Relive Led Zeppelin’s live performance of “The Ocean” from HOUSES OF THE HOLY
Sent from the land of the ice and snow (Heston in Middlesex), Jimmy Page’s decision to break the chains of being a muzak session musician to form the eight-legged rock behemoth known to the globe as Led Zeppelin remains one of rock’s most significant moments. Taking the tradition of folk, the sexiness of the blues, finding the greatest rhythm section of all time and adding a heaviness to the guitar that lifted the whole concept to new heights, Page’s phenomenal songwriting and effortless cool is the reason you’ll probably see someone in a Led Zeppelin shirt every day for the rest of your life.
No band is inculpable when it comes to bad material, and even Led Zeppelin have a few turkeys in their canon. However, to concentrate on that side of things would be ridiculous. At their best, Led Zeppelin created bodies of work that challenged themselves and their audience, never played it safe, and always shunned commercialism in the name of what their creative instincts told them to execute. Including the band’s live albums but leaving out their compilations, this is every official Led Zeppelin album, ranked.
