158-832: Led Zeppelin III is the third album by the English rock band Led Zeppelin , released on 5 October 1970. It was recorded in three locations. Much of the work was done at Headley Grange , a country house, using the Rolling Stones Mobile Studio . Additional sessions were held at Island Studios and Olympic Studios in London. As with the prior album, the band eschewed the use of guest musicians, with all music performed by band members Robert Plant (vocals), Jimmy Page (guitars), John Paul Jones (bass, keyboards), and John Bonham (drums). The range of instruments played by
316-571: A short tour of Iceland in June 1970. It was released as a single in the US and became a top 20 hit. It was the opening song for the band's appearance at the Bath Festival of Blues and Progressive Music and at subsequent gigs for the next two years. It was included in the 2003 movie School of Rock , after Jack Black made a short video with fans asking for permission for its use. Page clarified that
474-548: A vibrato amplifier. Page said that the group had 16 tracks to choose from for release on Led Zeppelin III . Six other songs that were recorded during the Led Zeppelin III sessions were released at a later date: "Poor Tom" was released on Coda ; "Bron-Yr-Aur" was included on the 1975 double album Physical Graffiti ; " Hey, Hey, What Can I Do " was released as the B-side to the 1970 "Immigrant Song" single, and on
632-514: A certain degree doesn't care if it's popular. — Bill Wyman in Vulture (2016) The sound of rock is traditionally centered on the amplified electric guitar, which emerged in its modern form in the 1950s with the popularity of rock and roll. It was also greatly influenced by the sounds of electric blues guitarists. The sound of an electric guitar in rock music is typically supported by an electric bass guitar, which pioneered jazz music in
790-606: A cinema, it also still maintains a small recording facility, designed with the help of original members of the studio's staff, who are now also involved in the construction of a much larger studio, performance and teaching space, to run alongside Olympic's cinema at the iconic location. The first home of Olympic Sound Studios was in Central London in the late 1950s. It was owned by Angus McKenzie, who had purchased Larry Lyons's Olympia Studio in Fulham . McKenzie then took on
948-544: A creation of the maintenance staff and built specially for the studios. They became known as Olympic desks and were developed by Dick Swettenham, Keith Grant, and later Jim McBride in conjunction with Jim Dowler. Swettenham later started to manufacture the consoles commercially as Helios desks . The first desk of this type was commissioned by Grant as Helios One for Studio Two. Olympic desks and their Helios spin-offs are still highly regarded and sought-after for their sonic qualities today. For many years, copyright problems with
1106-558: A deluxe two-LP version; a super deluxe two-CD plus two-LP version with a hardback book; and as high-resolution, 24-bit/96k digital downloads. The deluxe and super deluxe editions feature bonus material containing alternative takes, backing tracks and the previously unreleased songs "Bathroom Sound", " Jennings Farm Blues " and "Key to the Highway/Trouble in Mind". The LP versions replicate the original volvelle sleeve design. The reissue
1264-441: A development of flats and shops. After four years of closure, Olympic Studios re-opened on 14 October 2013 as a cinema with two screens, a café with dining room and a recording studio. The conversion of part of the original building to a small recording studio was undertaken by architect Robertson Grant and the acoustics completed by original studio designer Keith Grant and Russel Pettinger. The new studio facility operates alongside
1422-519: A fondness for a good beat, a meaningful lyric with some wit, and the theme of youth, which holds an "eternal attraction" so objective "that all youth music partakes of sociology and the field report ." Writing in Christgau's Record Guide: The '80s (1990), he said this sensibility is evident in the music of folk singer-songwriter Michelle Shocked , rapper LL Cool J , and synth-pop duo Pet Shop Boys —"all kids working out their identities"—as much as it
1580-481: A foundation of simple syncopated rhythms in a 4 meter , with a repetitive snare drum back beat on beats two and four. Melodies often originate from older musical modes such as the Dorian and Mixolydian , as well as major and minor modes. Harmonies range from the common triad to parallel perfect fourths and fifths and dissonant harmonic progressions. Since the late 1950s, and particularly from
1738-628: A frequent addition to the established rock format of guitars, bass, and drums in subsequent progressive rock. Instrumentals were common, while songs with lyrics were sometimes conceptual, abstract, or based in fantasy and science fiction. The Pretty Things ' SF Sorrow (1968), the Kinks' Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire) (1969), and the Who 's Tommy (1969) introduced
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#17327833973901896-473: A hilltop overlooking the Dyfi Valley , three miles (4.8 km) north of the market town Machynlleth . Plant had spent holidays there with his family. This remote setting had no running water or electric power, which encouraged a slight change of musical direction for the band towards an emphasis on acoustic arrangements. Page later explained that the tranquillity of Bron-Yr-Aur stood in sharp contrast to
2054-630: A key feature of psychedelia. Psychedelic rock reached its apogee in the last years of the decade. 1967 saw the Beatles release their definitive psychedelic statement in Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band , including the controversial track " Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds ", the Rolling Stones responded later that year with Their Satanic Majesties Request , and Pink Floyd debuted with The Piper at
2212-713: A lease for a derelict synagogue situated at Carlton Street, in London 's West End . In conjunction with Richard "Dick" Swettenham, McKenzie opened Olympic's Studio One, with a valve-based recording console from the Olympia Studio. Swettenham designed the first professional transistorised desk in the world, which was installed into Studio One during 1960, along with the first four-track tape recorder in England. The studio first came to prominence in 1958, when its senior sound engineer John Timperley recorded music which
2370-573: A loud amplified sound, often centered on the electric guitar, based on the Chicago blues , particularly after the tour of Britain by Muddy Waters in 1958, which prompted Cyril Davies and guitarist Alexis Korner to form the band Blues Incorporated . The band involved and inspired many of the figures of the subsequent British blues boom, including members of the Rolling Stones and Cream , combining blues standards and forms with rock instrumentation and emphasis. The other key focus for British blues
2528-587: A mainstream audience with hits including " Blowin' in the Wind " (1963) and " Masters of War " (1963), which brought " protest songs " to a wider public, but, although beginning to influence each other, rock and folk music had remained largely separate genres, often with mutually exclusive audiences. Early attempts to combine elements of folk and rock included the Animals' " House of the Rising Sun " (1964), which
2686-495: A major element of progressive rock. From about 1967 bands like Cream and the Jimi Hendrix Experience had moved away from purely blues-based music into psychedelia . By the 1970s, blues rock had become heavier and more riff-based, exemplified by the work of Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple , and the lines between blues rock and hard rock "were barely visible", as bands began recording rock-style albums. The genre
2844-429: A major influence on subsequent electronic rock . With the advent of punk rock and technological changes in the late 1970s, progressive rock was increasingly dismissed as pretentious and overblown. Many bands broke up, but some, including Genesis, ELP, Yes, and Pink Floyd, regularly scored top ten albums with successful accompanying worldwide tours. Some bands which emerged in the aftermath of punk, such as Siouxsie and
3002-548: A mansion in East Hampshire , to rehearse the songs. The rural atmosphere gave a relaxed feel to the sessions, and the band found it to be a more enjoyable environment in which to develop songs than a studio in the city. The album was recorded between May and June 1970 at Headley Grange (using the Rolling Stones Mobile Studio ) and at Olympic, with further recording at Island Records' Island Studios in Notting Hill
