First Led Zeppelin Stories

[boogie]

Maybe it was a friend who recommended you to listen

or maybe you heard them on the radio.

or maybe you feel guilty that Stairway lured you in

or maybe they were just always there

So when did you first start listening to the band and how were you led down the Led Zeppelin path?

Personally, I'm from the "younger" generation of listeners that didn't get a chance to experience the band as they unfolded.

When I was in high school, I recall hearing a song on some classic rock radio station and I didn't know what it was.

I tried asking my parents because they were certainly conscious in the late 60s-70s.

I think my description was a little like this:

"It's got this awesome guitar riff and a singer that sounded like he was shouting his head off. First the singer belts out a few words with echoes and then the guitar erupts and then calms down again, and then they do it again and again until the guitar solo at the end that just kind of plays on until oblivion"

My parents weren't really sure. They gave me a few names to look up like Black Sabbath, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and Led Zeppelin.

So I found myself in a store with a bunch of tab books and I started searching them for song titles that matched lyrics of the song.

I looked for songs called "Hey Hey Momma", "Big Legged Woman", and even some of the weird inaudibles coming out of the singer's mouth!

I think at this point I was pretty sure it was some band called "Led Zeppelin". It sounded so exotic and I just wanted to know which song it was so I could buy the CD.

I had no luck while looking by title, so I started trying to match the actual lyrics.

I was looking for lines about making women sweat and sting and eyes burning red, and eventually I found it.

It was that day that I bought "IV", and if you haven't guessed the song title then you probably need to listen to more Led Zeppelin before you have a story about them!

After buying that album, it was only a matter of time before I would realize just how special these guys are. And not much later after that I would get a guitar and actually use the tab book.

So what about you guys? What are your Zeppelin firsts and how did you get attracted to the group?

[boogie]

back (way back) in 1970, i was just starting to dig the heavier rock coming out. then i listened to Whole Lotta Love, for the first time... it has been in me ever since. i like a wide range of bands, and music in general, but, LZ is in my soul, (corny),. i bought each album as they came out. and replaced the 1st five at least 3 times due to wear. still have all on records,(some still has stems and seeds embeded in them). i worked as an usher in a small town movie theater in 1976 and watched TSRTS twice daily for 2 weeks... wow!!! big screen, big sound, full house every night. lines arond the block. around the same time went to an out door show. with peter framton, and they anounced the up coming Zep tour, that got a FIFTEEN min. ovation, no shit, the DJ could not talk over the noise. framton come on stage and it was anti climax. a lot of people left. of course the show never happened because plant's son died. so sad... that was that. never saw them live together.

well think i'll twist one up and watch TSRTS

AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!

if ya got'em smokem

[ruffer]

Most people say that when they had rock and roll put on the cadillac comercial that they were selling out...but to me thats not the case thats how i started listening to them...i was only thirteen at the time and my parents always listened to rock so i had heard the name led zeppelin before but then i heard the song on the commercial and realized that they sang it so i got in my parents cd collection and found there remasters cd and fell in love with there music

[luvrplant]

I started listening to Led Zeppelin about 1973-1974 when I was 9-10 years old living in Warwick, Rhode Island. My aunt and uncle would listen to stuff like Three Dog Night, Simon & Garfunkel, Cat Stevens, among many others and styles of music, and of course, Led Zeppelin. I was hooked from the moment I heard Robert Plant singing. It was like hearing angels sing, to me anyway. My uncle even went to Woodstock, which pains me to this day that I missed such an historic event in rock history, because I was much to young to go.

I have been a loyal Zeppelin fan ever since. I never did get an opportunity to see them play in concert though. The year I was old enough to drive John Bonham had passed away and the band was no more, a sadness I carry around to this day. I did, however, manage to see Robert Plant and Jimmy Page in Orlando on March 7, 1995 which was the No Quarter tour, and in Tampa on May 20, 1998 for the Walking Into Clarksdale tour. I cried at both concerts. I know, I know, but I just couldn't help myself. To hear songs that I grew up with for nearly my entire life played live, in front of me, just overpowered my emotions. It was spectacular!!!! That No Quarter tour was the BEST!!!!!! I listen to that CD over and over and over again to this day. I think it is their finest work yet. The mixture of their songs with the Egyptian ensamble and orchestra, and that hurdy gurdy, was very, very powerful to me. I love it!!!!!

