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["Good Times Bad Times" by Led Zeppelin playing]
♪ In the days of my youth
♪ I was told what it means to be a man ♪
♪ Now I've reached that age
♪ I've tried to do all those things the best I can ♪
♪ No matter how I try
♪ I find my way into the same old jam ♪
♪ Good times, bad times
♪ You know I've had my share ♪
♪ When my woman left home ♪
♪ For a brown-eyed man ♪
♪ Well, I still don't seem to care ♪
♪ I know what it means to be alone ♪
♪ I sure do wish I was at home ♪
♪ I don't care what the neighbors say ♪
♪ I'm gonna love you each and every day ♪
♪ You can feel the beat within my heart ♪
♪ Realize, sweet babe
♪ We ain't ever gonna part ♪
[Jimmy Page] As a kid in England,
we were living in the shadows of the Second World War.
Your parents and your grandparents
had been through two World Wars.
And at the end of the Second World War,
there was this great feeling of hope towards the future.
[John Paul Jones] In London,
there was lots of damaged buildings
and craters and... [chuckles]
I mean, it was an apres war zone.
There was rationing still. I remember...
getting eggs and milk and butter and stuff
with a little book with coupons.
People were recovering.
[Robert Plant] Outside of London,
in the West Midlands,
it was a post-war, sort of semi-suburban
quiet life.
So America was my dream...
because it was a totally different world
to the one that we were in.
["Train Kept A-Rollin'" by the Johnny Burnette Trio]
♪ I caught a train
♪ I met a dame ♪
♪ She was a hepster ♪
♪ And a real gone dame ♪
♪ She was pretty ♪
♪ From New York City ♪
♪ And we trucked on down that old fair lane ♪
♪ With a heave and a ho ♪
♪ Well, I just couldn't let her go ♪
♪ Oh ♪
♪ Yeah ♪
♪ Hey
♪ Oh ♪
♪ Hup
♪ Giddyap, oh!
♪ Get along ♪
I was listening to this marvelous rock and roll
coming in from America.
You're hearing all this electric guitar.
I mean, it was almost like it was coming from Mars,
even though it was coming from Memphis.
But here in Britain,
we were stuck with these musicians
who were really safe
until this force of nature called Lonnie Donegan arrived.
♪ When you play the game of life ♪
♪ You've got trouble You've got strife ♪
♪ Jack o' diamonds is a hard card to find ♪
♪ Life is like a game of cards ♪
♪ But it's very, very hard ♪
♪ Jack o' diamonds is a hard card to find ♪
♪ Jack o' diamonds ♪
♪ Diamonds is a hard card to find ♪
♪ Jack o' diamonds ♪
♪ Diamonds is a hard card to find ♪
[Page] I was so mesmerized
by having seen Lonnie Donegan play.
It was like a portal.
It gave some access
to the sort of freedom that you hadn't witnessed in England.
♪ A hard card to find ♪
Give it up, Jimmy!
[rocking, funky guitar solo playing]
So, one day I come to school and I see...
this fellow standing up in the field
with lots of people around him.
His name was Rod Wyatt,
and he's playing the Lonnie Donegan songs
on an acoustic guitar.
So I went up to him and said,
"I've got one of those at home."
And he said, "Bring it along. I'll show you how to tune it."
And then...
he showed me some chords as well.
♪ Well, Mama don't allow no skiffle around here ♪
♪ Oh no, she don't ♪
♪ Mama don't allow no skiffle around in here ♪
♪ Well, we don't care what mama don't allow ♪
♪ Gonna play that skiffle any-old-how ♪
♪ Mama don't allow no skiffle around in here ♪
♪ Well, mama don't allow no guitar playing in here ♪
♪ Oh no, she don't ♪
♪ Well, mama don't allow no guitar playing in here ♪
♪ Well, we don't care what mama don't allow ♪
♪ Gonna play that guitar any-old-how ♪
♪ Mama don't allow no guitar playing in here ♪
[jaunty guitar melody playing]
[Page]I was absolutely inseparable from the guitar.
I'd play it before breakfast
and then play it on the way to school.
I'd go there and want to practice,
but it would be confiscated
and, uh, given back at the end of the day.
♪ Gonna play that guitar any-old-how ♪
♪ Mama don't allow no guitar playing in here ♪
[Page] My father was like,
"Well, I don't really understand
all this guitar business, but...
I'm with you on it,
providing you keep all your schoolwork up."
But my mum was really supportive to the idea
of me carrying on and starting in a group and...
she really believed in me.
I mean, it was really a big deal.
["I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter" playing]
[Jones]My parents were in vaudeville.
Mum was the straight singer in the evening gown...
and my father was a comedian.
He would play the piano.
And so I used to travel around with them
to all the bases,
where they'd entertain the troops.
And there would be just one international act after another.
Accordion players and banjo players.
I took all this in.
[song continues]
[Jones]So I was from that musical tradition.
And it was all the basis
for everything I ever did afterwards.
[song fades out]
[birds chirping]
[Plant] I grew up in the West Midlands.
My father's bloodline is from there,
and my mother's side of the family
are Romani Gypsy.
My childhood was very sheltered...
until my parents sent me to a big school
in a big town.
Studied to be a chartered accountant.
I mean, I'd really dug a lot of what was going on at school,
but when Little Richard appeared,
it was so provocative and all-consuming
and, uh, hypnotic
that it kinda knocked everything else out of the water.
♪ Well, I saw Uncle John with bald-head Sally ♪
♪ He saw Aunt Mary coming and he ducked back in the alley ♪
♪ Oh, baby ♪
♪ Yes, baby ♪
♪ Woo, baby
♪ Having me some fun tonight... ♪
I knew then that all I wanted to do was sing.
♪ Well, long tall Sally She's built for speed ♪
♪ She got everything that Uncle John need ♪
♪ Oh, baby ♪
♪ Yes, baby ♪
[Plant] I mean, that was it.
The syringe was in the arm. Forever.
["Long Tall Sally" by Little Richard playing]
[song fades out]
[John Bonham] Oh, well, I'm John Bonham.
I always liked making drum sounds when I was a kid.
[chuckles]
I got my first drum kit when I was ten.
And we went to see a film with Gene Krupa,
and it was just amazing.
[up-tempo, swinging drum solo playing]
["Sing Sing Sing (With a Swing)" by Benny Goodman playing]
[song ends]
[Bonham] Up here in the Midlands,
I used to buy completely different records, you know.
Johnny Kidd & the Pirates were a strong influence then.
["Shakin' All Over" by Johnny Kidd & the Pirates]
♪ When you move in right up close to me ♪
♪ That's when I get the shakes all over me ♪
♪ Shakin' all over...
[song fades]
[Jones] You heard it on all the jukeboxes.
Of course, they've got those huge 15-inch speakers.
That's about all you could hear, was the bass.
["Shakin' All Over" continues]
I heard that and thought...
that's a sound I would really like to make.
♪ Quivers down the backbone... ♪
[Jones] When I told my father, he said,
"Bass guitar is a novelty instrument.
And in two years' time it will never be heard of again.
Get yourself a saxophone, you'll always work."
[chuckles]
So I said, "No. I want a bass guitar, Dad."
He heard me practicing and went,
"Hmm. You're coming with me.
All you've got to do is watch my left hand."
On the piano. So, uh...
I learnt all the standards from that.
[solemn organ music playing]
I had a little band.
We were playing at the youth club.
And I got talking to their very go-ahead young priest.
He went, "We'd really like an organist."
I said, "Well, I could be an organist for you if you like."
Not thinking anything of it.
He went, "Yeah. Okay."
["Jerusalem" on organ playing]
In church music you have to improvise.
But as I wasn't very good at playing from music anyway,
I just improvised everything.
I learnt the hymns.
I could figure out what the hymns were.
I'm not particularly religious but it was a good gig.
All right? And he was a really cool priest.
And so I became organist and choirmaster at 14.
♪ And did those feet in ancient time ♪
♪ Walk upon England's mountains green... ♪
...which paid me the princely sum of £25 a year
which bought me a Fender bass.
["Jerusalem" fades out]
[Page] I use to go and jam on Thursday night
at the Marquee Club.
And after a period of doing this,
this band called Carter Lewis and the Southerners
came up to me and asked me
if I'd like to play on their record.
I said, "Yeah, sure. That sounds really good."
So I went along with my kit.
The DeArmond foot pedal and the amplifier
and my brand new Gibson Les Paul.
And the band'd say,
"Well, just make something up for the solo."
By the second run-through, I've already got a part for it.
["Somebody Told My Girl" by Carter Lewis & the Southerners]
♪ Woo
♪ Oh
[Page] And the buzz must have gone around
about this young guitarist,
because I started to get calls for more studio dates.
When I got into this session world,
I was, like, seven years younger than anybody else.
