‘Houses of the Holy’: the most eclectic album Led Zeppelin ever made
Led Zeppelin never intended to make the same album twice whenever they went into the studio. Even if they could level any stage to the crowd by playing blues for the rest of their lives, the whole reason why Jimmy Page wanted to expand had a lot to do with him breaking out of the confines that had been built around him in The Yardbirds. And while any one of Zeppelin’s albums could have been considered a smorgasbord of different sounds, Houses of the Holy occupies a strange space in their discography.
Since they had already proven themselves as one of the biggest bands in the world by releasing an album without a title and still having it sell in droves, Page had started to work out the bugs of their music. ‘When the Levee Breaks’ felt like a subtle goodbye to their traditional blues covers, and from the second ‘The Song Remains the Same’ comes on, the band were already at the peak of their powers as a rock and roll band.
But rock and roll isn’t what Page walked into the studio to make on this record. While the biggest names in progressive rock, like Yes and Genesis, were also making the rounds at this time, this is the closest thing to progressive music that Page ever made without actually fitting into the genre.
Take a song like ‘The Rain Song’, for instance. Hearing him make a ballad out of one of the most bizarre tunings imaginable is the perfect example of continuing to stretch his musical muscles, but even that song has its twists and turns. Most people can embrace the raw beauty of Plant’s vocals next to Page’s guitar, but that demented lick at the end feels like something that could have come out of a metal song if it were played on a distorted guitar.
Beyond the folksy tunes like ‘The Rain Song’ and ‘Over the Hills and Far Away’, every track on the record feels like a new creative risk. ‘D’yer Ma’ker’ is one of the few instances where a rock band trying reggae has actually sounded halfway decent, ‘The Crunge’ is one of the band’s sharpest ways of tackling funk music like James Brown, and even ‘The Ocean’ manages to toy with everyone’s expectations by playing everything in a different time signature.
However, eclecticism might come from the fact that this is one of the more democratic records they had made up until this point. John Paul Jones may have been a master at arranging pieces for the band in the early days, but hearing him bring some off-kilter moments into the mix is the real icing on the cake throughout the record, all while John Bonham teaches a clinic in what a good groove should sound like.
Out of all the songs on the record, though, ‘No Quarter’ is the closest to what Zeppelin sounded like when they reached their final form. Any other group would have been happy to count Led Zeppelin II as the best they have ever sounded, but hearing this track sound like it’s being played in slow motion was the band looking into the future for a second, almost predicting the size and scope that would come when they made ‘Kashmir’.
While those epics would take a few more years to come to fruition, Houses of the Holy is still the perfect middle ground between both sides of Zeppelin’s career. Physical Graffiti may be their grandiose statement, and Led Zeppelin IV is what put them into rock and roll history, but this is the last time they had the fearless naivety that any band should have when they are starting out.
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