Remembering When Led Zeppelin Chaotically Recorded a Masterpiece of a Sophomore Album in 1969

Most artists who rush to make their second album later regret it. After building up material for their debut for years, they don’t quite reach the same level of excellence the second time around because of their haste.

More than most, Led Zeppelin hustled out their second album. And they did it under the most chaotic of circumstances. But that didn’t prevent it from being hailed as a masterpiece of hard rock.

Metal Innovators

Led Zeppelin might have divided critics when they burst onto the scene with their first performances in October 1968. But fans gravitated to them right off the bat. Never before had a rock band blasted away from the stage with such volume. Their January 1969 self-titled debut followed up on that thunderous vibe, practically creating the genre of heavy metal in one fell swoop.

Had they debuted in later years, the band would have been afforded the opportunity to take their time with their second album. But at that point in music history, bands were expected to churn out product without much delay.

In any case, Led Zeppelin leader Jimmy Page didn’t need any convincing to strike while the iron was hot. After years of being a session man and a hired gun, he’d finally created the band that joined all his musical interests. He wasn’t going to wait around to let it wither on the vine. As such, he insisted that the band keep a furious pace throughout 1969. That included the recording and release of their second album.

No Rest for the Weary

To solidify the word of mouth that their earliest shows had engendered, Led Zeppelin toured furiously throughout 1969. They seesawed back and forth between England and America, with a few stops in Canada for good measure. The venues and the audiences grew along with their reputation.

In the meantime, Page hustled the band into studios at these various locations to record the album, most of which was written on the fly as well. In author Bob Spitz’s band biography Led Zeppelin, Page is quoted about the itinerant recording schedule that they maintained for the album that would be labeled Led Zeppelin II:

“It was quite insane, really. We had no time, and we had to write numbers in hotel rooms. We’d put down a rhythm track in London, add the voice in New York, overdub harmonica in Vancouver, and then (go) back to New York to do the mixing.”

Zep’s Second Triumph

The band worried that the mixing process for Led Zeppelin II might betray the shambolic nature of the recording process. But Page and engineer Eddie Kramer seamlessly cohered all the strands of music laid down in different studios.

Certainly, when fans heard the results after the album was released in October 1969, they couldn’t hear any of the strain or pressure. Led Zeppelin II contained gems like “Whole Lotta Love”, “Ramble On”, and “Heartbreaker”. The entire album displayed the band’s unique combination of brute force and ambitious experimentation.

Did Led Zeppelin slow down a bit after Led Zeppelin II? Not a lot. It was almost a year before they returned with Led Zeppelin III, another classic, in late 1970, compared to the nine months between their first two.

(Photo by Michael Putland/Getty Images)

The post Remembering When Led Zeppelin Chaotically Recorded a Masterpiece of a Sophomore Album in 1969 appeared first on American Songwriter.