And they didn't have somebody in the old guard,
or the current guard,
who really knew all the influences
and the points of reference that the younger bands had.
So, of course, I knew all of it,
whether it was, like, R&B or whether it was blues
or rock, whatever it was.
Everybody was getting these records
that originally came over
maybe with the American merchant vessels.
The R&B boom had kicked in.
["Keep It To Yourself" by Sonny Boy Williamson playing]
[Plant] I went to see Sonny Boy Williamson
at the American Folk Blues Festival.
It was around the time I was learning to play harmonica too.
It was just this amazing onslaught
of music from whence we had no idea.
[soulful blues music playing]
♪ Darling, do me a favor ♪
♪ Keep it to yourself ♪
♪ Please, darling, do me a favor ♪
♪ Keep our business to yourself ♪
♪ I don't want you to tell nobody ♪
♪ And don't mention it to no one else... ♪
[mellow harmonica solo playing]
[Plant] Sonny Boy was almost everything
that's become my whole entire musical bloodstream really.
[song continues]
But in my own hometown, I had my own hero,
and it was Perry Foster.
And he had this kind of setup called the Delta Blues Band.
And somehow or another, I managed to blag my way
into this band.
I was prepared to be a mod or a rocker
or a beatnik or anything so long as I could sing
and gather these looks around me,
just trying to make it stick on the wall.
[Bonham] I used to play and used to have a job as well.
Used to be working with my father in the building trade.
Used to be good builders then. [chuckles]
But, you know, the job gradually gets less
and the music more. That's what seems to happen.
You know, we left school and we formed small groups,
and things like that,
and played locally and everything.
You know, for me, soul music was a strong influence then.
["Please, Please, Please" by James Brown playing]
[women screaming]
[Bonham] James Brown was a big favorite
because the drum sound was just amazing.
I thought, "I'm gonna get that sound."
[song continues]
[Bonham] When I was 16,
I went to see a group with Robert singing.
The gig went incredibly well because he was bloody great.
[Plant] In the crowd watching this
was some larger-than-life guy with his beautiful girlfriend.
He got a hold of me afterwards and he said,
"Well, you're okay,
but you'd be a lot better with a proper drummer behind you."
And I thought, "Jesus Christ. Here we go."
[Bonham] The first time we played together
we were about 16.
And it was really good.
["I Got To Find My Baby" by Band of Joy playing]
[Plant] John was amazing.
He was a really powerful drummer.
I watched him with absolute amazement.
He was just...
fantastic.
[Bonham] But it's so competitive playing locally anyway.
You'd, like, have a time going on the road
and everything would be roses,
then all of a sudden, no more gigs, no more money.
You're back to where you started.
One time, we were running out of fuel
and I had to siphon the gasoline from another car
and I was caught by the police in the middle of the night,
sucking a piece of rubber into a can.
And him sitting in the back shivering,
thinking, "What the hell will Pat say?"
Pat became his wife and she used to say,
"Don't you dare play with that Planty.
He's a complete disaster."
["Song of Mexico" by Tony Meehan playing]
[Jones] I left school at 16.
I failed most of my exams
because I'd been playing all night in some club
the night before my O-Levels.
And my dad was saying,
"Well, I can get you a job as a clerk somewhere."
"No, no. I'll find a band, Dad. I'll find a band."
So there used to be a place in London
called Archer Street.
And every Monday morning,
all the local musicians would congregate for work.
And so I went there as a kid.
Every Monday morning, I was there.
[song continues]
[Jones] And I started getting booked with bands
and in the session scene.
[Page] Here comes Jimmy Page
with his electric guitar.
That's my Les Paul, my Black Beauty.
And this guitar was the guitar
that I played most of my sessions on.
There we are. Going in there to see
what I'm gonna be faced with on that music stand.
["Goldfinger" by Shirley Bassey playing]
Sessions were a lot of fun in those days, actually.
When I started, I ended up playing a lot of sessions
together with Jimmy.
♪ Goldfinger... ♪
[Jones] The "Goldfinger" session was at Abbey Road.
Jimmy and I were in the rhythm section.
There was a full orchestra...
and Shirley Bassey.
♪ A spider's touch... ♪
[Page] The whole energy just to be in there,
I mean, for me, I'm still a kid, really.
And it's, "Wow. It's Shirley Bassey."
[Jones] While you were playing, you could see her.
And she did the whole thing.
♪ Goldfinger Like that.
It was wonderful to watch.
♪ But don't go in ♪
♪ Golden words he will pour in your ear ♪
♪ But his lies can't disguise what you fear ♪
♪ For a golden girl knows when he's kissed her... ♪
[Page] These studios would work with ruthless efficiency.
So you couldn't be the one to mess up
so they went into overtime.
'Course, if you messed up,
you wouldn't have been seen again.
♪ Beware of this heart of gold ♪
♪ This heart is cold
♪ He loves only gold...
There'd be a pocket diary, like this,
that I'd be carrying with me.
I played on sessions with the Rolling Stones,
David Bowie, Petula Clark...
I was on the Kinks' records.
The first Who record.
I mean, it goes right across the board.
But I didn't do anything with the Beatles.
♪ He loves gold
["Sunshine Superman" by Donovan playing]
[Page] I did quite a lot of work with Donovan
and I really enjoyed working with him.
And Mickie Most was his producer.
♪ It'll take time, I know it ♪
These sessions were great 'cause I could watch
and I could ask questions about things,
and I certainly did.
I made it my business to ask engineers
how certain effects were done,
like tape echo and reverb.
And you could see the way that they were miking
various instruments.
And, basically, that's what I could do.
I was allowed to, sort of, do that.
Not only that, I got a chance to have a solo as well.
So that was good.
[bright, funky guitar solo playing]
[Jones] I went to Mickie Most and said,
"Do you need an arranger?"
- "You do arrang..." - "Yeah, I do arrangements.
Yeah. All the time." And, uh...
I hadn't really done that before.
But my dad had always taught me never turn down work, right?
And had a great working relationship with him.
["To Sir, With Love" by Lulu playing]
He used to drive by in his yellow Rolls-Royce
and drop an acetate through my letterbox
with "You know what we want. It's Friday."
And that was it.
I'd be playing bass in sessions all day, seven days a week.
So I had to write arrangements at night.
And then nine o'clock in the morning
I'd go to the session and do the songs.
I did all the arrangements for Herman's Hermits
and Donovan,
and had quite a lot to do with Lulu.
Did all her arrangements with Mickie Most as well.
♪ How do you thank someone ♪
♪ Who has taken you from crayons to perfume ♪
♪ It isn't easy
♪ But I'll try... ♪
[Jones] I even did film work with her,
like To Sir, With Love, which was a big hit in America.
This was considered the pinnacle of the music business.
My dad was incredibly proud...
when people he knew and respected
would come, "Ooh, I saw your John on so-and-so session
the other day. He's okay. He's good, you know."
And...
Puffed him up a lot.
[Plant] I was in a lot of different bands
around that time.
I did a couple adventures in recording studios.
But my parents, they weren't that keen at all.
In fact, when I cut my record, the first single on CBS,
they didn't know anything about it,
'cause I, um...
I was given the alternative of staying in the world of
academia and...
my article-- training for my articles...
as a chartered accountant or...
you just go out into the world and do what you gotta do.
So I did.
So I waved everybody goodbye.
["You Better Run" by Led Zeppelin playing]
♪ Whatcha tryin' to do to my soul ♪
♪ Whatcha tryin' to do to my soul... ♪
[Plant] I knew there were singers
who had more chops than me,
but I was just out there,
throwing it up in the air.
I had caftans, painted faces, bells ringing,
incense blazing,
and... [chuckles]
...was just...
[Bonham] Robert used to get up to more mischief
and little sort of things than any of us do.
It's ridiculous, you know.
John came up to me and said, "Well, what's all that about?"
I said, "Yeah, you're right. What is that all about?"
[Bonham] It was the end of '67.
We got back together
and the playing went incredibly well.
["Memory Lane" by Robert Plant and the Band of Joy playing]
♪ Down the lane ♪
♪ Creeps Auntie Jane ♪
♪ As she has for 60 years... ♪
[Plant] So we formed the Band of Joy.
We wanted to mix the blues with psychedelia.
We wanted to be a part of that huge movement.
We played at Frank Freeman's.
We played Middle Earth in London.
We went down to Tin Pan Alley and we recorded "Memory Lane,"
which was my first adventure in songwriting.
Sadly, we never got it released.
And not many people liked us.
But we liked us.
[song continues]
♪ Those were the days ♪
♪ In old Memory Lane ♪
♪ Those were the days ♪
♪ Yes, they were ♪
♪ In old Memory Lane ♪
[Plant] Pat was screaming at John, saying,
"I told you to stay away from him.
