Holy November(s): Months of myth, harvests, and the true force of Led Zeppelin
Never let the unrelenting power of Led Zeppelin fly under your radar. This is a band who continue to influence rock to this day, whether you hear it or not.
When Jimmy Page originally decided to start a band, he had an idea of the kind of music he wanted to make, but that was it, no members lined up, no plan of who to ask to join. “I had a lot of ideas from my days with The Yardbirds. The Yardbirds allowed me to improvise a lot in live performance, and I started building a textbook of ideas that I eventually used in Zeppelin,” explained Page, “I wanted Zeppelin to be a marriage of blues, hard rock and acoustic music topped with heavy choruses – a combination that never been done before […] Lots of light and shade in the music.”
With his head full of ideas, it was up to Page to find some band members, which he did in the form of John Paul Jones, Robert Plant and John Bonham. Not to go into too much detail of how these people came to be in one another’s lives, but in brief, it was a combination of research, boredom, word of mouth, and desire. I’ll let you decide which member applies to which reason.
When the band eventually met up and started jamming, it was clear that from the first few notes they had stumbled upon something special. They began by playing an old Yardbirds tune, and the way they came together to take an existing song and elevate it was unlike anything any band member had heard before. Robert Plant said he was worried about playing too much because he believed what they had stumbled upon was fragile, and if they play too much, they would run the risk of it breaking.
“I remember the little room, all I can remember it was hot and it sounded good – very exciting and very challenging,” said Plant, “Because I could feel that something was happening to myself and to everyone else in the room. It felt like we’d found something that we had to be very careful with because we might lose it.”
What Led Zeppelin wound up becoming wasn’t just a good rock band, but a band that continued to push the boundaries of what rock could be. They weren’t content with just heavy riffs and distorted guitars, but they blended multiple genres in order to create soundscapes that you could be convinced was a doorway to a brand new world. Listening to some Led Zeppelin songs felt genuinely transportive, as they took place in strange lands, in heaven, hell, and whatever purgatory Page and co opted to conjure up. While many don’t consider them a prog rock band, they certainly fall somewhat into that genre because of how much depth they gave to rock music.
“I think what they showed to all their peer group as musicians was that there was, first of all, a very powerful and dramatic way to perform simple, direct rock music and also to introduce elements of more eclectic music,” said Jethro Tull’s Ian Anderson. “Because Zeppelin, near the beginning, there were a lot of elements of folk music, and Asian music, and African music that crept into their stuff.”
The band’s eclectic taste, individual talent, and transportive music meant that they were often branded as a somewhat mythical musical outfit. Some argued that they sold their soul to the devil for their musical talent; meanwhile, others said that they practised different folk rituals on tour, some of which included drinking blood.
The truth is, this was a band that made music so good the world thought there must be forces beyond our comprehension assisting them. That being said, regardless of how unrealistic they might be, some of the themes Led Zeppelin touched upon within their music certainly backed up such rumours. Another element that played into this speculation was the band’s seeming devotion to the beginning of November.
November in folklore
When you look through the centuries at different pagan and Christian festivals, the first week in November is littered with different celebrations. Halloween didn’t just mark a day where evil spirits were said to cross over onto Earth, but it also marked the official beginning of winter. Nights went from light to dark, oats had to be harvested, and herders led their sheep down from summer pastures.
The beginning of November was always a month of significance, whether it was for practical reasons, like the changing of the season, or because of other religious festivals which were designed to celebrate different spirits and saints in heaven. Generally, this week represented change, as the change in the weather meant it was time for people to adapt to a new way of life for a period. Led Zeppelin, centuries later, seemed to keep this spirit of change close to their hearts, as they seemed to have picked this as the month when they would alter what us average music listeners considered rock.
The band went on a three year run of releasing their best work in the early days of November, and in doing so, they continued to break down the boundaries that seemingly existed for other rock bands. Starting in 1969 and finishing in 1971, November was a month for myth, the harvest, and the unyielding force of Led Zeppelin.
