“Becoming Led Zeppelin”, the origin of a legend: A 2025 Documentary.

Becoming Led Zeppelin is a 2025 documentary film directed by Bernard MacMahon which charts the formation and early years of Led Zeppelin. The film is an independent production made with the full co-operation of the band and represents the first time Led Zeppelin have agreed to participate in a biographical documentary. A work-in-progress was screened at the 78th Venice Film Festival in 2021 to a 10-minute standing ovation.

The film premiered in the United Kingdom, United States and Canada on February 7, 2025.

Becoming Led Zeppelin traces the journeys of Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones, John Bonham and Robert Plant through the music scene of the 1960s, their meeting in the summer of 1968 and meteoric ascendancy throughout 1969, culminating in 1970 when they become the No. 1 band in the world.

The story is told exclusively by the band members with the late John Bonham represented by previously unheard audio interviews. The film features full performances, never-before-seen footage of the band’s early U.S. and British concerts and unseen material from the band’s personal archives.

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Led Zeppelin: a short history and 9 albums that made history

Always rivaling Deep Purple and Black Sabbath, because of being considered the three foundational British bands of hard rock, in fact the Led Zeppelin flew much higher than any other group related to the hard or metal genre.

Led Zeppelin’s music was rooted in the blues. The influence of American blues artists such as Muddy Waters and Skip James was particularly apparent on their first two albums, as was the distinct country blues style of Howlin’ Wolf. There were tracks structured around the twelve-bar blues on every studio album except for one, and the blues directly and indirectly influenced other songs both musically and lyrically.

The band were also strongly influenced by the music of the British, Celtic, and American folk revivals. Scottish folk guitarist Bert Jansch helped inspire Page, and from him he adapted open tunings and aggressive strokes into his playing. The band also drew on a wide variety of genres, including world music, and elements of early rock and roll, jazz, country, funk, soul, and reggae, particularly on Houses of the Holy and the albums that followed.

Led Zeppelin is widely regarded as one of the most successful, innovative, and influential bands in the history of rock music.

Yes, the darkness of the Ozzy Osbourne Band has had great influence on many groups of various decades. And the expanding universe of the purple saga is unlimited (almost comparable to that of Yes), with various ramifications of diverse draft. But Led Zeppelin, despite having only eight albums under study and one of Descartes (or perhaps because of this, and having separated at the right time …), founded a legend that has not stopped growing, something applicable only to a Select group of artists and bands (case of the Beatles). As proof, for example, the recent documentary Becoming Led Zeppelin.

The seed was in the Yardbirds, when a very young Jimmy Page (who had made a multitude of recordings as a session guitarist, as in the great version of ‘With a Little Help from My Friends’ by Joe Cocker) entered 1966 in the Band in which Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck had already played. But Page wanted to get into a project where he could give free rein to his creativity. And at that same time he already thought of creating a band with Steve Marriott (Small Faces) or Steve Winwood (The Spencer Davis Group) as singers and John Entwistle and Keith Moon (The Who) as a rhythmic basis (it seems that it was Entwistle who suggested the Led Zeppelin name).

It could be said that the only album that Page recorded with the Yardbirds, Little Games (1967), although it does not announce the greatness to which Led Zeppelin would reach, it does summarize well the mixture of blues rock and psychedelia in which they were involved. And it also contained ‘White Summer’, an instrumental piece that page would later recover for LED ZEP (can be heard in Coda’s reissue).

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Finally, Page made a first essay with John Paul Jones (old acquaintance of various recording sessions), Robert Plant and John Bonham in a London Soho store on August 18, 1968 (the day before the 20th Anniversary of PLANT). Page said: “He had lived moments of euphoria with other groups before, but nothing as intense as that. It was like lightning, like a download. ” And so the unstoppable Led Zeppelin race started. If you prefer to think that in that excessive success it had to do with Page’s relationship with black magic (at age 15 I was already reading Aleister Crowley with fruition), you are ignoring the enormous talent and total dedication of the band. But it is true that there is a black legend about it, and that the group had to pay the price of fame with the sudden death of Robert’s son in 1977 (Karac, with only five years) and, three years later, the by John Bonham.

After that irreparable loss in 1980, the band opted for separation. Page was so affected that when he tried to form a group with the then former Yes Chris Squire (bass) and Alan White (drums) in the end it was nothing. And what about the posterior races of the three survivors? Well, the truth is that his irregularity and little transcendence surprises. Of course, there are flashes here and there (especially plant), but the chemistry achieved by the quartet throughout the 70s was so huge that perhaps they exhausted the formula.

