Led Zeppelin’s fourth album which is officially untitled but known to fans as ‘IV’ was released 50 years ago today.
I grew up in a small Ontario town called Acton. I swear 75% of this town’s population owned this record. As a fledgling music fan in grade six, I got caught up in the hype and never looked back. For any music fan Led Zeppelin IV is a must own record. Top marks if you still have it on vinyl.
From Led Zeppelin’s perspective the release of ‘IV’ was a statement. After the hype of ‘I’ and ‘II’ the band’s third album received only moderate reviews. Looking back such a reception is unbelievable to this writer, but I guess the greater the band the loftier the expectations. For their part, Led Zeppelin circled the wagons and set themselves up in the mansion known as ‘Headley Grange’. Music magic ensued. Material written in this southeast England locale served as content for the iconic band’s next three albums. Here is Jimmy Page speaking to the thought process behind the band’s decision.
The reason we went there in the first place was to have a live-in situation where you’re writing and really living the music. We’d never really had that experience before as a group, apart from when Robert [Plant] and I had gone to Bron-Yr-Aur’. But that was just me and Robert going down there and hanging out in the bosom of Wales and enjoying it. This was different. It was all of us really concentrating in a concentrated environment and the essence of what happened there manifested itself across three albums (IV, Houses of the Holy, Physical Graffiti).”
Jimmy Page
Headley Grange still stands. It is a private residence that can be traced back to 1795. It resides on the National Heritage List for England. Jimmy Page spoke of it with a degree of affection in the movie ‘It Might Get Loud’.
[My] memories of it were still very much as it was when we’d played there originally. It wasn’t really being used back then, but the same family still own it. The lady who rented it to [Led Zeppelin] I think had passed on, but I think her granddaughter lives there now. My memories of it were really as it was in those old days with the heating not working and it being very damp, but it was still the scene of some very high-energy playing … [In the film] I was quite overwhelmed when I went in, not only because of the past but also because now it was a house, and I was poking around in a house that was a home. There was furniture, ornaments, pictures and even some musical instruments … [T]he dimensions of the hall were still as I remembered it. I also went into the other rooms, including the room I slept in and where the fire was where we used to keep warm, and it was quite overwhelming.”
Jimmy Page
You can add Fleetwood Mac, Bad Company, Genesis and even Yazoo to the list of acts who were captured by the majesty of this residence. Bad Company was managed by Peter Grant who notoriously also served as Led Zeppelin’s manager. They wrote and recorded most of their self-titled debut album at Headley Grange. Genesis wrote and recorded much of their 1974 “Lamb Lies Down on Broadway’ album at this celebrated retreat. Yazoo saw Headley Grange as the perfect venue to shoot the video for ‘Don’t Go’. Watch this video as Alison Moyet and Vince Clarke take you on a short tour of Headley Grange. The famous stairwell where John Bonham recorded the drum track for When the Levee Breaks figures prominently.
As far as band identification on ‘IV’ goes, Led Zeppelin presented themselves in the form of four symbols chosen by each band member. No other band related detail was provided on the cover, which featured a 19th century oil painting Robert Plant purchased from an antique shop in Reading, Berkshire. The ultimate impact of this combination of symbols and art was designed to have listeners savour the beauty of the album cover and consider the urban/rural nature that was depicted. For half a century the symbolic artwork and the famous painting are instantly recognizable. So too, is the inner sleeve illustration of ‘The Hermit’ which was painted by Barrington Coleby. The painting was influenced by the design offered in a Tarot Card deck presented by Rider-Waite. One card in the deck was known as ‘The Hermit’. Jimmy Page would go on to portray this character in the concert film ‘The Song Remains the Same’. The inner sleeve also provides fans with a thoughtfully presented offering of the lyrics of ‘Stairway to Heaven’. The typeface was discovered in an old arts and crafts magazine called ‘The Studio’ and Page was so taken by the style that he arranged to have a whole alphabet created in order to depict the songs verses in a way that he felt was complimentary to the whole look offered in the album package. The photo on the back cover features Salisbury Tower in Birmingham, England.
As far as the music goes, Ted Tocks Covers has featured six of the albums eight tracks over the past four years. Here are the links to those features.
‘Who Knows Where the Time Goes’/The Battle of Evermore’
Led Zeppelin ‘IV’ was also distinctive for the band in the that for the first time in their short career they brought in a couple of special guests. ‘Rock and Roll’ features the piano playing of the great Ian Stewart. This classic emerged from a studio jam and Robert Plant was inspired to take a walk through 15 years of that genre while John Bonham hammered out his interpretation of Little Richard’s ‘Keep a Knockin’. Stewart’s presence also produced the ‘Physical Graffiti’ track ‘Boogie with Stu’. I just love this recording. It brings you right back to Headley Grange. Just like you were there.
The very next song on the album ‘Battle of Evermore’ presented Sandy Denny in a duet with Robert Plant. Robert Plant serves as the narrator, while Denny played the role of the town crier. Denny remains the only female voice ever to be heard on a Led Zeppelin album on this magnificent track.
Somewhere down the road Ted Tocks will feature the side two tracks ‘Four Sticks’ and Going to California’ in order to round out the album.
When it was all said and done, Led Zeppelin IV became both a commercial and critical darling. It has sold 37 million copies worldwide, and it is commonly considered one of the most influential albums of all time.
For each band member Led Zeppelin ‘IV’ represents their prowess at peak level. While it can be argued that each of them as individuals may have surpassed the capabilities presented on this album on occasion, as a collective the power of this album will always remain difficult to match.
This is not a failing, nor is it intended as a slight against this act or the individual members.
It is just that good.
Ted Tocks Covers 
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