Skip to content

Top Navigation

EW.com Entertainment Weekly EW.com Entertainment Weekly
  • TV
    • TV Reviews
    • TV Reunions
    • TV Recaps
    • Animated
    • Comedy
    • Crime
    • Drama
    • Family
    • Mystery
    • Reality
    • Sci-fi
    • Thriller
  • Movies
    • Movie Reviews
    • Trailers
    • Film Festivals
    • Movie Reunions
    • Movie Previews
  • Music
    • Music Reviews
  • Books
    • Book Reviews
    • Author Interviews
  • Theater
    • Theater Reviews
  • Podcasts
  • Gaming
  • Events
    • Comic-Con
  • Celebrity
  • Awards
    • Oscars
    • Emmys
    • Golden Globes
    • SAG Awards
    • Grammys
    • Tony Awards
  • Streaming

Profile Menu

Your Profile

Account

  • Join Now
  • Email Preferences
  • Newsletter
  • Manage Your Subscription this link opens in a new tab
  • Give a Gift Subscription this link opens in a new tab
  • Order Past Issues this link opens in a new tab
  • Logout
Login
Subscribe

Explore EW.com

EW.com Entertainment Weekly EW.com Entertainment Weekly
  • Explore

    Explore

    • Every RuPaul's Drag Race season 13 runway look, ranked

      Read More Next
    • Spread the love with EW's Valentine's Day gift guide

      Read More Next
    • The Masked Dancer revealed: Every unmasked celebrity on season 1

      Read More Next
  • TV

    TV

    See All TV
    • TV Reviews
    • TV Reunions
    • TV Recaps
    • Animated
    • Comedy
    • Crime
    • Drama
    • Family
    • Mystery
    • Reality
    • Sci-fi
    • Thriller
  • Movies

    Movies

    See All Movies
    • Movie Reviews
    • Trailers
    • Film Festivals
    • Movie Reunions
    • Movie Previews
  • Music

    Music

    See All Music
    • Music Reviews
  • Books

    Books

    See All Books
    • Book Reviews
    • Author Interviews
  • Theater

    Theater

    See All Theater
    • Theater Reviews
  • Podcasts
  • Gaming
  • Events

    Events

    See All Events
    • Comic-Con
  • Celebrity
  • Awards

    Awards

    See All Awards
    • Oscars
    • Emmys
    • Golden Globes
    • SAG Awards
    • Grammys
    • Tony Awards
  • Streaming

Profile Menu

Subscribe this link opens in a new tab
Your Profile

Account

  • Join Now
  • Email Preferences
  • Newsletter
  • Manage Your Subscription this link opens in a new tab
  • Give a Gift Subscription this link opens in a new tab
  • Order Past Issues this link opens in a new tab
  • Logout
Login
Sweepstakes

Follow Us

  1. Home Chevron Right
  2. Gallery Chevron Right
  3. Jimmy Page on Led Zeppelin's Legacy

Jimmy Page on Led Zeppelin's Legacy

The band's founding guitarist looks back on 9 Led Zeppelin albums
By Clark Collis
Updated August 03, 2015 at 02:51 PM EDT
Skip gallery slides
Save FB Tweet

1 of 9

Save FB Tweet
Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

LED ZEPPELIN (1969)

“Robert came to my house and I went through the material: ‘Babe I’m Gonna Leave You’ and ‘Dazed and Confused,’ because the Yardbirds [Page’s previous band] had done a version of that. He got the idea. I could tell what [drummer] John Bonham was capable of. [Bassist] John Paul Jones was a studio musician. The recording totaled up to about 30 hours. The term I would use is ‘ruthless efficiency.’ ”

1 of 9

Advertisement
Advertisement

2 of 9

Save FB Tweet
Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

LED ZEPPELIN II (1969)

“The master plan was to write stuff and record while we were on the road to get the energy.

That whole middle section of ‘Whole Lotta Love’—no one had ever done anything like that.”

2 of 9

3 of 9

Save FB Tweet
Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

LED ZEPPELIN III (1970)

“We had some time off and went to this cottage [to write]. There was no electricity. The electricity was in the batteries of the cassette players—and what was generated between Robert and myself with the music. The emphasis was on the acoustic guitar. It got criticized, of course. Don’t come to me and say, ‘Where’s “Whole Lotta Love” on the third album?’ It was on the second album, thank you very much.”

3 of 9

Advertisement
Continued on next slide.
Advertisement

4 of 9

Save FB Tweet
Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

LED ZEPPELIN IV (1971)

“I’d already got stuff—I had sections of ‘Stairway to Heaven.’ I wanted something which would accelerate in pace, which would start with a very fragile guitar in the style of Bach, and then introduce the electric 12-string, and then move through to the solo. The band thought it was good, but you don’t envisage it’s going to have such a lasting quality."

4 of 9

Advertisement

5 of 9

Save FB Tweet
Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

HOUSE OF THE HOLY (1971)

“We did some recording at Mick Jagger’s country estate, which was called Stargroves. We did things like ‘D’yer Mak’er’ there. It

was this country house in the middle of lots of land. 'The Song Remains the Same' was going to be an overture that went into 'Rain Song,' so the voice wouldn’t appear til then. It’s an interesting prospect. Onstage we would link the two numbers together and we do on the album. But when I was rehearsing it, it soon became apparent that it ought to be a song."

