"Over the hills where the spirits fly...."
This Led Zeppelin album is one of those albums that's a little hard to classify since virtually every style they've been known for is represented. It's also the beginning of unconventional artsy album covers as there are no pictures of the band, nor does the name Led Zeppelin appear. In the days of LP records, only the lyrics of "Starway to Heaven" could be found in the inner sleeve and the 4 individal symbols for each band member. Technically, there's no official name for the album, though fans have called it "Led Zeppelin IV" or "Zoso" or "Runes" or even "Stairway to Heaven."

The hard rockin' "Black Dog" starts out this album. Guitarist Jimmy Page hits the E chord several times and then Robert Plant sings "Hey, hey, mama, say the way you move, gonna make you sweat, gonna make you groove." Page, bassist John Paul Jones and drummer John Bonham answer furiously. All of the members shine on here.

"Rock and Roll" follows, a 1950's Chuck Berry style rocker. Bonham (aka Bonzo) hits the snare drum for the intro and Page lets loose with a killer riff. Jonesy adds some Jerry Lee Lewis style piano. I'll bet you won't be able to just stand still and listen to this song!

The English folk piece "The Battle of Evermore" helps mellow the mood. Page plays an acoustic guitar here, Jonesy plays mandolin and Plant shares lead with Sandy Denny. The lyrics speak of Tolkien influence.

"Stairway to Heaven" needs no introduction. What could I tell you that you haven't read on this page already? If you've ever had the dial on FM somewhere, you're quite familiar with this close-to-8 minute epic. In fact, I'll bet even some of your parents listened in bewilderment even in 1971. Folk and hard rock are combined in this song. The song's lyrics have been interpreted on many levels.

"Misty Mountain Hop" sounds enigmatic in the verses, both melodically and lyrically. Jonesy starts it off with an electric piano riff (A, G, E) with Page answering the riff on guitar, with Bonzo adding in a fill on drums. Plant multitracks his voice.

"Four Sticks" is an Eastern sounding rocker, heavier than "Friends" and perhaps a precursor to "Kashmir."

The 1960's style folk ditty "Going to California" mellows the mood again, with an acoustic guitar from Page and Plant singing in an uncharacteristic baritone. The lyrics seem to speak of hoping to find happiness out in California.

"When the Levee Breaks" is the only blues song on the album. It is also the only song where Plant plays harmonica. The song is based off an old Memphis Minnie blues standard and for 7 minutes Led Zeppelin plays raunchy blues, ending with an unusual coda, which sounds almost like an abrupt earthquake (I don't know for sure but it sounds like Page is playing a banjo through an amplifier).

Timeless classic rock
Everyone I knew had this album when I was a teenage stoner and it's not only because it's what all the other stoners expected you to have - it's just a damn good album and thanks to all those Zep heads out there, it's now been remastered with a little help by some of the members. So I get "Rock & Roll", "Stairway To Heaven" and all the others in full glory. Makes me wanna smoke up, but maybe I'll just pour myself some wine and go back to the Carly Simon albums - age sucks.

More than worthy of its reputation
Jimmy Page and Robert Plant new the band had something special when they completed the album. Each song holds incredibly well by itself with the exception of Four Sticks. The album contains many genres of music from rockabilly-inspired to folk-rock to music that technically did not have its own category. I think it is erroneous to Led Zeppelin as a Hard Rock or Metal band because their repertoire is rich with many varieties of music that they cannot simply be one type. It is comparable to calling the Clash solely a punk band or Neil Young solely as a folk artist. Led Zeppelin is just a rock band.

I will not discuss the songs individually as previous reviews have already done that. Zoso is simply one of the best Rock and Roll albums to have appeared in the century.

Stairwell to Heaven
Charles Portis wrote his second novel True Grit in 1968 and was condemned almost immediately to a John Wayne parody of Rooster Cogburn's essential humanity and the thing I'm sensing here is owing to a single track Led Zeppelin's majestic fourth album suffers from just this sort of dopey overexposure so despairingly popular these days. Not that Zep didn't do their own version of Stairway but still the song was suddenly everywhere. Still is. Sigh I suppose sez me. That Stairway to Heaven is on here is I'm thinking the main thing people might want to point out about this record but the good news after you've squeezed the skip button if this particular song ain't exactly your wang dang thang is this same particular song provided the Butthole Surfers with the inspiration for the hilarious title of actually their best bleeding album. Stairway aside, you gots just for a start to love songs seven and eight on Four--play Going to California on a jukebox and then play When the Levee Breaks right after on the same jukebox and sit there as if under the clearest celestial sign. Something along the lines of the morning Sun sharing space with the remains of the Moon. I'm not kidding here, I saw exactly this same otherworldly conjunction just now out back by the grill not twenty minutes ago. Checking up on my bicycle I was right before slipping a fin into the now activated electric platter box. True Grit is in fact a wonderful and compelling novel. Stairway anyway ain't no bustle in your hedgerow either and Four's one such overplayed and overheard number shouldn't stop potential punters from bunging some dosh in the Wurlitzer and punching in at the very least Eighty Four Oh Seven and Eighty Four Oh Eight. The mighty Bonzo on drums, recorded in a stairwell by all accounts, almost breaks that levee on his own, don't he? Hard if not impossible to cap this album closer for that temporarily incarcerated Zoyd Wheeler moment of rock and roll redemption.

Excellent Album
A wonderful album from a great band. Great tracks all the way through--you'll get pulled in from beginning to end.