Led Zeppelin: Dark Influences on 'IV' 

IV was a masterpiece but then Physical Graffiti came along. What a time to be alive! 😄🤘 Love your work.

No album has deserved to be overplayed as much as this one. Terrific. If you like rock and roll, you have to love this.

Bonham couldn’t grasp the timing on Four sticks, got frustrated and went down the pub, came back and nailed it!🤣

The man on the cover was recently identified as Lot Long; a Wiltshire thatcher.

Led Zeppelin IV is their perfect album. Elsewhere in their catalogue the songs may be even better/more exciting (How many more Times, Heartbreaker, Friends, Celebration Day, No Quarter, The Rover, Kashmir) but taken as a whole IV is their most successful effort.

Thank you sir. It was a really fun watch. No matter what people say, for me, they are the best band of all time. At least so far I haven't found a band that can awake the emotions in me that Zeppelin does.

I came across this album in a neighbours' house, where I was effectively being babysat, at the age of 11. The cover was seriously disconcerting and the band's name (when I looked at the label) sounded weird and intriguing. When my parents asked me what I'd like for my 12th birthday, I asked for this album. I'm hurtling towards my 60th year now, but it still sounds as fresh as newly razor-mown grass.

One of the great rock albums ever. Thanx.

An outstanding album. The Sandy Denny involvement was genius.

I remember we convinced our music teacher at school to play IV. She got as far as 'Hey hey mama, said the way you move, gonna make you sweat..' and immediately stopped it!😂😂

This album is a colossus from a fantastic year of dirty brilliant hard rock. It’s almost impossible to overplay this album, the whole package oozes class and despite the t’internet where everything possible is known now and there are no secrets, I still feel the mystery surrounding this album.

For me Zeppelin IV sees the band come full circle. It encapsulates everything that has gone before. It also contains some of the band's finest musical moments.

53 years old - but an album that still sounds so powerful, fresh and vital, as well as being almost ridiculously diverse.

I once read an article which contrasted Led Zeppelin and Yes. It was rather archetypal. Led Zeppelin represented black magic, the darker side of the occult, and even the Jungian concept of the Shadow. Yes is indicative of white magic, pagan sun worship, and Jung's idea of coming to selfhood or self-realization. Yin and Yang.

I didn't know that live performances of 'Four Sticks' were so rare, I feel very fortunate. I saw Plant & Page play it with an orchestra in 1997-8(?). It was almost as mind-blowing as 'Rain Song' with an orchestra. Amazing show.

Found this cassette tape underneath the bed in a motel room when I was 11 years old on a trip to Jackson Hole Wyoming. Hung on to it for years till I reached age 15 or 16. Started hearing music by Led Zeppelin and I told my friends, wait a minute I think I have a tape of theirs. People back then thought I had no taste cause loved When The Levee Breaks. They all thought it was too slow in the early eighties. I think this would be a desert island album for me for sure.

Thank you for making a lovely video spotlighting this album! I appreciate you acknowledging, but not focusing on, the controversial and problematic parts of their legacy in the context of understanding and appreciating this album. I think one could make the argument for this being the best rock album of all time. I think it deserves a seat at that table, at least. I understand it was such an over dog, and that Stairway’s incessant radio play and deification lead to people getting exhausted by it and calling in overrated. Certainly an album like Physical Graffiti seems to be more critically acclaimed these days, and seems to be more of a hard core fan’s favorite. But God, every song is tight, with no filler, and no songs sound similar enough to be confused with each other. A lot of musical styles and aesthetics are represented across the songs. Still, the songs are so unified. There is such a great flow. And it never lets up in quality. All songs hit hard emotionally in some way. It’s just wonderful.

The soundtrack to my High School years.

Jimmy Page walked into Tull’s studio when Martin Barre was playing the Aqualung solo. Allegedly, Martin didn’t blink and nailed that great solo.

Led Zeppelin took a little from here and a little from there but Led Zeppelin 4 takes us on an incredible journey and is one of the greatest rock and roll albums of all time. Plus, Zeppelin was deep into their Zeppelin-ness on and off stage at this time.

The man on the cover can also be the 10 of wands in the tarot deck. Burdened, but the end of an ambitious endeavor. Since they already used the Hermit, I wouldn’t rule it out.

The first time hearing Stairway To Heaven (when the album first came out) was one of those rare magical moments as it built in volume in my headphones. Very exciting - and played again several times that evening.

Had no idea of the Joni Mitchell connection. As a big fan of both JM and LZ I find this curiously satisfying.

