50 years of the opus “Houses of the Holy”: Led Zep explores new sounds

Houses of the Holyis considered, by Rolling Stone magazine, as the 278th best album of all time.

Experiment

Directed by guitarist Jimmy Page, Led Zeppelin continues, with this opus, his explorations and stands out from the more raw sounds of his first records. 

Owners of personal studios, guitarist Jimmy Page and bassist-keyboardist John Paul Jones experimented with different sounds before entering the studio. The synthesizers, the mellotron (The Rain Song), clavinet (Over the Hills and Far Away) and electric piano on No Quarter are present.

The group shows up in the studio with elaborate versions. “Led Zep” surprises fans with The Crunge, with funk sounds inspired by James Brown. D'yer Mak'er is influenced by Jamaican reggae and dub. These two pieces, just like the first single Dancing Days, are not unanimous, compared to The Song Remains the Same, The Rain Song and No Quarter, which will become key moments concerts of the formation.

A record

In an interview published in the magazine Guitar World in November 2022, the guitarist Jimmy Page discussed the group's intentions for the opus Houses of the Holy.

“I thought it was important that each Led Zeppelin album sound different from the previous album. All the changes were intentional and that's why we worked with different engineers and different studios,” he said.

The tour following the release of Houses of the Holy is breaking records. The quartet plays in amphitheaters and stadiums in the United States. Led Zeppelin beat that of the Beatles established at Shea Stadium in New York in 1965, with 56,800 spectators, at Tampa Stadium, in Florida.

It was during this tour that Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones and the late John Bonham would film three concerts at Madison Square Garden in New York City for the film and live album The Song Remains the Same which would be released in 1976.