Led Zeppelin
By the mid-seventies, Led Zeppelin was the most popular rock band in the world. They sold more than 300 million records, and devoured the world with their thunderous sound and their wicked ways. But the group disbanded after the death of drummer John Bonham in 1980.
An art college student, Page became renowned as a session player comfortable in many different genres, from rockabilly to rock 'n' roll to acoustic blues and electric blues
But Page did call: "[Jones] said, 'I'm going up to the Village to see a singer and we think he knows a drummer. I'll tell you what they're like when I get back.' And he came back, said, 'They're amazing. Come on, let's go and rehearse.'"
Jones recalled to Mason their first rehearsal together: "So Page suggested a thing, he said, 'Well, there's a thing we used to do with the Yardbirds called 'Train Kept A-Rollin'' which is basically a blues sequence with this riff. So he just counted in, 'Three, four ...' and just like, whoa, the room just exploded.
"I mean, rhythm section particularly are always, like, wary in a new situation," he laughed. "Because you've gotta work really closely together. And so I'm thinking, 'Oh, I wonder what the drummer's like.' And he was probably thinking, 'I wonder what the bass player's like.' But within, I don't know, four bars, we all knew - 'Oh, thank goodness for that. This is gonna work. This is great.'"
The band made its name on the underground circuit of touring, and by American FM radio (given that their recorded output did not led itself easily to bite-sized pop hits for AM radio play). "FM radio was alive and well at this point of time, and they were playing whole album sides, for heaven's sake," Page told Mason. "They don't have some silly tune, singles. You could hear people's work properly. It was so refreshing to be in a tour bus, listening to, like, the local FM station and saying, 'Yes, this is what we've all been about in music. It's really surfaced. And it's there, it's alive and well.' And then you go back to England, be faced with doing some silly single.
"So I'd learned that the thing to do was to be making albums. And sure, okay, something needs to be played on the AM station for heralding the fact that there's an album. Well, so be it. But we're not gonna concentrate on singles because we're gonna concentrate on the albums."
Page said "Stairway to Heaven" - one of the most-played pieces of music on the radio, despite a length of over eight minutes - was not released as a single. "There was no way it could be edited" said Page. ""It started off at one tempo, and then accelerates all the way through. So it was impossible, really, to do edits on it that would be convincing."
When asked to explain its popularity, he suggested it was because
Jones said the jet made perfect sense: "If you were doing a four-week tour, you'd choose four bases: New York, L.A., New Orleans, Chicago, something like that. And then you'd have a limo at the hotel go straight onto the tarmac, onto the plane, 20 minute flight, half an hour at the most to the show, you'd be out, and you'd be back at the base by midnight after the show. You'd have your food on the plane, it was just wonderful." Without the jet, he said, "you'd finish the show, there'd be a motel, the town would've closed during the show, so there's no food anywhere. I mean, I had to go to bed so hungry some nights, just nothing anywhere to eat. There was no catering, there's no nothing. You know, it was like, 'Oh God
Jones said that when Bonham passed away, the group agreed unanimously to disband "immediately," he told Mason. ""It wasn't the band anymore. I mean, he was such an integral part."
"That must have been an incredibly difficult decision," Mason said.
"No, it was an easy decision," Jones replied.
For more info:
ledzeppelin.com
by CBSNews.com senior producer David Morgan