II - Led Zeppelin

YEAR: 1969

LABEL: Atlantic

TRACK LISTING: Whole Lotta Love, What Is And What Should Never Be, The Lemon Song, Thank You, Heartbreaker, Living Loving Maid (She's Just A Woman), Ramble On, Moby Dick, Bring It On Home

IMPRESSIONS: What is the better album? II or IV? The controversy rages on. If it's any indication, Bonzo's son thinks it's II. There's no mistaking that "The Brown Bomber" is an extremely influential album in the history of hard rock and the formation of heavy metal. Good as their first album is, it seems like it wasn't until "II" that Led Zeppelin had really crystalized their sound into what we really think of as Led Zeppelin. The priapic and (sadly) overfamiliar "Whole Lotta Love" and the Robert Johnsonesque "The Lemon Song" are bursting with virility while "Ramble On" features the Tolkien-inspired fantasy elements which would become so widespread in prog rock and heavy metal to come. There are the barnstormers "Living Loving Maid" and "Heartbreaker", the blues-inflected "Bring It On Home", the instrumental bonzofest of "Moby Dick", the ballad "Thank You" and the "soft-loud-soft-loud" experimentation of "What Is And What Should Never Be". Here we have the mighty Zep fulling form for the first time.

MY FAVOURITE TRACKS: All of 'em.

FACT SHEET: II is Led Zeppelin's second album as if you needed me to tell you. The album cover was designed by David Juniper and was nominated for a Grammy Award for "Best Recording Package". Juniper was told by the band to "come up with something interesting" so he took a World War I photograph featuring "The Red Baron" Manfred von Richtofen's Flying Circus squadron and airbrushed on the faces of the four bandmembers, band manager Peter Grant and tour manager Richard Cole a la SGT. PEPPER. Also added to the photo was actress Glynis Johns best known for her role as the mother in MARY POPPINS; this addition was a play on the name of recording engineer Glyn Johns. The zeppelin outline was included from the first album on a brown background resulting in II's nickname of "The Brown Bomber".

LED ZEPPELIN - LED ZEPPELIN

YEAR: 1971

LABEL: Atlantic

TRACK LISTING: Black Dog, Rock and Roll, The Battle of Evermore, Stairway To Heaven, Misty Mountain Hop, Four Sticks, Going To California, When the Levee Breaks

IMPRESSIONS: The monster. What's to say about this album? A rock solid listen from stem to stern. All this and the angelic voice of Sandy Denny as well!

MY FAVOURITE TRACKS: All of 'em.

GUEST ARTISTS: Sandy Denny (vocals on "The Battle of Evermore"), Ian Stewart (piano on "Rock and Roll")

FACT SHEET: LED ZEPPELIN is Led Zeppelin's fourth album. It is not entitled "LED ZEPPELIN IV" although that is how it's usually known (owing to the numerical names of their first three albums); it has also been known as "FOUR SYMBOLS", "THE FOURTH ALBUM", "RUNES", "ZOSO" (after Jimmy Page's "rune"), or "UNTITLED". At 32 million sold, the album is one of the best selling albums in the world with 23 million sold in the U.S. making it the third best-selling album in the U.S. The four runes were created by the four band members to represent themselves. Jimmy Page's rune (which looks like "ZOSO") he claims he created himself; some say it is a symbol for Saturn dating to 1557. John Paul Jones' rune is a circle intersecting three vesica pisces called a triquetra from Rudolf Koch's "BOOK OF SIGNS" representing confidence and competence. John Bonham's rune is three interlocking rings (also from Koch's book) which represents mother, father and child (but also is the logo of Ballantine beer). Robert Plant's rune is a feather inside a circle is a design the singer created based on a supposed symbol from the lost civilisation of Mu. Sandy Denny also has her own "rune" appearing in the credits list in the liner notes: three triangles touching at their points. The famous cover features a 19th century painting purchased by Plant at an antique shop in Reading, Berkshire affixed to the wall of a partly-demolished suburban house; the cover was chosen by the Royal Mail in January 2010 as one of their ten "Classic Album Covers" stamps.