3160-410: A more basic form of rock and roll that incorporated its original influences, particularly blues, country and folk music, leading to the creation of country rock and Southern rock. In 1966 Bob Dylan went to Nashville to record the album Blonde on Blonde . This, and subsequent more clearly country-influenced albums, such as Nashville Skyline , have been seen as creating the genre of country folk ,
3318-600: A multi-media artist whom Page had met in 1963 whilst Zacron was a student at Kingston College of Art . Zacron subsequently graduated from the Royal Academy of Arts and became a lecturer at the University of Leeds . Page asked him if he would help design a sleeve for the album, which he helped arrange in January 1970. The cover and interior gatefold art consisted of a surreal collection of seemingly random images on
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#17327833973903476-486: A multibillion-dollar industry and doubling its market while, as Christgau noted, suffering a significant "loss of cultural prestige". "Maybe the Bee Gees became more popular than the Beatles, but they were never more popular than Jesus ", he said. "Insofar as the music retained any mythic power, the myth was self-referential – there were lots of songs about the rock and roll life but very few about how rock could change
3634-589: A national phenomenon. It is often argued that the surf music craze and the careers of almost all surf acts was effectively ended by the arrival of the British Invasion from 1964, because most surf music hits were recorded and released between 1960 and 1965. By the end of 1962, what would become the British rock scene had started with beat groups like the Beatles , Gerry & the Pacemakers and
3792-411: A preacher, prosecutions of Jerry Lee Lewis and Chuck Berry and the breaking of the payola scandal (which implicated major figures, including Alan Freed, in bribery and corruption in promoting individual acts or songs), gave a sense that the rock and roll era established at that point had come to an end. Rock quickly spread out from its origins in the US, associated with the rapid Americanization that
3950-444: A prog rock influence and while ranking among the most commercially successful acts of the 1970s, heralding the era of pomp or arena rock , which would last until the costs of complex shows (often with theatrical staging and special effects), would be replaced by more economical rock festivals as major live venues in the 1990s. The instrumental strand of the genre resulted in albums like Mike Oldfield 's Tubular Bells (1973),
4108-511: A progression from straightforward rock towards folk and acoustic music. While hard rock influences were still present, such as on " Immigrant Song ", acoustic-based songs such as " Gallows Pole " and " That's the Way " showed Led Zeppelin were capable of playing different styles successfully. The band wrote most of the material themselves, but as with prior records, included two songs that were re-interpretations of earlier works: "Gallows Pole", based on
4266-446: A rigidly delineated musical definition." In the opinion of music journalist Robert Christgau , "the best rock jolts folk-art virtues—directness, utility, natural audience—into the present with shots of modern technology and modernist dissociation ". Rock and roll was conceived as an outlet for adolescent yearnings ... To make rock and roll is also an ideal way to explore intersections of sex, love, violence, and fun, to broadcast
4424-625: A rock-informed album era in the music industry for the next several decades. By the late 1960s " classic rock " period, a few distinct rock music subgenres had emerged, including hybrids like blues rock , folk rock , country rock , Southern rock , raga rock , and jazz rock , which contributed to the development of psychedelic rock , influenced by the countercultural psychedelic and hippie scene . New genres that emerged included progressive rock , which extended artistic elements, heavy metal , which emphasized an aggressive thick sound, and glam rock , which highlighted showmanship and visual style. In
4582-721: A route pursued by a number of largely acoustic folk musicians. Other acts that followed the back-to-basics trend were the Canadian group the Band and the California-based Creedence Clearwater Revival , both of which mixed basic rock and roll with folk, country and blues, to be among the most successful and influential bands of the late 1960s. The same movement saw the beginning of the recording careers of Californian solo artists like Ry Cooder , Bonnie Raitt and Lowell George , and influenced
4740-481: A slogan one only began to hear in 1972 or so, mobilized all those eager to believe that idealism had become passe, and once they were mobilized, it had. In popular music, embracing the '70s meant both an elitist withdrawal from the messy concert and counterculture scene and a profiteering pursuit of the lowest common denominator in FM radio and album rock . Rock saw greater commodification during this decade, turning into
4898-509: A theatre for the Barnes Repertory Company. In its first decade, it was a venue associated with the bioscope , an early form of cinema combined with music hall and instrumentation. Between the 1930s and the post- Second World War era, it was once more a cinema. In the 1950s, the building became television production studios. Actors who played there included John Gielgud and Claude Rains . As Grant added to and completed
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5056-451: A traditional English folk song, by way of American singer Fred Gerlach ; and "Hats Off to (Roy) Harper", a reworking of a blues song by Bukka White . The acoustic material developed from a songwriting session between Plant and Page at Bron-Yr-Aur cottage in Wales, which influenced the musical direction. The album was one of the most anticipated of 1970, and its shipping date was held up by
5214-493: A variety of acoustic and electric guitars and banjo, while Jones played mandolin as well as bass. It was reworked by Page and Plant for their 1994 album No Quarter: Jimmy Page and Robert Plant Unledded . " Tangerine " was written by Page in 1968, when the Yardbirds were still together. The track features pedal steel guitar as well as acoustic. It was added to the group's live acoustic set in 1971 and performed regularly into
5372-464: A variety of directions, including Dylan and the Byrds, who began to develop country rock . However, the hybridization of folk and rock has been seen as having a major influence on the development of rock music, bringing in elements of psychedelia, and helping to develop the ideas of the singer-songwriter, the protest song, and concepts of "authenticity". Psychedelic music's LSD -inspired vibe began in
5530-529: A variety of sources such as the Tin Pan Alley pop tradition, folk music , and rhythm and blues . Christgau characterizes rock lyrics as a "cool medium" with simple diction and repeated refrains, and asserts that rock's primary "function" "pertains to music, or, more generally, noise ." The predominance of white, male, and often middle class musicians in rock music has often been noted, and rock has been seen as an appropriation of Black musical forms for
5688-411: A white background, many of them connected thematically with flight or aviation. Behind the front cover was a rotatable laminated card disc, or volvelle , covered with more images, including photos of the band members, which showed through holes in the cover; moving an image into place behind one hole would usually bring one or two others into place behind other holes. The back cover was a composite shot of
5846-501: A young, white and largely male audience. As a result, it has also been seen to articulate the concerns of this group in both style and lyrics. Christgau, writing in 1972, said in spite of some exceptions, "rock and roll usually implies an identification of male sexuality and aggression". Since the term "rock" started being used in preference to "rock and roll" from the late-1960s, it has usually been contrasted with pop music, with which it has shared many characteristics, but from which it
6004-458: Is a blues song in the key of C minor , featuring Jones on Hammond organ and bass pedals, simultaneously. The song became a live performance staple for the band throughout the rest of their career, replacing " I Can't Quit You Baby " from the first album as the band's slow blues showcase, with Page's guitar solo featured on both the recorded version and in the band's live show. "Out on the Tiles"
6162-675: Is a broad genre of popular music that originated as " rock and roll " in the United States in the late 1940s and early 1950s, developing into a range of different styles from the mid-1960s, particularly in the United States and the United Kingdom. It has its roots in rock and roll, a style that drew directly from the genres of blues , rhythm and blues , and country music . Rock also drew strongly from genres such as electric blues and folk , and incorporated influences from jazz and other musical styles. For instrumentation, rock
