Original subtitles

♪

( narrator ) They were the quintessential hard rock band,

igniting the collision of wild hedonism

and heavy metal thunder.

And now, more than 35 years since their formation,

the legacy of Led Zeppelin still resounds, loudly.

( man ) In those days, in the '60s,

there were sort of two geographical areas

that were creating new music and one was the north,

Liverpool, where you had the Beatles.

And then down south, there were bands like the Rolling Stones,

Alexis Korner and the embryo Yardbirds.

But it appears to me that the bands in the south,

like ourselves and the Rolling Stones,

were influenced by American black blues artists.

♪ I hear the blue all in the air ♪

( Chris ) And that's what tended to turn on the bands in the south,

like the Yardbirds.

In our very own stages as a band,

we tried to emulate that sound, probably badly.

♪ I wanna be your dog

( man ) We started getting imports of Josh White,

Leadbelly particularly, on--

You know, people like that on the countryside.

♪ Oh Lord I can pick a piece of cotton ♪

♪ Oh Lord I can pick a piece a day ♪

( Roy ) And people like Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf

on the other side.

♪ Got my mojo working

♪ But it just don't work on you ♪

( Roy ) But those records were kind of underground,

but they said something to you.

They had a direct message which was a very different message

from the message that you were getting

from your normal pop lyric.

♪ My doctor put me on

♪ Milk cream and alcohol, alcohol ♪

It was pretty austere in England for quite a long time.

We'd just come out of the European war.

Americans may not realize, but up until--

You know, even quite the late '50s, we were still rationed.

You couldn't get things;

luxury items were, you know, pretty minimal.

Also, the music of the time,

prior to that explosion in the '60s, was pretty narrow,

it was pretty kitsch.

The British government started the great art school experiment,

and what happened is people like myself and Clapton

and Pete Townshend and a lot of people found ourselves

in this wonderfully liberated,

ridiculously liberated environment.

We then heard some black American music.

I worked at this record store.

There was another guy across town in this little town

called Woking in Surrey.

It was a competition between us,

who could get the records from America the quickest, you know.

All the blues records, all the R&B records, all the--

Some rock records that were coming out of America, you know.

It was a competition.

It really is true that that whole era was English musicians

getting seriously influenced by what was coming out

in the States.

What are your two names ? James Page, and...

Doug Houston. Both from Heston ?

And you're just learning to play the guitar ?

Yes. From a teacher.

Can you play anything except skiffle ?

Yes, Spanish... Do you ? Well.

( Jimmy ) I mean, you really had to stick by the radio

and listen to overseas radio to even hear a good rock record.

The record that made me want to play guitar was

"Baby Let's Play House," Presley.

♪ Come back baby

♪ I wanna play house with you ♪

Hit it !

I had that record.

I just wanted to be part of it.

I knew something was going on.

I had an acoustic guitar and a slap bass

and an electric guitar,

those three instruments, and my voice.

And it seemed to generate so much energy.

( Roy ) We were all teenagers together,

more or less; Page, Plant, Lennon, McCartney, you name 'em.

By the time we'd reached the age of 20,

we were playing that and having our own versions of it,

which was then a completely new thing among the kids,

which automatically, being based in the same language,

took America by storm,

so we were exporting what was already American,

re-exporting it to America.

I realized that they were starting some kind of

new genre music from the English side.

Keith Richards was doing that in "Satisfaction."

He had the fuzz tone and all that.

The lead guitar work of these guys--

Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page and Eric Clapton--

was just-- was just something out of this world,

and obviously, the influences were American blues.

( Jimmy ) One's concentrating more on blues playing.

I used to go and just jam on a Thursday night

and somebody came up to me and said,

would you like to play on a record ?

I said, yes, why not ?

From that point, I suddenly started getting

all this studio work coming in.

We knew Jimmy Page, but he, at the time,

was very ensconced doing London session work.

♪

Jimmy was like John Paul Jones, he came from that old school

even though he was very, very young at the time.

He was a session guy.

He played on "Little Help From My Friends," Joe Cocker,

he was the guitarist on that.

I mean, he was a seasoned session musician

in his early 20s.

( narrator ) There was only one other session guitarist

who was working as steadily as Jimmy Page--

Big Jim Sullivan.

I was a better country player than Jimmy.

I could play all the bendy country stuff

better than Jimmy could,

and he could play the rock stuff and the blues.

So we hit a real happy medium in the studio

because whenever there was a country session,

I would do it, and whenever there was a rock session,

he would do it.

If you're on your way up

and session work is a part of your experience,

you know, you get to see producers,

you get to see the bullshit that goes on,

you get to see arrangers, how they arrange a piece,

and you get a sense of dynamics in music.

I was a huge fan of John Paul Jones as well,

because he played bass

on a lot of sessions that I did in London.

The rhythm section during the mid-'60s onwards--

Bobby Graham on drums, John Paul Jones on bass,

Jimmy and myself.

We come to the end of this roaring rock number, you know,

one or the other of us had done a fantastic solo

and been really tight and super.

And you get this voice from the box going,

***Yeah, lads, that was kind of all right.

***Can we try another one ?

Take 39.***

And that's how it's been for 39 takes, you know.

You've given your heart, you've done--

You know, and all you get from the box--

"Yeah, that was okay."

What kind of inspiration are these people portraying to,

you know ?

It was fun in the beginning of it,

when it was like, oh, do what you want to do, what you want.

But then it--

80%, 90% of the time, I didn't know

what session I was going in on,

and one day I did a Muzak session and it was horrific.

It was just reading music all the way through.

They don't stop.

It's just like you hear in these horrific lift things, you know.

You just keep turning the music and playing on it.

That's it, I'm finished, I'm out.

