Led Zeppelin IV

I'm a little late with this, but on the eighth of this month an anniversary of a cultural milestone took place. It was the 40th anniversary of the release of the fourth Led Zeppelin album, a record that officially has no title, but is commonly known as either ZoSo or Led Zeppelin IV.

The third best-selling album of all time in the United States, the album also is notable for containing the most ubiquitous song of the classic rock era, "Stairway to Heaven."

I have never been a passionate fan of Led Zeppelin, not the way I have been of the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Who or the Doors. I bear a respect for them, but not necessarily an admiration. I don't have any of their albums on vinyl, though they were hugely popular among my peers when I was in high school and college. However, some years ago I bought a boxed set of their entire output and purchased it out of a sense of duty, as much as anything else.

What is my problem with Led Zeppelin? I frankly don't know. I would have thought it was Robert Plant's high, whiny voice, but I like some of the stuff he's done recently, especially with Allison Krause. Their sound, a combination of twelve-bar American blues and Celtic folk, holds no objections from me. Maybe it was that love for them seemed to kind of an understood expectation for us teenagers who were listening to classic rock stations. If we liked the Stones, the Who, then we certainly must like Led Zeppelin. And that meant we really loved "Stairway to Heaven."

A convention practiced by most stations during my youth, and for all I know still practiced now, was that on holiday weekends like the fourth of July or Labor Day, the station would count down the top 500 songs, as voted by the listeners. Without fail, number one every time would be "Stairway to Heaven." Before I was even aware of who Led Zeppelin was, I was sick of that song. Those of a certain age, probably 40 to 70, have heard that song at least a thousand times. I'm not sure anyone can call it their favorite song in public anymore, without prompting sneers and eye rolls.

Truth is, it's a pretty good song, for maybe the first 50 times you hear it. It's certainly the best example of what Led Zeppelin is known for--the mixture of hard rock with poesy lyrics and the airy-fairy sound of Celtic Britain, with its flute and acoustic guitar in the opening. The lyrics, certainly scribed in the notebooks of many a teenager in the 1970s, are most simply interpreted as the emptiness of those who believe happiness can be bought, but how many have struggled to determine just what "If there's a bustle in your hedgerow, don't be alarmed now/It's just a spring clean for the May queen" means?

The album also includes other signature Led Zeppelin songs. Despite the ubiquity of "Stairway to Heaven," the most recognizable song of theirs may be "Black Dog," which has an instantly identifiable riff (I read that it contains complicated time signatures, both to prevent its danceability and cover bands from reproducing it). Following it is another staple, "Rock and Roll," which begins with the cymbal clashes created by John Bonham.

"The Battle for Evermore" leans toward the folkish, and goes so far to include Sandy Denny, of the folk band Fairport Convention, sharing lead vocals. "Goin' to California," about Joni Mitchell, is a beautiful folk song, and "Misty Mountain Hop," complete with mandolin and Lord of the Rings references, is another example of folklore's influence on the group.

The last song, "When the Levee Breaks," betrays the blues influences, as it is a reconstruction of a song by Memphis Minnie. It shows once again how the black musicians of America, who toiled in relative anonymity during the first half of the 20th century, would see their legacy explode with British bands in the second half.