All language subtitles for LED ZEPPELIN 1970 - Behind the Recording of Led Zeppelin III

Leed Zeppelin's thirdd studio album

released only 2 years since their

Inception represents a significant step

in the evolution of the band featuring a

greater range of instrumentation and

eventually venturing out the traditional

Studio environment and shaking up their

creative approach it represents the

realization of the creative control they

insisted on since the beginning their

first two albums both released the year

prior had established a successful

formula of hard rock this was epitomized

by the driving Blues of whole lot of

love the massive hit single that pushed

LED zein 2 to Platinum Status however as

the band took a well-deserved break from

Toren they knew it was time to push

their creative boundaries Paige remarked

people said we'd blown it not coming up

with another album like the second one

but in some ways the third album was the

real beginning of the band and plant

said when we made Leed Zeppelin 3 we

achieved two things we became the band

that wasn't going away and a band who

are never going to repeat themselves the

initial recording sessions took place at

Olympic studios in November 1969 the

band were already familiar with with

Olympic having recorded their first

album there the original plan was to

Simply record and release a single

although this plan was abandoned in

favor of concentrating on an album as

was their normal policy the song in

question Immigrant Song was actually

released later becoming a hit and became

the albums driving opener plant recalls

its Inception we weren't being pompus we

did come from the land of the ice and

snow we were guests of the Icelandic

government on a Cultural Mission we were

invited to play a concert in ruic 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 the trip