Recommendations? Puts to choose three albums from the respective races, here are these suggestions: the one that signed in 1993 Page and David Coverdale (Ex Deep Purple, Whitesnake); the first one that Plant recorded with Alison Krauss in 2007 (the magnificent and warm Raising Sand); And finally the one who billed two years later John Paul Jones with Josh Homme (former Kyuss, Queens of Stone Age) and Dave Grohl (former Nirvana, Foo Fighters) under the collective name of Them Crooked Vultures.

Naturally, in these 45 years since Bonham’s death, many people expected a meeting of the three survivors, but Plant was never for the work. Yes, there have been isolated concerts, in the case of the very controversial of the Live Aid Festival (1985), the 40th Anniversary of the Atlantic label (1988) and, above all, the one they gave on December 10, 2007, in honor of Ahmet Ertegun, president of Atlantic and deceased the previous year. Here they showed part of their old magic, accompanied by Jason (son of John Bonham) to the drums. Page (which still does not record original music since 1998, there is nothing …) is the one who has been supervising diverse releases, such as the great sessions for the BBC, the triple direct how the West Was Won or the lavish DVD with five hours of material, In addition to the reissue of the entire discography with various extras.

Ah! Special mention for the brief Page-Plant meeting and the remarkable non-quarter album in 1994 (the second work, Walking on Clarksdale, is less recommended). The tour after the following year was for many people the closest thing to be able to see Led Zeppelin live (great concert they gave in Barcelona, ​​by the way).

If we talk about the legacy and transcendence of the band, in addition to laying the foundations of the heterogeneous metal building, they also influenced the grunge. And also the variety of groups and artists who have versed their music: from Draad Zeppelin (in a jocular form) and Gov’t Mule to Duran Duran (yes), passing through Heart, Jeff Buckley, Dream Theater, Tori Amos, Frank Zappa , Lady Gaga, Black Crowes or Beth Hart, amen of Various tribute bands, whose best exponent maybe Jason Bonham’s Led Zeppelin Evening. In fact, part of the LED ZEP DNA has Jason not only for being John’s son and for this band, but also for another project, Black Country Community. And of course, we cannot forget Jack White, fan confessed of Page and company. Or Greta Van Fleet, but although they have very valid songs and a great singer, it is still about to see when they will record a great album that approaches the ZEP level. And for those who look for more, the album with symphonic arrangements Kashmir is not bad: Symphonic Led Zeppelin (Supervised by Jaz Coleman, by Killing Joke), emphasizing the most mysterious and epic passages of Led Zeppelin.

Led Zeppelin discography (on Wikipedia)

The discography of the English rock band Led Zeppelin consists of 9 studio albums, 4 live albums, 10 compilation albums, 19 singles, 16 music videos and 9 music downloads.

Now we are going for the list, and although the game lies in putting them in order of preference, the truth is that it is one of those few, very little bands that have no bad album (who said fan?). So, except for the Disco Coda album, any of the other eight jobs under study of the band could be tomorrow in the top three positions …

9 Led Zeppelin unforgettable albums

9- Coda (1982)

Descartes album published (for contractual obligations with Atlantic Records) after the separation of the band, although for many people they are considered as an album under study. The original edition had eight songs, among which the vitamin ‘We’re Gonna Groove’ stands Willie Dixon (even better than the one that appeared on the group’s first album) and the vitalist ‘Ozone Baby’ (from the In Through the Out Door). The rest is less remarkable, there is even only one battery (was it really necessary on an album in studio?), “Bonzo’s Montreaux”, with disastrous electronic effects added by Page. Incomprehensible, taking into account Page’s rigor when producing all the band’s albums.

The reissue of Coda of 1993 (included in the case The Complete Studio Recordings) contained four extra themes that raised the global level of the album: ‘Baby Come on Home’ (of the Led Zeppelin I sessions, and with a clear soul accent) , ‘White Summer’/’Black Mountain Side’, ‘Hey, Hey, What Can I Do’ (face B of the single ‘Immigrant Song’) and the thrilling ‘Traveling Riverside Blues’, unrecognizable rereading of a theme of the legendary bluesman Robert Johnson recorded live in 1969. One of the pearls of the entire Led Zep catalog. The reissue of 2015 had two extra albums with these four songs, in addition to a review of an old blues (‘Sugar Mama’) and alternative versions of other topics, being the most interesting ‘Four Hands (Four Sticks)’, ‘Friends’ (both with the Bombay Orchestra) and ‘Everybody Makes It Through (in the light).’