6320-423: Is centered on the electric guitar , usually as part of a rock group with electric bass guitar , drums , and one or more singers. Usually, rock is song-based music with a 4 time signature using a verse–chorus form , but the genre has become extremely diverse. Like pop music , lyrics often stress romantic love but also address a wide variety of other themes that are frequently social or political. Rock
6478-540: Is credited with first using the phrase "rock and roll" to describe the music. Four years later, Bill Haley 's " Rock Around the Clock " (1954) became the first rock and roll song to top Billboard magazine's main sales and airplay charts, and opened the door worldwide for this new wave of popular culture. Other artists with early rock and roll hits included Chuck Berry , Bo Diddley , Fats Domino , Little Richard , Jerry Lee Lewis , and Gene Vincent . Soon rock and roll
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6636-472: Is generally agreed that garage rock peaked both commercially and artistically around 1966. By 1968 the style largely disappeared from the national charts and at the local level as amateur musicians faced college, work or the draft . New styles had evolved to replace garage rock. Although the first impact of the British Invasion on American popular music was through beat and R&B based acts,
6794-555: Is in the music of Chuck Berry , the Ramones , and the Replacements . The foundations of rock music are in rock and roll, which originated in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, and quickly spread to much of the rest of the world. Its immediate origins lay in a melding of various black musical genres of the time, including rhythm and blues and gospel music , with country and western . Debate surrounds
6952-411: Is often distanced by an emphasis on musicianship, live performance, and a focus on serious and progressive themes as part of an ideology of authenticity that is frequently combined with an awareness of the genre's history and development. According to Simon Frith , rock was "something more than pop, something more than rock and roll" and "[r]ock musicians combined an emphasis on skill and technique with
7110-399: Is termed as a rock band or a rock group. Furthermore, it typically consists of between three (the power trio ) and five members. Classically, a rock band takes the form of a quartet whose members cover one or more roles, including vocalist, lead guitarist, rhythm guitarist, bass guitarist, drummer, and often keyboard player or another instrumentalist. Rock music is traditionally built on
7268-405: Is the Band." Olympic Studios Olympic Studios was a British independent recording studio based on Church Road , Barnes , London . It is best known for its recordings of many artists throughout the late 1960s to the first decade of the 21st century, including Jimi Hendrix , the Beatles , the Rolling Stones , David Bowie , Led Zeppelin , Ella Fitzgerald , Queen , Ray Charles ,
7426-535: The Billboard Hot 100 . The British Invasion greatly influenced garage bands, providing them with a national audience, leading many (often surf or hot rod groups) to adopt a British influence, and encouraging many more groups to form. Thousands of garage bands were extant in the United States and Canada during the era and hundreds produced regional hits. Despite scores of bands being signed to major or large regional labels, most were commercial failures. It
7584-524: The American folk music revival had grown to a major movement, using traditional music and new compositions in a traditional style, usually on acoustic instruments. In America the genre was pioneered by figures such as Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger and often identified with progressive or labor politics . In the early sixties figures such as Joan Baez and Bob Dylan had come to the fore in this movement as singer-songwriters. Dylan had begun to reach
7742-422: The garage rock / post-punk revival in the 2000s. Since the 2010s, rock has lost its position as the pre-eminent popular music genre in world culture, but remains commercially successful. The increased influence of hip-hop and electronic dance music can be seen in rock music, notably in the techno-pop scene of the early 2010s and the pop-punk-hip-hop revival of the 2020s. Rock has also embodied and served as
7900-417: The protest song , rock music has been associated with political activism , as well as changes in social attitudes to race, sex, and drug use, and is often seen as an expression of youth revolt against adult consumerism and conformity . At the same time, it has been commercially highly successful, leading to accusations of selling out . A good definition of rock, in fact, is that it's popular music that to
8058-454: The 1950s saw the growth in popularity of the electric guitar, and the development of a specifically rock and roll style of playing through such exponents as Chuck Berry, Link Wray , and Scotty Moore . The use of distortion , pioneered by Western swing guitarists such as Junior Barnard and Eldon Shamblin was popularized by Chuck Berry in the mid-1950s. The use of power chords , pioneered by Francisco Tárrega and Heitor Villa-Lobos in
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#17327833973908216-497: The 1972 sampler album The New Age of Atlantic , later appearing on the first box set in 1990 and then Coda (Deluxe Edition) in 2015, along with "St. Tristan's Sword"; and both "Jennings Farm Blues" and " Key to the Highway / Trouble in Mind " later appeared on the 2014 deluxe edition of the album . Led Zeppelin III' s original vinyl edition was packaged in a gatefold sleeve with an innovative cover, designed by Zacron ,
8374-467: The 19th century and later on by Willie Johnson and Pat Hare in the early 1950s, was popularized by Link Wray in the late 1950s. Commentators have traditionally perceived a decline of rock and roll in the late 1950s and early 1960s. By 1959, the death of Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens in a plane crash, the departure of Elvis for the army, the retirement of Little Richard to become
8532-477: The Banshees , Ultravox , and Simple Minds , showed the influence of progressive rock, as well as their more usually recognized punk influences. In the late 1960s, jazz-rock emerged as a distinct subgenre out of the blues-rock, psychedelic, and progressive rock scenes, mixing the power of rock with the musical complexity and improvisational elements of jazz. AllMusic states that the term jazz-rock "may refer to
8690-466: The Beatles were back again at Olympic, this time recording the first parts of " Something " and " You Never Give Me Your Money ", as well as ideas for their planned Get Back album. With the band entering their final year and amid periodic disagreements, McCartney on occasion stayed behind on his own to record with other musicians to be found at the studio. By now, Olympic had also already started being extensively used by Led Zeppelin , who recorded at
8848-628: The Beatles, demonstrating "to the rock generation in general that an album could be a major standalone statement without hit singles", such as on The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan (1963). Folk rock particularly took off in California, where it led acts like the Mamas & the Papas and Crosby, Stills, and Nash to move to electric instrumentation, and in New York, where it spawned performers including
9006-617: The Byrds ' shift from folk to folk rock from 1965. The psychedelic lifestyle, which revolved around hallucinogenic drugs, had already developed in San Francisco and particularly prominent products of the scene were Big Brother and the Holding Company , the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane . The Jimi Hendrix Experience 's lead guitarist, Jimi Hendrix did extended distorted, feedback-filled jams which became
9164-431: The Byrds adopted rock instrumentation, including drums and 12-string Rickenbacker guitars, which became a major element in the sound of the genre. Later that year Dylan adopted electric instruments, much to the outrage of many folk purists, with his " Like a Rolling Stone " becoming a US hit single. According to Ritchie Unterberger , Dylan (even before his adoption of electric instruments) influenced rock musicians like
9322-537: The Dominos , followed by an extensive solo career that helped bring blues rock into the mainstream. Green, along with the Bluesbreaker's rhythm section Mick Fleetwood and John McVie , formed Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac , who enjoyed some of the greatest commercial success in the genre. In the late 1960s Jeff Beck , also an alumnus of the Yardbirds, moved blues rock in the direction of heavy rock with his band,