And that was at the time when I was hanging around with Jeff,

going to Yardbirds gigs,

and the bass player decided to leave the band,

and I joined on bass just to help 'em out in a couple of gigs

and then it was on to guitar.

Direct from England to Hullabaloo,

the wild beat of the Yardbirds !

( narrator ) The Yardbirds were heralded as one of England's

most authentic and pioneering blues bands in the '60s.

Feeling creatively stifled as a session player,

Jimmy Page decided to take advantage

of a once-in- a-lifetime opportunity.

( Chris ) Paul Samwell-Smith decided to come off the road

and concentrate on producing.

Jimmy, amazingly enough, joined us on bass for a while.

Anyone that can play as well as Jimmy

can play bass pretty well, you know.

He was so keen to get in the band.

You know, he really wanted to join.

He was like a little boy, you know.

Yeah, I'll play bass, you know.

I'll play tambourine if you want, you know, whatever.

When we played the Carousel in San Francisco,

and it was one of those days when Jeff was ill.

They made an announcement on the PA,

they said, well, Jeff Beck won't be doing this gig,

but the bass player's gonna play lead guitar.

And everyone's-- Oh, no, you know ?

Of course, the bass player was Jimmy Page,

so I think they were quite satisfied.

They were touring here.

I think, again, there was a lot of hope

for what was gonna happen and I think Beck kind of flaked,

ran off to be with his girlfriend

in the middle of the tour and I think the band lost steam.

I freaked out, went mad.

Had a breakdown and I think I walked out, left the band.

So the Yardbirds continued without me.

I disappeared, Jim carried on.

( narrator ) Now taking over the lead guitarist slot,

Jimmy Page impressed his fellow bandmates

with his six-string virtuosity.

He brought his beautiful skill with chording and riffing

and a much harder edge and he was very disciplined.

He'd come from session work.

He was a very professional guy, you know.

And he was ambitious and he was fresh.

So he brought all that energy into the last 18 months

of the band, you know, what I would have called

the harder-edged precursor Led Zeppelin mood

with Jimmy Page.

( narrator ) Jimmy's tenure with the Yardbirds

turned out to be short-lived,

but something bigger was waiting right around the corner.

( Jimmy ) You know, I sort of worked for a long period

and no money at the end of it and all that sort of thing.

There was big management disputes, just no chance.

( Dave ) As much as Jimmy wanted to keep it going,

they finally decided there are other things that they could do

and I think there were different musical things going on

with everybody.

He knew and we knew, we all knew

that this was the Yardbirds' last tour.

And he also knew that he was gonna get the name.

And you knew from the musicianship that he had

that anyone who was gonna be in the band with him

had to be up to that caliber, which was gonna be very high.

John Paul Jones, of course,

knew Jimmy from the old session days

and he said, listen--

He said, I heard you're forming a band,

he said, I wouldn't mind going on the road.

You know, what's it gonna be ?

And that's how they all got together.

( John ) I was moping around the house one day.

My missus said to me, would you stop moping around the house ?

Why don't you join a band or something.

She said, Jimmy Page is forming a group,

he just left the Yardbirds.

Why don't you give him a ring ?

( man ) My brother calls me, he says this.

Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones have gotten together.

I went, fucking hell.

Those two ?

♪

( Roy ) John Paul's like an expert.

John Paul's the music buff.

So they had the music buff in the background...

who is a good keyboard player, good bass player,

you know, brilliant musician.

The two singers, actually, had an underground sort of name

at that time in '68 with Joe Cocker and Terry Reid.

He asked me to be a singer in this new band

he was putting together, which, I was very impressed.

I said, I'd love to do it, can you hold that thought ?

If you're not in now, you're out.

Terry Reid couldn't do it.

I said, I know this great singer who lives in Wolverhampton

or wherever, called Robert Plant.

So Jimmy and Peter went up to see Robert Plant

perform somewhere.

( narrator ) Jimmy was so impressed with Robert Plant's singing

that he invited the fledgling vocalist to his boathouse

on the Thames

where the two discovered they shared

the same love of the blues.

Robert was now in and the pieces were falling into place.

( woman ) Robert is amazing.

He was just, you know, the boy from Birmingham.

He had such a powerful, strong presence about him.

I don't know.

When Robert walked in a room, you just noticed him.

( narrator ) Robert Plant immediately went to work convincing his friend,

drummer John Bonham, to join the new band.

Bonzo didn't want to join the band for the longest time.

He was earning good money in the local dance band, I suppose.

He didn't want to jeopardize that.

He didn't want to leave.

Encouraged by the enthusiasm of his old friend, Robert Plant,

John Bonham accepted Page's offer and decided to join.

( John ) The first time we all met was in this little room

in Gerhardt Street

to see if we could even stand each other, you know.

So I said, well, you know, we're all here,

what are we gonna play ?

And Jimmy said, well, do you know a number called

"The Train" ?

"Train Kept Running" ?

No.

Well, it's just easy.

Just-- You know, sort of on an even,

just the G to the...

He started off.

All right, that's good, count it in.

And so anyway...

The room exploded.

Oh.

And then we just looked at each other and said, you know,

we're on, this is it.

This is gonna work.

( Marky ) The chemistry amongst the four of them,

their look, the sound, their knowledge of music,

Bonham's steady anchor on the drums,

Page's riffs; they knew how, at the time,

how to jam and not lose the jam,

they knew when to come back at the proper time very tightly.

Robert brought a lot of the blues to Zep--

to Led Zeppelin.

You know, he was a real blues man.

Great harp player, great frontman, looked the part,

but he was a real blueser.

Bonzo was just this unreal drummer,

so they were a great package.

Started under the name of the New Yardbirds,

'cause nobody else would have booked us under anything else,

you know.

Who the hell are they ?

