Vinyl of the Week - 17 JANUARY 2021

Led Zeppelin IV

Another Xmas gift is our focus this week however this time it’s a record that I gave my long-suffering partner. She is a huge fan of this band but didn’t have this iconic album on vinyl, which I wanted to rectify. The untitled fourth album from the mighty Led Zeppelin is certainly their most popular and contains arguably one of the most played and recognised tracks ever, Stairway to Heaven. Known simply as Led Zeppelin IV, its release in 1971 took the band to international stardom. To date, it has sold nearly 40 million copies. The deliberate absence of anything to identify the band on the cover was a tough sell for the label who claimed it would be commercial suicide. Despite this, the band stuck to their guns, insistent that the music would ensure its success and they were proved to be right. Apart from the unidentifiable cover, the ambiguous theme continued with each band member adopting a symbol in place of their own names. These symbols have become just as recognisable, although their exact origin and meaning still remains a mystery. The cover picture is of a painting from an antique store in Reading, affixed to the dilapidated wall of a partially demolished building. Jimmy Page said it was not any sort of statement, rather an image meant to be interpreted as whatever the viewer saw in it. The music is, of course, the main reason this album is one of the most successful of all time, and each song is gold. My favourites are the first two tracks; Black Dog and Rock and Roll, the latter featuring Ian Stewart of Rolling Stones fame on the piano. Stairway is overplayed but has been for a reason, Page delivering that legendary solo with a Fender Telecaster gifted to him by Jeff Beck. If it’s been awhile since you listened this album, you might be surprised by how good it really is. Definitely a favourite in our household - DS