One of the truly classic rock albums, Led Zeppelin’s IV brought together the band’s towering advances achieved with its first three releases. An extraordinary amalgam of blues-rock, progressive aspirations, heavy-metal antecedents, lingering psychedelic overtones, uncommon acoustic colorations, and imaginative orchestration, it remains iconic. Taking cues from – but surpassing – the second wave of the British Invasion – Yardbirds, Who, Cream, Jeff Beck Group – Zep redirected rock’s trajectory in the late 1960s and became the transcendent band of the ’70s.
Zep withdrew from touring in late 1970 and convened at Bron-Yr-Aur cottage in Wales to compose and concentrate on new music. Produced by Jimmy Page and recorded between that December and February of ’71, then continued at Island Records’ Basing Street studios in London. The quartet moved to the more-conducive setting of Headley Grange, an historic country workhouse offering seclusion and an informal environment where creativity could flourish. Serving earlier as rehearsal space for Fleetwood Mac and others, it had not yet been used for recording. The Stones’ Mobile Studio with engineer Andy Johns, assisted by pianist Ian Stewart, captured their efforts. Tapes were taken to Island for overdubbing in February and mixed in April at Sunset Sound in Hollywood. Following playback at Olympic, Page deemed the mixes inadequate and remixed the entire album that July, relying on several favorite instruments including the ’59 Les Paul Standard acquired from Joe Walsh in ’69 and his ’59 “Dragon” Telecaster gifted by Jeff Beck while both were in the Yardbirds. He also played a mid-’60s Harmony Sovereign H1260 for the acoustic parts on “Stairway to Heaven,” a ’66 Fender Electric XII, ’66 Vox Phantom XII, mid-’60s Danelectro 3012, and an MSA Classic D-12 pedal steel. Amplification consisted of two 100-watt Marshall heads with 4×12 cabinets, a ’69 JMP Super Bass, and ’68 Super Lead, He also favored a 35-watt ’59 Supro Coronado 1690T 2×10″ combo. While an imposing array of Marshall stacks dominated Zep shows, Page had a penchant for recording with small amps, thoughtfully miked to achieve a big sound. He also played some guitar parts direct to the board, without effects.
Riff making is a central tenet of metal. “Black Dog” underscored Zep’s ability to transform a typical blues riff into an atypical musical event. You can practically hear the genre evolving in the course of the figure; begun by accessing traditional blues roots (unmistakable references to Albert King’s “Oh Pretty Woman” and Howlin’ Wolf) and reshaped into an asymmetric, rhythmically complex ensemble line. Progressive tendencies and intricacy endemic to modern metal are evident in the mixed time signatures and unpredictability. This excerpt presents two related verse riffs acting as responses to Plant’s vocals. The longer phrase (measure 7) thematically expands fragments of measures 2-5 but still ends on a syncopated resounding A5 power chord. Its rhythmical idiosyncrasies are tethered and supported by Bonham’s solid half-time drum beat.
“Black Dog” was the first song recorded, and the first single (released December ’71). Immortalizing an errant black Labrador wandering Headley’s grounds, it was begun at Island on December 5, revisited at Headley and completed in February at Island. Its introductory noises were a “sonic collage” of recorded guitar fragments personifying Page’s affinity for unpredictably. Robert Plant’s lyrics portrayed eroticism, lust, and betrayal with allusions to the bluesman’s mythos of devil’s music. The oblong blues-based riff, composed by John Paul Jones and Page, exuded progressive-rock eccentricity in the meandering mixed 2/4, 4/4, and 5/4 meters, establishing a dramatic call-and-response effect in verses reminiscent of Fleetwood Mac’s “Oh Well.” Though the riffs had a motorific unison intent, a looseness akin to live blues surfaced in Page’s delightfully out-of-sync execution (0:41-:47) and were expanded with parallel-third harmony at 3:05-3:23. He doubled several lines, triple-tracked rhythm guitars for a larger stereo picture, and ran his ’Burst through compressors and other studio processors to create the thick, distorted effect. However, he recorded his outro solo direct, without an amp.