9480-507: The Gates of Dawn . Key recordings included Jefferson Airplane's Surrealistic Pillow and the Doors ' self-titled debut album . These trends peaked in the 1969 Woodstock festival , which saw performances by most of the major psychedelic acts. Sgt. Pepper was later regarded as the greatest album of all time and a starting point for the album era , during which rock music transitioned from
9638-471: The Jeff Beck Group . The last Yardbirds guitarist was Jimmy Page , who went on to form The New Yardbirds which rapidly became Led Zeppelin . Many of the songs on their first three albums, and occasionally later in their careers, were expansions on traditional blues songs. In America, blues rock had been pioneered in the early 1960s by guitarist Lonnie Mack , but the genre began to take off in
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#17327833973909796-506: The Joint " (1949), also covered by Bill Haley & His Comets in 1952; and " Rocket 88 " by Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats (in fact, Ike Turner and his band the Kings of Rhythm ), recorded by Sam Phillips for Chess Records in 1951. In 1951, Cleveland, Ohio disc jockey Alan Freed began playing rhythm and blues music (then termed " race music ") for a multi-racial audience, and
9954-503: The Lovin' Spoonful and Simon and Garfunkel , with the latter's acoustic " The Sounds of Silence " (1965) being remixed with rock instruments to be the first of many hits. These acts directly influenced British performers like Donovan and Fairport Convention . In 1969 Fairport Convention abandoned their mixture of American covers and Dylan-influenced songs to play traditional English folk music on electric instruments. This British folk-rock
10112-636: The Opera (1975), shortly after David Bowie had completed his album Diamond Dogs . Olympic also saw the production of numerous other landmark albums and singles, by the Small Faces , Traffic , Hawkwind , Deep Purple , Soft Machine , Blind Faith , the Seekers and the Moody Blues . Procol Harum recorded all tracks for their eponymous first album Procol Harum (1967) at Olympic, including
10270-476: The Rolling Stones and the Yardbirds , were much more directly influenced by rhythm and blues and later blues music. Soon these groups were composing their own material, combining US forms of music and infusing it with a high energy beat. Beat bands tended towards "bouncy, irresistible melodies", while early British blues acts tended towards less sexually innocent, more aggressive songs, often adopting an anti-establishment stance. There was, however, particularly in
10428-588: The Searchers from Liverpool and Freddie and the Dreamers , Herman's Hermits and the Hollies from Manchester. They drew on a wide range of American influences including 1950s rock and roll, soul, rhythm and blues, and surf music, initially reinterpreting standard American tunes and playing for dancers. Bands like the Animals from Newcastle and Them from Belfast , and particularly those from London like
10586-672: The Seeds ) to near-studio musician quality (including the Knickerbockers , the Remains , and the Fifth Estate ). There were also regional variations in many parts of the country with flourishing scenes particularly in California and Texas. The Pacific Northwest states of Washington and Oregon had perhaps the most defined regional sound. The style had been evolving from regional scenes as early as 1958. "Tall Cool One" (1959) by
10744-676: The US was becoming dominated by lightweight pop and ballads, British rock groups at clubs and local dances were developing a style more strongly influenced by blues-rock pioneers, and were starting to play with an intensity and drive seldom found in white American acts; this influence would go on to shape the future of rock music through the British Invasion . The first four years of the 1960s has traditionally been seen as an era of hiatus for rock and roll. More recently some authors have emphasised important innovations and trends in this period without which future developments would not have been possible. While early rock and roll, particularly through
10902-619: The USSR and South Africa from 1955 to 1957, influencing the globalisation of rock. Johnny O'Keefe 's 1958 record " Wild One " was one of the earliest Australian rock and roll hits. By the late 1950s, as well as in the American-influenced Western world, rock was popular in communist states such as Yugoslavia, and the USSR, as well as in regions such as South America. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, American blues music and blues rock artists, who had been surpassed by
11060-751: The Wailers and " Louie Louie " by the Kingsmen (1963) are mainstream examples of the genre in its formative stages. By 1963, garage band singles were creeping into the national charts in greater numbers, including Paul Revere and the Raiders (Boise), the Trashmen (Minneapolis) and the Rivieras (South Bend, Indiana). Other influential garage bands, such as the Sonics (Tacoma, Washington), never reached
11218-512: The Way" as "beautiful and genuinely moving", while characterising the band's heavier songs as crude and little differentiated from each other. Others criticised the acoustic material for imitating the music of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young , which Page disputed, as the group had featured a similar style on both of their previous albums. Page later said that the negative press given to the third album affected him so much that he did not give press interviews for 18 months after its release, adding that
11376-474: The Who , B. B. King , Traffic , Prince , the Eagles , Eric Clapton , Family , Adele , Björk and MIKA . It is often regarded as being as significant as Abbey Road Studios , and remains an important cultural landmark. The studio's sound mixing desks became famous when the technology and design they pioneered was manufactured commercially. Although much of Olympic has returned to its original purpose as
11534-527: The advent of rockabilly, saw the greatest commercial success for male and white performers, in this era, the genre was dominated by black and female artists. Rock and roll had not disappeared entirely from music at the end of the 1950s and some of its energy can be seen in the various dance crazes of the early 1960s, started by Chubby Checker 's record " The Twist " (1960). Some music historians have also pointed to important and innovative technical developments that built on rock and roll in this period, including
11692-512: The album 2 times platinum in 1990, and 6 times platinum in 1999. The 2014 reissue of the album helped itself get back into the Billboard Top 10. Along with the group's self-titled debut album and their second album, Led Zeppelin II , the album was remastered and reissued on 2 June 2014. The reissue comes in six formats: a standard CD edition; a deluxe two-CD edition; a standard LP version;
11850-406: The band was greatly enhanced on this album, with Jones especially emerging as a talented multi-instrumentalist, playing a wide range of keyboard and stringed instruments, including various synthesizers , mandolin and double bass , in addition to his usual bass guitar. As with prior albums, Page served as producer on the album, with mixing done by Andy Johns and Terry Manning . The album showed
12008-697: The band's history and a turning point in their music. By 1970, Led Zeppelin had achieved commercial success in both the UK and the US with their first two albums. They were determined to have a proper break, having recorded most of Led Zeppelin II in various locations while on tour, financing the sessions with the album sales and tour receipts. Following an exhausting concert tour of North America that spring, lead singer Robert Plant recommended to guitarist and producer Jimmy Page that they should retreat to Bron-Yr-Aur , an 18th-century cottage in Snowdonia , Wales, on
12166-401: The best photographs from the photography sessions. Zacron chose the images because he wanted to "show them as the giant force they were in music". In France, this album was released with a different album cover, simply showing a photo of the four band members. Zacron later said that, upon his completion of the artwork, Page telephoned him while he was in New York to express his satisfaction with
12324-574: The best" of the three reissues. In Rolling Stone , David Fricke wrote of highlights in the bonus disc: " 'Jennings Farm Blues', an electric run at the folk gallop 'Bron-Y-Aur Stomp', shows Zeppelin exploring options, and the medley 'Keys to the Highway/Trouble in Mind', by Page and Plant, feels like a deep-blues breath before the next rush forward." Led Zeppelin Sales figures based on certification alone. Shipments figures based on certification alone. Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone. Rock music Rock