I also got to see Robert Plant at MGM Studios in Orlando, I think it was in April of 2002. He did a Q & A thing there and I was able to get a seat in the second row, center. I had never been that close to Robert Plant before and it was AWESOME to see him that close!!!! His family was with him and sitting in the row right in front of me. I had brought what is called a pocket angel, which many of you may know what that is, that my best friend of nearly 30 years had given me. I tapped the woman on the shoulder, and I swear it was his daughter because she looked just like him, same hair, but I don't know that for sure, and asked her if she could give him the pocket angel for me. I told her I just wanted him to have something of mine and she agreed to give it to him. Whether she did or not I may never know but it was my best shot at it.

Well, I realize I have "rambled on" in this post but I just have one more thing to say and that is that my wish is that they will do the 2008 reunion tour in the US! I can't say enough how much I want that to happen and I totally welcome the opportunity to see Jason Bonham filling his father's shoes as no one else can. Americans would come in record numbers to see this tour so I hope they don't let us down. I, for one, will be there!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Wouldn't miss it for the world!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

LuvRPlant

[sam]

8th grade, Blessed Sacrament School, Hollywood Ca. Carlos Veronisi (sp?) kept saying Led Zeppelin over and over, and how it was the greatest thing in the world. Soon after I bought (paid for) my first album at the record store on Hollywood and Vine (could have been Sunset and Vine); big decision between CCR and Led Zep - I bought the CCR album (around $3.00). Mistake!

[zepmaster]

I heard The Ocean and when they went from The Ocean to the really cool part in the end I went "SHIT!" Then I started looking for live performances for the song, I ended up getting the LA 1972 Concert, I never regretted getting into it! Now I have like 150 concerts!

[Oilers88cup]

My first Zeppelin experience was at about 11 years old.My friends mom had all of these old records and she had Zep I.When I first heard Your Time Is Gonna Come it blew me away.I thought to myself this isn't Culture Club!I asked to borrow a few albums,took them home and listened all day to Zep I,Presence and Houses.I was sucked in by the swirling sounds and by Robert's voice.Ever since that day I have been in love with his voice.Nothing comes close to it for me.

[Mernie]

I was a pre-teen in the early 70s and just getting into rock music. I remember going to a local pizza parlor with my family and hearing Black Dog on the juke box, and being blown away by it. Then my uncle asked me "do you like Led Zeppelin?" and at the next opportunity I went to the local record store. The first LZ album I saw there was III so I bought it and spent countless hours listening and spinning that wheel on the cover. Of course then I had to save my money and go back and buy the other records.

[Soccerzubs]

Mine's a weird story kinda. I noticed the boy at my school that I like has a LZ shirt with the laturn guy on it. So me and one of my frieds were talking and she said I should listen to them bcause she is one of his friends. So I looked up Stairway to Heaven. I didn't like it much at first but after listening to it about five times in a row it grew on me. So the next day when I went shopping I bought Mothership. And I've been listening to them ever sence.

Wow that is like the cutest story ever and no doubt there is nothing that would get my attention more than a girl who likes Zeppelin haha.

[Suz]

Black Dog can really just get your attention, can't it? I know it got mine.

I love how it's the first song on IV. They could have easily made Rock & Roll the first song, just from the "been a long time" lyrics alone, but Black Dog does all that without explicitly stating however long it's been.

It's there, it's in your face, and it's now!

It's kind of like making the statement, "Excuse me, we're going to rock your ass off" and it all starts with "HEY HEY MAMA...".

It's enough to keep an old listener happy and a new listener intrigued.

Back and forth, back and forth, lull and explode.

It's like they can pause time in the middle of a nuclear explosion, rewind, and play it all over again.

Great post!

Best hard rock song ever, IMO. Sonic boom!