Led Zeppelin – Travelling Riverside Blues

8- PRESENCE (1976)

The most rocker album in the band? Probably, it also lacks keyboards and there is also no acoustic piece. The album starts with the tremendous ‘Achilles Last stand’, ten minutes of continuous bombing and a kind of continuation of ‘Immigrant Song’. Somehow, that rhythmic basic base anticipated what Iron Maiden would later.

The provisional title was ‘The Wheelchair Song’, because Plant spent some time in a wheelchair after a speaking car accident. ‘For Your Life’ (which only played live at the 2007 meeting concert) has a good swampy blues base with dry riffs by Page. ‘Royal Orleans’, meanwhile, may suffer from a little original melody, but in its three minutes it has a vertiginous rhythmic base and overwhelming riffs. And the same can be said of “Nobody’s Fault by Mine”, although here the full quartet shines, with great syncopated accents and the addition of a incendiary harmonica by Plant.

The only problem, oh, is that on the album it appears accredited to Page/Plant, when it is an original song of the bluesman Blind Willie Johnson. True, Led Zep brought it to a totally different level, but they could have shared credits …

‘Candy Store Rock’ follows the path of rockabilly but it is one of the less remarkable pieces of the album, it seems to be half cooking, in fact it is surprising that it was the chosen single from the album. The same happens to ‘Hots on for Nowhere’: it has a fairly achieved insistent riff, but the song does not just take off.

The album ends with ‘Tea for One’ whose lyrics refers to the longing for Plant for his family, which had stayed in England while the ZEP recorded the album in Los Angeles. And, although musically they recovered the languid blues of “since I’ve Been Loving You”, there is a certain feeling of Déjà Vu, almost from Atoplagio. The 2015 Deluxe reissue came with alternative versions, in addition to the unpublished instrumental “10 Ribs & All/Carrot Pod (POD)”. Zeppelin sounds very little (it should be a Jam started by Jones to the piano), but if it had been included in the original album, this little pearl would have made it shine more. Said all this: is a bad album witnessing? At all. Simply, other excellent bands of the band overcome it.

7- LED Zeppelin (1969)

The airship raises the flight unstoppable with its first album and a thrilling start: ‘Good Times, Bad Times’, a vibrant hard-rock composed of the four and, according to confession of Jones and Bonham, probably the most difficult piece to play For the rhythmic section. The ‘New Yardbirds’ were going to influence the blues-rock vein that Page practiced with his previous band, and there is the version of ‘You Shook Me’, by Willie Dixon (a theme that Jeff Beck also just recorded for his debut alone, Truth), with guitar duel and voice at the end, a game that would be very useful in concerts. Attention to the two versions of this song they recorded for the BBC.

There are also the “I Can’s Quit You Babe” rereadings (also of Dixon) and the psychedelic/ghostic “Dazed and Confused” (another plagiarism: Page did not accredit Jake Holmes until he did not demand in 2010), that could lengthen until the exhaustion, like those 30 minutes that can be heard in the live The Song Remains The Same.

‘Your Time Is Gonna Come’ has a psychedelic pop sound (Barclay James Harvest could almost have signed it from their first era), with an organ intro that gives it an almost gospel air. The album contains two other key themes of the first stage of the group, ‘Communication Breakdown’ and the excessive ‘How Many More Times’, with page playing the guitar with arc, as if a violin of another dimension was treated. Also interesting also the instrumental Raga-Blues ‘Black Mountain Side’ (with the addition of the table played by Viram Jasani). It appears accredited to Page, although it actually took the inspiration of the Irish folk theme ‘Down by Blackwaterside’, with an arrangement of Bert Jansch. And it is that Page had the enormous jewel for appropriating foreign material on several occasions without accrediting the original source, something that supposed the group various litigation … By the way, a pity that would not include in the album ‘As long as I have you’ , a devastating version of the Garnet Mimms song that played live at that time and with which they improvised at ease.

6- LED Zeppelin II (1969)

For their second album, the band tried to compose as much material as possible and park the versions. However, the album may suffer from the lack of time to compose new songs: the first album had come out only nine months before, and the second was recorded in a dozen studies (!) Due to the scheduled tours. Thus, despite its many successes, it is not a round disc: the two final pieces, ‘Moby Dick’ and ‘Bring it on home’ (composed from a Willie Dixon theme) are not up to the rest of the material of the material . The latter because, despite an interesting riff, it actually has a fairly conventional blues structure. And ‘Moby Dick’, for the unnecessary battery only.

Yes, of course, in the direct Bonzo it would show off to the unspeakable with this piece (rivaling with “The Mule”, of the Purple), but in study it remains of an ostentatious up. However, the album has many great moments. And although many people stay above all with the overwhelming ‘Whole Lotta Love’, there are several pearls of equal or greater caliber, such as ‘What is and What Should Never Be’ (with incredible changes, from the most whispering to the most thunderous) or halftime ‘Heartbreaker’, on the other hand, has a powerful riff that has influenced people like Eddie van Halen or Steve Vai.