12482-585: The biggest selling rock band of all time and they were followed into the US charts by numerous British bands. During the next two years British acts dominated their own and the US charts with Peter and Gordon , the Animals, Manfred Mann , Petula Clark , Freddie and the Dreamers, Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders , Herman's Hermits, the Rolling Stones, the Troggs , and Donovan all having one or more number one singles. Other major acts that were part of
12640-469: The chart at No. 3 on 24 October and reached No. 1 the following week. It remained on the chart for 19 weeks and was certified Gold on 8 October 1970. However, following the lukewarm, if not confused and sometimes dismissive reception from critics, sales lagged after this initial peak. Despite mostly indifferent reviews and lower sales than Led Zeppelin's previous two albums, Led Zeppelin III' s reputation has increased over time. The RIAA certified
12798-461: The chart. Their first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show on 9 February 1964, drawing an estimated 73 million viewers (at the time a record for an American television program) is considered a milestone in American pop culture. During the week of 4 April 1964, the Beatles held 12 positions on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, including the entire top five. The Beatles went on to become
12956-652: The continual touring of 1969, affecting the overall tone of the songwriting and dominance of acoustic guitars. His playing was influenced by folk guitarists Davey Graham and Bert Jansch , who regularly used alternative guitar tunings. Plant also recalled the band were "obsessed with change" and enjoyed listening to John Fahey . The band specifically wanted a change in direction, to show they could play any style of music they wanted. The first recording sessions for Led Zeppelin III took place at Olympic Studios in November 1969. A press statement from manager Peter Grant said
13114-553: The criticism was one of the reasons why the band's untitled follow-up album contained no written information on it at all. Page later came to believe that journalists had little time to listen to the material and were simply looking for "the new ' Whole Lotta Love ' " instead of appreciating the album on its own merits. A positive review came from Robert Christgau , who originally assigned it an A-minus grade and wrote in his "Consumer Guide" review for The Village Voice : "I have always approved theoretically of Led Zep's concept, and now
13272-424: The delights and limitations of the regional , and to deal with the depredations and benefits of mass culture itself. — Robert Christgau in Christgau's Record Guide (1981) Unlike many earlier styles of popular music, rock lyrics have dealt with a wide range of themes, including romantic love, sex, rebellion against " The Establishment ", social concerns, and life styles. These themes were inherited from
13430-467: The design of parts of the studio himself. The Stones continued recording, mixing and overdubbing at the studio from 1989 to 1992. Having been happy with their recording of " Baby, You're A Rich Man " earlier that year, in the summer of 1967 it was at Olympic in Barnes that the Beatles conceived the first parts and ideas of " All You Need Is Love ", which a fortnight later debuted as part of Our World ,
13588-455: The early 1970s among existing blues-rock and psychedelic bands, as well as newly formed acts. The vibrant Canterbury scene saw acts following Soft Machine from psychedelia, through jazz influences, toward more expansive hard rock, including Caravan , Hatfield and the North , Gong , and National Health . The French group Magma around drummer Christian Vander almost single-handedly created
13746-460: The early 1970s, Robert Christgau wrote in Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981): The decade is, of course, an arbitrary schema itself—time doesn't just execute a neat turn toward the future every ten years. But like a lot of artificial concepts—money, say—the category does take on a reality of its own once people figure out how to put it to work. "The '60s are over,"
13904-462: The early stages, considerable musical crossover between the two tendencies. By 1963, led by the Beatles, beat groups had begun to achieve national success in Britain, soon to be followed into the charts by the more rhythm and blues focused acts. " I Want to Hold Your Hand " was the Beatles' first number one hit on the Billboard Hot 100 , spending seven weeks at the top and a total of 15 weeks on
14062-519: The electronic treatment of sound by such innovators as Joe Meek , and the elaborate production methods of the Wall of Sound pursued by Phil Spector . The instrumental rock and roll of performers such as Duane Eddy , Link Wray and the Ventures was further developed by Dick Dale , who added distinctive "wet" reverb , rapid alternate picking, and Middle Eastern and Mexican influences. He produced
14220-462: The end of 1969. It was subsequently reworked as an acoustic number and featured Bonham playing spoons. The closing track, "Hats Off to (Roy) Harper", was based on the Bukka White blues song " Shake 'Em On Down " and named as a tribute to their friend and folk singer, Roy Harper . The original LP credited the arrangement to "Charles Obscure", a band in-joke. It features Plant's voice fed through
14378-431: The end of September, which simply said, "Thank you for making us the world's number one band." The album was released in the US on 5 October, then in the UK on 23 October. It immediately topped the British charts. Although the band's expanding musical boundaries were greeted warmly by some, detractors attacked the heavier tracks as being mindless noise. In a review for Rolling Stone , critic Lester Bangs praised "That's
14536-581: The example set by the Beatles ' 1965 LP Rubber Soul in particular, other British rock acts released rock albums intended as artistic statements in 1966, including the Rolling Stones ' Aftermath , the Beatles' own Revolver , and the Who 's A Quick One , as well as American acts in the Beach Boys ( Pet Sounds ) and Bob Dylan ( Blonde on Blonde ). Garage rock was a raw form of rock music, particularly prevalent in North America in
14694-486: The first ever global satellite broadcast to millions worldwide. With both bands regularly sharing the studio in the summer of 1967, Lennon and McCartney joined the Rolling Stones recording of " We Love You ". Having moved to the UK in the mid-1960s, Jimi Hendrix also spent a significant proportion of his entire recording career at Olympic, recording large parts of his albums Are You Experienced (1967), Axis: Bold as Love (1967), and Electric Ladyland (1968) at
14852-498: The first record, and worldwide hit, for the Virgin Records label, which became a mainstay of the genre. Instrumental rock was particularly significant in continental Europe, allowing bands like Kraftwerk , Tangerine Dream , Can , Focus (band) and Faust to circumvent the language barrier. Their synthesiser-heavy " krautrock ", along with the work of Brian Eno (for a time the keyboard player with Roxy Music ), would be
15010-417: The first time in the UK. Page thought highly of Plant's lyrics and considered it a breakthrough in their development as a songwriting team. The pair had gone for a walk and, on their return, sat down by a ravine with a tape recorder, where Page started to play the tune, to which Plant improvised a verse. " Bron-Y-Aur Stomp " was originally called "Jennings Farm Blues" and recorded as an electric arrangement, at
15168-455: The folk scene. The first group to advertise themselves as psychedelic rock were the 13th Floor Elevators from Texas. The Beatles introduced many of the major elements of the psychedelic sound to audiences in this period, such as guitar feedback , the Indian sitar and backmasking sound effects . Psychedelic rock particularly took off in California's emerging music scene as groups followed
15326-501: The following month. Mixing took place at Ardent Studios, Memphis , in August 1970, partway through the group's sixth American concert tour . The album was produced by Page and engineered by Andy Johns and Terry Manning . Page had first met Manning when the latter's band, Lawson and Four More , had supported Page's old band the Yardbirds in 1966. Manning had been to several Led Zeppelin shows, and this led to Page asking him to engineer
15484-552: The following year. It was then revived as a four-part harmony arrangement in 1975. " That's the Way " had the original title of "The Boy Next Door". It was written in Bron-Yr-Aur about the problems two people faced in a relationship and the clashes with their families. The song became a staple of the group's acoustic set throughout the 1970s and was played at the Bath Festival, where Led Zeppelin performed acoustically for
15642-513: The format of rock operas and opened the door to concept albums , often telling an epic story or tackling a grand overarching theme. King Crimson 's 1969 début album, In the Court of the Crimson King , which mixed powerful guitar riffs and mellotron , with jazz and symphonic music , is often taken as the key recording in progressive rock, helping the widespread adoption of the genre in