Well, we know Jimmy Page and we know the Yardbirds.

You're gonna have to be the New Yardbirds.

We rehearsed an act, an album and a tour

in about three weeks and it took off.

He had gigs that were contracted under the name The Yardbirds,

so Zeppelin did their first six, eight gigs

under that New Yardbirds name.

One day, I had a call from Jimmy

and he actually came up to the office

and kind of unannounced, really, he just wandered in.

He'd liked a review I'd done of one of his bands he'd been in

years before, so he thought, oh well,

I'll speak to this guy Chris and tell him about my new group.

And I said, well, what's it called ?

He said, it's "Led Zeppelin."

And I wrote it in my notepad, and I misspelled it.

I wrote L-E-A-D.

He said, no, no, L-E-D.

So I had the scoop on this amazing new band.

They chose the name "Led Zeppelin" through The Who,

actually, because there was a story that

Keith Moon and John Entwistle

had planned to split from The Who

and they wanted to form a supergroup.

I think Jimmy Page was involved in that, actually.

( Richard ) We were all drunk, you know, as usual.

And they were bringing up the thing,

oh, we want to leave The Who, we want to start a new band.

And then they were bantering around names,

but the guy who came up with the name "Led Zeppelin"

was actually John Entwistle, it wasn't Keith Moon.

And how it came about is,

there was an old saying in England that

you know, ***it will go down like a lead zeppelin,***

which means it'll bomb.

( narrator ) After fulfilling all of the previously booked dates

as The New Yardbirds,

the band made its official debut as Led Zeppelin

at Surrey University in England

on October 25, 1968.

Really, the basis of their sound

was the Yardbirds sound

and I remember Jimmy playing with their first album.

And of course, "Dazed and Confused" was on there,

we used to play that,

and they did their own version, which wasn't far away.

And they did a couple of other things that were pretty similar.

It was a springboard.

Our sound was a springboard for them,

but they took it a bit further,

they took it into that early heavy metal, really.

( Robert ) It was like-- Just really like a jam.

Things like "How Many More Times" and "Dazed and Confused"

were really just extensions of

how well we actually fitted together, you know.

The qualities of "Led Zeppelin I" can never be touched,

never be matched, never be equaled.

( man ) The first time I heard Led Zeppelin,

I put on this-- The record and I listened to it.

I said, wow.

I really didn't know who those guys were.

I knew who Jimmy Page was, I didn't know who they were.

The sound of the record was really impressive.

Still, to this day, you put it on,

it puts most other stuff to shame.

The first song I heard of theirs was "Good Times, Bad Times,"

and I was immediately struck by this drumming.

I'd never heard this drumming before.

( man ) "Communication Breakdown," you know,

the first time you hear it, it was like, "Oh, my God,"

and you try to play the break and it was just too damn fast.

You know, so you'd wind up scratching your records,

trying to slow it down and play it backwards

and you know, all of my records had these needle marks

that went straight across

from trying to learn the guitar breaks.

They wanted us to take them on tour with us as an opening act,

which is pretty ridiculous, I think about it now.

And I was just blown away.

The tour was paid for, underwritten by Jimmy Page,

Peter Grant and John Paul Jones.

The other two, Bonham and Plant, were on salaries.

There was five shows with the Vanilla Fudge.

It was actually in the one in Oregon where I really realized,

during the drum solo,

I was standing there with Jonesy

and I just said to him, Jesus Christ,

where'd you find this guy ?

I think that they're coming to listen to what you're playing

and not just to look at you and see what you are.

I mean, I remember when I was--

This is going back a few years,

when I first went to see the Beatles,

'cause we mentioned them a few times,

it was to look at them, you know.

It wasn't--

You didn't really bother, what you were listening to.

And today, it's not what you are, it's what you're playing.

Well, Bonzo was the best hard rock drummer ever, hands down.

I mean, no one comes within a mile of him.

He kept great time, he was fearless.

He'd do things that you'd think, how-- how is he--

How's he gonna do this ? He was the best.

( Carmine ) Being the drummer, first my attention went to John Bonham

and his foot thing that he did in "Good Times, Bad Times,"

which was, at the time, totally unique,

had I thought that.

Upon meeting him, he said to me, that I got that from you.

I said, I don't do that.

And he pointed out on the Vanilla Fudge album

where I actually did it one time and he took it

and took it to the extreme.

The audience just didn't know what to believe,

what they were seeing and hearing.

It was different than what they'd ever heard before

and it was powerful.

It was just nonstop.

But the thing was that they were so powerful

that anyone who came after them,

they might as well have not gone on the stage.

Without a doubt.

They were the first band to blow us off the stage,

Led Zeppelin.

The band would come in and do what was called underground,

you know, those clubs and everything.

( woman ) They played the Whisky.

It was an amazing show.

It was, like, ridiculous.

Can you imagine that band in that small club ?

It holds like 300 people.

It was chaos.

They went wild, hands up, jumping up and down.

Just a great show, great music.

( man ) They played a place called The Boston Tea Party.

The Boston Tea Party was Boston's version

of The Fillmore.

So maybe 200 people, maybe 250 tops, that first night.

And they blew us all away.

So I went back on the air the next day and just said,

you've got to go see this band.

When they started breaking, I mean, they couldn't believe it.

They started out as really, just four musicians who, you know,

got together,

and then when they started breaking, I mean, it was just,

you know, amazing.

By the time they finished and ended up in New York,

they'd taken the whole country by storm.

I mean, there wasn't a band that wanted to play before them.

I mean, they set the precedent

for what they did a few years later,

which was not to play with anyone

and just do the two to two-and-a-half

to three-hour set.

( narrator ) Energized by the overwhelming success of their inaugural tour

of the States,

Led Zeppelin returned to England,

but the British media ignored them.

