Led Zeppelin: the curse that sank the "lead dirigible"
"It is the privilege and curse of the children of midnight to be both owners and victims of their time, to renounce intimacy and to be absorbed by the annihilating whirlpool of the crowds, unable to live or die in peace"
Salman Rushdie
August 1975, the members of the British band of Hard Rock, Led Zeppelin take a break before resuming the tour Physical Graffiti corresponding to their sixth studio album and that was edited at the beginning of that year, when the promotional tour would also start.
The vocalist Robert Plant and the guitarist Jimmy Page, members of the quartet, decided to travel to the Greek island of Rhodes with their respective families to share the summer holidays, when suddenly Page decides to travel to the town of Cefalú on the island of Sicilia in order to know the Abbey of Thelema, a country house remodeled and decorated with frescoes on the walls, where it will live for a while Aleister Crowley a dark and enigmatic character, for whom the English guitarist professed a deep admiration.
Aleister Crowley nicknamed "The Great Beast", was an influential occultist, mystic, alchemist, writer, poet and British ceremonial magician, who lived between 1875 and 1947. He founded a religious philosophy called Thelema, based on the maxims or ideals "do your will: the whole law will be", and "love is the law, love under will". Throughout his life, he would write about eighty books, most of them referring to magic, kabbalah, esotericism and yoga.
On August 4, the British singer would suffer a spectacular car accident that almost cost the life of his then wife Maureen, who was driving the vehicle that hit a tree after falling down a ravine. Plant who was traveling as co-pilot, would be injured in an ankle, and the two children of the couple, Carmen Jane six years old and Karac Pendra four, who were in the rear seat, they would also be affected. Interestingly, the daughter of Jimmy Page, Scarlet who was also in the car, would be practically unharmed.
As a result of the accident, the band would be forced to cancel the remaining concerts, and Plant would move away from the music scene, taking refuge in the Channel Islands to facilitate their recovery, while the rest of the family would do the same but in his home in London. There are even some who say that the vocalist promised himself that he would never sing the song "In my Time of Dying", included in the band's latest album.
Subsequently, Led Zeppelin would begin a tour of the United States in April 1977. On July 26, when the band checked into a hotel in the city of New Orleans, Plant would take a phone call from his wife Maureen who informed him that his six years old son Karac Pendra , had died on his way to the Kidderminster General Hospital, as a result of a deadly virus in his stomach, presumably the same one that had affected his sister Carmen Jane a week before. The next day, the artist would travel to London, along with part of the band, canceling the rest of the tour. This tragic event would give rise to various rumors about the future of the group.
Finally, the drop that exceeded the glass comes in 1980. In September of that year, the quartet drummer, John "Bonzo" Bonham 32 years old, would die in strange circumstances while he was in Mill House, one of the houses that Jimmy Page owned in England. He would have drowned in his own vomit just like the african-american guitarist Jimi Hendrix, a few years ago. According to the forensic report, the drummer had the equivalent of 40 small shots of vodka in his body. Allegedly, Bonham had been drinking all day, so he did not wake up when his body decided to expel alcohol. Robert Plant and many people close to the band, allegedly claimed that the strange fondness of Jimmy Page with obscurantism and black magic would be responsible in some way for the death of Bonzo and of the rest of the tragedies that had sifted over the group.
Following the tragic death of the drummer, the rumors of the alleged pact with the devil that the musicians would have made, with the exception of the bassist John Paul Jones; in an act similar to that performed by the american Blues musician, Robert Johnson, who according to the legend, would have "sold his soul to the devil" to become the best guitarist of his time. The tragedies of Plant, the problems of addiction with the heroin of Page and the death of Bonham would be the fees that the lord of darkness demanded in return to cancel the debt that the artists They would have contracted with him. Richard Cole tour manager of the band, would declare about it:
"The rumor was elevated to a mythological status. As far as I know, that covenant never existed. Jimmy was very good at making up stories, especially with the girls who were fascinated by the 'dark side' of the band, so maybe that's how it all started. But despite the concern of Jimmy for the supernatural, he rarely discussed his escapades with the occult with the rest of the group."
Richard Cole
On December 4, 1980, a couple of months after the loss of Bonham, a press release clarified that the "lead airship" finally stopped flying:
"We want to let you know that the loss of our friend and the respect we feel for his family, together with the sense of seamless harmony that we and our manager feel, has led us to make the decision that we can not continue being what we were".
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin was a British band of Hard Rock founded by Jimmy Page in 1968, after the dissolution of the mythical band The Yardbirds, where in addition to Page, the guitarists Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck, true legends of contemporary music also participated.