He'll get you nowhere."
And so he went off with Tim Rose and...
played "I Got a Loneliness" and "Morning Dew."
[Bonham] That's how it used to go, really.
I mean, we had a kid then.
You'd end up having to get a job
in a professional group to get a bit of money
to sort of live with, really.
I... I just fell from favor everywhere.
Things were pretty tough for me then.
I had a brown suitcase and some penicillin,
and I was homeless. I had nowhere to live.
So I, uh...
I got a gig with this band called Obs-Tweedle.
[mellow bass chords play]
I was totally accepted
in the world of being a studio musician.
I had been caught up doing the things
that all of the real old-timers when I joined in were doing.
Like Muzak.
Muzak is what they would call, like, lift music.
You know? Um...
Very, very difficult to do a, uh...
a Muzak session,
because you'd have a whole ream of music
and you'd have to keep turning it and playing it,
turning it and playing it.
To do that, to actually get halfway through
without being physically sick was quite a miracle.
So I knew that... that...
that it was time to, sort of, come out of there.
All my friends, like Eric and Jeff,
were all in bands
and they were having a great time.
I thought, I've got a lot that I really want
to be able to offer.
And Jeff Beck said,
"It'd be really good if you came in with The Yardbirds."
So I thought, "How would you really like to play
if you had the chance?"
"Right. You do it. Do it now. This is your opportunity."
["Over Under Sideways Down" by The Yardbirds playing]
♪ Over, under, sideways, down ♪
♪ Backwards, forwards square and round ♪
♪ Over, under, sideways, down ♪
♪ Backwards, forwards square and round ♪
♪ Hey ♪
♪ Hey
[song ends with flourish]
[applause]
Going into The Yardbirds with Jeff,
it was touring with a friend and having a really good time.
But in the middle of an American tour,
he left the band,
and I... I was quite shocked.
But it gave me the opportunity to try a totally new direction.
So I took over on lead guitar.
["Glimpses" by The Yardbirds playing]
[Page] Nobody was interested in The Yardbirds
over here in England anymore.
So we started to really grow our underground following
in America.
And it was just a thrill, an absolute thrill,
just really getting a feel for the West Coast music scene.
[song continues]
But we were up against Mickie Most,
who was our producer, so...
we were recording all these awful singles
for the AM Radio, which was the pop radio,
and I didn't want to be making singles anymore.
Being in America
and seeing the advent of the FM underground radio,
which was playing whole sides of albums,
I knew that this was gonna be the way to go in the future.
So that was my plan.
To make albums that would be played,
a whole side,
on the FM stations.
[song continues]
I had this new sound for The Yardbirds
already worked out in my head.
I already knew exactly what I wanted to be doing, guitar-wise,
on the new stuff that I had in mind
like "Dazed and Confused,"
which was inspired by Jake Holmes.
["Dazed and Confused" by The Yardbirds playing]
♪ Hey, hey ♪
♪ Right, I... ♪
[Page] That guitar was given to me
by Jeff Beck.
I painted it.
I consecrated the guitar.
This is the guitar that takes the full journey
like... Excalibur, the mythical sword.
[warbling guitar melody playing]
I went to a palm reading in LA.
And the palmist said,
"You're gonna be making a decision very soon
which is gonna change your life."
A meeting happened two or three days after the palmist...
where the group said, "That's it. We wanna fold."
I mean, it was a shock.
I immediately went, "Well, now I know what I'm gonna do.
I'm gonna form my own group,
and I know exactly what it is that I wanna do with it,"
and I just needed to find a powerful vocalist.
And so there was a singer called Terry Reid.
He registered with me
and I thought, "I'm gonna aim for him."
I asked Peter Grant if he could track down Terry Reid.
Peter Grant was the manager of The Yardbirds
and, bless him, he really believed in me.
This is the thing, once The Yardbirds folded,
and I said, "I wanna start a group,"
he was there. You know? He said, "Great.
Whatever help I can give."
Peter Grant and Mickie Most were in the same office and...
they had two desks,
and they, more or less, faced each other across the room.
The next thing that I hear is,
"Oh, unfortunately Terry Reid's signed a solo deal
with Mickie Most."
And I, "Oh, yeah?"
- Off the press? - Right. I know that one.
- For you. - Right.
I thought, "Wow. This is super ruthless."
But nevertheless, Terry Reid suggested
a singer from the Midlands in a band called Obs-Tweedle.
"This is an unusual name. This is a bit odd."
He and Peter Grant came up to have a look at me.
He asked me if I knew where he could find Robert Plant.
And I said, "Yeah. Right here."
He was doing some wonderful improvised vocals
and I thought they were marvelous.
So I invited him round my house.
I still had nowhere to live, sadly.
So I took my suitcase and got a train to Pangbourne
and knocked on another door.
[Page] Yeah. We had a really good connection.
And he was looking through my records,
"I've got that one." You know?
And I played him a Joan Baez version
of "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You"
and said, "If you can sing that top line there,
I've got an arrangement that goes with it."
And it just really, really dovetailed together.
It was beautiful.
He... He... He just sang beautifully.
["Babe I'm Gonna Leave You" by Led Zeppelin playing]
♪ Babe ♪
♪ Baby, baby ♪
♪ I'm gonna leave you... ♪
We knew something was in the air.
I could feel this stuff around me.
Jimmy's guitar playing was just tremendous. Amazing.
Jimmy then said, "We've got this drummer lined up."
And before he went any further, I said, "Wait a minute.
There is no drummer on the planet
to compare with John Bonham.
He's magnificent."
He was playing with Tim Rose.
Jimmy said, "Oh, well, if that's the case,
let's go and see him."
And I said, "John, you've got to listen to Jimmy play.
He's amazing."
John said, "Not a chance."
I said, "You gotta be crazy. You don't wanna do this stuff,"
playing electric folk.
"Come with me." He said, "Pat would kill me."
"Don't say that!"
I said, "I'll talk to Pat, and your mum."
[Jones] My wife Mo read that, "Oh, Jimmy's forming a band.
You should give him a call.
See if he wants a bass player."
Like, "No! I can't...
I've got this to do, I've got that to do.
I got these arra-- and albums..."
"No," she said. She insisted. "Give him a call, please."
So I did.
I said, "Hello, Jim. Heard you're forming a band."
He went, "Yeah, yeah." I said, "Uh...
Do you want a bass player?"
He went, "Well, actually, yes.
But there's a problem." I said, "What's that?"
He said, "The drummer is playing with Tim Rose
and he's getting £40 a week. Can we best it?"
[chuckles]
So we decided, yeah, we probably could.
[Page] Peter Grant managed to get a two-hour rehearsal space
in Gerrard Street.
So we all get there and I've got my equipment set up.
John Paul Jones is there with his session equipment,
and John's got his drums.
[Jones] It literally was just wall to wall amplifiers
and we just picked one up...
"Hello. How are you?" "Right," you know?
"I'm so-and-so. He's so-and-so else."
[Bonham] It was quite strange really,
meeting John Paul and Jimmy.
Coming from where I'd come from,
I'd sort of thought it was a bit of a joke,
getting telegrams and things, you know.
There's a chance of becoming one of The Yardbirds,
it's like a gift from Heaven, wasn't it?
I said the first number that I want to do
is "Train Kept A-Rollin'."
"Train Kept A-Rollin'." "Do you know it?"
I went, "Mm. Nope."
He said, "Well, it's a 12-bar." [hums riff]
"It's got this riff." "Okay. Count it in."
And that was it.
And the room just exploded.
We just kept playing it and doing solo breaks
and all the rest of it, and Robert's improvising.
I'd never heard anything like it.
I was expecting some cool soul singer
and there's this screaming maniac...
with this fantastic voice and a fantastic range.
I was like, "What are you doing up there?
You'll hurt yourself, man."
It was devastating because it seemed like...
that had been what I'd been waiting for.
[Bonham] I was pretty shy.
The best thing to do when you're in a situation like that
is not to say much and just soldier along
and suss it all out, sort of thing.
Well, being a bass player,
and he was probably thinking the same thing,
you know, because rhythm sections
are very sensitive creatures really...
um...
I just needed to know that
we could work together.
[Bonham] The first time we played together
you could tell it was gonna be a good group.
Not being sort of flashy about it.
[Bonham laughs]
But I am. [Bonham cackles]
Marvelous.
When it finally came to a halt,
I'm absolutely convinced
that everyone knew that that was a life-changing experience.
I think there was so much kinetic energy,
so much energy that needed to come out for everybody.
Let's take it to the next stage and let's take it to Pangbourne.
["Jennings Farm Blues" by Led Zeppelin playing]
[Page] Pangbourne is on the River Thames.
I remember when I first came across this boat house,
I just saw this absolute magic.
It had a good energy to it.