It was a bitter pill to swallow.

And after a month-and-a-half, the band returned to America.

Once again in front of adoring, appreciative crowds,

Led Zeppelin felt right at home.

Second tour was the summer of '69.

And by then, I had gotten John his drum set,

which was exactly like mine.

It was a 226 bass drum with a big tom in the middle,

two floors and a big snare drum with a gong.

It's a lot of drummers have all these props but don't use them.

You know, they might hit it once a song.

He used everything.

We played the same places, roughly,

like the Fillmore's and The Boston Tea Party,

and when they went on the stage the second time,

you could see that they were anticipating--

The audience was anticipating their arrival

and the performance,

and then it just went up from there.

( narrator ) While on tour, whatever downtime the group could find

was spent working on their second album

in recording studios.

( Richard ) Atlantic Records would do it for us.

Book a studio, the band would go in, do a bit more,

come out with the tapes, go into another city,

play another show, go in later that night

or that afternoon, and that's how they made the record.

As Zeppelin's popularity grew, so did their bank accounts.

They were offered a quarter of a million dollars

to play the Yale Bowl in New Haven, Connecticut,

but the group turned it down

so that they could perform instead at

the Bath Festival of Blues and Progressive Music

back in England.

The first real major acceptance came over here.

I think that tends to piss the English critics off.

Anything that gets discovered in America,

English critics have a problem with.

( narrator ) The prestige of playing at the festival in their homeland

gave them something that money couldn't buy,

respect and acceptance.

Led Zeppelin was fast becoming the number-one rock & roll band

in the world.

In our position, we've spent years and years on the road,

sort of playing in little church halls and being beaten up

and bricks thrown through the van windows and everything.

And to have money at last is just another figure in my mind

of mass acceptance, which is what we all work for.

( narrator ) When "Led Zeppelin II" was finally finished,

the album was released stateside

on October 22, 1969,

and was an instant hit with timeless classics like

"Whole Lotta Love" and "Heartbreaker."

It didn't take long for "Led Zeppelin II"

to knock the Beatles' "Abbey Road" off the top of the charts.

At five minutes, 33 seconds, the album's centerpiece,

"Whole Lotta Love,"

was deemed too long for a.m. radio airplay,

so Atlantic released an edited version as a single.

The band wasn't happy.

( Richard ) They didn't like releasing singles,

but I think it may have been because they wanted to--

Originally one of the things was

they wanted to show the whole product of the album.

If you take a single off an album and stick it out,

that's just a part of the album.

It might as well stay on the album.

But in the past, through Atlantic Records,

they've worded it into saying,

oh, let's have a single, let's have a single, you know.

'Cause the top 40 stations over there and lots of young kids

who probably wouldn't get into the album

unless they heard a track on the top 40 stations, you know ?

I personally don't agree with it.

( Marky ) "Whole Lotta Love," that was their single.

Especially in the middle with the bongos and--

***Ah, ah, ah, ah.***

Then Bonham's big roll.

You know--

And then Page with the lead.

And then come out of it perfectly.

What a song.

( narrator ) The band members were garnering a lot of attention,

not only for their music,

but also for the way they dressed on stage,

especially Jimmy.

( Pamela ) Well, he wore velvets, though,

and satins and silks and embroidered things

and beaded things and you know--

Feminine things, lot of chiffon, patent leather shoes,

things like that, you know.

These guys were androgynous.

It feels safe, in a way.

You know, you feel like you're almost connecting with another

part of yourself.

That was a very interesting draw for young women, too.

I think Jimmy Page really invented that image

of the almighty rock guitar player.

( narrator ) The cloud of mystique that shadowed the band

grew with the news of Jimmy Page's interest

in Aleister Crowley,

an early 20th-century Englishman aligned with

black magic and demonology.

Page's fascination with Crowley led many to believe

he was into black magic himself.

( Lori ) I think he was absolutely fascinated with the man

and the knowledge of the Will.

I don't think--

I mean, you know, he owned a lot of manuscripts

and he bought the Inverness Castle.

That was also Crowley's.

And I think with it, he had purchased a lot of manuscripts,

and at one point, he had a bookstore in England,

an occult bookstore, and he was really more

fascinated by the knowledge of it.

It was a sincere fascination and I think he took a lot out of it,

and I think it came through in his music,

a lot of that amazing depth

and, you know, mystery and all that

came out in his music.

He was very interested in those types of things,

otherworldly things.

You know, all that selling the soul to the devil--

That's just bullshit.

None of that took place, none of it.

( Richard ) I mean, the whole myth about selling their soul to the devil,

oh, we want you to cut your hand in blood,

we want you to make a pact, you're going--

oh, fuck off with your fucking devil and your shit.

Get out of here, you know, I mean, that--

I mean, he just wasn't--

What the hell are you talking about ?

I mean, it just wasn't happening.

( narrator ) Despite the truckloads of money that were now pouring in,

whenever Led Zeppelin was in Los Angeles,

they chose to stay at the relatively luxury-free

Continental Hyatt House on the Sunset Strip.

We, of course, could have stayed anywhere

with the money that we had,

but we just preferred that hotel.

( Jim ) They always used to rent the whole top of the Hyatt House.

For one thing, the swimming pool

was on the top, on the roof, you know,

so they could always go up to the swimming pool

and do their thing.

But as the lift door opened

and I looked out, the carpet had about...

... Foam about that deep.

As I looked out, this naked girl came sliding past on her belly,

and then another one.

Followed by-- followed by John Paul Jones and John Bonham.

When our old crew was in town, the ***choko*** crew,

we obviously had all--

What rooms we wanted on the Sunset side.

The rear side, we gave to the road crew.