[Black_Dog_90]

I started listening to rock music when I was very young. I was listening to a cassette that my friend gave me. Then "Stairway To Heaven" started playing. I felt it was one of the best things I've ever heard. I enjoyed the song. That was the day I discovered Led Zeppelin.

[SilverThread]

Hello everyone! I'm new here, so I suppose I should share my story. First of all, I'm 22 years old, and in college.

I'd always been a fan of Led Zeppelin growing up. I'd hear them on the radio, but I'd never seen a live performance or heard any other songs than what was usually played on the radio.

In March(?) of this year, I was driving back to campus with a friend after class one afternoon. This friend is a huge Zeppelin fan, and we get talking about them. She asked me if I had ever seen "The Song Remains the Same." I said that I had heard of it, but never seen it. She immediately invites me over to her apartment and we "smoke some stuff and drink some wine" and watch the movie.

I was COMPLETELY blown away. I had no idea these guys were so talented, or that their songs were ALL so GOOD. Part of me figures that the "stuff" played a role, so I watch the video again alone a few days later. Nope. Still completely blown away. I think it was Dazed & Confused that really stuck with me. Jimmy bowing the guitar...good lord....unbelievable.

From that day, I think I've seen TSRTS about 20 times. I've bought or watched every other performance DVD, bought all the CDs, read the major biographies, and 'converted' about 5 other people. lol I even saw a Led Zeppelin tribute band recently in my hometown of San Antonio. Those guys were fantastic.

I guess I'm just making up for lost time, but my life has almost revolved around Zeppelin since my first viewing of TSRTS. They (Jimmy especially) have changed my life. I can't really explain it, but LZ helped me grow as a person.

[guitarmy]

Hello everyone! I'm new here, so I suppose I should share my story. First of all, I'm 22 years old, and in college.

I'd always been a fan of Led Zeppelin growing up. I'd hear them on the radio, but I'd never seen a live performance or heard any other songs than what was usually played on the radio.

In March(?) of this year, I was driving back to campus with a friend after class one afternoon. This friend is a huge Zeppelin fan, and we get talking about them. She asked me if I had ever seen "The Song Remains the Same." I said that I had heard of it, but never seen it. She immediately invites me over to her apartment and we "smoke some stuff and drink some wine" and watch the movie.

I was COMPLETELY blown away. I had no idea these guys were so talented, or that their songs were ALL so GOOD. Part of me figures that the "stuff" played a role, so I watch the video again alone a few days later. Nope. Still completely blown away. I think it was Dazed & Confused that really stuck with me. Jimmy bowing the guitar...good lord....unbelievable.

From that day, I think I've seen TSRTS about 20 times. I've bought or watched every other performance DVD, bought all the CDs, read the major biographies, and 'converted' about 5 other people. lol I even saw a Led Zeppelin tribute band recently in my hometown of San Antonio. Those guys were fantastic.

I guess I'm just making up for lost time, but my life has almost revolved around Zeppelin since my first viewing of TSRTS. They (Jimmy especially) have changed my life. I can't really explain it, but LZ helped me grow as a person.

To quote Mr. Plant:

"Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaah, BASH!"

Keep on rockin' and welcome to the boards.

[Anarchy2Howard]

I saw School of Rock.. with Immigrant Song in the soundtrack.

I was like "omfg wdf iz dis its liek so 1337@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@"

[Olipticle]

Me and an old lady friend. Had many a fun times with the radio on. I heard Since i Was Loving you and was hooked for life.

[Soccerzubs]

Me and an old lady friend. Had many a fun times with the radio on. I heard Since i Was Loving you and was hooked for life.

Madison Square Garden 1973, that intro just blows your mind!

[kdh]

1976, Song Remains the Same, soundtrack. then Presence, tour of 77, Plant's son's death, Blueberry Hill bootleg playing on my parents record player, then the magazines, pictures and books at the time, the urban legend stories being talked around about Page, Plant, Jones and Bonham with groupies, hotel rooms, airplanes, general lunacy then the midnight showing of TSRTS right up to Knebworth and then the demise in December of 1980. A short lived adrenaline rushed era of having Led Zeppelin being a live entity, with all the rumors or unofficial official statements that precursor-ed any sort of Zeppelin activity. That was then and this is now: Led Zeppelin is a museum piece that the glass can only be broken by 3 individuals.