and it was the opening track on the

album that was intended to be incredibly

different May 1970 saw the band take a

well earned break from extensive touring

and it was an opportunity for Paige and

plan to take a holiday together Jimmy

remembers we'd been working solidly and

I thought it was time for a break or at

least some time to get away from the

road Robert suggested going to this

Cottage in South Wales that he'd once

been to with his parents when he was

much younger he was going on about what

a beautiful place it was and I became

pretty Keen to go there so off we went

taking along our guitars of course it

wasn't a question of let's go and knock

a few songs out in the country it was

more of a case of getting away for a bit

as the nights wore on the guitars came

out and the numbers began to be written

Pig and plant withdrew the remote Welsh

Cottage Bron a where the absence of

electricity and running water provided

the ideal distraction from the outside

world the song that perfectly captured

the layback vibe was that's the way born

from an afternoon walk that paig and

plant took through the nearby Hills as

Robert paused to roll a joint Jimmy who

had his guitar slung over his back

started strumming some chords riffing

off a traditional F tune called the

wagon's lad Robert sang along and within

minutes they' worked out an arrangement

they initially called The Boy Next Door

later renamed that's the way they

recorded their new creation on a

cassette recorder pulled from a napsack

then celebrated with some cake for the

next part of the album's recording they

headed off to Hampshire and an old Mana

house named Headley Grange while

traditional Studios still had their

place a lot of the bands at this point

became dissatisfied with the rigidity of

the setup and some like the Rolling

Stones decided to set up a way to

recording locations of their choosing

with a band setting up a mobile

recording studio based around a BMC

truck that contained a 16 track

self-contained Studio this Innovative

solution was developed in conjunction

with Helios Electronics with Glenn

John's also contributing to the idea of

the layout and the function the Helios

based preamp served as the front end to

the desk with the system also containing

dedicated Helios compressors and popular

compex compressors Yuri 1176 compressors

were also available in the truck it was

engineer Andy Johns that suggested to

Jimmy that it might be worth checking

out the Rolling Stone setup and hiring

this truck and MC Jagger's Mansion Andy

remembers I mentioned to Jimmy look we

should use the truck and he said okay

how much does that cost well the truck's

about £1,000 a week and so is Mick's

house paig replied I'm not giving Mick

Jagger £1,000 for some old mansion I'll

find somewhere else they did find

somewhere else namely Headley Grange an

Old Country House in Hampshire it was

cheaper as Jimmy had planned but it was

also a bit run down with damp and

heating issues but in order to appease

the band Jimmy at least volunteered to

take the worst bedroom the main idea was

to record without distraction or daily

schedule and for everybody to be present

in case of a spark of creativity was lit

and they could all join in and take

advantage the truck was parked in in

front of the house and they piled wires

through the windows of the drawing room

which would be the main recording space

for the album Andy John's recalls there

were all in the same living room space

and there would play pretty bloody loud

the sound level would build up

tremendously with no real local pub to

disappear to they instead relied on the

local Village shop and opened an account

to fill up on large quantities of cider

Jimmy's main guitars for the record was

59 Les Paul and fend a Telecaster

nicknamed the Dragon for Acoustics he

had his Harmony sovereign h126 heard

prominently on Tangerine and his Martin

D28 around this time Jimmy's main stage

amps was a modded Marshall SLP 1959 100

wat amp but he actually tended to rely

on his modded highwat d103 a much

smaller and also modded super carnado

1690t in fact one of the best tones on

the record which was put down in the

studio later on in an overdub session

was Jimmy solo on since I've been loving

you which came about after Jimmy left

the main Studio live room in frustration

at not getting a decent tones through

his Marshall apparently there in the

corridor was another band's small loww

amp inspiration struck as according to

engineer Terry Manning he took it into

the studio without adjusting any knobs

plugged it in and played it in one take

another key instrument page used was the

MSA 10 string pedal steel guitar on

Tangerine it's also worth noting his

effects which were the Roger mayor

fuzzbox the solar s tone Bender Fox

crybaby W Modified by Roger mayor and

the Maestro Echoplex John Paul Jones's

setup for the album was his 1962 Fender

Jazz Bass into an acoustic 360 base head

paired with a 361 cabinet he was

required to play much more than bass on

this album though taking care of Hammond

Organ mandolin and MOG synthesizer on

friends and Celebration Day celebration

day also opens with Jones's incredible

slide riff he was so busy in fact that

Paige actually ended up putting the base

down for that's the way JNS remembers

using a few different microphones on the

amps that were banged up against the

speaker these included the nyman u67 a

Bayer m160 an AKG d25 and AKG D12 John

bonam played his lwig green Sparkle kit

for the session miked up usually with

just three main mics one near the kick

and two above the kit in a familiar Glen

John setup the mics were likely an AKG

D30 for the kick and nyman km 84s as

overheads when Terry Manning was setting

up an overdub session at ardan they

automatically started close Mike in his

kit bonom came in and told him he wasn't

having any of it man and informed bonom

that it would be good in order to

balance the volume of the kit to which

bonam replied uh I think that's my job

as with the previous albums the band

were definitely more than inspired by

their influences although they normally

took from Old Blues numbers Since I've

Been Loving You borrows heavily from

Moby Grapes song Never with the band

required to go back on the road they had

to temporarily leave the album projects

incomplete that was until Jimmy got in

touch with old friend Terry Manning who

worked at Ardent Studio in Memphis who

we asked to assist in completing

everything with overdubs followed by

Mixon and masterin back then with no

automation a Mixon session was a

performance so panning and volume levels

were adjusted in real time as the

multitracks were fed into the stereo

Master tape Terry said Jimmy had his

hands right on the console as well and

we planned out what we were going to do

so it was all hands on deck there I

think once even Peter Grant their

manager had to get in the middle and

push a fader out on the tiles there's a

very long fade out with ton rolls all

the time we didn't have stereo drums but

we wanted to give a bit of a stereo

effect so on the Tom rolls just as John

bonam finishes hitting the snare and was

about to hit the Tom I would take the

pan pot and Jab it over to the left and

then when he played the Tom roll I would

roll it to the right just before the

next snare came in I would be sure to

put it right back in the center but one

of the times I missed it and the snare

comes in over on the right quite a bit

more than I should do every time I hear

that I just laugh Terry remembers how

Paige loved to embrace happy accidents

one such occasion is the first thing you

hear on the record

the tape noise that precedes Immigrant

Song wasn't seen as a hindrance and

removed but instead fed through an

Echoplex and repeated a few times for

good measure another occasion was the

segue between friends and celebration

day as the drums at the beginning of

Celebration Day were accidentally erased

instead of re-recording the drum Zone

they went with it and created the synth

drone to cover it up the album's release

was hugely anticipated with pre-orders

of over a million records the New

Direction was mainly well received but

but some critics bemoon the lack of a

new whole lot of love with the second

side of the album being almost

exclusively acoustic Andy Johns recalled

there'd been a bit of a backlash about

the Zep 3 album being more of an

acoustic type thing the album sold well

but there were some complaints about

what had happened to Leed Zeppelin like

where's the meat today it holds up as

one of their best works and a key shift

in their sound so not only is it a great

album but an important part in the Leed

Zeppelin story

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