We went into the road crew's rooms,

took their televisions out,

threw 'em out of the windows on the other side

so that when the people came running upstairs,

they'd look and see the television still there.

They didn't comprehend that we'd taken them off the other side

and thrown them out that window.

Every single floor was a party.

Everywhere you looked, there were people hanging out.

Everybody called it the riot house, the Hyatt House,

'cause it was a party house.

The manager's there, and Peter and I are standing there,

and I've got the cash and we're going through the bill

and the guy's doing the bill and he says, you know,

this and that and you know, you had these rooms

and you threw that out the window, and that--

And I said, you know, we fucking know what we've done,

just give us the bill, how much do you want ?

Fine, got out the money.

They guy looked--

And we said, at least we fucking paid you,

what's wrong with you ?

He said it's not that easy.

Don't you know what--

I can't imagine what it must be like for you guys.

I work in this fucking hotel, I'd love to smash a room up.

So Peter said, oh, is that all it is ?

Well, go and take one of the rooms, go and smash it up,

we're leaving in 15 minutes, bring me the bill.

( Lori ) It was rock & roll.

It was all about the decadence.

How could you not like having limos and jets and women

and you know,

the Beatles hanging out with you every night

and Stevie Wonder and this and that and the champagne and the--

It was fun.

( man ) Yeah, I think they sort of pretty much set

the industry standard there, raised the bar.

In fact, it only actually increased the interest in them

because you stopped thinking about them just totally in this

musical sense, you know,

they were just a kind of spectacle

and it was just a bombardment of light and sound.

And now there was a completely new dimension to this group,

this appalling behavior in excess

and in a way, it kind of provided this incredibly rich

soap opera.

( narrator ) The band returned home exhausted from months on the road.

Robert and Jimmy took to a secluded spot in Wales

called Bron-Yr-Aur.

The isolation of the beautiful countryside

was the perfect place to write

and inspired the organic acoustic-based material that

comprised much of the next album,

"Led Zeppelin III."

Later, the band and crew convened at Headley Grange,

a house in the English countryside.

( Andy ) It was this old farming sort of mansion.

There were four floors.

So it was like walking into, almost the lobby of a hotel.

( Simon ) It was built in the 18th century and it had about ten bedrooms.

Very spooky, especially early in the morning with the mist

and this black dog that had died the week before.

That's where Zeppelin got that track from--

there was a dog that died in one of the rooms--

and big Baronial type banquet hall and huge fireplaces,

huge basement, which ran the length and breadth of the house.

( Richard ) The main thing is that they're all together,

so therefore, you don't waste time.

You haven't got four people and an engineer and a--

Well, there wasn't a producer, Jimmy was the producer--

An engineer, coming from different parts

to be at the studio to start work at a certain time.

They were there and when they wanted to start, they started.

The appeal of recording like that is that you--

You're never under a red light.

The place is yours to come and go as you wish.

Whatever time you--

If you want to get up at 2:00 in the morning and record, you can.

So you're not constricted by any time parameters

and it's a very leisurely approach to recording.

( Marky ) Things were getting lighter on the radio.

You had Carly Simon, James Taylor.

The people were wearing earth tone colors,

so they started getting a little lighter, too.

( Simon ) When you think about it,

a large portion of their songs were folk songs,

just 12-string and acoustic guitars.

There was a lot of folk in Zeppelin, believe it or not.

Probably the heaviest folk band that ever existed.

( narrator ) Work was progressing nicely,

with songs written and recorded all in the same location.

"Led Zeppelin III" was released at the end of October 1970,

and as with their two previous albums,

the critics panned it.

They charged that the record's largely acoustic format

was an attempt to piggyback on the success

of the popular new group, Crosby, Stills & Nash.

( Richard ) I think they were hurt by the thing.

I mean, they're selling more records than anyone else,

they were selling out more shows than anyone else,

they were earning more than anyone else.

And yet all they were doing was getting pummeled by the press

for no reason at all, because what the press was saying

didn't match up to the statistics.

( Lori ) I know that he was very sensitive about what they wrote

about him and it really upset him a lot,

because he was one of the greatest guitar players ever

and how dare they judge him, you know ?

( narrator ) Led Zeppelin recognized what really mattered most,

their fans.

Though it didn't sell as well as "Led Zeppelin II,"

their phenomenal success was showing no signs of abating,

with the third album topping the charts

for four consecutive weeks.

Before long, Page and Plant found themselves back in Wales

at Bron-Yr-Aur

writing new material for their fourth album.

After a brief recording stint in London,

the band once again headed out to Headley Grange

to continue rehearsals and recording.

Trained and also inspirational fellows

waiting for a moment to walk in.

That was the difference with them.

Nothing was truly planned, but they were holding,

in their minds and hearts and down their spines,

especially Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones,

a lot of knowledge.

Percy Plant obviously had this gift, and Bonzo,

well, it's an actual fact at the time,

no one had played thus.

So you put those four fellas together and you never knew

quite what was gonna happen, you knew it was gonna be good

and so astounding,

you felt like some weird cipher who wasn't ready to catch

something that had never happened before

and how do I catch this and not let them down ?

How do I deal with this ?

It was so big.

Terrific and wonderful.

( narrator ) Soon, they were working in earnest

on an evocative power ballad,

a song that would unquestionably become their anthem

and in the process, become one of the most played songs

on rock radio, "Stairway to Heaven."

Until the whole band comes in on the sixth verse,

it's basically-- It's a folk song.

You know, A-minor and there's a lovely chord sequence

and there's a little mellotron in the back and a flute

and they--

You know, until Bonzo comes in, it's--

It could be Peter, Paul & Mary on steroids.

( Jimmy ) Well, it was recorded on location, at Headley.

Andy Jones was doing the engineering.

And a lot of people, with a song like that,

would take two or three days.