And it was just a cauldron of creativity.
This is the house I lived in in 1967 through to 1970.
We set up initially in the upstairs of the house.
Where those windows are at the top,
there's a largish room
and that was where we did the rehearsals.
[song continues]
We were overlooking the river.
It was beautiful.
And we just got to know each other
and worked pretty hard.
We weren't slackers.
Our aim wasn't to be seen on the telly.
We all wanted to play music very badly.
We were working on the material for the album,
and then we were putting in other material as well
that was gonna fill out the set.
We were rehearsing for days,
and it would have been pretty loud.
You'd hear it. You'd hear it over here.
I did expect somebody to be knocking on the door
to complain, but nobody did.
[song continues]
[Bonham] We got together very quickly
because there was already a tour that had to be done
by The Yardbirds,
which was a few dates in Scandinavia.
It was convenient that, lo and behold,
there was this tour that we could do.
So we could go there and have the benefit
of playing in front of an audience
away from London and all the rest of it.
[Plant] Off to Scandinavia we went
for our first concert as The Yardbirds.
And we went on an aeroplane,
me and John sitting next to each other
having a cigarette,
seeing lots and lots of silverware,
knives and forks in front of us.
Stuff that we would normally have stolen
was there in profusion.
Couldn't have even got enough of it in our bags
to get off the plane without having somebody help us.
It was great. Everything was there.
Gin, tonic...
people.
People being kind and charming.
Air conditioning.
It was off we went.
Because you couldn't... What could you do?
Couldn't go back to Mummy then.
[audience chatter]
[Jones] When I told my colleagues
and the people that employ me
that I'm giving up session work,
I'm gonna join a rock 'n' roll band...
everybody said, "You're mad. You're completely crazy."
["How Many More Times" by The Yardbirds playing]
On bass guitar, John Paul Jones.
John Paul Jones.
On drums,
John Bonham.
Lead guitar, Jimmy Page.
And myself, Robert Plant.
[mellow blues rock rhythm playing]
Yes! All right!
Yes!
Come on. Ah, yeah!
[blues rock rhythm continues]
[driving rhythm continues]
♪ How many more times
♪ Treat me the way that you wanna do ♪
♪ How many more times
♪ Treat me the way that you wanna do ♪
♪ Would you be mad with me, baby ♪
♪ Please
♪ Please be true
♪ I'll give you all I've got to give ♪
♪ Rings
♪ Pearls
♪ And all
♪ I'll give you all I've got to give ♪
♪ Rings
♪ Pearls, and all ♪
♪ Why don't you get yourself together, baby ♪
♪ I'm sure
♪ Sure you're gonna crawl ♪
♪ My, my, my, yeah
Yes!
[shrill, intense guitar solo playing]
[solo continues, frantic and driving]
[song lumbers behind loud, driving guitar solo]
♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah
[song presses onward, slowly building]
[song builds]
[song peaks, ends abruptly, echoes]
[Bonham] It went so well, really,
that the group started to make the album
straight after coming back from Scandinavia.
How long had we been together about then? What, a month?
[Page] We went into Olympic Studios at night
over a few weeks.
The very first time we go in is the 25th of September
in 1968.
Arrival time from 11:00 p.m. onwards.
[engineer] Let's take one.
Right.
There's Glyn Johns, dear Glyn,
at the controls of the Helios desk
that was custom-built for Olympic Studios,
and he was doing the engineering on it.
- [Jones] Drumming set one. - [drums play]
[Plant] John, Jimmy, and John Paul
were much more connected
in these sessions than I was...
because they were recording it live.
They had to make it work on the floor.
A take is a take.
So it was an electric atmosphere.
And I just tried to land on top of it all.
[Page] John Paul Jones brought the most amazing bass playing,
and he was quite a force to be reckoned with musically.
[driving drum beat and bass line playing]
I was very much in love with John's right foot.
[chuckles] I had great respect for it.
And I used to try and highlight it
and help it along and...
give it space. [chuckles]
[Jones] Uh, take three.
So I could be doing a riff and just leave a note out
and something of his would pop through
and the rhythm would just suddenly come alive.
[click, whirring]
["Good Times Bad Times" by Led Zeppelin playing]
[tapping on drum's rim]
[two-beat guitar chord reverberates]
[tapping on cowbell]
- [guitar rhythm repeats] - [tapping continues]
- [guitar rhythm repeats] - [drum line picks up]
♪ In the days of my youth ♪
♪ I was told what it means to be a man ♪
♪ And now I've reached that age ♪
♪ I've tried to do all those things the best I can ♪
♪ No matter how I try
♪ I find my way to the same old jam ♪
♪ Good times, bad times
♪ You know I've had my share ♪
♪ When my woman left home for a brown-eyed man ♪
♪ Well, I still don't seem to care ♪
♪ Sixteen I fell in love
♪ With a girl as sweet as could be ♪
♪ It only took a couple of days ♪
♪ 'Til she was rid of me ♪
♪ She swore that she would be all mine ♪
♪ And love me 'til the end ♪
♪ But when I whispered in her ear ♪
♪ I lost another friend ♪
♪ Oh, good times, bad times ♪
♪ You know I've had my share ♪
♪ When my woman left home for a brown-eyed man ♪
♪ Well, I still don't seem to care... ♪
[intense, powerful guitar solo playing]
♪ Good times, bad times
♪ You know I've had my share ♪
♪ When my woman left home for a brown-eyed man ♪
♪ But I still don't seem to care ♪
[funky, up-tempo bass line playing]
[guitar solo resumes]
♪ I know what it means to be alone ♪
♪ I sure do wish I was at home ♪
♪ I don't care what the neighbors say ♪
♪ I'm gonna love you each and every day ♪
♪ You can feel the beat within my heart ♪
♪ Realize, sweet babe, we ain't ever gonna part ♪
[song fades out]
I was gonna throw everything I could at it.
I was gonna play acoustic guitar,
I played pedal steel guitar,
I played slide guitar, electric guitar.
I wanted to have so many different textures
and moods on it,
that the whole album
would just totally arrest the listeners
and take them to a realm that they hadn't been in before.
The guitar's not on a regular tuning
on "Black Mountain Side."
It is very much like a sitar tuning.
["Black Mountain Side" by Led Zeppelin playing]
[Plant] Jimmy and John Paul
were really at the top of their game.
They'd played on so many diverse pieces of music
that there was nowhere that they couldn't find themselves
comfortably going to.
So that gave us a whole magnificent bunch of colors
to play with.
[bright, up-tempo melody playing]
[playing intensifies, quickens]
[melody slows slightly, remains sprightly and bright]
[strums final gentle chord]
[Bonham] Jimmy produced the album.
Which is great because it's got a different sound
and I like that.
He had all these ideas of microphone placement
to get distance, so he knew what he wanted to hear.
[Page] There were some really complex things
that went on during the mixing,
like the backwards echo that comes in "You Shook Me."
When you turn the tape round and apply the echo
and then turn it back over
and then you get the echo coming in reverse.
[echoing vocalization] ♪ All night ♪
[echoing vocalization]
[psychedelic guitar melody playing]
[Page] I was cross-fading from one song into another
and all these sort of tricks,
so that when people listened to the whole album,
as I say, it would just absolutely demand attention.
Well, I mean, it's amazing. Yeah. I had...
I had a pair of those big quad electrostatic speakers
in my front room.
You could sort of sit almost in them.
I just used to play it loud.
["Your Time Is Gonna Come" by Led Zeppelin playing]
If you finance the album yourself,
you're in a much better position
than if you're going in with, like, a demo tape.
So, if you knew what you were doing,
it made sense to complete the album
and then go round and do a deal.
[dramatic electric organ melody playing]
The American producer Bert Berns
had really done a great PR job for me at Atlantic Records.
When he took me there in 1964,
and I said we should aim at Atlantic...
so that's what we did.
["Your Time Is Gonna Come" by Led Zeppelin playing]
[Jones] Yeah.
Yeah. We'd done our bit,
and Jimmy and Peter were going to convince people
that they really needed it. [chuckles]
Jimmy had the kind of keys to the beginnings of a kingdom.
And he went off to New York with Peter
and through them, they got to see Jerry Wexler.
♪ Messin' around every guy in town ♪
♪ Puttin' me down for thinkin' of someone new ♪
♪ Always the same playin' your game ♪
♪ Drive me insane ♪
♪ Trouble is gonna come to you ♪
♪ One of these days and it won't be long... ♪
We put it on, and that was a great moment
to actually be able to play it, regardless of what they thought,
to actually be playing it to, you know, Jerry Wexler.
[song continues]
♪ Your time is gonna come ♪
♪ Your time is gonna come
♪ Your time is gonna come...
[Page] Atlantic wasn't allowed to remix anything.
It was perfect. It was done.
