Led Zeppelin: The Beginning

Jimmy Page was fresh from his disbanded group the Yardbirds and was looking for new musicians. As luck would have it, he found three talented guys to fit the bill - Robert Plant, John Bonham, and John Paul Jones. With Page on lead guitar, Plant on vocals, Bonham on drums, and Jones on bass, they formed together to become the legendary... New Yardbirds?

The New Yardbirds were the seed that would soon blossom into Led Zeppelin. The band toured Scandinavia and developed their signature sound. While on tour, they wrote and performed some original songs until 1968 when Page brought them into the studio to record their first album. It was then that they officially became Led Zeppelin - born of a joke between Page, Jeff Beck, Keith Moon, and John Entwistle that described a group between them going over like a "lead balloon." Entwistle retorted, "A Lead Zeppelin!" and the name stuck, resurrected by Page for his new band's first album, the self-titled Led Zeppelin.

Led Zeppelin the album was a revolution in rock and blues, combining multi-layered tracks and masking with psychedelic rock, acoustic folk numbers, and hardcore heavy metal. Original songs like "Communication Breakdown" and "Dazed and Confused" were high-energy sound-twisting rock anthems, while renditions like "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You" and "You Shook Me" redefined classic folk and blues. The album was initially critically panned, but fans ate it up, and it launched Led Zeppelin into a career of rock superstardom - as innovators and talented musicians.