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Originally Posted by craigmorris74  I don't think Page got lucky at all. After leaving the Yardbirds, he was going to do a pretty cool project no matter who was involved. Are the other guys great players that meshed well together? Sure. But Page was going to do something big with the ideas and experiences he had. |
Absolutely. Page always claimed that he had the first Zep album totally planned in his mind even before finalizing the personel. Plant and Bonham were on a salary originally and it was Page calling the shots and paying for the sessions.
For Zep I, Page re-worked quite a few ideas that he first tried out in the Yardbirds and other settings: Dazed and Confused, White Summer/Black Mountain Side and also 'Beck's Bolero'.
But to get back on topic.... I think it's very useful to analyze these recordings and learn about the gear and techniques used but to really understand what's going on, you need to go back and check out Page's influences as well. He really went back to 50ies recording technology, especially the Sun studio stuff with it's compressed ambience/slapback stylings. Slapback echo was essential to Led Zeppelin, it's all over Plant's vocals and surely essential to the famed 'Levee' drum sound as well. The same goes for distant micing.
Page once said that in the same way that The Rolling Stones were considered to be the sons of Muddy Waters, he liked to see Led Zeppelin as the sons of Howlin' Wolf. It makes total sense and Wolf's Sun and Chess sides are a virtual blueprint for what became 'heavy rock'. Check out that stuff, it's amazing!