LED ZEPPELIN’S DEBUT
Thirty-six hours. Who knew
that all the time you need
to make one of the greatest
records ever was a day and a
half?
In fairness to Led Zeppelin,
all the members were pros
by that point. Jimmy Page
had assembled the group
in hope of forming a new
line-up of the recently
disbanded Yardbirds, but
their chemistry was so
unique all involved decided
a new band altogether was
in order. Page still brought
the material he intended to
the table (including future
classics like “Communication
Breakdown” and “Babe I’m
Gonna Leave You”), and the newly crowned
Led Zeppelin had the opportunity to cut
its teeth on a Scandinavian tour before
entering Olympic Studios in London.
By the time the band came in, it was tight
enough to record tracks live with minimal
overdubs. Page performed the whole
album with a Fender Telecaster into a
Supro combo amp with an additional mic
placed 20 feet away from the speaker
to pick up the slapback, making Page a
pioneer in ambient noise. The acoustic
tracks were recorded with a Gibson J-200.
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TONE TALK //
The total amount of time to record the
album came to thirty-six hours over the
course of a month, and Page knows that
because that’s how much he was charged
on the bill for the studio time. In the
interest of complete artistic control, he paid
the £1,782 out of his own pocket before
taking the tapes to Atlantic Records, who
signed the band on the spot. The album
later grossed £3.5 million and Zep was on
their way to being a rock legend.
So Much Record, So Little Time: The Most Efficient Records in History