A really interesting review of this album! Regarding the miking of the drum kit on When the Levee Breaks, I think it was Rick Beato who attempted to recreate the mic settings on a video a few years ago. I can't remember what video I saw Page discuss the reverb on the drum kit (maybe 'It might get loud') but I think he said they used a tape delay to achieve the sound along with the microphone suspended above the drum kit several floors below. Something like that anyway!

I still love the album, but when I'm listening to Zeppelin, I don't generally gravitate to songs from it. I think I've just heard it to many times. Their earlier albums never get old for me.

Love Rock And Roll, but if I never hear Stairway To Heaven again it’ll be too soon! (cue the hate! 😂). Great video 👍

I saw Robert Plant who opened for the Who in 2002 and his band played Four Sticks and Going To California. Awesome!

Back in the 70s, our form 4 teacher let us play IV in class. He wanted us to listen to and interpret Stair Way as poetry. Coolest teacher ever. The looks other teachers gave him when they came in to complain about the "noise"!!

Actually this is the best Tutorial I’ve heard of the Greatest Rock n Roll Album of them all! Great Job!

I believe it was genius for Page and to some degree Plant to foster a dark mystique around the band, heavily borrowed from American Blues folklore combined with Anglo-Celtic mysticism with a dash of Goethe's Faust, giving them a enduring mythology that few other bands can approach. When I was a kid growing up in the 1970s, Led Zeppelin both fascinated and scared me a little, even my being non-religious---I put off getting into them in earnest until I was in my teens in the 1980s. I also laughed at bands that followed in the 80s that adopted silly, Spinal-Tappish occult posturings, clearly inspired by Led Zeppelin and to some degree Blue Oyster Cult and Black Sabbath.

When I was young, I would repeatedly listen to "Battle of Evermore" and "Stairway to Heaven", over and over again. I couldn't get enough of them. Definitely my favorite songs of theirs.

Thanks. Your videos just get better every time. Keep it up dude.

It does have a sinister, dark edge to it. The whole album really. I can remember feeling it even as a teenager, 30+ years ago. 😂 Houses of the Holy was such a lighter album, it's quite amazing the contrast! Thanks for the video.

Helps if you have the album. Look at the cover and turn it 90 degrees to the left.the mans back and the tree line appear to be the side of a face...you can just make out the eyes!! Open the gatefld and place the cliff edge against a mirror at 90 degrees......the black dog will be revealed..

A true Rock Masterpiece! PLAY LOUD

The 13:13 edit for the piece... nice Occult work, lol!

Only listened to the whole album in recent years! A good listen.

I was just coming of age musically when this album came out. Black Dog, Rock and Roll, and Stairway to Heaven received lots of AM top-40 air play in Hawaii where I was living at the time. Radio DJ’s had a little more leeway to play what they wanted back then and LZ got lots of airplay overnight. I used to listen to my cheesy transistor radio on Friday and Saturday nights My clock radio was set at 0445AM in the morning during weekdays because I had to take a bus, boat and two more buses to get to school those days. I remember listening to Stairway to Heaven at that hour being half asleep and the song effecting my subconscious dreams. The album was a vital part of my high school soundtrack. I went to college on the mainland of the United States at a small university east of the Cascades in Washington state in the backwater outside of the sprawling metropolis of the greater Puget Sound area. Basically rural America. There was an evangelical religious revival going on. People were being ‘saved’ and public enemy number one was Led Zeppelin and specifically Led Zeppelin IV. The newly saved were destroying their albums to show their devotion to the almighty and would not give to me no matter how much I begged them to do it. On last Led Zeppelin IV experience; I was dumped by a girl friend in my freshman year of college and When The Levee Breaks perfectly captured my angst while going through that experience. Today when I’m in multistory office buildings or hotels that have the talking elevators that say ‘going up’ or ‘going down’, I find my self singing (just in my head, not out loud) “going down, going down now” when the elevator says ‘going down.’ That’s thanks to When The Levee Breaks.

The unofficially-titled *Led Zeppelin IV* was my first taste of Zeppelin's music. A classmate of mine played it for me when I was 11 years of age - amid the convenient 20th anniversary of the album's original release. What I didn't know while listening to it was that it was not my first taste of either Robert Plant or Jimmy Page as musicians. I learned 9 years later that I had heard them (and Jeff Beck) when we were treated to one of Robert's side projects, *The Honeydrippers Volume 1* from 1984. It blew my mind to discover that the same voice delivered those 2 divergent performances. It's a testament to their prowess and diversity as musicians that they could pull that off.

Thanks for this. It will be my breakfast album listen tomorrow.

Brilliant analysis of an album i first heard when i was only 16 ! I hear the age old arguments of who was the finest rock band and grow weary ! You have to ask the question who made timeless guitar riffs like Heartbreaker / Living Loving and then produce a masterclass in acoustic guitar play with Ramble On annd Going to California with an epic English / Celtic folksong with The Battle of Evermore ?

