Gripsweat - Led Zeppelin II Original Vinyl Record Album 1969

Led Zeppelin II Original Vinyl Record Album 1969

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22 October 1969

January–August 1969 at various locations

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Led Zeppelin II is the second studio album by the English rock band , released in October 1969 on . Recording sessions for the album took place at several locations in the United Kingdom and North America from January to August 1969. Production was credited to lead guitarist and songwriter , while it also served as Led Zeppelin's first album to utilize the recording techniques of engineer . With elements of and , Led Zeppelin II also exhibits the band's evolving musical style of blues-derived material and their guitar and -based sound. It has been described as the band's heaviest album.

Upon release, Led Zeppelin II sold well and was the band's first album to reach number one in the UK and the US. In 1970, art director David Juniper was nominated for a for the album. On 15 November 1999, it was certified by the for sales in excess of 12 million copies. Since its release, writers and music critics have regularly cited it in polls of the greatest and most influential rock albums.

Conception

Background

Led Zeppelin II was conceived during a hectic and much-travelled period of Led Zeppelin's career from January through August 1969, when they completed four European and three American . Each song was separately recorded, mixed and produced at various studios in the UK and North America. The album was written on tour, during periods of a couple of hours in between concerts, a studio was booked and the recording process begun, resulting in a sound with spontaneity and urgency through necessity. Bassist recalled that "We were touring a lot. Jimmy [Page]'s riffs were coming fast and furious. A lot of them came from onstage especially during the long improvised section of ''. We'd remember the good stuff and dart into a studio along the way."

Some of the recording studios used by the band were not the most advanced. One studio in Vancouver, credited as "a hut", had an 8-track set up that did not even have proper headphone facilities. The group's lead singer later discussed the writing and recording process, stating "It was crazy really. We were writing the numbers in hotel rooms and then we'd do a rhythm track in London, add the vocal in New York, the harmonica in Vancouver and then come back to finish mixing at New York."

"", "" and "" were overdubbed during the tour, while the of "" and "" was also done on tour. Page later stated "In other words, some of the material came out of rehearsing for the next tour and getting new material together."

Recording

Recording sessions for the album took place at and in London, England; , Quantum, , Mirror Sound and Mystic Studios in Los Angeles, California; in ; A&R, Juggy Sound, Groove and Mayfair Studios in New York City; and the "hut" in Vancouver. Production was entirely credited to Jimmy Page, while it also served as Led Zeppelin's first album to utilise the skills and recording techniques of engineer , whose prior work with had impressed the band's members, especially Page. Led Zeppelin expert Dave Lewis wrote of the album's production, stating "That the album turned out to be such a triumph, in particular for a production quality that still sounds fresh today, was in no small way due to the successful alliance with Page and Kramer in the control room." This partnership was particularly exhibited in the central section of the track "Whole Lotta Love". Kramer later said, "The famous Whole Lotta Love mix, where everything is going bananas, is a combination of Jimmy and myself just flying around on a small console twiddling every knob known to man."

In another interview, Kramer later gave great credit to Page for the sound that was achieved, despite the inconsistent conditions in which it was recorded: "We did that album piece-meal. We cut some of the tracks in some of the most bizarre studios you can imagine, little holes in the wall. Cheap studios. But in the end it sounded bloody marvellous. There was a unification of sound on [Led] Zeppelin II because there was one guy in charge and that was Mr. Page." Page and Kramer spent two days mixing the album at A&R Studios.

Composition

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The first single contains strong blues influence and sexual lyrical themes with a predominant guitar riff by Jimmy Page.

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The finished tracks reflect the raw, evolving sound of the band and their ability as live performers. The album has been noted for featuring a further development of the lyrical themes established by Robert Plant on Led Zeppelin's debut album, creating a work which would become more widely acclaimed and arguably more influential. "Whole Lotta Love" and "The Lemon Song" both feature sexual themes, as the latter contains a metaphor, which, according to one music writer, implores "unnamed ladies to squeeze his lemon 'til the juice runs down my leg.'" As was later observed by Plant himself:

“

Led Zep II was very virile. That was the album that was going to dictate whether or not we had the staying power and the capacity to stimulate. It was still blues-based but it was a much more carnal approach to the music and quite flamboyant. It was created on the run between hotel rooms and , and that was quite something.

”

Led Zeppelin II also features experimentation with other musical styles and approaches, as on the alternately soft-and-loud "" and "" (which featured Page's ), or the pop-influenced ballad "Thank You". With its mysterious atmospherics, "Ramble On" helped develop hard rock's association with themes, which had been partly derived from the genre of two to three years before, but also from Plant's personal interest in the writings of . This musical direction would later culminate on (and countless subsequent groups would later carry the influence to further extremes). Conversely, the instrumental "Moby Dick" features an extended drum solo by , which would be extended further during performances sometimes for as long as half an hour.

Page's contribution to this album was significant, as his electric guitar solo on the song "Heartbreaker" was emulated by many younger rock guitarists, and exemplifies the group's intense musical attack. Led Zeppelin II is the band's first album to feature Page playing a 1959 , the electric guitar he helped popularise. His innovative recording and drum effects on tracks such as "Ramble On" and "Whole Lotta Love" also demonstrated his considerable skill, resourcefulness and originality as a producer. Rolling Stone magazine later called Page's guitar riff for the latter song "one of the most exhilarating guitar riffs in rock & roll." John Paul Jones later discussed Page's contributions:

“

Jimmy started coming into his own as a producer around "Whole Lotta Love". The stuff. A lot of the microphone techniques were just inspired. Everybody thinks he goes into the studio with huge walls of amps, but he doesn't. He uses a really small amp and he just mic's it up really well, so it fits into a sonic picture.