“Rock and Roll,” a collaboration with Stewart on piano, grew from an impromptu jam captured in three or four takes while momentarily abandoning “Four Sticks” (with which it was paired as the second single). John Bonham developed the drum intro from Little Richard’s “Keep A-Knockin’” and Page responded with an elongated 24-bar blues structure showcasing his updated boogie-woogie feel and heavily distorted Chuck Berry rhythm figure delivered at 170 bpm. A favorite live tune (used as opener from ’72 to ’74 and encore with “Whole Lotta Love” through ’77), it became a bar-band standard (covered live by Van Halen and Hagar) and entered mainstream culture as part of a Cadillac ad campaign in 2001.
“The Battle of Evermore,” composed at Headley by Page on Jones’ mandolin (his first try on the instrument) in one sitting, featured an appearance by Fairport Convention singer Sandy Denny (the only female vocalist on a Zep album, she was accorded her own symbol in its artwork). The title referenced Scottish Independence Wars in the 13th and 14th centuries, but Plant’s lyrics projected an otherworldly quality, conjuring Tolkien’s middle-earth fantasies. The arrangement is folk-oriented with Celtic undertones akin to a medieval string consort, droning and sparse but propulsive given its instrumentation – Page on mandolin(s) and acoustic guitar behind a duet of Plant (as narrator) and Denny (as town crier urging peace).
“Stairway to Heaven” emerged during Zep’s Bron-Yr-Aur brainstorming. Written by Page over several months, it was shaped from ideas preserved as bits on cassette recordings. The semi-classical jazz-inflected intro figure was extant in the December sessions at Island (where the song was ultimately completed). Sixty percent of Plant’s remarkable lyrics were written at one sitting. A basic track at Headley consisted of Bonham (drums), Jones (electric piano) and Page (acoustic guitar).
This example from “Rock and Roll” depicts Page’s adventurous, innovative soloing. Taking the fundamental language of blues-rock beyond the territory pioneered by Bluesbreakers, Yardbirds, Cream, and Hendrix, Page adds uncommon chromaticism in the ascent of measures 5-6 to intensify the change to the IV chord D. This quirky but functionally powerful move stands in stark contrast to the surrounding blues licks, pull-off patterns, and more-familiar pentatonic material. The marriage of melodic twists with common blues lines proved influential; hints of the concept are heard in the playing of Angus Young, Michael Schenker, Ed Van Halen, Randy Rhoads, et al.
“I elected to take this to Island Number One in London,” Page explained. “We’d had a lot of high-energy playing at Headley, but I felt the sombre environment of a large studio would better suit the temperament of ‘Stairway.’”
His thought was born out by the song’s textured, large-scale arrangement, terraced dynamics, and layered orchestration. Every member contributed; Jones on recorder(s), Page on acoustic, and Plant’s vocal in the opening section, a light prelude building to fuller orchestration with Page’s Vox and Fender 12-strings (panned right and left), heavier electric instruments and Bonham’s drum entrance. The climax is defined by hard-rock rhythms, thicker timbres, and Page’s melodic-metal solo, recorded (as was his practice) as a finishing touch played on his Tele, possibly through his Supro and accompanied by overdubbed steel and slide guitars. The arrangement’s complexity necessitated Page’s use of a Gibson EDS-1275 doubleneck onstage. The piece blended folk, progressive and hard rock, and, at more than eight minutes, was never a single. However, it led to IV essentially selling as a single and became an anthem – the stereotypical rock ballad and the most played track on U.S. radio – praised by classical conductor Herbert Von Karajan as “almost perfect.”
“Misty Mountain Hop,” originally a guitar piece, was developed by Page and Jones in Headley’s sitting room and became the B-side of “Black Dog.” The opening riff was translated from guitar to electric piano-guitar-bass ensemble, Jones supplied keyboard chords in the chorus while Page crafted a harmony-guitar interlude (2:39-3:08) and Plant resurrected hippie-era lyrics alluding to a ’68 Legalize Pot Rally in London, with reference to “Misty Mountains” from Tolkien’s The Hobbit. The entire song came together quickly.
“Stairway to Heaven” may contain a “forbidden” guitar passage in the intro, but Page’s guitar solo remains one of the most memorable and imitated pieces of melodic metal. His producer role and session experience affected his approach. It’s a thoughtful statement, exemplified by his merging of pentatonic blues with modality rendered with rock attitude over a vamping Am to Fmaj7 progression. Note the consistent targeting of the color tone F throughout; expanding the garden-variety blues A minor pentatonic lines into Aeolian modal melody to address Fmaj7. Page recorded three extemporaneous passes at Island and agonized over the selection. “I did have the first phrase worked out as well as the link phrase,” he said. “I checked them out before the tape ran.”