I got it at 12, When I opened the Album up and I See this Mystical Wizard(The Hermit). I was beyond Intrigued w/ this Other Wordly vibe. It felt Dangerous Eerie. Then I dropped the needle, What was coming out of my Panasonic Stereo completely Blew my mind to bits! Let the Music speak for itself, but I was transcended to this Mystical Night World of Hobbits & Dragons. Dark forest illuminated by Norther lights. A Soundscape of Electric MagicK, Castle Ruins & The Conqueroring Hero & Sexual Debauchery . Druid Groves and Hidden Knowledge. The Most Important Album of my Life.And the GREATEST MOMENT IN THE HISTORY OF Music! ZoSo

Thanks for making mention of I.S.B......I rarely hear mention of them these days!

Just discover your channel. Great stuff.

Last year of junior school, our class learnt a recorder part for Stairway to Heaven. The music teacher, after that intro part, then went on to the crescendo part before the solo, hammering it out, and then the solo on piano. Upon this, the headmaster’s door opened and the teacher was called in. That was the end of that.

There Best by far ❤🎸

Great vid. Love Zep and intrigued about the whole occult mystique surrounding the band. BTW, did anyone else notice this video lasts for exactly '13:13'??? Spooky!😂

There is an excellent but all too brief exploration of Led Zeppelin and the occult in Tony Fletchers brilliant biography of Keith Moon (Dear Boy). It is written without sarcasm or scepticism and is bloody disturbing. The conclusion I came to was both Paige, Plant and, reluctantly, Bonham were engaged in all manner of weirdness that scared the shit out of them to different degrees eventually.

The lyrics to Stairway are all derived from Alchemical and Rosicrucian symbolism that speaks of spiritual growth directly to the subconscious mind. Pure genius!

Re your comment on Headley Grange - I read this decades ago, wish I could give proper credit. Anyway, the point was the importance of "playing the studio."

Great analysis. You should have your own radio channel. I'd listen.

Zepp 4 was ALWAYS my fav Zepp album and i think its their best...its prob their most popular but you cant deny those 8 or so songs are 8 or so of Zepps greatest songs

One of my fav albums of all time. A classic.

Maybe we need more of the occult, like Led Zeppelin, who knows ! Thanks for the photos and images.

It is in my opinion one of the top 5 albums of all time , period ..,

Page played on the Bond theme Goldfinger and said he saw Bassey pass out after holding that final note

Someone said "Mediocre musicians borrow ,great musicians steal" or words to that effect. Led Zeppelin plundered relentlessly but made all those bits and pieces they stole their own which I guess is what makes them a great band in that regard. I even hear hints of Gentle Giant's Nothing At All even with the lyrics as well as Spirit's Taurus as you mentioned. All that aside, IV is undoubtably Led Zep's most consistent album and still sounds great 50+ years later.

The Black Dog riff is not taken from Electric Mud, as is so often repeated, due to a JPJ misstatement. It was inspired by a zigzagging arrangement of Smokestack Lightning, on 1969’s This Is Howlin’ Wolf’s New Album.

Led Zep has an extraordinary catalog and this fourth album is certainly regarded as one of their best. Am I alone in NOT loving "IV" above all other LZ albums? In retrospect, I've come to prefer III to IV, and have always preferred Physical Graffiti, and yes, dare I say it, Houses of the Holy too.

A wonderful album - one of my all time faves.

Thanks for this. Looking forward to your review of the new David Gilmour album. How about reviewing his solo albums in general?

4 was awesome but 3 is my favorite

Battle of Evermore is my favourite LZ song absolutely wonderful. Mick Wall's book When Giants Walked the Earth has a very detailed chapter on the occult influences on Jimmy Page. In fact he fell out with Page over it. Great read. I wonder where that painting is now and was it really found in a junk shop??

First time I heard Stairway in '72, it changed everything

Curious about the title of the song Black Dog---I believe that's English slang for depression.

I have always considered this album to be one of the big three along with Close to the Edge and Dark side of the Moon. I consider these three to be the greatest classic rock albums of all time. Personally, the four symbols is the best of all. 🙂

On the connection between Zep and Fairport, don't forget that Fairport opened both Knebworth gigs.

The Romans were wise to put IV between III and V.

jimmy page had the perfect hands for rock! i never noticed that before. now that i think about it, that feather prob is 'Abuldiz' who i think was an arab necromancer who used to appear to crowley. his symbol was a feather . . . ANY time i hear the song '4 sticks,' it's as if i'm having a flashback; i feel 4 yrs olde again watching their tour commercials on 'tv.' i doubt anyone could believe there used to be led zeppelin commercials on tv . . .