By the way, the album contains a song that the group never played live, ‘Living Loving Maid (She’s Just a Woman)’, because in fact they did not like Page or Plant, their own authors (Page has said that it is the song that likes the group). One of the pearls that usually go unnoticed is ‘Ramble On’, perfect fusion between blues, folk and hard rock. Live barely touched her, and only a fragment as part of a medley. That is why it was a pleasant surprise to be fully interpreted for the first and last time at the 2017 meeting concert.

5- In Through the Out Door (1979)

The only album in the group in which Page did not take the reins, although it appears as a producer. And at this time he could more his love for drugs than for guitars. At the same time, Bonham was dealing with the demons of alcohol but, despite everything, his work with the battery is impeccable. Good luck there were John Paul Jones took command … Thus, it is not surprising that there are pieces with keyboards, case of the initial ‘in the Evening’ (with oriental echoes in the ‘Kashmir’ wave) and the long ‘Carouselambra ”, A dynamic piece with various well -intertwined passages, which connects more with progressive rock than with hard rock. In fact, I would not disregard Tormat or Drama of Yes, nor in Permanent Waves or Moving Pictures, Rush. ‘South Bound Saurez’ and ‘Fool in the Rain’ are two vitalist themes that enter very well: the first with a Boogie -style piano, the second with a surprising Samba air in half. And Luegó is ‘Hot Dog’, a delight halfway between Rockabilly and Country. And it is that Led Zeppelin dared everything and always came out.

The ‘All My Love’ ballad (perhaps the most conventional piece of the album and the least inspired) was half composed between Jones and Plant, and dedicated to his son, Karac, who had died in 1977 with only five years. The other ballad is the fantastic ‘i’m gonna crawl’, with touches of blues (beautiful page only) and soul, a little in the wake of ‘Since I’ve Been Loving You’. But it also has a curious resemblance to “Oh! Darling ”of the Beatles, for their strange rhythm of waltz, his dry guitar cuts and the aggressive voice. And in the end Plant broadcasts a few splendid house brand of the house.

4- LED Zeppelin III (1970)

When this album was published for the first time there were people who did not understand the inclusion of several acoustic themes. Surely they expected a repetition of the Hard-Rock-Blues formula of their first two works. But this third album is the obvious proof of the group’s breadth. The album starts with the fierce ‘Immigrant Song’, a superb sound gale as emulating the riders of the apocalypse led by the War shout of Plant. It is followed by ‘Friends’ that, although it is an acoustic piece, is far from being a ballad to use, because it has arrangements that affect Hindu music.

For their part, ‘Celebration Day’ and ‘Out of the Tiles’ are backward to the fierce sound of their first two albums. But it is in the ballads and half times where we find that change of course of the band, occupying the second half of the album: ‘Tangerine’, ‘That’s the way’, ‘bron-y-aur stomp’ and the traditional ‘gallows pole’ and ‘Hats off to (Roy) Harper’ (even if it is the least inspired piece of the album, and a somewhat unfortunate way to finish it).

And then there is the splendid and misty ‘Since I’ve Been Loving You’, with a plant reaching dimensions of expressiveness as almost never in his entire career (there are also really vibrant live versions), and a delicate and exemplary organ arrangement In charge of Jones. Although the blues is not among your preferred styles, it is almost impossible not to succumb to the spell of this issue. The downhill doubts whether it will not be perhaps the best piece of the group …

Led Zeppelin – Since I’ve Been Loving You (Live at Madison Square Garden 1973)

3- LED Zeppelin IV (1971)

The fourth album in fact neither has a title nor appears the name of the band in the folder, only four symbols that represent the four members. And it is that Page was still affecting its esoteric vein (which barely seconded the other three). The beginning of the album is one of the most spectacular in the history of rock, ‘Black Dog’, with a devilish riff (which left Jonesy, not from page) mixed with a battery battery. It is also followed by the classic “Rock and Roll” (with Stone Ian Stewart to the pian more personality).