15800-414: The group has finally whipped it into shape. It's amazing to realize that Robert Plant's vocals can convey that same overbearing power when Page plays acoustic, as he does to great effect on several cuts here. No drum solos, either. Heavy." Led Zeppelin III was a trans-Atlantic number one hit. In the UK, it reached No. 1 on 7 November 1970 and remained on the chart for 40 weeks. In the US, it entered
15958-421: The group were recording a non-album track to be released as a single, but this was ultimately abandoned. Further sessions took place towards the end of the year, in between touring, before the decision was made to stop working and take a break at Bron-Yr-Aur. After preparing material for the album there, Page and Plant were joined by drummer John Bonham and bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones at Headley Grange ,
16116-466: The group's later releases. With Led Zeppelin III , the group's songwriting dynamic also changed, from Page's domination of the first two albums towards a more democratic situation in which all four group members contributed their own compositions and ideas. Plant wrote all of the lyrics, with the exception of "Tangerine". " Immigrant Song " was written about the Viking invasions of England and inspired by
16274-458: The impetus was soon taken up by a second wave of bands that drew their inspiration more directly from American blues , including the Rolling Stones and the Yardbirds . British blues musicians of the late 1950s and early 1960s had been inspired by the acoustic playing of figures such as Lead Belly , who was a major influence on the Skiffle craze, and Robert Johnson . Increasingly they adopted
16432-413: The intricate inner sleeve design based around a volvelle , with numerous images visible through holes in the outer cover. It was an immediate commercial success upon release and topped the UK and US charts. Although many critics were initially confused over the change in musical style and gave the album a mixed response, Led Zeppelin III has since been acknowledged as representing an important milestone in
16590-467: The invasion included the Kinks and the Dave Clark Five . The British Invasion helped internationalize the production of rock and roll, opening the door for subsequent British (and Irish) performers to achieve international success. In America it arguably spelled the end of instrumental surf music, vocal girl groups and (for a time) the teen idols , that had dominated the American charts in
16748-517: The label were R&B oriented white rock bands that made use of jazzy horn sections, like Electric Flag , Blood, Sweat & Tears and Chicago , to become some of the most commercially successful acts of the later 1960s and the early 1970s. British acts to emerge in the same period from the blues scene, to make use of the tonal and improvisational aspects of jazz, included Nucleus and the Graham Bond and John Mayall spin-off Colosseum . From
16906-446: The late 1950s and 1960s. It dented the careers of established R&B acts like Fats Domino and Chubby Checker and even temporarily derailed the chart success of surviving rock and roll acts, including Elvis. The British Invasion also played a major part in the rise of a distinct genre of rock music, and cemented the primacy of the rock group, based on guitars and drums and producing their own material as singer-songwriters. Following
17064-480: The lease on the Carlton Street premises was not renewed, McKenzie sold his share of the business to Cliff Adams and John Shakespeare, who moved the studios to Barnes , under the guidance of Keith Grant. Grant oversaw the development of the new studios, bringing in his father, Robertson Grant, as an architect. Situated at 117 Church Road, the Barnes building was constructed in 1906 and known as Byfeld Hall,
17222-410: The loudest, wildest, most electrified fusion bands from the jazz camp, but most often it describes performers coming from the rock side of the equation." Jazz-rock "...generally grew out of the most artistically ambitious rock subgenres of the late '60s and early '70s", including the singer-songwriter movement. Many early US rock and roll musicians had begun in jazz and carried some of these elements into
17380-476: The many recordings which have been suggested as "the first rock and roll record ". Contenders include " Strange Things Happening Every Day " by Sister Rosetta Tharpe (1944); " That's All Right " by Arthur Crudup (1946), which was later covered by Elvis Presley in 1954; " The House of Blue Lights " by Ella Mae Morse and Freddie Slack (1946); Wynonie Harris ' " Good Rocking Tonight " (1948); Goree Carter 's "Rock Awhile" (1949); Jimmy Preston 's " Rock
17538-674: The mid-1950s by white singers such as Carl Perkins , Jerry Lee Lewis, Buddy Holly and with the greatest commercial success, Elvis Presley . Hispanic and Latino American movements in rock and roll, which would eventually lead to the success of Latin rock and Chicano rock within the US, began to rise in the Southwest ; with rock and roll standard musician Ritchie Valens and even those within other heritage genres, such as Al Hurricane along with his brothers Tiny Morrie and Baby Gaby as they began combining rock and roll with country- western within traditional New Mexico music . In addition,
17696-609: The mid-1960s the Left Banke , the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and the Beach Boys, had pioneered the inclusion of harpsichords , wind , and string sections on their recordings to produce a form of Baroque rock and can be heard in singles like Procol Harum 's " A Whiter Shade of Pale " (1967), with its Bach -inspired introduction. The Moody Blues used a full orchestra on their album Days of Future Passed (1967) and subsequently created orchestral sounds with synthesizers. Classical orchestration, keyboards, and synthesizers were
17854-479: The mid-1960s and so called because of the perception that it was rehearsed in the suburban family garage. Garage rock songs often revolved around the traumas of high school life, with songs about "lying girls" and unfair social circumstances being particularly common. The lyrics and delivery tended to be more aggressive than was common at the time, often with growled or shouted vocals that dissolved into incoherent screaming. They ranged from crude one-chord music (like
18012-435: The mid-1960s as acts developed a sound similar to British blues musicians. Key acts included Paul Butterfield (whose band acted like Mayall's Bluesbreakers in Britain as a starting point for many successful musicians), Canned Heat , the early Jefferson Airplane , Janis Joplin , Johnny Winter , the J. Geils Band and Jimi Hendrix with his power trios , the Jimi Hendrix Experience (which included two British members, and
18170-401: The mid-1960s onwards, rock music often used the verse–chorus structure derived from blues and folk music, but there has been considerable variation from this model. Critics have stressed the eclecticism and stylistic diversity of rock. Because of its complex history and its tendency to borrow from other musical and cultural forms, it has been argued that "it is impossible to bind rock music to
18328-413: The new Studio Two was designed by Jagger. Later on, Grant added probably the first instant acoustic change, using rough sawn wooden slats which could cover or reveal sound-absorbing panels behind them and change the acoustic sound. This made the room suitable for the recording of both rock and orchestral music, at the pull of a cord. By the turn of the 1970s, many orchestral works and film scores, such as
18486-442: The new album. Led Zeppelin III marked a change in focus for the band, from late 1960s hard rock to a more acoustic -based sound. These styles had been present to a lesser degree on the band's first two releases, such as " Babe I'm Gonna Leave You " and " Ramble On ", from the first and second albums, respectively. However, on this album, the group used more acoustic arrangements, and they would remain prominent to various degrees in
18644-465: The new music genre zeuhl with their first albums in the early 1970s. Greater commercial success was enjoyed by Pink Floyd, who also moved away from psychedelia after the departure of Syd Barrett in 1968, with The Dark Side of the Moon (1973), seen as a masterpiece of the genre, becoming one of the best-selling albums of all time. There was an emphasis on instrumental virtuosity, with Yes showcasing
18802-608: The new music. In Britain the subgenre of blues rock, and many of its leading figures, like Ginger Baker and Jack Bruce of the Eric Clapton -fronted band Cream , had emerged from the British jazz scene. Often highlighted as the first true jazz-rock recording is the only album by the relatively obscure New York–based the Free Spirits with Out of Sight and Sound (1966). The first group of bands to self-consciously use