If I was forced at gunpoint to name the definitive Zep album, I would say Physical Graffiti, but only because it represents a kind of mature culmination of their work to that point. IV I think sticks as flagship Zep in the zeitgeist because it is a strong, distinct album overall, and has Stairway on the track list.

I wonder if Barry played Stairway backwards when he had a turntable?

Interesting how Stairway To Heaven Lyrics are inside the Gatefold

It's a mighty fine album

LZ is a top-3 band for me but to be honest, I haven't listened to this album in probably 20 yrs because I had become somewhat tired of all the songs on it, as great as they are. I'll change that very soon and give it another go.

Not a zep fan but bieng a drummer , Bonzo is definitely my favorite rock drummer hands down .

World’s greatest apocalyptic blues cover band!

Well done yet again, Barry. Lester Bangs' head was often up his own bum. He thought very highly of his ability to criticize an art form he could never master. So many of his reviews haven't aged well.

Maybe Page and Plant were enamored with Joni Mitchell because she wrote all orginal songs (despite taking ideas from Laura Nyro) and wasn't underage.

I once smoked a crap load of weed and listened to this album. Robert Plant plays the devil coming down to Earth. You're going down, you're going down now.

For me, it's always been Zep III, Immigrant Song sums up all that is heavy about the band, Friends has the best exotic vibe they ever recorded, Since I've been loving you is arguably their best blues and then there are the accoustic gems, Gallows Pole, That's the way and Tangerine. I don't think they ever put that many wonderful songs on one album. It's also the only album I can listen to from start to finish without feeling sonically trampled under foot (see what I did there? 🙂).

When The Levee Breaks is still as resonant for these times as it was 50 years ago. Sadly. Check it out, you’ll see what I mean.

i read somewhere that Jimmy Page found this painting in a antique store in England. Thats it nothing romantic or mysterious .

I think that Zeppelin were a band of their time and place. I feel I should be wearing bell bottoms whenever I hear their music. I'm not even sure this is a criticism, as they seemed to capture the *zeitgeist* of that era perfectly.

Nice work. Did you listen to me RE edits? 😂 Physical Graffitti sometime?

Haha every complement begrudgingly given 🙂

You said Basing Street Studios but it was Island Studios. Stairway was recorded there in total.

IMO II, IV and disc/LP 1 of Physical Graffiti is pretty much all you need.

The soundtrack to a wonderful period of my life. One of my favorite memories was skiing with a Walkman on, cutting turns to Bonham's drums on When the Levee Breaks. Light one up on the chair lift and just glide down the mountain.

IV was a very good followup to III.

I've always thought that "Black Dog" was also a reference to the mystical black dog mentioned in Carlos Castaneda's "The Teachings of Don Juan" and its companion books, wherein the black dog is a manifestation of Mescalito, a divine entity whose presence blesses the one who sees it and makes him one of those chosen to further the teachings of the Mescal cult. If, as Plant says, it was only a reference to a dog that walked into the cottage at Headly Grange, the dogs appearance may, in itself, have been a sign from the beyond . . . Did Robert know, or didn't he? Was he, like all true initiates, keeping the secret to himself?

Page IS an unspoken genious. Why snobs cant get around this is beyond us bangers. Oh well. I even know nonfans who admit he is...& I love Jimmy's sort of no exposure rather than getting sick of him before his time ran out( fame...).

sandy denny was so good. fotheringay, who knows where the time goes, come all ye, and matty groves are all great songs

Fantastic album ❤

The most widely distributed occult artefact in the world

The Spirit number intro sounds rather like a section from 'Michelle' by The Beatles. Are you reading this Macca?

John paul didnt sign his soul cuz he didnt have to. Watch his perf in their movie song remains the same.vthen checkout his collaboration with diamanda galas. Not to mention his desire to leave zep and play keybords and direct chior in a church. Yeah. The church of the red door in prossser wa.

Wait until Jimmy’s book comes out…👹

Speaking as a 'recovered' Zeppy of many years, i reckon that you, like most music critics, underestimate the album's greatness (of a kind). For me, it was THE album, not just of Zep, but of ALL music. And i reckon that millions of Zeppys would agree. I don't listen to them anymore 👿 I prefer 'psyche folk'- Mellow Candle, Trees, Trader Horne, Agincourt, Comus, Incredible String Band etc. But some of that is suspect also 🥺

Can't stand Stairway, I used to love it but have just heard it too many times to enjoy it any longer, love the rest of the album though.

There's playing Stairway backwards and some messages revealed