Following the wake of Led Zeppelin III, the album includes two small acoustic pearls. On the one hand, ‘The Battle of Evermore’, with great prominence of the mandolin and voice of Sandy Denny (singer of the Fairport Convention folkies). That chemistry in the voices anticipates the great album that Plant would record with Alison Krauss in 2007, Raising Sand. The other is ‘Going to California’ (inspired by Joni Mitchell), of which some pearl jam would make a small plagiarism with their ‘Given to Fly’ …

‘Four Sticks’ has an insistent riff, almost like a Hindu mantra, hence its oriental aroma. There are also ‘Misty Mountain Hop’, with Jones electric piano and a vitalist almost pop melody, and the swampy ‘When the slight breaks’, an old 1929 blues from Memphis Minnie that the ZEP made unrecognible, taking it to one level of another galaxy. Plant joined a harmonica with an echo effect, causing it to sound like a threatening artifact, even more than Page guitars. And of course, there are the glorious eight minutes of the star piece, ‘Stairway to Heaven’, whose initial cadence of chords remembers the song ‘Taurus’, of the Spirit band (this time, the possible plagiarism was dismissed in the courts) . It begins as a ballad (with flutes at the beginning, although Live Jones would use the mellotron) and gain strength and speed until it reaches a memorable climax. It would have been ideal for closing the album, more than mid -colors, but for tastes colors …

2- Physical Graffiti (1975)

Huge double disc where the group plays many sticks, in the double white line of the Beatles. But unlike the latter, Physical Graffiti (whose cover was inspired by Compartments, by José Feliciano) contains discards from previous records. However, there is no filling material here, and if it was excess material, they used the necessary dedication so that the songs were at their right point. And that variety is what makes this album so great.

For example, ‘Traffic Under Foot’ (which Bonham loved playing live) is a kind of funk-rock, inspired by ‘Superstition’, by Stevie Wonder. ‘Down by The Seaside’ pulls towards the soft-rock, and would not disregard a disc of the Fleetwood Mac of that time or even in one of Supertramp (yes), with that electric piano and that voice in falsete (curiously, despite His great commercial hook never touched her live).

Reviewing each of the fifteen songs in depth would be too long but, in addition to the epic ‘Kashmir’ (one of Jones and Plant’s favorites) and the acoustics ‘Bron-yr-aur’, surely they are the most rockers that follow Sounding cooler: ‘Custard Pie’, ‘The Rover’, ‘Houses of the Holy’, ‘The Wanton Song’, the rough ‘Sick Again ‘and’ Night Flight ‘(if you put it on a loop a few times, you will see how the batteries). Physical Graffiti (the group’s peak work, according to Page) is from Zeppelin’s albums that most invite periodic listening.

1- Houses of the Holy (1973)

After the growing and resounding success of the first four albums of the group, they could have fallen asleep in the laurels, repeat what is already known and expect people to go through the box. But far from being limited to another ‘Whole Lotta Love’, to another ‘rock and roll’ or even another ‘Stairway to Heaven’, they risk again offering an eclectic album and with clear progressive connotations, demonstrating that his thing was a lot, a lot More than hard rock.

The album begins with ‘The Song Remains The Same’, another of those ‘assault’ themes in the style of ‘Immigrant Song’, but after the superb instrumental introduction the theme mutates in something more elaborate. It is followed by the majestic ‘The Rain Song’, a progressive pure rock with a great prominence of the Mellotron that makes the theme expand (strange that Jones does not appear as co-author). Page composed it as a reaction that George Harrison had said that Led Zeppelin did not know how to compose ballads. ‘Over The Hills and Far Away’ has its seed in ‘White Summer’, an instrumental theme that Page composed in its stage with the Yardbirds (and which in turn contains ideas of an Irish folk song, ‘She Moved Through the Fair’ ). Start as if it were an acoustic piece of your third album and then give a splendid blow to the table. The first half of the album closes with ‘The Crunge’, built from a spasmodic Funk Rhythm by Bonham during a Jam.

‘Dancing Days’ is an almost danceable commercial Boogie Rock, as its title indicates. He came out as face B from the single Playing with a reggae rhythm (although Jones did not like it because he considered it like a joke). Then, another ration of prog (and drops of psychedelia) with ‘no quarter’, with an electric piano that remembers the beginning of the superb ‘Echoes’ suite of Pink Floyd. Live could lengthen it up to half an hour, four times the duration of the original version. The closure is thrown with ‘The Ocean’, another unclassifiable wonder with great riffs that retracts us to the most rockers of their first four albums, but in the end the theme accelerates by surprise, with a plant enjoying the beautiful and exclaiming ‘ ooooh, is so good! ” Houses of the Holy may not have the best known songs of the band, but it is the most consistent, varied and elegant album of LED Zeppelin, and contains more ideas than entire discographies of other groups.

Led Zeppelin – The Ocean (Live at Madison Square Garden 1973)

Led Zeppelin perform ‘The Ocean’ at Madison Square Garden in July 1973. Original song from Led Zeppelin Houses of the Holy (1973).

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