The group would present within its artistic proposal, a true kaleidoscope of musical influences, where they would highlight blues, rock and roll, soul, celtic music, indian music, folk, and even the americancountry . To date, they have sold more than 300 million albums worldwide, and is the second band with more diamond albums in the history of music, second only to The Beatles. In 2004, the prestigious magazine Rolling Stone would place them in the fourteenth position on its list of "100 Greatest Artists of All Time".
The name of the band would emerge as a result of a joke by Keith Moon, drummer of the british cult group The Who, during a recording session of a song by the guitarist Jeff Beck in which also involved his partner John Entwistle, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones, when he said that the band would fail and fall "like a lead zeppelin". At first it was suggested the use of Lead Zeppelin, but on the recommendation of Peter Grant, manager of the band, the "a" of "lead" would be suppressed, to avoid problems in their pronunciation by the americans.
The album debut of the band would be published in January of 1969, under the name of Led Zeppelin. It would be recorded in just a week, using only 30 hours of study and few hours of rehearsal. At first, the disc would not count on the acceptance of the British public, which would become a constant throughout the history of the group, a fact that would cause that the band did not publish singles in the United Kingdom. After its first tour in American soil and thanks to the explosive performances of the band, the album would have a huge success in critics and audiences, particularly in the United States. Shortly after the release of this first album, the band decided not to publish any single in England, deteriorating the promotion of the album and its subsequent works..
Anecdotally, it should be noted that during the promotional tour of the album, the band would be forced to act in Denmark under the name of The Nobs for a legal appeal brought by the baroness Eva von Zeppelin, family of the inventor of the airship, which forbade them to use their real name. The baroness would argue that they were "screaming monkeys", besides she was deeply annoyed by the cover of the disc that showed a dirigible (zeppelin) in flames.
The second work of the band would come to the public light in October of the same year under the name of Led Zeppelin II. This album would devote them definitively, reaching the number 1 in the musical lists of the United Kingdom and the United States, dethroning the immortal Abbey Road of The Beatles, which had remained 11 weeks in the position of honor.
In 1970 they would publish their third album, that in spite of not being very well received so much by the critic as by its followers, contained subjects that with time became classic, such as "Immigrant Song", the first simple of the group despite his refusal to have it published. The following year, they edit their fourth studio work, which had no title or anything to identify it, except for four strange symbols, one for each member of the band. This album would be the most sold of the band, being currently in the fourth position of the best selling albums in history according to the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) and would contain its greatest success, "Stairway to Heaven".
This beautiful ballad, probably one of the most beautiful songs ever written, would not be free of controversy. On several occasions she has been accused that if she reproduces in reverse, prayers and praises are heard to the devil: "Here's to my sweet satan", however, the members of the band have denied it.
Stairway to Heaven
"In the first place, who would have thought that? You have to have a lot of free time to even consider that someone can do that ... and especially with "Stairway to Heaven" ... We were so proud of their positive intentions! The only idea seems dirty to me, but it is very American, nowhere else in the world has anyone thought about it or cared about it. If the reverse messages worked all the discs would take 'buy this album' hidden"
Robert Plant
This article was previously published in Spanish, if you want to read it in its original language, click on the following link:
Spanish Version
For More Information & Resources:
- Led Zeppelin
- La historia de Jimmy Page y sus pactos con el diablo
- La cara oculta del rock: Las maldiciones de Led Zeppelin
- Led Zeppelin, el grupo a medio camino entre el mito y la realidad
- La macabra historia del supuesto pacto que el grupo Led Zeppelin hizo con el diablo
If you liked this Post, I invite you to support my work by following my account @manuelgil64 leaving your comments and upvoting
Thank you!
Posted from my blog with SteemPress : http://manuelgil64steemit.epizy.com/wp/2019/05/25/led-zeppelin-the-curse-that-sank-the-lead-dirigible/
Congratulations! This post has been upvoted from the communal account, @minnowsupport, by manuelgil64 from the Minnow Support Project. It's a witness project run by aggroed, ausbitbank, teamsteem, someguy123, neoxian, followbtcnews, and netuoso. The goal is to help Steemit grow by supporting Minnows. Please find us at the Peace, Abundance, and Liberty Network (PALnet) Discord Channel. It's a completely public and open space to all members of the Steemit community who voluntarily choose to be there.
If you would like to delegate to the Minnow Support Project you can do so by clicking on the following links: 50SP, 100SP, 250SP, 500SP, 1000SP, 5000SP.
Be sure to leave at least 50SP undelegated on your account.