Released 22 October 1969
Recorded January–August 1969 at various locations
Singles from Led Zeppelin II
1. "Whole Lotta Love/Living Loving Maid (She's Just a Woman)"
Released: 1969
Background
Led Zeppelin II was conceived during a hectic and much-traveled period of Led Zeppelin's career from January through August 1969, when they completed four European and three American concert tours.[2] The album furthered the lyrical themes established on their debut album, Led Zeppelin (1969). This progress helped create a work that became more widely acclaimed and influential than its predecessor. With elements of blues and folk music, it also exhibits the band's evolving musical style of blues-derived material and their guitar and riff-based sound.
Each song was separately recorded, mixed and produced at various studios in the United Kingdom and the United States. The album was written on tour, during periods of a couple of hours in between concerts, a studio was booked and the recording process begun, resulting in a sound with spontaneity and urgency through necessity. Bassist John Paul Jones recalled that "We were touring a lot. Jimmy [Page's] riffs were coming fast and furious. A lot of them came from on-stage especially during the long improvised section of "Dazed and Confused". We'd remember the good stuff and dart into a studio along the way."
Some of the recording studios used by the band were not the most advanced. One studio in Vancouver, credited as "a hut", had an eight-track set up that did not even have proper headphone facilities. The group's lead singer Robert Plant later discussed the writing and recording process, stating "It was crazy really. We were writing the numbers in hotel rooms and then we'd do a rhythm track in London, add the vocal in New York, overdub the harmonica in Vancouver and then come back to finish mixing at New York."
"Thank You", "The Lemon Song" and "Moby Dick" were overdubbed during the tour, while the mixing of "Whole Lotta Love" and "Heartbreaker" was also done on tour. Page later stated "In other words, some of the material came out of rehearsing for the next tour and getting new material together."
Recording sessions for the album took place at Olympic and Morgan Studios in London, England, A&M, Quantum, Sunset, Mirror Sound and Mystic Studios in Los Angeles, California, Ardent Studios in Memphis, Tennessee, A&R, Juggy Sound, Groove and Mayfair Studios in New York City, and a "hut" in Vancouver, British Columbia. Production was entirely credited to lead guitarist, songwriter, and producer Jimmy Page, while it also served as Led Zeppelin's first album to utilise the skills and recording techniques of engineer Eddie Kramer, whose prior work with Jimi Hendrix had impressed the band's members, especially Page. Led Zeppelin expert Dave Lewis wrote of the album's production, stating "That the album turned out to be such a triumph, in particular for a production quality that still sounds fresh today, was in no small way due to the successful alliance with Page and Kramer in the control room." This partnership was particularly exhibited in the central section of the track "Whole Lotta Love". Kramer later said, "The famous Whole Lotta Love mix, where everything is going bananas, is a combination of Jimmy and myself just flying around on a small console twiddling every knob known to man."
In another interview, Kramer later gave great credit to Page for the sound that was achieved, despite the inconsistent conditions in which it was recorded, stating "We did that album piece-meal. We cut some of the tracks in some of the most bizarre studios you can imagine, little holes in the wall. Cheap studios. But in the end it sounded bloody marvellous. There was a unification of sound on [Led] Zeppelin II because there was one guy in charge and that was Mr. Page." Page and Kramer spent two days mixing the album at A&R Studios.
Led Zeppelin II also features experimentation with other musical styles and approaches, as on the alternately soft-and-loud "What Is and What Should Never Be" and "Ramble On" (which featured Page's acoustic guitar), or the pop-influenced ballad "Thank You". With its mysterious atmospherics, "Ramble On" helped develop hard rock's association with fantasy themes, which had been partly derived from the psychedelic rock genre of two to three years before, but also from Plant's personal interest in the writings of J. R. R. Tolkien.[5] This musical direction would later culminate on the band's untitled fourth album (and countless subsequent groups would later carry the influence to further extremes). Conversely, the instrumental "Moby Dick" features an extended drum solo by John Bonham, which would be extended further during Led Zeppelin concert performances sometimes for as long as half an hour.
Jimmy Page's contribution to this album was significant, as his electric guitar solo on the song "Heartbreaker" was emulated by many younger rock guitarists, and exemplifies the group's intense musical attack. Led Zeppelin II is the band's first album to feature Page playing a 1959 Gibson Les Paul, the electric guitar he helped make famous. Page's innovative recording and drum miking effects on tracks such as "Ramble On" and "Whole Lotta Love" also demonstrated his considerable skill, resourcefulness and originality as a producer. Rolling Stone magazine later called Page's guitar riff for the latter song "one of the most exhilarating guitar riffs in rock & roll." Band member and multi-instrumentalist John Paul Jones later discussed Page's contributions, stating: "Jimmy started coming into his own as a producer around "Whole Lotta Love". The backwards echo stuff. A lot of the microphone techniques were just inspired. Everybody thinks he goes into the studio with huge walls of amps, but he doesn't. He uses a really small amp and he just mic's it up really well, so it fits into a sonic picture."
The album's material also marked a certain honing of singer Robert Plant's vocal approach, and signaled his emergence as a serious songwriter. Plant's name had previously been absent from the songwriting credits of the band's first album due to the previous contractual commitments that resulted from his earlier association with CBS Records as a solo artist. His influence on tracks such as "What Is and What Should Never Be" and "Ramble On" were pointers to the musical future of Led Zeppelin. Plant has commented that it was only during the sessions for Led Zeppelin II that he started to feel at home as a vocalist in the studio with Led Zeppelin. In a 2008 interview for Uncut, he stated "[D]uring Led Zep I (1969) as far as I was concerned, I thought that I was going to [leave the band] anyway. I didn't feel that comfortable because there were a lot of demands on me vocally—which there were all the way though the Zeppelin thing. And I was quite nervous and didn't really get into enjoying it until II."
Cassette tape releases of the album had "Heartbreaker" ending the first side and "Thank You" starting the second side.
Production
* George Chkiantz – engineer on "Whole Lotta Love" and "What Is and What Should Never Be"
* Peter Grant – executive producer
* Chris Huston – engineering on "The Lemon Song" and "Moby Dick"
* Andy Johns – engineering on "Thank You"
* Eddie Kramer – engineering, mixing
* Bob Ludwig – mastering, engineering
I ripped this myself using a technics direct drive SL-3200 in to a pioneer sx 2300 into a
sony stand alone cd recorder rcd-w500c Ripped to Flac 8 using eac
To you enjoy.
Nothing was used to clean up this, this is a straight rip.
As bonus I added the Stereo Promo Single Edit Of Whole Lotta Love.