[DragonRouge]

One day, I got my new issue of Game Informer Magazine in the mail. Flipping through, I found the Top Ten section and it was a list of the top ten songs they wanted in Guitar Hero 3. Number one was Stairway to Heaven. Their description of the song and the band had me going to Youtube to check them out.

Although, I do remember hearing Immigrant Song in School of Rock before this.

[ZeppFanForever]

Maybe it was a friend who recommended you to listen

or maybe you heard them on the radio.

or maybe you feel guilty that Stairway lured you in

or maybe they were just always there

So when did you first start listening to the band and how were you led down the Led Zeppelin path?

Personally, I'm from the "younger" generation of listeners that didn't get a chance to experience the band as they unfolded.

When I was in high school, I recall hearing a song on some classic rock radio station and I didn't know what it was.

I tried asking my parents because they were certainly conscious in the late 60s-70s.

I think my description was a little like this:

"It's got this awesome guitar riff and a singer that sounded like he was shouting his head off. First the singer belts out a few words with echoes and then the guitar erupts and then calms down again, and then they do it again and again until the guitar solo at the end that just kind of plays on until oblivion"

My parents weren't really sure. They gave me a few names to look up like Black Sabbath, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and Led Zeppelin.

So I found myself in a store with a bunch of tab books and I started searching them for song titles that matched lyrics of the song.

I looked for songs called "Hey Hey Momma", "Big Legged Woman", and even some of the weird inaudibles coming out of the singer's mouth!

I think at this point I was pretty sure it was some band called "Led Zeppelin". It sounded so exotic and I just wanted to know which song it was so I could buy the CD.

I had no luck while looking by title, so I started trying to match the actual lyrics.

I was looking for lines about making women sweat and sting and eyes burning red, and eventually I found it.

It was that day that I bought "IV", and if you haven't guessed the song title then you probably need to listen to more Led Zeppelin before you have a story about them!

After buying that album, it was only a matter of time before I would realize just how special these guys are. And not much later after that I would get a guitar and actually use the tab book.

So what about you guys? What are your Zeppelin firsts and how did you get attracted to the group?

How's it going "guitarmy" as well as all of my fellow ZEPPELIN fanatics? First of all, music has always been in my blood from the day I was born up to this very day. I grew up around music all my life thanks to all of my older cousins that were die hard Rock n' Roll fanatics. Everytime I went over to their house, you would hear music blasting from their stereo such as THE BEATLES, THE ROLLING STONES, CREAM, LED ZEPPELIN, THE TEMPTATIONS, THE FOUR TOPS, DIANA ROSS & THE SUPREMES, MARVIN GAYE, BLACK SABBATH and so on. On one particular day in 1969, my cousin played a 45 RPM on their stereo called "Whole Lotta Love" by LED ZEPPELIN. This particular 45 RPM which I now own is the original long version and not the short version 45 RPM that came out later. When I heard the middle section of "Whole Lotta Love," it really fired me up. Everytime Robert Plant was getting close to having an orgasm in the song, it seemed that my female cousins were shouting loud and about to have an orgasm as well. It was evident that the majority of the neighbors heard all of this screaming since the majority of them were banging on our front door with the Police. It was then that I realized that LED ZEPPELIN would be a big part of my life. ROCK ON!

[Adi]

I remember whenI was 12 or 13 I watched VH1 and saw the clip for Whole lotta love for the first time and that was it suddenly I descovered a different kind of music real music... then i listened to Black dog and ran to a record store to buy their records and since then i'm a huge fan of the band (they are my favourite band...)

