53 years since the release of Led Zeppelin IV. A stairway to social history
Led Zeppelin IV, the bands fourth album that had no official name but instead four symbols was released on 8th November 1971.
I bought it on release and I think the music still sounds fine but realistically its part of social history now. No one much under state pension age can have got it at the time, but there may well of course be younger enthusiasts as well.
The album contains the rock anthem Stairway to Heaven, a regular on John Peel’s Festive 50, that concludes with the words ‘to be a rock and not to roll’. Given that this was the start of the 1970s, a lively decade in Britain, perhaps there was an element of prophecy…
There is another Zeppelin anthem featured, Black Dog, not anything to do with Winston Churchill but apparently a dog that was hanging round when the record was made..
But aside from the blues, Zeppelin’s core music, what made them interesting then (something Robert Plant has pursued in a long solo career) was exploration of other musical styles. The Battle of Evermore features the great and sadly late Sandy Denny one of the great folk singers.
The social history context? On 31st October a small bomb exploded in the restaurant at the top of the Post Office (now BT) Tower in central London. It was probably the work of the Angry Brigade a group of libertarian anarchists. The view from the top (I’ve been up-work reasons) is panoramic still.
On 10th November Spaghetti Junction on the M6 was opened.
The fact that the record is remembered at all is also interesting social history. The music of 1921 was not well recalled in 1971…
I always find the music of Black Sabbath interesting from this perspective. Especially their lyrics on early albums, like the songs Wicked World, War Pigs, Electric Funeral. The music seems embedded in the social moment of its production, but maintains a relevance.