The sequencing was perfect. There was nothing...
Certainly no single's gonna be taken off it.
♪ It's my turn to cry... ♪
Having seen a situation whereby singles
have broken the spirit of a band,
I didn't want it to break the spirit of this band.
And I made a point of saying we're an album band,
we're not doing singles.
We could call the shots because we owned the album.
♪ Don't care what you say 'cause I'm goin' away to stay ♪
♪ Gonna make you pay... ♪
And here I am, signing a contract.
Then there's Peter, looking really cool.
Looking quite like a Mafia don.
♪ People talkin' all around ♪
♪ Watch out, woman, no longer ♪
♪ Is the joke gonna be on my heart ♪
♪ You been bad to me, woman
♪ But it's coming back home to you ♪
♪ Your time is gonna come... ♪
[Jones] Peter Grant and Jimmy had fixed it
so that Atlantic had no say in what we did whatsoever.
They went there saying, "Look, you want this band,
and we're gonna give you the music."
But...
Peter Grant wouldn't let any record executives
anywhere near the studio.
Or the band.
They were terrified of him, which was brilliant.
To have that freedom, I mean, it was unheard of.
♪ Your time is gonna come... ♪
[Bonham] Rather than keep The Yardbirds name,
the group became strong enough to start fresh,
and it was a decision that we'd change the name.
[Page] Keith Moon had suggested a name,
Led Zeppelin.
I thought that'd be a great name to use.
I thought, "Yeah. That's a terrible name.
Nobody's gonna remember that." [chuckles]
But I couldn't come up with a better one
so Led Zeppelin we were.
[Plant] So, suddenly I was a dad and I was nearly married.
And I was in this group that was now gonna be called
Led Zeppelin.
So I went back to my parents with an open heart.
I called up my mum and dad and said,
"You might like to meet your possible,
most probable, daughter-in-law-to-be."
And so, of course,
they opened the door.
November the 9th, 1968,
we played Middle Earth.
And just to celebrate the fact that we did that gig,
I got married on the same day.
Trying to get as many things in in a day as I can.
The car broke down on the way to the gig.
All that stuff, you know.
[Jones] We'd figured out what we were gonna play
and how we were gonna play it.
The first three numbers were just bam, bam, bam.
You could see people going, "What on Earth is going on?"
["Communication Breakdown" by Led Zeppelin playing]
♪ Hey, girl
♪ Stop what you're doing ♪
♪ Hey, girl
♪ You'll drive me to ruin ♪
♪ I don't know what it is about you that I like so much ♪
♪ Won't you let me hold you
♪ Let me feel your loving touch ♪
♪ Communication breakdown
♪ It's always the same ♪
♪ I'm having a nervous breakdown ♪
♪ Drive me insane ♪
♪ Hey, girl
♪ I got something you ought to know ♪
♪ Oh, my baby, I wanna tell you I love you so ♪
♪ I wanna hold you in my arms, yeah ♪
♪ I'm never gonna let you go
♪ 'Cause I like your charms ♪
♪ Communication breakdown
♪ It's always the same ♪
♪ I'm having a nervous breakdown ♪
♪ Drive me insane ♪
[intense, driving guitar solo playing]
[song continues]
♪ Communication breakdown
♪ It's always the same ♪
♪ I'm having a nervous breakdown ♪
♪ Drive me insane ♪
♪ Oh ♪
[psychedelic rock guitar solo playing]
[Plant scats, vocalizes]
[scats]
♪ Oh, yes, I wanna know, baby
[Plant continues indistinctly]
- [song ends] - [applause]
[Bonham] It's a funny thing.
You couldn't play big gigs in England.
You'd say, "Do you want to take some dates on Led Zeppelin?"
and all this sort of thing.
People wouldn't even book the band.
[Page] So Atlantic decided that
the record is going to come out on the 12th of January,
but only in America.
So Peter gets a tour together for us.
It was Christmas Eve, I think, we had to leave.
[Bonham] You suddenly find the album's coming out
so we sort of had to go to America to play.
I was concerned I wouldn't feel home there at all.
[Plant] Pat kept saying, "Told you not to work with him."
But she and my wife Maureen were really good friends,
so they had the mutual overview of celebration
for what John was doing and what I was doing.
We just rolled with it.
Going to America was my dream, for every reason.
♪ You know I'm gonna leave you ♪
["Babe, I'm Gonna Leave You" by Led Zeppelin playing]
[Page] We're supporting Vanilla Fudge to begin with,
and they were the only group that took us under their wing.
[Bonham] They're good friends, because they were friends
when we had nothing, you know?
[Plant] Carmine and John Bonham picked up
such a great repartee.
They used to watch and mimic each other, play little parts.
It was a great exchange of energies between everybody.
[Jones] Denver was the first show.
Like playing in an aircraft hangar.
[Page] There wasn't that many people there either.
I thought, "Oh, boy."
But I said, "Look, let's just group together
as though we're playing in a club,
and just play to each other.
Don't worry about whether the place
is half or totally full.
Let's just play for ourselves to get a feel."
[song continues]
[Page] From the handful of dates with the Fudge,
then we go to the Whisky a Go Go in LA,
and then we're going to San Francisco.
[song ends, fades]
[crowd chatter]
[Page] The album is already being played
on the underground radio
and people are really curious
to see this band that they're hearing.
So we were gonna go in there with a hatchet
and just play like we'd never played before.
Just throw everything we'd got into it.
[Plant] We're backstage at The Fillmore,
and, um, Peter Grant says,
"Well, whatever happens,
if you don't crack it here, it's over."
["Communication Breakdown" by Led Zeppelin playing]
♪ Hey, girl
♪ Stop what you're doing ♪
♪ Hey, girl ♪
♪ You'll drive me to ruin ♪
♪ I don't know what it is about you that I like so much ♪
♪ Won't you let me hold you ♪
♪ Let me feel your loving touch ♪
♪ Communication breakdown ♪
♪ It's always the same ♪
♪ I'm having a nervous breakdown ♪
♪ Drive me insane ♪
♪ My, my, my baby ♪
[driving, intense guitar solo playing]
♪ Communication breakdown ♪
♪ It's always the same ♪
♪ I'm having a nervous breakdown ♪
♪ Drive me insane ♪
[Plant vocalizes]
♪ It's all right
♪ It's all right, so good
[funky melody playing]
♪ I don't know much
♪ Just a little bit
♪ I can't take it all, pretty baby ♪
♪ I just want a little bit ♪
♪ Give it to me ♪
♪ Squeeze my lemon
♪ Just a little bit
♪ Squeeze my lemon
♪ Just a little bit
♪ Oh, yeah ♪
♪ I don't wanna ♪
♪ I don't wanna communicate ♪
♪ Come on, hey
♪ Oh ♪
♪ My, my baby
♪ Come on
- ♪I can't stop it ♪ - [song ends]
[loud cheering]
We knew after that one that we were on the right track.
["Sugar Mama" by Led Zeppelin playing]
[Page] Everything is traveling like wildfire.
The whole thing is just building.
People were bashing down the doors to get in
by the time we played Boston Tea Party
because we were working across the States
from the West Coast to the East.
[Jones] On FM radio they would play
one side of your record
and back announce that side,
have one word from a sponsor, and then play the other side.
People would just listen to it
and they'd go, "They're playing in your town tonight."
[chuckles] And so they'd all come on down.
[Wolfman Jack] Rock 'n' roll with Led Zeppelin.
Robert Plant is here and I know you feel real good now.
[Plant chuckles]
I'm gonna put another caller on the phone here.
- You're on the air, dear. - [woman] Is this Robert Plant?
- [Plant] Occasionally, yeah. - [woman] Oh, God.
I want you to know that I'm having heart failure.
[Plant] Oh, good God!
Don't tell me. You need a doctor!
[woman] I just want you to know that you are so sexy.
- It's unbelievable! - [Wolfman Jack] Okay, dear.
Thank you very much.
- Next? - [man] Hello?
I was gonna go see you last night
but I couldn't get tickets.
[Plant] Oh, it was really good last night.
[Wolfman Jack] What's your name? Oh, forget it.
[laughter]
- [Plant] Hello? - [woman] Hi.
[Plant] Hi.
[woman] Guess what? I think you're a fox.
[Plant] What's that mean?
[woman] You're a very good-looking man.
[Wolfman Jack] Far out.
[woman] I really dug the concert.
I really liked it.
I just really think you're a fox
and keep on doing what you're doing.
[Plant] That's very nice of you. We will.
[song continues]
[funky drumbeat playing]
[upbeat blues rock rhythm playing]
♪ Say you love me, sugar mama ♪
♪ I'll never let you go ♪
The anticipation was overwhelming.
I mean, really overwhelming.
