Whether you call it IV, The Fourth, Four Symbols, Zoso, Runes, The Hermit, or anything else, Led Zeppelin's fourth album is rightfully considered one of the greatest rock and roll albums ever. This was the first Zepplin album I bought, and probably the first Zeppelin album most kids bought.
When it was released, it was purposely mysterious. The band name appears nowhere on the album cover. In the album sleeve, the band identified themselves esoterically with symbols:
From left to right, it goes Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones, John Bonham, and Robert Plant.
Page's symbol, often called "Zoso" is allegedly a 16th Century symbol that represents Saturn, although Page has never disclosed his reason for choosing it.
Jones's symbol was chosen from German typographer Rudolf Koch's Book of Signs. Apparently it's called a triquetra, and it was supposed to symbolize someone with confidence and competence, which seems appropriate.
Bonham also chose his symbol, three interlocking rings, from Koch's book. It apparently represents a mother, father and child, and was also the logo for Ballantine beer.
Plant designed his own symbol, which was based on the sign of the civilization of the supposed lost continent of Mu.
By the time they made this album, Jimmy Page had become fascinated with the occult. He had an occult bookstore in London and even purchased Boleskine House, an allegedly haunted estate on Loch Ness where famed occultist Alistair Crowley lived. And, of course, as discussed below, there are claims that the album has Satanic backwards messages.
The album hit #1 in the UK and #2 in the US. It has sold 37 million copies worldwide, making it the 11th-best selling album of all-time in the world. In the US, it is 23x Platinum, making it the third-best selling album of all-time in the US (behind only Michael Jackson's Thriller and The Eagles' Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975)). Among its accolades are the following:
-Member of the Grammy Hall of Fame
-On Robert Dimery's list of 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die
-#1 on Classic Rock magazine's 100 Greatest British Albums poll
-#1 on Classic Rock magazine's 100 Greatest Rock Albums Ever poll
-#1 in Guitar World 100 Greatest Albums readers' poll
-#2 on The Guitar magazine's Album of the Millennium list
-#4 on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's Definitive 200: Top 200 Albums of All-Time' list
-#7 on Pitchfork Media's Top 100 Albums of the 1970s list
-#7 on ABC media's top ten albums list
-#21 on Q magazine's 100 Best Albums Ever list
-#24 on Mojo magazine's The 100 Greatest Albums Ever Made list
-#26 in Q magazine's greatest album of all time readers' poll
-#26 on Q magazine's 100 Greatest British Albums Ever list
-#66 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time
1. "Black Dog"
"Hey hey mama said the way you move / Gonna make you sweat, gonna make you groove." With that opening line, how can you not love this song? While the song title is actually inspired by a black lab that was wandering around when the band was making the album, the lyrics have nothing to do about dogs, other than maybe the way in which they procreate. Musically, the song is intentionally complex, with time changes and difficult guitar and bass parts. Interesting tidbit: if you turn up the volume loud enough during the a capella parts before the riffs, you can hear John Bonham tapping his drum sticks to keep time.
2. "Rock & Roll"
This song embodies its title. From that opening drumbeat, it's fast and gorgeous 12-bar blues. Page has an awesome guitar solo that acts as the glue for Plant's wailing, honky-tonk pianos (courtesy of Rolling Stones keyboardist Ian Stewart), and Page's repeating riff. This song has become so familiar that I forget how awesome of a song it is.
3. "The Battle of Evermore"
They take it down a few notches with this one. It's acoustic with a mandolin, and guest vocalist Sandy Denny accompanies Plant. There is not much in the way of percussion.
4. "Stairway to Heaven"
"Stairway to Heaven" is so well-known that it almost defies any superlative that can be placed on it. It is probably Led Zeppelin's most famous song, and a rock and roll masterpiece. Despite the fact that it was never released as a single, it was the most-requested song on FM radio in the 1970s. If you change the station when this song comes on the radio, don't roll your windows down, and don't crank this, then there is something horribly wrong with you. The song is basically four songs in one. It starts off acoustically, almost folkish with recorders, then the song kicks up a notch and goes electric, soon there's a bustle in your hedgerow that shouldn't alarm you just because it brings drums into the mix, and then it keeps building and building until it's in its full rock and roll fury by the end, before calming back down for the outro. And to add to the song's intrigue, there is allegedly some backmasking in the song. Supposedly, at the aforementioned "bustle in your hedgerow" part, if you play the record backwards, it says "my sweet Satan" and some other allegedly Satanic things (which you can kind of hear if you play it backwards). The band has denied it and I'm sure any resemblance to those sounds is coincidental, but it's still another thing to add to the "Stairway" legend.
5. "Misty Mountain Hop"
After "When the Levee Breaks," this is probably my favorite song on the album. It starts with a great organ riff which is repeated throughout the song on the bass and guitar, and a great opening drum beat by Bonham. It's just a great, catchy rock song.
6. "Four Sticks"
This is another song with complex time signature. The title of the song comes from the fact that John Bonham was getting pissed off at himself for not being able to get the song right that he started playing with four drumsticks instead of two. The song has a gritty repeating guitar riff, and it has kind of a dark mood to it.
7. "Going to California"
This is another acoustic song with a mandolin, courtesy of Page. There is no percussion on this one, and apparently it's about Joni Mitchell.
8. "When the Levee Breaks"
Not only is this my favorite Led Zeppelin song, but it's one of my top five favorite songs of all-time. This song is my ringtone. It is a reworking of an old Delta blues song by Memphis Minnie and Kansas Joe McCoy song about the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927, which resulted in many residents of the Delta packing up and moving north to Chicago. Led Zeppelin took that and made it into seven minutes of electric blues gold. That opening drum beat pounds like thunder, and then the swirling guitars come in like the howling wind, and that fuzzed-out harmonica is the driving rain. The song is just fucking awesome, and that's that.
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