18960-487: The original album version of the rock musical Jesus Christ Superstar , were also being recorded at Olympic. The studio produced film music for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1968), The Italian Job (1969), the movie version of Jesus Christ Superstar (1973), The Rocky Horror Picture Show (recorded in Studio Two in 1975) and Life of Brian (1979), amongst others. Olympic Studios' sound mixing desks were
19118-483: The period of the 1990s and 2000s, such as Adele and Björk . In December 2008, the Virgin EMI group announced that the longstanding studio facilities would be closed, which occurred the following February. The London Evening Standard newspaper reported that a buyer for the building as a studio could not be found and it seemed likely that Olympic Studios would lose its musical and cinematic history due to
19276-471: The psychedelic rock and the Canterbury scenes came Soft Machine, who, it has been suggested, produced one of the artistically successfully fusions of the two genres. Perhaps the most critically acclaimed fusion came from the jazz side of the equation, with Miles Davis , particularly influenced by the work of Hendrix, incorporating rock instrumentation into his sound for the album Bitches Brew (1970). It
19434-653: The regional hit " Let's Go Trippin ' " in 1961 and launched the surf music craze, following up with songs like " Misirlou " (1962). Like Dale and his Del-Tones , most early surf bands were formed in Southern California, including the Bel-Airs , the Challengers , and Eddie & the Showmen . The Chantays scored a top ten national hit with " Pipeline " in 1963 and probably the best-known surf tune
19592-512: The results, saying, "I think it is fantastic". However, he later thought the artwork was unsatisfactory because of working to a deadline. Led Zeppelin III was one of the most anticipated albums of 1970, and advance orders in the US alone were close to the million mark. The volvelle-designed sleeve held up production and caused a two-month delay. In the run-up to release, the group bought a full-page advertisement in Melody Maker magazine at
19750-400: The rise of rock and roll in the US, found new popularity in the UK, visiting with successful tours. Lonnie Donegan 's 1955 hit " Rock Island Line " was a major influence and helped to develop the trend of skiffle music groups throughout the country, many of which, including John Lennon 's Quarrymen (later the Beatles ), moved on to play rock and roll. While former rock and roll market in
19908-475: The romantic concept of art as artistic expression, original and sincere". In the new millennium, the term rock has occasionally been used as a blanket term including forms like pop music, reggae music , soul music , and even hip hop , which it has been influenced with but often contrasted through much of its history. Christgau has used the term broadly to refer to popular and semipopular music that caters to his sensibility as "a rock-and-roller", including
20066-522: The same era, and by percussion produced from a drum kit that combines drums and cymbals. This trio of instruments has often been complemented by the inclusion of other instruments, particularly keyboards such as the piano, the Hammond organ , and the synthesizer. The basic rock instrumentation was derived from the basic blues band instrumentation (prominent lead guitar, second chordal instrument, bass, and drums). A group of musicians performing rock music
20224-555: The second half of the 1970s, punk rock reacted by producing stripped-down, energetic social and political critiques. Punk was an influence in the 1980s on new wave , post-punk and eventually alternative rock . From the 1990s, alternative rock began to dominate rock music and break into the mainstream in the form of grunge , Britpop , and indie rock . Further fusion subgenres have since emerged, including pop-punk , electronic rock , rap rock , and rap metal . Some movements were conscious attempts to revisit rock's history, including
20382-488: The single " A Whiter Shade of Pale ". In 1969, Grant commissioned his father to re-design Studio Two, as the now unexpectedly popular studio was causing problems with sound transmission to Studio One. Studio One for example might be recording classical music by Elgar , while Studio Two would be hosting sessions with the Rolling Stones. Robertson Grant successfully innovated a completely floating space weighing seventeen tons, supported by rubber pads. The décor and furnishing of
20540-546: The singles format to albums and achieved cultural legitimacy in the mainstream. Led by the Beatles in the mid-1960s, rock musicians advanced the LP as the dominant form of recorded music expression and consumption, initiating a rock-informed album era in the music industry for the next several decades. Progressive rock, a term sometimes used interchangeably with art rock , moved beyond established musical formulas by experimenting with different instruments, song types, and forms. From
20698-413: The skills of both guitarist Steve Howe and keyboard player Rick Wakeman , while Emerson, Lake & Palmer were a supergroup who produced some of the genre's most technically demanding work. Jethro Tull and Genesis both pursued very different, but distinctly English, brands of music. Renaissance , formed in 1969 by ex-Yardbirds Jim McCarty and Keith Relf, evolved into a high-concept band featuring
20856-419: The song's opening is a combination of a voice and echo feedback. "Friends" is an acoustic track that uses a C6 tuning on guitar. Page explained: "I played a Harmony acoustic tuned to C–A–C–G–C–E on 'Friends' ... It's a C [type] tuning, but not a [typical] C tuning. I made it up." The song includes a string section arranged by Jones, which Page had wanted to achieve an Indian style of sound. The song
21014-563: The studio "unfit to record music in". Barbara Jefferies, then studio manager for Virgin Music at Olympic Studios, instructed that the master tapes of the studio's vast library of recording sessions be discarded. The disposal of these tapes was unsecured. They were put into skips outside the building, remaining there for days. Some were recovered by people unassociated with the studio, and ended up as highly sought-after bootlegs . The revamped studio continued to attract many leading artists during
21172-568: The studio for all their 1969 debut Led Zeppelin , through to all their studio albums inclusive of Physical Graffiti in 1975, and extending to their single, " Kashmir ", of the same year. In 1969, Ella Fitzgerald arrived to record at the studio, and in 1971 B. B. King arrived to record his In London LP with some of the rock musicians regularly to be found at Olympic. The Who came to Olympic for their albums Who's Next (1971), Quadrophenia (1973), and Who Are You (1978). Queen recorded part of their landmark album A Night at
21330-508: The studio, engineer Eddie Kramer recounted that in 1967 "Olympic Studios was at the cutting edge of technology. We were very innovative and of course we had [I think] the best console in England and possibly the world at the time". "We were ahead in terms of design." The Rolling Stones were among the first clients of the new Olympic Studios in Barnes, consecutively recording six of their albums there between 1966 and 1973, and becoming such regular visitors that Mick Jagger even contributed to
21488-474: The studio. For his seminal recording of Bob Dylan's " All Along the Watchtower ", Hendrix was joined by two other musicians regularly to be found at Olympic; Dave Mason of Traffic and Brian Jones , the original founder of the Rolling Stones . Hendrix returned to Olympic for sessions in 1969, and, having recently returned from the U.S., for the last time in the first few months of 1970. In mid-1969,
21646-615: The three-octave voice of Annie Haslam . Most British bands depended on a relatively small cult following, but a handful, including Pink Floyd, Genesis, and Jethro Tull, managed to produce top ten singles at home and break the American market. The American brand of progressive rock varied from the eclectic and innovative Frank Zappa , Captain Beefheart and Blood, Sweat & Tears , to more pop rock orientated bands like Boston , Foreigner , Kansas , Journey , and Styx . These, beside British bands Supertramp and ELO , all demonstrated
21804-438: The use of the word "Olympic" prevented the history of the studio from being more widely promoted, which became an important factor in its arch-rival Abbey Road Studios attracting greater recognition, due to promotion by EMI. In 1987, Virgin Music bought the studios and the property was refitted to a different practical and acoustic specification, further to consulting with Sam Toyoshima, a Japanese studio builder, who declared
