LED ZEPPELIN

The beginning of one of the greatest rock bands in history and largely responsible for such offshoots as heavy metal came at the dawn of 1969 with the release of their eponymous debut album, "Led Zeppelin". Led by singer Robert Plant and Jimmy Page, one of the former guitarists of the legendary Yardbirds, less than 30 hours in the recording studios were enough to shake up the music scene of the time with a proposal that borrowed (and often more than borrowed...) elements from American fifties blues, soul, folk and psychedelia, and put them in a cocktail shaker adding their own unique energy and forcefulness.

That sonic assault is present in all the nuances that Led Zeppelin knew how to make use of, such as the early hard rock in Page's boxed guitar riffs in the fleeting aggressiveness of "Good Times, Bad Times" and "Communication Breakdown", or the spirited folk vein of the excellent "Babe, I'm Gonna Leave You", a piece adapted from the singer of the genre Anne Bredon and also covered by Joan Baez, or the intense blues of the superlative "You Shook Me" and the Hammond of John Paul Jones going beyond his role as bass player and "I Can't Quit You Baby" with the Plant/Page duo in a superb voice/guitar duel, both pieces unbeatable adaptations taken from the American bluesman Wilie Dixon.

And the combination of blues and psychedelia of the experimental "Dazed and Confused" (in my opinion the best track on the album and not without some skirmishes with the American singer-songwriter Jack Holmes over royalties), and "How Many More Times" with Page at the helm of the bowed guitar (so called because of the use of the violin bow instead of a pick to achieve that particular sound) and John Bonham in great form as on the whole album, complete the collage of the auspicious debut of the English band.

A new way of understanding and interpreting music was born with Led Zeppelin and their iconic first album is still an obligatory reference today.

4 stars