I have read a couple of books and a number of shorter essays on the band Led Zeppelin, active 1968-1980. Led Zeppelin’s music is one of the sonic memories from my youth and early teenage years; during those years, it was still new and fresh, and considered groundbreaking by many.
One of the books chronicling Zeppelin is “Hammer of the Gods,” by Stephen Davis, c. 1985, published by William Morrow and Company. I am skeptical about Davis’s factual assertions, and wary that he may have exaggerated the hedonistic persona and occult tendencies of the band, but he does provide a detailed chronology about the evolution of the band over time.
Cameron Crowe’s shorter essays, such as the one accompanying the box set of “The Complete Studio Recordings,” are probably more factually reliable – Crowe was one of few trusted journalists regularly allowed into Led Zeppelin’s inner circle, so many of his perceptions are firsthand. Crowe is sincere in his respect for the band members as musicians and as people; consequently, his essays are reverential, seldom critical, and divulge little about the members’ personal lives outside of the band.
However, Davis and Crowe generally agree that Jimmy Page throughout his own life cultivated a very deep personal interest in the life, work, and occult philosophy of Aleister Crowley. Over the years, Page has acquired several items of Crowley memorabilia, such as books used and ceremonial garments worn by Crowley during various rituals. From Page’s own perspective, his interest in occult philosophy generally, and in Crowley specifically, was quite sincere. Page did not necessarily actively promote that interest for profit, but did not necessarily shrink from what publicity or profit his interest in the occult may have inured to him, or to Zeppelin as a collective musical entity, over the years.
Page’s interest in the occult almost certainly influenced his music. Page, like his contemporary Jimi Hendrix, was a product of – perhaps it is more accurate to say both were progenitors of – the psychedelic era of Rock guitar that flourished circa 1967-1971. Hendrix’s technical acumen was better, at least on electric guitar (one can make a rational argument that Page’s actual strength was his acoustic playing), but there are striking stylistic differences between the two that are not explained by differences in ability. Each used feedback, distortion, and various other electronic effects in ways that other guitarists could not duplicate. But Hendrix’s collective body of work on the whole evoked a jazzy, trippy, bright feel; he was known for producing flute and bird-like effects through his amplifiers. From the first Zeppelin album recorded in October 1968 and through the entire course of the band’s recordings, Page’s musical feel was often dark, heavy, and sonorous. He tended toward producing repetitive, heavy, ominous droning effects in addition to whatever else was going on musically in the recording.
Page’s musical sensibilities meshed well with the lyric style of the band’s vocalist and principal wordsmith, Robert Plant. Whether Plant held a sincere, overt interest in the occult of similar caliber to Page’s is not well documented. But Davis and Crowe basically agree that Plant was intelligent, well read, and interested in a vast array of topics, including Nordic and Celtic myth and legend, and Druidism. Plant often referenced such subject matter in the lyrics he composed for Led Zeppelin over the years. Davis, at least, maintains that Plant did insert oblique references to the occult or Satan (Davis tends to lump these two together; I do not necessarily agree they are one and the same) into Led Zeppelin’s lyrics from time to time. I have listened to each of Led Zeppelin’s original studio albums repeatedly over the years. I cannot think of an obvious instance where Plant made an overt, unequivocal statement of occult belief, but there are more than a few instances where the words are obscure and one cannot discern with certainty what Plant said or intended.
The collective members of Led Zeppelin were intelligent, musically creative people (according to writers like Davis, they could be difficult, arrogant, and occasionally cruel on a personal level – However, the same can be said of most members of the human race as well). I was raised Catholic, although I continue to struggle making sense of my Christian belief s and try to keep an open mind about various paths which people sincerely follow in searching for spiritual truth. I part company with those who would condemn either Zeppelin, or those who listen to Zeppelin, on grounds of the occult influences which may have affected the band. If Led Zeppelin was influenced by occult ideas or beliefs, on balance I appreciate that they were. Without harnessing such influences in making their music, the band would not have accomplished the unique, distinctive, lasting, beautiful body of work that is their legacy.
