Led Zeppelin - Trivia
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Led Zeppelin was inducted into rock and roll hall of fame in 1995.
Led Zeppelin has been awarded five Diamond albums, as well as fourteen Multi-Platinum, four Platinum and one Gold album in the United States, while in the UK they have five Multi-Platinum, six Platinum, one Gold and four Silver albums.
Jimmy Page was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in recognition of his charity work in 2005 and Robert Plant was honoured as a Commander of the Order of the British Empire for his services to popular music in 2009.
Led Zeppelin received the Polar Music Award in 2006.
In 1977, Led Zeppelin embarked on another major concert tour of North America. The band set another attendance record, with an audience of 76,229 at their Pontiac Silverdome concert on 30 April. It was, according to the Guinness Book of Records, the largest attendance to that date for a single act show.
In 1974, Led Zeppelin took a break from touring and launched their own record label, Swan Song, named after an unreleased song. The record label's logo, based on a drawing called Evening: Fall of Day (1869) by William Rimmer, features a picture of Apollo. The logo can be found on Led Zeppelin memorabilia, especially t-shirts. In addition to using Swan Song as a vehicle to promote their own albums, the band expanded the label's roster, signing artists such as Bad Company, The Pretty Things and Maggie Bell. The label was successful while Led Zeppelin existed, but folded less than three years after they disbanded.
The track "Stairway to Heaven", although never released as a single, is sometimes quoted as being the most requested, and the most played album-oriented rock FM radio song.
In the 1970s Led Zeppelin reached new heights of commercial and critical success that made them one of the most influential groups of the era, dwarfing their earlier achievements. The band's image also changed as members began to wear elaborate, flamboyant clothing. Led Zeppelin began travelling in a private jet airliner (nicknamed The Starship), rented out entire sections of hotels (including the Continental Hyatt House in Los Angeles, known colloquially as the "Riot House"), and became the subject of frequently repeated stories of debauchery. One involved John Bonham riding a motorcycle through a rented floor of the Riot House, while another involved the destruction of a room in the Tokyo Hilton, leading to the band being banned from that establishment for life. Although Led Zeppelin developed a reputation for trashing their hotel suites and throwing television sets out of the windows, some band members and music journalists suggest that these tales have been exaggerated.
Grant secured an advance deal of $200,000 from Atlantic Records in November 1968, which was then one of biggest deals of its kind for a new band. Atlantic were a label with a catalogue of mainly blues, soul and jazz artists, but in the late 1960s it began to take an interest in progressive British rock acts. It signed Led Zeppelin without having ever seen them, largely on the recommendation of singer Dusty Springfield. Under the terms of their contract, the band had autonomy in deciding when they would release albums and tour and had final say over the contents and design of each album. They also would decide how to promote each release and which tracks to release as singles. They formed their own company, Superhype, to handle all publishing rights.
According to the RIAA, IV is #3 best-selling album, with 23 million copies sold in the United States.
To date, the group is reported to have sold more than 300 million albums worldwide, including 109 million sales in the United States alone.
There are allegations that there's a hidden message in the song "Stairway To Heaven." According to these allegations, if you play this song backwards you should hear a "Satanic Message." There are several versions of this presumed message, the most of which is "Oh here's to my sweet Satan. The one whose little path would make me sad, whose power is Satan. He'll give you 666. There was a little toolshed where he made us suffer, sad Satan." The band generally ignored these allegations. However, Robert Plant asserted that "as far as reversing tapes and putting messages on the end, that's not my idea of making music." He also accused people promoting such allegations of trying to make money out of it.
The legendary band came to an end after drummer John Bonham failed to sleep properly, choking on his own vomit after having consumed a lot of alcohol. Bonzo died of asphyxiation in late September, 1980. |