Evan Silberstein

A Brief History of Led Zeppelin

      Over the past couple weeks I have been learning a few of Led Zeppelin's greatest hits. While researching these songs, I discovered some really interesting things about the English rock band. Do you know they were originally called the New Yardbirds? After changing their name to Led Zeppelin, they were able to sign a deal with Atlantic Records. However, critics did not favour the band at the beginning of their career. This changed when they started to get a lot of success with their albums Led Zeppelin, Led Zeppelin II, Led Zeppelin IV, and Physical Graffiti. However, after playing for an entire decade, the band would come to a screeching halt. At one concert in Nuremberg, John Bonham (the drummer) collapsed in the middle of a song and was taken to the hospital. The band said it was because he had overeaten, but the press speculated that it was due to his excessive drug and alcohol abuse. A year later, he drank himself to death. After having multiple vodkas for breakfast, he was taken to bed and when his bandmate John Paul Jones went to check on him, Bonham was discovered dead due to choking own his own vomit. Led Zeppelin soon disbanded the group after Bonham's death. Even though the band may have ended tragically, they are still the second best-selling band in the US and due to there many influences on hard-rock and music today, they may be one of the greatest bands to have ever existed.