21962-409: The vehicle for cultural and social movements, leading to major subcultures including mods and rockers in the U.K., the hippie movement and the wider Western counterculture movement that spread out from San Francisco in the U.S. in the 1960s, the latter of which continues to this day. Similarly, 1970s punk culture spawned the goth , punk, and emo subcultures. Inheriting the folk tradition of
22120-536: The work of the Beach Boys , formed in 1961 in Southern California. Their early albums included both instrumental surf rock (among them covers of music by Dick Dale) and vocal songs, drawing on rock and roll and doo wop and the close harmonies of vocal pop acts like the Four Freshmen . The Beach Boys first chart hit, " Surfin ' " in 1961 reached the Billboard top 100 and helped make the surf music craze
22278-533: The work of established performers such as the Rolling Stones' Beggar's Banquet (1968) and the Beatles' Let It Be (1970). Reflecting on this change of trends in rock music over the past few years, Christgau wrote in his June 1970 "Consumer Guide" column that this "new orthodoxy" and "cultural lag" abandoned improvisatory, studio-ornamented productions in favor of an emphasis on "tight, spare instrumentation" and song composition: "Its referents are '50s rock, country music, and rhythm-and-blues, and its key inspiration
22436-404: The world, except as a new brand of painkiller ... In the '70s the powerful took over, as rock industrialists capitalized on the national mood to reduce potent music to an often reactionary species of entertainment—and to transmute rock's popular base from the audience to market." Roots rock is the term now used to describe a move away from what some saw as the excesses of the psychedelic scene, to
22594-582: Was John Mayall ; his band, the Bluesbreakers , included Eric Clapton (after Clapton's departure from the Yardbirds) and later Peter Green . Particularly significant was the release of Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton (Beano) album (1966), considered one of the seminal British blues recordings and the sound of which was much emulated in both Britain and the United States. Eric Clapton went on to form supergroups Cream, Blind Faith , and Derek and
22752-681: Was 1963's " Wipe Out ", by the Surfaris , which hit number 2 and number 10 on the Billboard charts in 1965. Surf rock was also popular in Europe during this time, with the British group the Shadows scoring hits in the early 1960s with instrumentals such as " Apache " and " Kon-Tiki ", while Swedish surf group the Spotnicks saw success in both Sweden and Britain. Surf music achieved its greatest commercial success as vocal pop music, particularly
22910-473: Was a major influence on subsequent rock-influenced jazz artists, including Herbie Hancock , Chick Corea and Weather Report . The genre began to fade in the late 1970s, as a mellower form of fusion began to take its audience, but acts like Steely Dan , Frank Zappa and Joni Mitchell recorded significant jazz-influenced albums in this period, and it has continued to be a major influence on rock music. Reflecting on developments that occurred in rock music in
23068-424: Was continued in the 1970s by figures such as George Thorogood and Pat Travers , but, particularly on the British scene (except perhaps for the advent of groups such as Status Quo and Foghat who moved towards a form of high energy and repetitive boogie rock ), bands became focused on heavy metal innovation, and blues rock began to slip out of the mainstream. By the 1960s, the scene that had developed out of
23226-575: Was founded in Britain), and Band of Gypsys , whose guitar virtuosity and showmanship would be among the most emulated of the decade. Blues rock bands from the southern states, like the Allman Brothers Band , Lynyrd Skynyrd , and ZZ Top , incorporated country elements into their style to produce the distinctive genre Southern rock . Early blues rock bands often emulated jazz, playing long, involved improvisations, which would later be
23384-463: Was given the position of senior sound engineer. Another employee was Michael Ross-Trevor, who later joined CBS Records at the start of a long career in classical music recording. Across both the studio's original locations, several other young staff began their careers at Olympic Studios, among them Gus Dudgeon , who began as a tape operator and was later associated with Elton John , using Olympic Studios for sessions with him as his producer. Studio One
23542-401: Was listed in the music magazine Melody Maker ' s top ten ratings. John Timperley's assistant was Roger Savage, who quickly gained a reputation as a good sound balancer. In 1962, Terry Allen joined the company as an electronic engineer, assisting Dick Swettenham with his new transistorised sound desk. Allen became studio manager, and Timperley left the studios in late 1962, when Keith Grant
23700-512: Was mostly written by Bonham, who came up with the idea for the riffs that run through the track. The introduction was used to open live versions of " Black Dog " (from Led Zeppelin IV ) and Bonham's drum solo on the 1977 US tour. " Gallows Pole " is an updated arrangement of a traditional folk song called " The Maid Freed from the Gallows ", inspired by a version recorded by Fred Gerlach . Page played
23858-530: Was re-recorded as an experimental arrangement with the Bombay Orchestra in March 1972, along with "Four Sticks" from the following untitled album . That arrangement appeared on the 2015 reissue of the retrospective album Coda . The song segues into " Celebration Day " via a Moog synthesiser drone. " Since I've Been Loving You " was one of the first songs to be written for the album, in late 1969. It
24016-411: Was released with an inverted colour version of the original album's artwork as its bonus disc's cover. The reissue was met with widespread critical acclaim. At Metacritic , which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 98, based on 10 reviews. The bonus disc was hailed by Pitchfork journalist Mark Richardson as "easily
24174-526: Was taken up by bands including Pentangle , Steeleye Span and the Albion Band , which in turn prompted Irish groups like Horslips and Scottish acts like the JSD Band , Spencer's Feat and later Five Hand Reel , to use their traditional music to create a brand of Celtic rock in the early 1970s. Folk-rock reached its peak of commercial popularity in the period 1967–68, before many acts moved off in
24332-614: Was taking place globally in the aftermath of the Second World War . Cliff Richard is credited with one of the first rock and roll hits outside of North America with " Move It " (1959), effectively ushering in the sound of British rock . Several artists, most prominently Tommy Steele from the UK, found success with covers of major American rock and roll hits before the recordings could spread internationally, often translating them into local languages where appropriate. Steele in particular toured Britain, Scandinavia, Australia,
24490-499: Was the first commercially successful folk song to be recorded with rock and roll instrumentation and the Beatles " I'm a Loser " (1964), arguably the first Beatles song to be influenced directly by Dylan. The folk rock movement is usually thought to have taken off with the Byrds ' recording of Dylan's " Mr. Tambourine Man " which topped the charts in 1965. With members who had been part of the café-based folk scene in Los Angeles,
24648-430: Was the major force in American record sales and crooners , such as Eddie Fisher , Perry Como , and Patti Page , who had dominated the previous decade of popular music, found their access to the pop charts significantly curtailed. Rock and roll has been seen as leading to a number of distinct subgenres, including rockabilly, combining rock and roll with "hillbilly" country music, which was usually played and recorded in
24806-455: Was the most popular genre of music in the U.S. and much of the Western world from the 1950s to the 2010s. Rock musicians in the mid-1960s began to advance the album ahead of the single as the dominant form of recorded music expression and consumption, with the Beatles at the forefront of this development. Their contributions lent the genre a cultural legitimacy in the mainstream and initiated
24964-578: Was used by many influential groups, such as the Yardbirds , the Jimi Hendrix Experience , Dave Mason , Alexis Korner , the Seekers and Graham Bond . The Rolling Stones recorded their first single " Come On " at the studio, and Dusty Springfield hits and the Troggs ' single " Wild Thing " were also recorded at Olympic during the 1960s. Olympic was a preferred recording studio with A&R staff who worked for record companies including Decca , EMI , Pye and Philips . The studios also hosted London Weekend Television music recordings. In 1966, after
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