“Four Sticks,” named for Bonham’s unusual use of four drum sticks (two in each hand), embodied Zep’s abstract tangents. Page’s hypnotic raga-like guitar riff (double tracked), modality in the droning E-A-G power-chord sonorities, fluctuating 5/8 and 12/8 meters, and heavily compressed drum parts contribute to the world-music cum hard-rock attitude. Imaginative orchestration punctuates the arrangement at 1:02 and 2:11 with contrasting timbres of acoustic guitar, electric 12-strings, and Jones’ EMS VCS3 synthesizer (emulating strings and woodwinds and generating the buzzing sawtooth-wave line at 3:04). Too modern for its day, some critics dismissed “Four Sticks” as “messy.” Nonetheless, it presaged the textures, sonics, and asymmetric grooves associated with The Police and techno-pop electronica a decade later.
“Going to California” grew out of another jam at Headley. Initially called “Guide to California,” the ballad was partially inspired by California’s earthquakes and Joni Mitchell’s “I Had a King.” Coincidentally, Page, manager Peter Grant, and Andy Johns experienced a minor earthquake while mixing in L.A. The song struck a distinctive folk mood with no electric instruments, drums, or rhythm section, instead multiple acoustic guitars in Double Drop D tuning (D-A-D-G-B-D), Page’s colorful Travis-picked chord arpeggiations and simple melody lines, along with Jones’ mandolin accompanying Plant’s plaintive vocals.
“When the Levee Breaks,” originally titled “If It Keeps Raining,” began at Plant’s suggestion as a cover of the 1929 country-blues classic by Kansas Joe and Memphis Minnie about Mississippi’s Great Flood of ’27. Plant reused some lyrics (credit was given to Minnie) and Page composed a complimentary riff in an open tuning; Minnie used Open G while Page adopted C-F-C-F-A-C (down one step) or possibly slowed the tape. Moreover, Page and Jones chose a vamping modal treatment instead of a standard 12-bar blues with I-IV-V chord changes. The band cultivated an appropriately down-home atmosphere with a simple repeated dyad riff, slide guitar parts, wailing harmonica, and Plant’s occasional Howlin’ Wolf impressions. However, the most striking aspect (apart from Page’s electric 12-string licks momentarily evoking a Stones-like pop-rock flavor) was the very live/vibrant drum sound; achieved by recording Bonham’s kit in Headley’s large tiled entrance hall. Two Beyerdynamic M 160 mics were hung on the staircase and routed to Helios F760 compressors. Per Johns, it was the first time anyone used only room mics for drums.
Inspired by the sound, Page immediately began overdubbing slide parts on his Danelectro, added backward guitars, 12-string, harmonica, guitar with reverse echo, and relied on other studio wizardry to “build a dense glue around the drums, all done at Headley.” It was the only Sunset Sound mix retained for the album, and reviewers hailed the piece as “an apocalyptic urban blues” and “momentous hard-rock blues [that] transcends previous quasi-parodic overstatements of blues songs [and] having the grandeur of a symphonic crescendo” while maintaining an authentic blues feel. An earlier version was recorded in 1970 and was released as “If It Keeps Raining” on the 2015 reissue of Coda.
Enigmatic artwork deepened the inscrutable quality of IV. The cover featured a 19th-century picture of an old thatcher toting a load of branches, hung on a distressed wall, juxtaposed against a modern photo of Salisbury Tower apartments on the back. Together, they conveyed a past/present-country/city dichotomy. Four pictograms, largely developed from runes, and a Barrington Coleby painting of The Hermit from The Tarot appeared inside underscoring occult imagery. Called “Four Symbols” (describing each member with metaphors expressing Zep’s collective musical soul), “ZoSo” (Page’s self-designed symbol) or simply “Untitled,” IV was released November 8, 1971, with no group shot or name. A powerful, innovative album by any name, it remains one of the best-selling (more than 37 million units and counting) and most-impactful works of all time.
Wolf Marshall is the founder and original Editor-In-Chief of GuitarOne magazine. A respected author and columnist, he has been influential in contemporary music education since the early 1980s. His latest book is Jazz Guitar Course: Mastering the Jazz Language. Others include 101 Must-Know Rock Licks, B.B. King: the Definitive Collection, and Best of Jazz Guitar. A list credits can be found at wolfmarshall.com.
This article originally appeared in VG’s January 2025 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.