[driving rhythm continues]
[repetitive, staccato guitar rhythm playing]
[rhythm slows dramatically]
[song ends with rumbling explosion]
To come back to England with what we'd experienced,
I just had to keep quiet.
I mean, over here, the record wasn't out yet.
So I just didn't have anything to say.
People would have laughed at me.
So Bonzo and I used to get together and go...
"Well, what was that?" "Well, I don't know."
"What happened?" "I don't know."
[Bonham] It was just absolutely stunning.
You know? Ridiculous.
We came back from America
and we'd gone through a big change,
and feeling good about it all.
But it does affect you.
[Plant] Think about it. We're 20 years old,
and suddenly there were drugs
and there was a lot of girls,
and so many characters that suddenly arrive on the scene.
This huge sort of sub-subculture that spins around fame.
Especially fame in its very early stages.
'Cause that's the place where you can smell...
something new coming.
It felt good.
As it might. [chuckles]
Especially as we were doing it without the press,
who didn't seem to like us,
the few reviews we did seem to get,
the obvious one being the Rolling Stone review.
I remember reading that review,
thinking, "Who are they talking about?
Do they mean us?"
[Plant] A lot of those writers at that time,
I don't know whether they were studying the music
to criticize it or whether they were more concerned
about the sort of social activities.
But do you really care about other people's responses
if you're playing like that?
Well, the answer is...
unfortunately, yeah.
That's where you can come unstuck.
Fortunately, as four guys, we did not care that much.
We were more caring about how we turned ourselves on.
[Bonham] The first album, it just got ripped to pieces.
Like, loads would say, "Oh no.
I don't like Zeppelin's sort of music,"
for some reason, you know?
So we all thought it was a bit of a joke.
We worked really, really hard and...
people got it, and you could see they got it.
Then they told their friends that they got it.
"Get some too."
The venues are jam-packed, so what people are hearing
as opposed to what they're reading
is what really makes the band.
["Dazed and Confused" by Led Zeppelin playing]
[plodding bass line playing]
[guitar chord reverberates loudly]
[Page] It was exciting to be doing these concerts
and being able to have this communion
with the four of us
and be able to just change, you know,
things with a sense of humor or an intensity
or a level of aggression or whatever.
And this is how connected we are,
that we can be moving in any direction
and everyone's following.
If the guitar's leading, they're all following.
I can just hold back and change this.
The improvisation is just at an extraordinary level.
With "Dazed and Confused,"
the intensity is building. It's positively evil.
♪ I've been dazed and confused so long it's not true ♪
♪ Wanted a woman, never bargained for you ♪
♪ Sweet little baby, say what you will ♪
♪ Tongue wag so much when I send you to hell ♪
Uh!
♪ I said you hurt and abuse
♪ Telling all of your lies ♪
♪ Sweet little baby, baby
♪ How you mesmerize ♪
♪ I try to love you, baby
♪ But I don't know what to see in you ♪
♪ Every time I kiss you, woman I think I wanna spit on you ♪
♪ Yeah, yeah ♪
[dramatic, repetitive melody playing]
[dark, heavy rhythm playing]
♪ I told you, baby, time and time and time again ♪
♪ I would never leave you, woman ♪
♪ God knows since when ♪
♪ I'll tell you everything that could ever, ever satisfy ♪
♪ But all you ever do to me, baby ♪
♪ Is make me break down and cry, yeah ♪
♪ I can't take it, baby
♪ My, my, my
♪ Mm
[discordant chords pealing]
[plucky, dramatic melody playing]
♪ Mm
[distorted, echoing notes playing]
[wailing rhythm reverberating]
[shrill, jarring note]
Oh! Ah!
♪ My, my, my, my ♪
♪ Oh
[jarring, warbling rhythm playing]
♪ Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah ♪
[pace quickens]
[up-tempo rock melody playing]
[frantic guitar rhythm over steady, driving bass line]
[Plant vocalizes, imitates guitar]
[Plant vocalizes with guitar]
Hey!
♪ Oh, my baby
[slow, sludgy chords playing]
♪ Been dazed and confused
♪ For so long it's not true ♪
♪ Said I wanted a woman, never bargained for you ♪
♪ Sweet little baby
♪ Say what you will ♪
♪ Tongue wag so much when I send you the bill ♪
♪ I can't take it, baby ♪
♪ Hey, yeah, yeah ♪
[song ends with dramatic flourish]
[cheering and applause]
[Page] I knew what we had and I just really wanted
to knock everybody dead with it.
I had a whole vision for the next album.
It was going to be very cinematic
in its approach to how the music is done in the first place,
let alone what the overdubs and the layers are gonna do.
So I called for a rehearsal at the house
and we rehearsed two new songs,
"Whole Lotta Love"
and "What Is and What Should Never Be."
Jimmy would sit down with an acoustic guitar
and we'd work the songs out.
[Bonham] He just comes in and plays what we've written.
Then we, all together, suss it all out.
We went into Olympic Studios in April
and we were just really excited to be back in the studio again.
My songwriting capacity's starting to kick in...
because of the color of the plane that surrounded me.
So, with "Whole Lotta Love,"
Jimmy had done some work on the chorus.
He showed me his riff which was incredible really.
["Whole Lotta Love" by Led Zeppelin playing]
And for the verse, I just sang a Willie Dixon lyric.
♪ You need coolin' ♪
♪ Baby, I'm not foolin' ♪
♪ I'm gonna send ya back to schoolin' ♪
And, you know, it was like...
I was finding the best bits of Black music
and putting it through the wringer,
one way or another.
I think there's no point in having "Whole Lotta Love"
and then having another riff
which was pretty much the same sort of sound.
[mellow guitar music playing]
So, the thing with "What Is and What Should Never Be"
is that it's got these laid-back, gentler verses
and then it comes in with,
I won't call them a power chorus,
but it's more intensity to it
so that you could then illustrate
John Bonham's power and the group's power as well,
the whole thing.
["What Is and What Should Never Be" playing]
We had this tour coming up
and I think it's going to be really a hoot
to be able to record in various locations in America.
The idea was to be inspired by,
you know, the love of the people
and to get the reaction of the audience.
["Moby Dick" by Led Zeppelin playing]
[funky rock melody playing]
[Page] It was just a joy to be able
to go into studios in the States.
You've got the energy of being on the road
and you're actually documenting it
within whatever you're recording.
[song continues]
[song fades]
- [cymbal crash] - [plodding drumbeat]
John Bonham's kit was going to be spread
right across the stereo picture.
So then you could have the placement
of the instruments within and the layering within.
[upbeat drum line playing]
He knew how to tune.
He had the science of tuning the drum.
So that when he hit it,
it just resonated out of the top.
It just projected.
And he played with his wrists.
It's not all this forearm smashing.
But he could also do an accent on the bass drum
and you'd feel it, you know, more or less in your gut.
[Jones] He was so inventive.
And inspiring to play with, you know.
You'd hear the stuff and, well, I don't wanna just go...
[imitates bass line] ...over that.
I want to do something that'll fit in really well with it.
That's what bass players do best is to fit in.
So everybody could be heard.
That was the important thing for me,
that everybody could be heard,
what they were doing, on a separate record.
["Moby Dick" by Led Zeppelin playing]
["The Lemon Song" by Led Zeppelin playing]
[song continues]
♪ Yeah, baby
[Jones] We just recorded what we liked.
Zeppelin always had completely different influences.
We all listened to different things.
I always said that Led Zeppelin was the area in the middle.
In between us all.
[song continues]
♪ Baby, yeah... ♪
[Plant] It was very encouraging to peel back
the vulnerabilities
of starting to create a writing partnership with Jimmy,
where we were breaking down the sensitivities
and the possible embarrassments.
Writing is a very intimate thing.
You expose yourself.
[Page] I had written some lyrics on the first album,
and also on the second album,
but I wasn't as confident about my lyrics
as I was about my guitar playing.
[Plant] I had to start thinking about
what do I do as a singer
and as a guy who's gonna bring melody
or even a story to something.
The idea was to inspire him through the music
to be inspired lyrically.
And then he came with these lyrics for "Ramble On."
Yeah, this is, um...
a rough shot of "Ramble On."
"Leaves are falling all around.
Time I was on my way."
That is the story of my life.
["Ramble On" by Led Zeppelin playing]
♪ The leaves are falling all around ♪
♪ Time I was on my way ♪
♪ Thanks to you ♪
♪ I'm much obliged for such a pleasant stay ♪
♪ But now it's time for me to go ♪
♪ The autumn moon lights my way ♪
♪ For now I smell the rain and with it pain ♪
♪ And it's headed my way ♪
♪ Ah, sometimes I grow so tired ♪
♪ But I know I've got one thing I got to do ♪
♪ Ramble on ♪
♪ And now's the time, the time is now ♪
♪ To sing my song ♪
♪ I'm going round the world I gotta find my girl ♪
♪ On my way ♪
♪ I've been this way ten years to the day ♪
♪ Ramble on ♪
♪ Gotta find the queen of all my dreams... ♪
I was really keen to have a lot of texture and layering,
certainly on behalf of the guitar,
with "Ramble On."
