Led Zeppelin IVStudio album
Recorded: November 1970 – May 1971
Released: 8 November 1971
Band lineupJohn Bonham – drums
John Paul Jones – bass guitar, electric piano, mellotron, mandolin on "Going to California", recorders, EMS VCS 3, acoustic guitar on "The Battle of Evermore"
Jimmy Page – electric and acoustic guitars, mandolin on "The Battle of Evermore", production, mastering, digital remastering
Robert Plant – lead and overdubbed backing vocals, tambourine, harmonica on "When the Levee Breaks"
Side one
1. "Black Dog" John Paul Jones, Jimmy Page, Robert Plant 4:54
2. "Rock and Roll" John Bonham, Jones, Page, Plant 3:40
3. "The Battle of Evermore" Page, Plant 5:51
4. "Stairway to Heaven" Page, Plant 8:01
Side two
5. "Misty Mountain Hop" Jones, Page, Plant 4:38
6. "Four Sticks" Page, Plant 4:44
7. "Going to California" Page, Plant 3:31
8. "When the Levee Breaks" Bonham, Jones, Memphis Minnie, Page, Plant 7:07
Technically, this album is untitled. Evidently, the band was so butthurt from the mediocre reviews of their last album that they decided not only to give the album no name, but also to keep their name off the album entirely. There are just a few odd symbols that are meant to "represent" them on the inner sleeve. Anyway, let's get to it.
The album is opened with "Black Dog," their loudest, most boisterous, and hardest rocking song of all time. It's also one of their most awesome. On the surface, the song is pretty simple in its structure - a call-and-response in which Plant yells a silly line about women a capella, and then the other members play the lengthy riff. But as the track goes on, some odd experimentation in changing time signatures becomes more and more apparent. It's a strangely sophisticated twist for what, on the face of it, would usually be considered a pretty stupid song. Also, this was memorably sampled in Weird Al's "Trapped in the Drive-Thru."
"Rock and Roll" is basically a throwback to fifties-style, well, rock and roll, with a twelve-bar blues chord progression reminiscent of the genre. I don't have much else to say about it beyond the fact that it's a great song. It couldn't be more different than the track that follows it, "The Battle of Evermore," a folk song with very little rock influence and co-lead vocals from another singer, Sandy Denny. The lyrics seem to be a fantastical description of a battle based on Tolkien mythology, and are probably among the geekiest ever committed to paper. It's a decent song, though.
Skipping over "Stairway to Heaven" for the time being, "Misty Mountain Hop" is surprisingly neither folk nor inspired by Tolkien, but instead a hard rock song that tells the story of a bunch of hippies getting arrested for drug use. It has one of Zeppelin's most memorable riffs, a few short repeating notes on bass that Plant harmonizes with when singing the verses, giving the song a very unique feel. And then there's "Four Sticks," which is a fairly straightforward song with a bluesy riff reminiscent of "Moby Dick," and a title inspired by Bonham's decision to use four drumsticks rather than two.
If "Black Dog" is Zeppelin's heaviest song, then "Going to California," a gentle, acoustic folk song, is their softest. The lyrics are pretty silly, being a sappy tribute to hippie flower-power music, to the degree that even Plant has admitted that he's embarrassed by them. Despite that, it's hard to really dislike this song. It's so harmless and innocent that making fun of it just feels wrong, like you're kicking a puppy or something. The band was clearly trying to be sentimental and show off their lighter side, and for better or worse, they were successful.
The album concludes with the darkest song in their discography, "When the Levee Breaks." It begins with a brutal drum beat from Bonham, and if it sounds familiar to you, there's a reason why. It's one of the most famous drum beats in musical history, and it's been sampled by everyone from the Beastie Boys to Björk. It's the perfect way to establish the mood of the song, which is quite clearly something along the lines of "Oh, shit!" Ominous guitar chords, echoey harmonica solos, and Plant's howling vocals are wrapped together with immaculate production to form a showcase of truly apocalyptic blues. It's a downer of an ending, but a magnificent downer.
And now, let's take a look at "Stairway to Heaven," easily Zeppelin's most famous song, and frequently called one of the greatest songs of all time. First things first - that lawsuit from that prog rock band Spirit is complete fucking bullshit. I don't mean that in a Parsifal-esque "copyright doesn't real" way, but that they simply don't have a case, given current law. The chord progression in the intro sounds like the one in Spirit's song for a few seconds, big fucking deal. Maybe if the melody itself had been lifted, they'd have a valid claim, but with just a couple of seconds of alike notes, no. That's crap. These nobodies are just looking for a handout, and I'm glad to see that Zep isn't going to give it to them.
Back to the review. "Stairway" is split up into three sections, the first being a folksy tune with acoustic guitar and gentle singing, the second where drums and electric instrumentation kick in, and the third being straight-up hard rock. It's that final part that lends this song its true magnificence, I've always felt. The first two sections are good, don't get me wrong, but the final two and a half minutes are among the finest ever recorded in the history of rock music, and Page's guitar solo here is the greatest guitar solo of all time. I know that's a bold claim to make, but I'm sticking to it. It's so soaring and majestic that nothing can beat it. And if by some strange chance you haven't heard "Stairway" before, stop reading this review right now and go listen to it. Even if you don't like it (in which case you should be shot), you still need to have heard it at least once. The song is simply part of our cultural consciousness.
Thus concludes the review of Zeppelin's untitled fourth album. It's probably not my personal favorite, but from a more historical standpoint, it's hard to argue that this was their greatest album. It just has so many of their classic songs on it, and shows off exactly what they were best at.