It took them two hours.

And then it was done.

And you knew, because you had worked with them before,

this is a basis for something really quite special.

And if you think about it, "Stairway to Heaven,"

number of instruments, there's the drums,

there's the bass, there's the acoustic guitar,

there is the Gibson guitar,

there are the two direct 12-strings;

after that, Percy's voice

and record it to the beginning and the end

and that's it, pal.

( Jimmy ) I knew it was good, but I didn't know it was going to be,

you know, almost like an anthem,

but I knew it was the gem of the album, sure.

( J.J. ) Peter called and said, J.J, I want you to--

I want you to hear something that we've just finished.

So he sent Richard Cole to come get me at the station

and took me directly to the studios.

They wanted to hear what I felt about this.

And they put it on and I went--

I just said to him, ***G,***

this is the best thing they've ever done.

This is just gonna be incredible.

( narrator ) "Led Zeppelin IV" was released in November 1971

and quickly rose to number two on the charts.

"Stairway to Heaven" was the album's highlight,

but at seven minutes and 55 seconds,

it was much too long for the radio.

Atlantic pressed for a shorter version.

( Richard ) "Stairway" was gonna be a monstrous record.

I mean, I think it may be quite clear to Atlantic,

don't fuck around with us this time.

This is not gonna be a single.

And also, they knew that if that--

People wanted to buy "Stairway to Heaven,"

they'd have to buy the whole album.

It became an industry, really,

with Led Zeppelin when Peter Grant

turned it from a single selling commodity to albums

and that did bring a change,

that they could play for three hours

and they could also sell albums.

( narrator ) Led Zeppelin's notorious manager Peter Grant

was also throwing his weight around with concert promoters.

Where bands once received 50 to 60% of a show's profits,

Peter asserted that the rules had changed.

From now on, a whopping 90% would go to Led Zeppelin,

take it or leave it.

( man ) With Peter Grant,

their pioneering way of altering the structure

of the major tours in America where it was the artist

rather than the promoter

who got the main source of revenue from those.

Groups and artists were ripped off in every way

from record companies to promoters.

In every aspect, groups were ripped off and Peter Grant

wasn't having that.

I-- I had nothing but admiration for the man

and he never, ever forgot anyone,

no matter how big or how small on the ladder,

that he felt was good for the band and/or for him.

You know, he was with you 100%.

( Chris ) We owe so much to that man.

He changed the balance for musicians to promoters

to the record companies, et cetera.

I mean, one man.

I mean, so that is creative, his vision was amazing.

His dedication was with Led Zeppelin

and between them, they had a very powerful tool.

( J.J. ) Don't cross him, though.

No, don't cross him.

( Lori ) He could be really mean when he wanted to be,

not to me, but just to other people, you know.

He's such a big man and had such a big presence about him

that if you ever saw him enraged or--

You would be terrified of him.

( narrator ) The promoters had no choice

but to buckle under Grant's new demands.

Led Zeppelin embarked on their eighth tour

of the United States, raking in more money than ever.

Back in LA, they returned to their favorite haunts,

the riot house, the Whisky and the Rainbow Bar & Grill.

At that point in time,

there was an influx of baby groupies,

and I mean babies.

They were 13 and 14.

And I was already the grand old age of 21.

Boy, the guys wanted these baby girls.

That was the next step for these guys,

so Jimmy got involved with a young girl named Lori.

( Lori ) I first heard Led Zeppelin in 1973

and obviously, it was "Stairway to Heaven."

I became an immediate fan and

fell in love with the band from day one

and never had any aspirations of meeting Jimmy

or wanting to meet them or anything like that.

At that particular time, I was a teen model,

and so that's how I met Jimmy, actually,

because he'd seen my photograph and wanted to meet me.

What happened was is--

I guess Led Zeppelin came to town and had seen

all these photos

and Jimmy had made a call to Lee Childer

saying I want to meet Lori Maddix.

So next thing you know,

we were taking a drive down to the Hyatt House

to go meet the band and I was terrified

because, first of all, I was still--

I mean, I was a baby.

You know, I mean, come on, I was a--

This is Led Zeppelin.

She was 14 or not quite 14,

and he just was intrigued with it.

You know, we--

Our thing had run its course in his mind, so--

Not in mine, of course.

And so one day, they were in town, we hooked up,

we got together,

I was at the Whisky with him and he left with this girl.

( Lori ) He just had this really wonderful, like, you know,

calm demeanor about him.

Something very mysterious and always kind and sweet.

I don't know how to explain him.

He's a--

When you do meet him and when you do get to know him,

you just immediately fall in love with him

'cause he's so sweet.

I used to stand on the side of the stage and just be in awe

and say, why me, you know ?

He's playing in front of 30,000 people at the forum

and there I am, standing there, and you know, he's playing.

It was the most beautiful thing ever.

( narrator ) The beginning of 1973 saw the long-awaited release of

Zeppelin's fifth album, "Houses of the Holy."

This would mark the first Led Zeppelin album

to have an actual title.

Ever since the Beatles' breakup in April of 1970,

Led Zeppelin had wrestled their crown away

and were deemed rock's most successful attraction.

By that time, their popularity was so immense and far-reaching

that a member of the Fab Four came calling to see what

the fuss was all about.

George had come to the show 'cause he called me up

and he said, when do I arrive ?

And I said, what do you mean when do you arrive ?

You fucking arrive at the beginning.

So he said, what about-- When's the intermission ?

I said, what intermission ?

He said, you don't have--

No, they go on 8:00 and they finish at 10:30.

He said, you're joking, I said no.

He said, fuck me, we used to be booked for 20 minutes

and be off stage in 15.

On the tour, Led Zeppelin played to sold-out crowds

at New York's Madison Square Garden,

but the bigger story was the one that occurred

offstage at the nearby Drake Hotel.

