Led Zeppelin - Houses of the Holy
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On this episode, we take a look at the fifth album by arguably THE band of the 1970s: Led Zeppelin’s Houses of the Holy.
After Led Zeppelin’s monster success with their fourth LP (Zeppelin IV, ZOSO, etc.), the band felt uncertain about how to follow up such a successful album. That success also gave the band a sense of artistic freedom that found them in a more experimental mood, departing from their heavy blues sound and embracing acoustic instruments, synthesizers, and a favorite instrument here at the This Is Vinyl Tap: the mellotron.
Released in 1973, Houses of the Holy, named for what the band dubbed their concert venues, is the first Led Zeppelin album with a name not associated with the band’s moniker. While the lyrics still read like bad Tolkien and Coleridge, the band's performance for the most part is sublime. The vocals are more restrained and the instrumentation is both complicated and subtle. Houses of the Holy is an album full of some of their more well-known hits (“the Ocean,” “D'Yer Mak'er,” “Over the Hills and Far Away”) and the album that cements their reputation as one of the biggest bands of the 70s.
THINGS WE DISCUSSED ON THIS EPISODE
In 1966, the band Listen released a cover version of the Young Rascals “You Better Run” on CBS Records. . It was Robert Plant recorded debut as a lead vocalist.
Here’s a scene from the 1966 Michelangelo Antonioni film Blow Up where the Jeff Beck/Jimmy Page era Yardbirds perform“Stroll On.”
CBS tried to market Plant as a pop singer in the vein of a Tom Jones. “Our Song” was their first attempt to do so. It was released in 1967 and sold less than 1,000 copies. You an listen to it below.
Robert Plant and John Bonham played together off and on the Led Zeppelin days. Here s a picture of one of their pre-Zeppelin bands Band of Joy for 1968.
(Pictured L to R) organist Chris Brown, drummer John Bonham (1948-80), lead singer Robert Plant, bassist Paul Lockey, and guitarist Kevyn Gammond.
Listen to Band of Joy’s cover version of the Buffalo Springfield song “For What It’s Worth.”
Watch an early performance of Led Zeppelin perform “How Many More Times” on Danish TV in 1969.
Here a clip of “the Rain Song” from the 1976 concert film The Song Remains the Same where live shots are interspersed with scenes of Plant brandishing a sword and riding a horse around the Welsh countryside.