[guitarmy]

How's it going "guitarmy" as well as all of my fellow ZEPPELIN fanatics? First of all, music has always been in my blood from the day I was born up to this very day. I grew up around music all my life thanks to all of my older cousins that were die hard Rock n' Roll fanatics. Everytime I went over to their house, you would hear music blasting from their stereo such as THE BEATLES, THE ROLLING STONES, CREAM, LED ZEPPELIN, THE TEMPTATIONS, THE FOUR TOPS, DIANA ROSS & THE SUPREMES, MARVIN GAYE, BLACK SABBATH and so on. On one particular day in 1969, my cousin played a 45 RPM on their stereo called "Whole Lotta Love" by LED ZEPPELIN. This particular 45 RPM which I now own is the original long version and not the short version 45 RPM that came out later. When I heard the middle section of "Whole Lotta Love," it really fired me up. Everytime Robert Plant was getting close to having an orgasm in the song, it seemed that my female cousins were shouting loud and about to have an orgasm as well. It was evident that the majority of the neighbors heard all of this screaming since the majority of them were banging on our front door with the Police. It was then that I realized that LED ZEPPELIN would be a big part of my life. ROCK ON!

Hey there ZeppFan. Music really binds us together. It's such a universal form of enjoyment and easily extends beyond language. Just look at all the places Zeppelin played. They certainly weren't all English speaking countries.

I didn't know there were short and long versions of WLL. You have any idea which one they're putting on CDs these days? Is it long if it has the psychedelic orgasm section or is there a longer one?

[ZeppFanForever]

Hey there ZeppFan. Music really binds us together. It's such a universal form of enjoyment and easily extends beyond language. Just look at all the places Zeppelin played. They certainly weren't all English speaking countries.

I didn't know there were short and long versions of WLL. You have any idea which one they're putting on CDs these days? Is it long if it has the psychedelic orgasm section or is there a longer one?

How's it going "guitarmy?" In late 1969, Atlantic released "Whole Lotta Love" as a single on a 45 RPM record with the original long version intact. The long version I am referring to is the whole middle section which includes Robert Plant's orgasmic segment. In the mid 1970's, Atlantic records re-released "Whole Lotta Love" with the green Atlantic Records label rather than the usual Red label in a 45 RPM with the middle section cut completely out of the song. In my opinion, "Whole Lotta Love" didn't sound the same without the middle section. ROCK ON!

[widget]

Hearing "Stairway to Heaven" on radio back in mid-1971, while in the kitchen making peanut butter sandwiches after coming back from Saturday art class at the Art Gallery of Western Australia. My parents black Panasonic radio cassette was on top of the Westinghouse fridge, and the parents always listened to music but weren't into rock. The radio station I tuned into was 6KY. 6KY back then played psychedelic and heavy rock music, years before it was sold to a christian radio association and ended up playing soft pop, before switching to the FM band. I wasn't into any specific artists much back then but the song was almost like a religious epiphany. I just had to here more of this band. The guitar, the drums , and Plant's voice was so unique for the time. Page's production on Bonham's drums in particular. Anyway, the next day, my parents took myself and my brother and two sisters to see our cousins living in Nedlands, for a slide night. I knew she was into rock music but I was totally blown away when we ended up taking about Led Zeppelin at their kitchen table. We went back to her bedroom and she showed me her record collection. She had all the vinyls next to her hi-fi system so we ended up listening to most of her four Led Zeppelin albums until I had to go home with my parents. She also had A4 magazine posters plastered to her bedroom wall, including pictures of Jimmy Page and Robert Plant. I asked her where she got them from and she showed me her collection of Circus and Hit Parader magazines from the US. I ended up saving up my own pocket money and buying these magazines later. But that whole weekend turned me onto Led Zeppelin for good.

Meg

[Olipticle]

Madison Square Garden 1973, that intro just blows your mind!

Lmfao yeah man exactly what i was thinking that intro is killer. But still glad to see my story was similar to others Seems foreplay and zeppelin are never that far apart

[Mountain Hopper]

My Mother had the albums from high school and my Dad always listened to the classic rock station which played a lot of Zep. When I heard a song by them that I liked on the radio I would go find it on the album. I was only about 5 at the time, but I was hooked.