It has these various guitar parts that go in it.
There's, like, guitar rolling
that is moving over some of the verses.
Then there's the whole texture of the solo.
[gentle, lilting guitar solo playing]
It was just a joy to to be able to do these tracks
and everyone do their part and then come back
and go, "Wow. What's he done with this?"
[Plant] There were so many diverse places
that it was coming from.
That very fact that we were able to be intimate in writing,
that's the big breakthrough,
because it's a total exposure.
As a kid, my parents took me to every mystical mountain top
and every beautiful ruin and...
all that sort of great resonance of another people.
Well...
that's what that song's all about really.
Me, you, and the other people.
♪ How years ago in days of old ♪
♪ When magic filled the air ♪
♪ 'Twas in the darkest depths of Mordor ♪
♪ I met a girl so fair ♪
♪ But Gollum, the evil one
♪ Crept up and slipped away with her ♪
♪ Her, her, yeah ♪
♪ Ain't nothing I can do now ♪
♪ I guess I'll keep on
♪ Rambling ♪
♪ I'm gonna... ♪
Gig after gig, night after night,
maybe we had 20 songs to choose from at that point in time.
Soon we'd have 40.
We'd opened the door to America and there was a glint of light
and, obviously, you're gonna kick the door open
and go in and really... and really...
It's a massive continent.
We really wanted to get the word across
through performances.
We toured horrendously at first.
We toured for months on end pretty much.
Three of these guys had families already
at that point in time,
and this is our fifth tour in seven months,
so they were away from their children
for a long time.
It is difficult when you've got a family.
I flew with my wife Mo to all the good spots.
She'd come to New York.
She'd just take the kids shopping.
Go to shows. It was great.
But then they'd go home and leave us
to get on with touring the rest of the country.
There weren't tour buses or any niceties in those days.
It was just like getting whatever transport you can,
get to the gig, play it, then try have Richard Cole
find the next venue, or even the city sometimes.
You could always tell, when he was like,
you'd get to a junction and see him going like this...
you'd go, "Oh no. We're lost again." [chuckles]
[Bonham] It's so much easier to tour around England.
If you're in America, you're all day in a hotel
having arguments with bloody turd heads and everything.
It does affect you, what's happened previously in the day.
[Jones] It was all commercial airlines
so you had to get up early in the morning and go
and sit in some airport waiting for a plane to somewhere.
But that's how everybody got to hear us in America.
[dramatic harmonica sting]
["Bring It On Home" by Led Zeppelin playing]
♪ Tell you, pretty baby
♪ You love to mess me round... ♪
[Bonham] We came back from America
and everybody wanted to book the group.
It was a change of tune.
[Jones] There was no publicity
and, strangely, you'd get to a British show,
"How did these people know we were coming?"
We figured out it was just word of mouth.
♪ I'm going to give you loving, baby ♪
♪ I'm going to give you more ♪
♪ Bring it on home
♪ All right
[song ends]
["Thank You" by Led Zeppelin playing]
[Plant] I just liked the idea of the stimulus
of travel and attention.
What do you know if you don't seek?
You've got to go and have a look for it.
♪ And so today my world, it smiles ♪
♪ Your hand in mine, we walk the miles ♪
♪ Thanks to you, it will be done ♪
♪ For you to me are the only one... ♪
[Plant] We were playing festivals in America
two years after the Summer of Love.
I know that really has no real significance,
but to me it had every significance
'cause I was in a place that I really wanted to be,
emotionally.
["Living Loving Maid (She's Just a Woman)" playing]
♪ Alimony, alimony paying your bills ♪
♪ Living, loving, she's just a woman ♪
♪ When your conscience hits, you knock it back with pills ♪
♪ Living, loving she's just a woman ♪
♪ Come on, babe on the roundabout ♪
♪ Ride on the merry-go-round ♪
♪ We all know what your name is ♪
♪ So you better lay your money down... ♪
[Jones] I can remember John doing a sound check
at Newport Jazz Festival
and I could just see all of James Brown's drummers
coming out of different doors
going, "What the... What is going on here?"
He's going... [imitates drumming]
He's going, "Oh, yeah. I know. I know who's watching me."
[chuckles] But it was great.
It's what made Zeppelin unique in that way.
It's just the way he approached rhythm
and what he did.
[frantic, pounding drum solo playing]
["Heartbreaker" by Led Zeppelin playing]
[intense rock guitar solo playing]
[song ends]
[Plant] We recorded all the songs
for Led Zeppelin II on that tour.
It was like a kind of hurricane.
A whirlwind of energy and release.
We hadn't really had a chance, obviously,
with the amount of time that we were spending in America,
to concentrate that much at home.
So we came back and actually played
our first British festival.
[host] Would you welcome, please, Led Zeppelin.
And, of course, you still wonder, is this...
gonna have any resonance?
Is this gonna bring it on home?
["I Can't Quit You, Baby" by Led Zeppelin playing]
Wow.
[blues rock guitar solo playing]
[Plant vocalizes on video]
[song ends with dramatic flourish]
[cheering and applause]
[Page] I've seen a photograph of the first Bath Festival
but to see moving images of it,
well, that's absolutely amazing.
That was probably the first festival
that we'd done in Britain.
And it didn't rain, so it was really good,
and it was fun.
[Plant] But how long do you want off between a tour and a tour
and a tour? Not long, really.
I mean, we had no idea of fatigue.
There's just energy and power.
♪ Ah
♪ I
♪ I can't quit you
♪ Babe ♪
["I Can't Quit You, Baby" continues]
♪ I think I gotta put you down... ♪
[reporter] 32 minutes past the hour,
liftoff on Apollo 11.
♪ I said I can't quit you, babe ♪
♪ I think I got to put you down for a while ♪
♪ You know I love you but you messed up my happy home ♪
♪ Made me mistreat my only child ♪
♪ Yes, you did
[song fades]
[Neil Armstrong] That's one small step for man,
one giant leap for mankind.
["I Can't Quit You, Baby" by Led Zeppelin playing]
♪ Oh... ♪
[blues rock music playing]
I can just remember we were in a tent
and somebody landed on the moon.
[Plant chuckles]
I mean, can you imagine just being in America...
as a kid, more or less, and just looking up...
You got this thing going on with the music
and you look up and there's a man on the moon.
[song continues]
♪ Nineteen years old
♪ She's got ways just like a baby child ♪
♪ Oh, yeah
♪ There's nothing I can do to please that woman ♪
♪ To keep, to keep that little girl ♪
♪ Satisfied, yeah...
[Plant] You know, it's a big old world out there,
and I'm sure that 99% of people are far more interested
in the fact that these guys got back safely from the moon.
But the day they got back, that was a big day for us too.
♪ Oh ♪
- [song fades out] - [crowd cheering]
That is the biggest deal
if you're a kid and you want to be a singer.
You get a gold record.
I mean... [blows raspberry] What happens next?
Doesn't matter, does it?
[Page] I just really wanted to make sure that
this album was really gonna get everybody excited.
I wanted it to be something that they hadn't heard before.
The acoustic and the electrics and the more radical
and even avant-garde.
So, when it came to doing the mix
for Led Zeppelin II,
I'd mixed it with Eddie Kramer at A&R Studios in New York.
I think he did an amazing job.
And, as was the case with these mixing things,
there was often more than two hands on the desk.
I really wanted to do something with "Whole Lotta Love"
to stop it being a single.
So it was gonna have a radical avant-garde section
in the middle that began with a sonic wave.
[wave pulses]
Then when I put the overdubs on it
for what was gonna go in the middle,
I de-tuned the guitar all the way down
and I was just pulling the strings across and across.
[prolonged notes and feedback]
Then there was lots of panning.
That means moving things from left to right.
[distorted notes bouncing]
[gentle, pulsing drumbeat playing]
[Plant vocalizes]
[distortion buzzes]
[heavier, faster drumbeat kicks in]
[music fades out]
[Page] And so that was it.
Led Zeppelin II was completed...
and ready to be delivered.