( Richard ) Jimmy called me wanting $600 or something to buy a new guitar.

And I went to the safe and I got the 600

and locked it back up again.

Gave him his money and when we were leaving the hotel

to go to Madison Square Garden,

I needed to get the money out to pay the film crew

and pay off the jet or whatever bits and pieces,

business, what you do.

So Peter said, take all-- Bring all the money with you.

Well, when I looked in there,

the only thing in there were four passports.

They-- You know, they'd known me for years,

they knew I didn't steal it.

They weren't pissed off with me.

I think they were pissed off that it was gone.

The FBI conducted an investigation,

but the culprit was never found,

nor was the $203,000 in cash.

The band returned home and spent the remainder of the year

with their families.

The end of 1973 also spelled the end of Led Zeppelin's contract

with Atlantic Records.

Because of their immense popularity,

the price for a contract renewal would be steep.

Part of that price was the formation

of the band's own label, Swan Song Records.

We were like, the first band that they ever signed

and it just so happened that they were launching Swan Song

that month, so we, as their proteges,

had to go to the openings in LA and New York, of Swan Song,

the launch parties.

First time I met Bonzo was when he gave us a lecture

on behaving ourselves.

Bonzo marched into our rooms and said,

this is a big day for us and--

You know, keep the British flag flying and behave yourself,

don't drink too much.

All right.

Bless him.

On May 10, 1974, Led Zeppelin

hosted an elaborate launch party in LA for their new label.

Jesus, I mean, I'd never seen celebrities like Groucho Marx.

When Groucho walked in with these two blondes,

one on each arm, he just stopped the proceedings.

Groucho may have impressed them,

but when Led Zeppelin heard that their musical hero,

Elvis Presley, was playing the LA Forum,

they arranged a meeting with the king.

Tom Hulett, the concert promoter, was also--

Would promote Led Zeppelin, that group, their shows,

and they happened to be in LA at the time we were playing

The Forum, and they wanted to meet Elvis.

And Tom Hulett, he asked Elvis

if it was okay if he brought Led Zeppelin

to see him and he said yeah.

And they came up, you know, they met Elvis.

They were just thrilled as could be.

They always idolized Elvis and you know, they--

one of the other groups said,

if it wasn't for Elvis, we wouldn't have been musicians,

and it was exciting for them and Elvis was thrilled.

You know, they were nice guys.

It was a whole funny evening, you know.

But I mean, they were--

Everyone was kind of tiptoeing around, 'cause this was Elvis

and you know, I'm sure it'd be like meeting

the Queen of England or something, you know,

someone that you're really never gonna get close to

or even imagine you're gonna have anything to do with.

( narrator ) February 24, 1975, saw the release

of Led Zeppelin's sixth album and their first on Swan Song.

A double album, "Physical Graffiti"

quickly rose to the number-one chart position.

The band settled in Malibu to write songs for the next album

and relax near their private playground of Los Angeles.

Then, in November of 1975,

Led Zeppelin entered Musicland studios in Munich, Germany,

to record the "Presence" album in a whirlwind 18 days.

They were quick.

I mean, "Presence" was done in, like, three weeks.

( Jimmy ) There was no time to really think the things out.

I just had to lay it down, more or less.

First track, harmonize, second track.

You know, it was really fast working on that

and all the guitar overdubs in "Presence"

were done in one night.

I didn't think I'd be able to do it in one night.

I thought it would take--

I'd have to do it across maybe three different nights

to get the individual sections.

It sort of crystallized and everything was just pouring out,

you know.

I was very happy with the guitar playing on that whole album,

you know, as far as the maturity of playing goes.

( Richard ) They rehearsed it and wrote it out in Malibu,

flew into Munich.

I mean, Page had this wonderful idea which I hated

that he always recorded in the miserable places

in the cold weather.

I don't know whether he did it on purpose

'cause he knew there was nothing else to do

but work and that way they'd have to

get out there quick.

If they'd done it in Barbados, they'd never get anything done.

( narrator ) In October of 1976, an idea that Peter and the band

had put in motion years earlier finally came to fruition.

They had hired Joe Massot to make a movie about Led Zeppelin

on the road

and the resulting "The Song Remains the Same"

was finally released.

It all started in the Sheraton Hotel in Boston.

And everybody was sitting around talking about a film

which we talked about for some time,

the group had talked about it.

And somebody said, why don't we make a film, ***G*** ?

So I said, yeah, that's an idea.

It's one gig at Madison Square Garden

interspersed by what we would consider to be representations

of how we would like ourselves to be seen or--

Offstage, you know ?

I think the main thing was to get over the fact

that it just wasn't a film of a concert.

I mean, there's been lots of sort of--

Well, not lots, but there's been quite a few films

that have just been concerts on the stage

and we wanted to get beyond that.

( Robert ) Yeah, if we're gonna be self-indulgent,

we might as well try and expand that indulgence a little bit,

you know.

They were totally in charge.

They had a picture in their mind of what they wanted to see.

It was a matter of having the director shoot

what was in their mind.

( Jimmy ) I mean, there's certain things that piss me off about

the actual film, but nevertheless, I mean,

as far as it goes,

I'm really pleased it is there.

It's a documentary more than anything else.

( man ) Led Zeppelin in concerts and beyond.

I think a lot of the joy went out of Zeppelin when they were--

A succession of tragic events which shocked everybody, really.

Zeppelin were at their peak, selling albums by the truckload,

and everybody wanted to see them

and their shows are huge sellouts.

Zeppelin were highly respected, and then suddenly,

everything seemed to go pear-shaped.

( narrator ) On July 26, 1977, tragedy struck when news came from England

that Robert Plant's five-year-old son, Karac,

had died from a stomach infection.