5 of 9

6 of 9

Save FB Tweet
Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

PHYSICAL GRAFFITI (1975)

“I had the riff and the sort of cascade part of ‘Kashmir.’ Robert said, ‘I’ve got some lyrics,’ which was something he’d written during a visit to Morocco. I knew that was a milestone.”

6 of 9

Advertisement
Advertisement
Continued on next slide.
Advertisement

7 of 9

Save FB Tweet
Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

PRESENCE (1976)

“Robert has a car crash. His leg’s in plaster. The plan was for touring, but we weren’t Dave Grohl. Robert said, ‘I still want to make an album.’ I would say it’s really defiant. Robert is singing his heart out and the music is really superb. Presence is a guitar-driven album. I had a field day—that’s all there is to it—on ‘Achilles Last Stand.’"

7 of 9

Advertisement
Advertisement

8 of 9

Save FB Tweet
Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

IN THROUGH THE OUT DOOR (1979)

“John Paul Jones turns up with this huge organ made by Yamaha. Then, lo and behold, he has written some songs. It’s like, ‘Well, I never!’ I don’t know whether that was the result of the guitar album which preceded it."

8 of 9

Advertisement

9 of 9

Save FB Tweet
Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

CODA (1982)

“Coda was one that was sort of owing to the record company. [The group disbanded following the alcohol-related death of Bonham in 1980.] Between the recording of Presence and In Through the Out Door, there was a recording I did with John Bonham in Montreux. I said, ‘We’ll do a drum orchestra, like a samba school.’ While we had lost John Bonham, the thing that hadn’t been lost was this 24-track. I called it ‘Bonzo’s Montreux.'"

9 of 9

Advertisement
Advertisement
Replay gallery

Share the Gallery

Pinterest Facebook

Up Next

  • By Clark Collis @clarkcollis

Share the Gallery

Pinterest Facebook
Trending Videos
Advertisement
Skip slide summaries

Everything in This Slideshow

Advertisement

View All

1 of 9 LED ZEPPELIN (1969)
2 of 9 LED ZEPPELIN II (1969)
3 of 9 LED ZEPPELIN III (1970)
4 of 9 LED ZEPPELIN IV (1971)
5 of 9 HOUSE OF THE HOLY (1971)
6 of 9 PHYSICAL GRAFFITI (1975)
7 of 9 PRESENCE (1976)
8 of 9 IN THROUGH THE OUT DOOR (1979)
9 of 9 CODA (1982)

Share options

Pinterest Mail Email iphone Send Text Message
EW.com Entertainment Weekly

Magazines & More

Learn More

  • Subscribe this link opens in a new tab
  • Content Licensing this link opens in a new tab
  • Sitemap

Connect

Follow Us
Subscribe to Our Newsletter
Other Meredith Sites

Other Meredith Sites

  • 4 Your Health this link opens in a new tab
  • Allrecipes this link opens in a new tab
  • All People Quilt this link opens in a new tab
  • Better Homes & Gardens this link opens in a new tab
  • Bizrate Insights this link opens in a new tab
  • Bizrate Surveys this link opens in a new tab
  • Cooking Light this link opens in a new tab
  • Daily Paws this link opens in a new tab
  • EatingWell this link opens in a new tab
  • Eat This, Not That this link opens in a new tab
  • Food & Wine this link opens in a new tab
  • Health this link opens in a new tab
  • Hello Giggles this link opens in a new tab
  • Instyle this link opens in a new tab
  • Martha Stewart this link opens in a new tab
  • Midwest Living this link opens in a new tab
  • More this link opens in a new tab
  • MyRecipes this link opens in a new tab
  • MyWedding this link opens in a new tab
  • My Food and Family this link opens in a new tab
  • MyLife this link opens in a new tab
  • Parenting this link opens in a new tab
  • Parents this link opens in a new tab
  • People this link opens in a new tab
  • People en EspaƱol this link opens in a new tab
  • Rachael Ray Magazine this link opens in a new tab
  • Real Simple this link opens in a new tab
  • Ser Padres this link opens in a new tab
  • Shape this link opens in a new tab
  • Siempre Mujer this link opens in a new tab
  • Southern Living this link opens in a new tab
  • SwearBy this link opens in a new tab
  • Travel & Leisure this link opens in a new tab
© Copyright 2021 Meredith Corporation. Entertainment Weekly is a registered trademark of Meredith Corporation All Rights Reserved. Entertainment Weekly may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice. Privacy Policythis link opens in a new tab Terms of Servicethis link opens in a new tab Ad Choicesthis link opens in a new tab California Do Not Sellthis link opens a modal window Web Accessibilitythis link opens in a new tab
© Copyright . All rights reserved. Printed from https://ew.com

View image

Jimmy Page on Led Zeppelin's Legacy
this link is to an external site that may or may not meet accessibility guidelines.