["Whole Lotta Love" by Led Zeppelin playing]
♪ You need coolin'
♪ Baby, I'm not foolin' ♪
♪ I'm gonna send ya ♪
♪ Back to schoolin' ♪
♪ A-way down inside ♪
♪ A-honey, you need it ♪
♪ I'm gonna give you my love ♪
♪ Oh ♪
♪ Wanna whole lotta love ♪
♪ You've been learnin' ♪
♪ Baby, I've been learnin' ♪
♪ All them good times baby, baby ♪
♪ I've been yearnin' ♪
♪ A-way, way down inside ♪
♪ A-honey, you need-ah ♪
♪ I'm gonna give you my love, ah ♪
♪ Oh ♪
♪ Whole lotta love ♪
♪ Wanna whole lotta love ♪
- [extended guitar slide] - [Plant speaks indistinctly]
[repetitive, staccato percussion rhythm playing]
[up-tempo bongo rhythm joins]
[disjointed, random cymbal hits resonating]
[guitar distortion warbling]
[Plant vocalizing]
[Plant moaning sensually in rhythm]
[guitar distortion continues]
[Plant vocalizing in rhythm with music]
[Plant's vocalizations echo over intense warbling distortion]
♪ No, no, no
[jarring, scratching guitar chords resonating]
[musical elements overlap, intensify]
♪ Love
[distortion warbling]
♪ Love
[short, dramatic drum solo playing]
[driving blues rock melody kicks back in]
♪ You've been coolin'
♪ Baby, I've been droolin' ♪
♪ All the good times, baby I've been misusin' ♪
♪ A-way, way down inside ♪
♪ I'm gonna give you my love ♪
♪ I'm gonna give you every inch of my love ♪
♪ I'm gonna give you my love ♪
♪ Hey ♪
♪ All right, let's go ♪
♪ Wanna whole lotta love ♪
[song slows]
[distant, echoing] ♪ Way down... ♪
[at full volume] ♪ Way down inside ♪
[distant, echoing] ♪ Inside, woman... ♪
[at full volume] ♪ Woman ♪
♪ You need, yeah ♪
[dramatic two-beat chord and drum hits playing]
♪ Love ♪
[driving blues rock rhythm kicks back in]
♪ My, my, my, my
♪ My, my, my, my ♪
♪ Oh ♪
♪ Shake for me, girl
♪ I wanna be your backdoor man ♪
♪ Hey, oh
♪ Hey, oh ♪
♪ Hey, oh
♪ Ooh
♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh ♪
♪ Cool, my, my baby ♪
♪ A-keep it coolin', baby
[Plant wailing sensually]
[song fades out]
[cheering and applause]
[Page] January the 9th, in 1970,
we played the Royal Albert Hall in London,
and if we're thinking back a year,
January the 9th, 1969,
is when we were playing in San Francisco.
So this is a whole year's progress.
[Plant] It was far out.
I mean, I was just having a great time.
[chuckles]
No chartered accountant here.
This is like a London concert, so, of course,
this is where the families come.
Yeah, it's like a gathering of the clans.
Just to go in there and tread those boards
was just something else, you know? Fabulous.
And it was our own show,
so we just went out there and did it.
[crowd cheering loudly]
[audience chanting] Led Zep! Led Zep!
Led Zep!
[cheering continues]
[instruments tuning]
♪ And if I say to you tomorrow ♪
["What Is and What Should Never Be" playing]
♪ Take my hand, child, come with me ♪
♪ It's to a castle I will take you ♪
♪ Where what's to be they say will be ♪
♪ Catch the wind, see us spin Sail away leave today ♪
♪ Way up high in the sky ♪
♪ But the wind won't blow, you really shouldn't go ♪
♪ It only goes to show ♪
♪ That you will be mine
♪ By takin' our time
[mellow musical interlude]
♪ And if you say to me tomorrow ♪
♪ Oh, what fun it all would be ♪
♪ Then what's to stop us, pretty baby ♪
♪ But what is and what should never be ♪
♪ Catch the wind, see us spin, sail away, leave today ♪
♪ Way up high in the sky ♪
♪ But the wind won't blow, you really shouldn't go ♪
♪ Only goes to show ♪
♪ That you will be mine
♪ By takin' our time
♪ Everybody needs it, yeah
[music slows]
[mellow, bluesy guitar melody playing]
[music intensifies into driving rock rhythm]
♪ So if you wake up with the sunrise ♪
♪ And all your dreams are still as new ♪
♪ And happiness is what you need so bad ♪
♪ Girl, the answer lies with you, you, you ♪
♪ Catch the wind, see us spin, sail away, leave today ♪
♪ Way up high in the sky ♪
♪ But the wind won't blow, you really shouldn't go ♪
♪ Only goes to show
♪ That you will be mine
♪ By takin' our time
♪ Everybody needs it so bad
[rock guitar solo playing]
♪ Well, the wind won't blow and we really shouldn't go ♪
♪ And it only goes to show-ow-ow ♪
♪ Catch the wind we're gonna see it spin ♪
♪ We're gonna shake it, girl ♪
♪ Bop-a-do, bop-bop-a-do-oh
♪ Everybody I know seems to know me well ♪
♪ But they really didn't know that I move like hell ♪
♪ Baby, baby, baby
♪ Oh, I love you
♪ Oh, yeah
[song ends with echoing drum hit]
[cheering and applause]
Thank you very much.
[cheering]
[audience chanting] Led Zep! Led Zep!
Led Zep!
My dad came to see that show.
He was really proud, which was great.
Said, got great passion and fire and all that.
It was really nice.
[Bonham] John Paul and me, we get on really good.
I mean, we all do, you know.
Each member of the group, they're quite different,
but you find that they're quite lads, actually.
They're their little category on their own, really.
Um, it was at least the middle of '69
before I got to really know each of them.
It's a gradual thing, isn't it?
I could talk about Robert forever
because I know him so well really
that it's ridiculous.
And Jimmy's pretty shy, actually.
But knowing him like I know, he's really great.
You can like each one of them for what they're doing.
But I always love playing in the group so...
I don't need to do anything else.
[Plant] We got there in the first place,
on the first day,
playing "Train Kept A Rollin',"
'cause we were drawn to that moment
and it worked.
But all the preamble to that was just out there,
throwing it up in the air.
So why should it ever stop?
If you have something that you know is different
in yourself,
then you have to put work into it.
You have to work and work and work.
You also have to believe in it.
But as long as you can stay really true,
your aim is true,
you can realize your dreams. I do believe that.
I believe that that can be done, 'cause this is what happens.
["C'mon Everybody" by Led Zeppelin playing]
♪ Well, c'mon everybody and let's get together tonight ♪
♪ I got some money in my jeans ♪
♪ And I'm really gonna spend it right ♪
♪ Well, I been doin' my homework all week long ♪
♪ And now the house is empty and my folks have gone ♪
♪ Ah, who cares? C'mon everybody ♪
♪ Well, my baby's number one
♪ But I'm gonna dance with three or four ♪
♪ And the house'll be a-shakin' ♪
♪ From the bare feet a-slappin' on the floor ♪
♪ Ooh ♪
♪ When you hear the music you just can't sit still ♪
♪ If your brother won't rock your sister will ♪
♪ Ah, my-my-my, c'mon everybody ♪
♪ Oh, yeah
♪ I really need you
♪ Yeah
♪ Well, we're gonna have a party ♪
♪ But we better put a guard outside ♪
♪ If the folks come home
♪ I'm afraid they're gonna have my hide ♪
♪ Well, there'll be no more movies for a week or two ♪
♪ No more runnin' round with the usual crew ♪
♪ I wanna know who cares! C'mon ♪
♪ Oh, don't you, please
♪ Ah, c'mon everybody ♪
♪ Whoa, whoa ♪
♪ My, my, my, my
♪ Whoa, whoa
♪ Ah
[song fades out]
["Somethin' Else" by Led Zeppelin playing]
♪ Hey, look a-here
♪ What's all this ♪
♪ I never thought I'd see this before ♪
♪ But here she is a-knocking at my door ♪
♪ The car's out front ♪
♪ And it's all mine ♪
♪ Just a '41 Ford, not a '69 ♪
♪ Now you're stopping me from thinking to myself ♪
♪ The car's fine-looking, man ♪
♪ Somethin' else ♪
♪ Hey, look-a here
♪ What's all that ♪
♪ There's a girl, she's all mine ♪
♪ We're gonna go all night long ♪
♪ See my baby Don't you understand ♪
♪ Every time I kiss her I'm in the promised land ♪
♪ If that ain't somethin', I'm thinking to myself ♪
♪ If I get another woman, man well, that's somethin' else ♪
♪ Oh, yeah
[blues rock guitar solo playing]
♪ Hey, look-a here
♪ Here she comes
♪ Here's a girl I really wanna know ♪
♪ She's my baby and I love her so ♪
♪ My new [indistinct] that's out of my class ♪
♪ She's got some money I've got some gas ♪
♪ That ain't stallin' if I'm workin' it all out, man ♪
♪ She's fine-looking, man
♪ She's somethin' else ♪
♪ Whoa, she's somethin' else
♪ She's somethin' else
- [song ends] - [audience cheering]
[Plant] Thank you.
[cheering continues, fades]