November 7th, 1969
It was The Beatles who were making headlines on this date. John Lennon and Yoko Ono had released their experimental Wedding Album, meanwhile, Paul McCartney was addressing the “Paul is dead” rumour in an interview he did with Life Magazine. Even though the band had parted, they were still capturing hearts all over the world, but it was time for music’s new obsession to make headlines, as Led Zeppelin geared up to release their hard-hitting classic, ‘Whole Lotta Love’.
Everything about this song was classic Led Zeppelin, and after their first album had had some success, ‘Whole Lotta Love’ was the band showing everyone who would listen that they weren’t just a passing phase. This is quintessential Led Zeppelin, as every single aspect of the track is an exemplary effort from all involved. That heavy guitar riff by Page, John Paul Jones holding it all together, John Bonham’s eccentric drums and Robert Plant’s blues-inspired lyrics culminate to create a song that would burst weak speakers.
Finally, to really separate themselves from other bands out there, Led Zeppelin added an eerie and atmospheric bridge that other rock bands at the time would have hesitated going near. Just as things are getting underway, the song collapses into a sporadic mess of wind sounds, Plant’s occasional moans, and Page dragging guitar pick across strings, before it bursts into a squeaky and high-powered solo.
This is the song that a lot of casual listeners would probably recognise before any other song, it truly put Led Zeppelin on the map, but also set them up in their own world. The map they were seen on didn’t resemble the world that others knew, and what’s most important, they were just getting started.
November 5th, 1970
While the broken down bridge on ‘Whole Lotta Love’ added a new kind of atmosphere to the track, ‘Immigrant Song’ took Led Zeppelin listeners to a brand new land altogether. Leaving the blues-inspired words behind, Robert Plant leaned heavily into mythical and fantasy elements, drawing from the band’s trip to Iceland and the work of Tolkien to create a full-blown story. It resulted in the creation of another Led Zeppelin classic that still makes ears ring.
“We weren’t being pompous; we did come from the land of the ice and snow,” said Plant when explaining how he came up with the narrative-driven lyrics to the Zeppelin classic. “We were guests of the Icelandic Government on a cultural mission. We were invited to play a concert in Reykjavik and the day before we arrived all the civil servants went on strike and the gig was going to be cancelled. The university prepared a concert hall for us and it was phenomenal. The response from the kids was remarkable and we had a great time. ‘Immigrant Song’ was about that trip and it was the opening track on the album that was intended to be incredibly different.”
November 8th, 1971
Finally, after putting out two of their most memorable songs in past Novembers, it was time for Led Zeppelin to bring this trilogy to a close with their biggest release yet. On November 8th, 1971, they put out their fourth album Led Zeppelin IV, a record which is still hailed as being one of the best rock albums of all time, and for very good reason.
The record is Zeppelin’s most complicated and yet doubles up as being one of their most accessible and beautiful. You have songs such as ‘Black Dog’ and ‘Four Sticks’ which use bizarre time signatures and chord progressions to throw even the most seasoned listener off balance. But then you also have tracks such as ‘Rock and Roll’, which are standard, hard-hitting, killer tracks that continue to fill dancefloors today. Then, of course, you have the band’s biggest triumph: ‘Stairway to Heaven’.
When people first pick up a guitar and start learning to play, they do so with the intention of being able to nail down a track like ‘Stairway to Heaven’ one day. The opening guitar run became so popular that they had to ban it in guitar stores as everyone was playing it, and that’s only one aspect of the song. Alongside that guitar work, you have the complicated and myth-heavy lyrics, laced with an unrelenting optimism that Robert Plant wound up despising. You also see an arranging masterclass, as you have a band waiting in the background, ready to pounce at any moment and provide a full-bodied, heavy sound, but holding off for three minutes before doing so.
As people listened to that song for the first time, the greatest rock song ever written, nestled in the middle of one of the greatest rock albums ever made, it hit home that Led Zeppelin aren’t just big in the moment, they were going to be remembered in the world of music for as long as people had ears to listen to it. Maybe there is magic entwined within the month of November, maybe there isn’t, but one thing is for sure, during a span of three years when Led Zeppelin were making music, there was definitely something in the air.
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