Get the Led Out - Ep 2503 wk of 13jan

Carol Miller's 'Get The Led Out' Explores The Incredible History Of The Rock Band Led Zeppelin!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi, this is Carol Miller. Welcome to our Get the
Letout calendar. On January thirteenth, nineteen seventy one, led Zeppelin's
fourth album was getting into shape as the result of
recording sessions at a countryside manor house. Led Zeppelin rented
Headley Grange so they could live there and write music
by a fireplace. The Rolling Stones had just recorded their

(00:20):
album Sticky Fingers with their mobile studio. Now the Stones
lent their truck to led Zeppelin, along with their recording
engineer Andy Johns and their pianist Ian Stuart, and.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
They're sitting room. There was a baby Grand piano totally
unplayable except the one man Ian Stewart, So he came
in on one of the days to visit and there
was how high student. He goes over to the piano
and starts rolling out this incredible stop and we just
did this song around.

Speaker 1 (00:50):
On January fourteenth, nineteen seventy three, led Zeppelin played in Liverpool,
England at the Empire Theater. They were in the hometown
of the Beatles, but Zeppelin didn't play anything by the
Beatles that night. They did, however, cover Elvis Presley between
the middle and end parts of Whole Lot of Love.
They were developing the habit of interjecting various Elvis songs.

(01:11):
Here's when they played live for the first time that
night in Liverpool, just because. On January fifteenth, nineteen sixty nine,

(01:40):
led Zeppelin arrived at their destination in Iowa City. They
were headlining a show at the University of Iowa's Memorial Union.
The Central Party Committee sold around four thousand tickets for
the show, and they also prepared a stage backdrop with
the name led Zeppelin. Opening act. Mother Blues played in
front of that back to first. Then came Zeppelin, along

(02:02):
with a couple of people who didn't have tickets. They
made their way in and grabbed seats, but were ushered
out by police. Robert Plant took notice and immediately raised
forty five dollars for the ejected concertgoer's bail money. It
was all reported in the Daily Iowan newspaper the following
day and came to light again fifty years later courtesy

(02:24):
of the Iowa City Press Citizen fifty five years ago.
On January sixteenth, nineteen seventy, led Zeppelin completed a brief
stay at the Royal Turk's head Hotel in Newcastle. They
had just played Newcastle City Hall and now Sheffield City
Hall took its turn hosting led Zeppelin. A reporter for
Sheffield Star newspaper described Jimmy Page's guitar as quote squealing

(02:47):
frequently like a Tom and Jerry cartoon unquote, and also
described Robert Plant's vocals as quote everything but train noises.
The reporter also suggested taking an intermission during John Bonham's drums.
The comments prompted a rebuttal letter in The Star from
a group of unnamed fans who wrote, quote, the drum

(03:08):
solo was one of the highlights of the night, as
your reporter ought to have noticed with the roar of
appreciation unquote. On January seventeenth, nineteen sixty seven, Jimmy Page
played a live show in the island nation of Singapore.
The Yardbirds were permitted to enter the country and to
play a show. This was before Singapore officials deemed long

(03:29):
hair on traveling male musicians to be a detriment to society.
Five years after Jimmy visited Singapore with the Yardbirds, he
was denied entry with led Zeppelin. While Jimmy was in Singapore,
he had a new trick up his sleeve to demonstrate
involving a violin bow.

Speaker 2 (03:46):
One of the violinists came to me one day and
he said, have you ever considered playing the guitar with
a bow? And I said, well, I don't think it worked.
And he said, well, here's my bow. Would you like
to try? And I said eine. So I tried it
and I could see there was massive potential.

Speaker 1 (04:05):
This is Carol Miller. Thanks for Getting the Letout. Check
back next week for another Get the Letout Calendar podcast