They were the loudest band in the history of rock music but never lost their sense of melody. They gave birth to the genre of heavy rock /heavy metal and are still one of the largest selling artistes. This eponymous debut album marked the offset of a fantastic musical journey called Led Zeppelin. And as far as debuts go, this one will be on top of many music followers list. What a start…even now, 46 years later, it awes.

If ‘Jeff Beck’s Truth’ (1968) sowed the seeds of the heavy sound, Jimmy Page (guitar) along with Robert Plant (vocals), John Paul Jones (bass and keyboard) and John Bonham (drums), turned it into a tree in full bloom with this and their subsequent work.

From beginning to end, this 45-minute, nine-track LP is a perfect projection of rock and roll’s not too distant future, a future it would heavily impact. Whatever material Zep would do later is presented here somewhere. There’s the psychedelic-rock (Dazed and Confused), beautiful acoustic folk (Black Mountain Side), upbeat guitar pop (Good Times Bad Times), embellished straight blues (I Can’t Quit You Baby), amped metal riffs (Communication Breakdown). They’d do most of these things (and more) better later, but this is where they appeared first.

Zep sounded brilliant right from the beginning because Page was already a veteran of the music scene when they started; working as a session guitarist and later with the Yardbirds, he soaked in the scene and saw what was missing. He heard the blues differently. He heard it as sound first, rather than a form or tradition or product of personalities and hence he could experiment with it so fancifully. Individually, Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones, John Bonham and Robert Plant were all brilliant, but the whole of their sound somehow exceeded the sum of its parts. And isn’t that the point of a great band ?

I still remember the Sunday afternoon when I received the 2014 reissue of the vinyl (which comes with an extra disc of their live recordings in Paris), I was a pint of beer down trying to think of an LP to listen to and the doorbell rang. Expecting the milkman or the laundry guy with their bill, I opened the door to find the delivery guy from online portal Flipkart with the album.

Sometimes the scheme of things decides the LP that you should listen to. I welcomed the ‘boys’ by opening up another pint of beer.

Year: 1969

Genre: Hard rock, Blues rock, Heavy metal

Duration: 44:26

Label: Atlantic

Producer: Jimmy Page

Rating: 4.5/5

Reviewed by Meraj Hasan

Meraj Hasan is a Mumbai based communication professional (and an amateur poet/musician) with a passion for listening to music the vinyl way. His 25 year old Technics turntable along with a humble collection of LPs across genres like Classic rock, Classical, Blues and Jazz (amongst others) are his prized possessions.

He can be reached at +91 9833410791 or email: meraj.hasan@gmail.com