”

The album's material also marked a certain honing of Plant's vocal approach, and signalled his emergence as a serious songwriter. Plant's name had previously been absent from the songwriting credits of the band's first album due to the previous contractual commitments that resulted from his earlier association with as a solo artist. His influence on tracks such as "What Is and What Should Never Be" and "Ramble On" were pointers to the band's musical future. Plant has commented that it was only during the sessions for Led Zeppelin II that he started to feel at home as a vocalist in the studio with Led Zeppelin. In a 2008 interview for , he stated "During Led Zep I (1969) as far as I was concerned, I thought that I was going to [leave the band] anyway. I didn't feel that comfortable because there were a lot of demands on me vocally—which there were all the way through the Zeppelin thing. And I was quite nervous and didn't really get into enjoying it until II."

Packaging

The World War I photograph on which the album sleeve was based

The design was from a poster by David Juniper, who was simply told by the band to come up with an interesting idea. His design was based on a photograph of the Division of the during World War I, the famed led by the . After the picture was tinted, the faces of the four members of the band were airbrushed on from a 1969 publicity photograph. Other faces added, according to Juniper, were either or , a friend of (possibly ) and astronaut , although it is actually fellow astronaut . The cover also pictured the outline of a Zeppelin on a brown background, which gave the album its nickname "Brown Bomber".

Release and reception

Professional ratings

Review scores

Source

Rating

Favourable

A+

Unfavourable

Favourable

The album was released on 22 October 1969 on , with advance orders of 400,000 copies. The advertising campaign was built around the slogans 'Led Zeppelin - The Only Way to Fly' and 'Led Zeppelin II Now Flying'. Commercially, Led Zeppelin II was the band's first album to hit No. 1 in the US, knocking ' (1969) twice from the top spot, where it remained for seven weeks. By April 1970 it had registered three million American sales, whilst in Britain it enjoyed a 138 week residence on the LP chart, climbing to the top spot in February 1970.

The album also yielded Led Zeppelin's biggest hit with the track "". This song reached No. 4 on the in January 1970, after Atlantic went against the group's wishes by releasing a shorter version on 45. The single's , "", also hit the Billboard chart, peaking at No. 65 in April 1970. The album helped establish Led Zeppelin as an international concert attraction, as for the next year, the group continued to tour relentlessly, initially performing in clubs and ballrooms, then in larger auditoriums and eventually stadiums as their popularity grew.

In 1970 art director David Juniper was nominated for a in the category of for Led Zeppelin II. On 10 November 1969, the album was certified by the and in 1990 it was certified 5x platinum reflecting shipping of five million copies. By 14 November 1999, Led Zeppelin II had shipped twelve million copies and was certified 12x platinum by the RIAA.

Legacy

Led Zeppelin II has been cited by music writers as a blueprint for bands that followed it. Blues-derived songs like "Whole Lotta Love", "Heartbreaker", "The Lemon Song", "Moby Dick", and "Bring It On Home" have been seen as representing standards of the genre, where the guitar-based riff (rather than vocal or ) defines the song and provides the key hook. Such arrangements and emphasis were at the time atypical in popular music. Page's guitar solo in "Heartbreaker" featuring of notes tapped only by the left hand, was a major inspiration to the later work of metal soloists and "" such as and . As such, the album is generally considered to be very influential on the development of rock music, being an early forerunner of heavy metal, and inspiring a host of other rock bands including , and .

Since its initial critical reception, Led Zeppelin II has been acknowledged by many critics and music writers as one of the most influential albums of rock music, and has earned several accolades from music publications, frequently placed at or near the top of "best album" lists. In 1989, magazine ranked the album No. 5 on its list of The 25 Greatest Albums of All Time. In 2000, magazine placed Led Zeppelin II at number 37 in its list of the 100 Greatest British Albums Ever. In 2003, the album was ranked number 75 on magazine's list of .

Accolades

Publication

Country

Accolade

Year

Rank

United States

1970

Nominee

United Kingdom

"Top 50 Most Influential Guitar Albums of All Time Ever"

1994

United Kingdom

"The 100 Greatest Albums Ever Made"

1996

The Guitar

United States

"Album of the Millennium"

1999

United States

"The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time"

2003

United Kingdom

"100 Greatest Albums Ever"

2003

"The 500 Greatest Rock & Metal Albums of All Time"

2005

318

Robert Dimery

United States

2006

United Kingdom

"100 Greatest British Rock Album Ever"

2006

United States

"The Definitive 200: Top 200 Albums of All-Time"

2007

United Kingdom

"50 Years of Great British Music (1960s)"

2008

(*) designates unordered lists.

2014 Reissue

Along with the group's and their next album, , the album was remastered and reissued by Page at the start of 2014. The reissue comes in 5 formats: a standard CD edition, a deluxe 2 CD edition, a standard LP version, a deluxe 2 LP version, and a super deluxe 2 CD+2 LP version with a hardback book. The deluxe and super deluxe editions feature bonus material containing alternative takes, backing tracks and a previously unreleased song, "La La".

Track listing

Side one

No.

Title

Writer(s)

Length

////

5:34

Page/Plant

4:44

Bonham//Jones/Page/Plant

6:19

Page/Plant

4:49

Side two

No.

Title

Writer(s)

Length

Bonham/Jones/Page/Plant