plant – lead vocals and harmonica
• John Bonham – drums, timpani, backing vocals
• John Paul Jones – bass guitar, organ, keyboards, backing vocals

Additional personnel

• Peter Grant – executive producer
• George Hardie – cover design
• Viram Jasani – tabla on “Black Mountain Side”
• Glyn Johns – engineering, mixing

Links

• See more features from Rock and Roll Hall of Famers
• See more features from 1969
• See our feature on Led Zeppelin, Physical Graffiti

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