Robert was devastated.

And then there was the terrible news that Robert Plant's son,

Karac, had died back in England,

so they had to cancel the tour and everybody had to fly back.

I think a lot of the fun went out--

Went out of Zeppelin,

certainly as far as Robert Plant was concerned.

( Richard ) No one pushed him to do anything.

Peter and the band sat back and said, look, you know,

whenever you're ready, let us know what you want to do,

if you want to do something, and that was really it.

( narrator ) Eventually, Robert reunited with the band

to record their ninth album.

Released at the end of 1979,

"In Through the Out Door" went on to sell more than

5 million copies.

The release of our album "Head Games"

coincided with the release of "In Through the Out Door."

Somebody brought me a test pressing of it

and I heard it and I--

Oh, Jesus.

( narrator ) Despite the success of "In Through the Out Door,"

discernible cracks were beginning to form within

Led Zeppelin's airtight organization as well.

I've witnessed Bonzo just cut loose.

He had definitely split personality,

when he was drinking, when he wasn't drinking.

He was a big teddy bear.

He wasn't one of the ones who messed around a lot at all.

He wanted to go home to his wife and kids.

He was such a good father and he really loved his wife

and he really loved his kids, Zoe and Jason.

I think that John's only problem

was he had a classic drinking problem.

His personality completely--

He was a different person sober than he was drunk

and when he became drunk, he became loud and boisterous

and a different person.

But when he was sober, he was, like, gentle as a lamb.

( Simon ) With Bonzo, it was like going out with a sailor

who had 12 hours to live, 'cause he packed it all in.

He was-- He was a lovely guy.

At the end of one tour, I went up to say goodbye,

knocked on his door--

"Come in."

And there he was.

He was packing his suitcase.

Very fastidious, John.

He had all his clothes hung and--

Very neat and tidy.

But he was wrapping these sort of Japanese dolls

and little dolls that he collected from various countries

and towns for Zoe, his little daughter,

and he was wrapping them individually.

"This is for Zoe, I don't see enough of her."

And they were all laid out in a row in this suitcase

and I thought, wow.

People don't realize how much time they spend away from home.

So he was--

He would get really drunk and then become a whole other

human being, a real angry guy.

The mixed feelings would come when he had to go to work

and he didn't particularly want to go to work.

He wanted to be at home with his wife

and maybe the baby or something like that.

( narrator ) By September, Led Zeppelin was ensconced in rehearsals

for their upcoming highly anticipated tour of America,

but it was during these rehearsals

that the group was dealt an unthinkable blow.

( Carmine ) Bonzo, when he got drunk, was--

You didn't want to be in the raw end with him.

But he was just very--

Gets very nasty, very wild, you know.

The booze, you know.

The booze, I mean, that's what killed him, you know.

( narrator ) John Bonham was known as a man who loved his alcohol.

On September 24, 1980,

Bonham was picked up from his hotel for rehearsals

at Bray Studios.

During the journey, Bonham consumed a steady diet of

quadruple screwdrivers

and continued to drink heavily at the studio.

A halt was called to the rehearsals late in the evening

and the band retired to Jimmy Page's house in Windsor.

After midnight, Bonham had fallen asleep

and was taken to bed.

He died in his sleep later that night.

He was only 32.

( Simon ) Shocked.

I mean, I was just shocked.

No one knew at that moment how he died.

We knew that they were rehearsing.

But how could he die in a rehearsal ?

You know, this was the thing.

We didn't realize that the time he drunk and they put him to bed

and you know, the classic rock & roll death,

you know, choking on his own vomit,

so I thought he had a car crash.

It were drugs, I had no idea.

I just knew something terrible--

The fallout from this was gonna be disastrous,

'cause they were such a tight-knit band,

and if one went, that was it.

( Richard ) Yeah, there were four equal members, you know,

when they were on that stage.

You know, one would shine more than the other

for a certain part,

but I mean, together they were a unit.

I mean, I think that's why they broke up.

You know, Bonham was an integral part,

but that was what Led Zeppelin was, was those four guys.

When he died, the band evaporated,

or I think those guys just knew

that you couldn't put anybody else in there

and do what Bonham did and make that band work.

( Chris W. ) I think everybody probably wanted Led Zeppelin to continue,

and there were plenty of contenders for the job of being

the drummer with Led Zeppelin--

Cozy Powell, Carmine Appice,

and people that could have played it,

they could have done the gig,

but it wouldn't have been the same

because John Bonham was so special.

His personality was so powerful

and of course, as I mentioned before, they were a team.

They were friends and you couldn't really replace him

and I think, in retrospect, it was the best thing to do.

Part of my charisma is, you know,

is reliant on the other three, you know,

and the same with everybody else, you know,

we really get off on playing together.

That's the whole secret of--

I couldn't really go away and play with anybody else,

'cause if I wanted to play,

who else would I need for a drummer but Bonzo, you know ?

And the same with Jimmy and Jonesie.

I don't think it could-- It wouldn't be right.

( Roy ) Bonzo was one of Robert's best friends from a very early age,

so Robert was almost mortally wounded.

He was wounded forever after.

It took a big toll on Robert,

and I think it took a big toll on the other two as well.

♪

Led Zeppelin, what can you say ?

They're a huge influence.

Huge influence on everybody.

It was the most amazing thing ever,

you'll never see rock & roll like that ever again.

There was nothing like it

and they were the most fantastic live rock band ever.

No band has ever matched them.

Bands have come along who have been fantastic,

but who can do all of that ?

( Simon ) Zeppelin will always be the number-one hard rock band.

They were four amazing guys,

they looked great, they played great.

They were the first adventurous hard rock band

and by virtue of that fact, they'll always be the best.

♪