"What each must seek in his life never was on land or sea. It is something out of his own unique potentiality for experience, something that never has been and never could have been experienced by anyone else." (Campbell)
Led Zeppelin was formed in 1968 by guitarist Jimmy Page under the name The New Yardbirds in order to fulfill some performance commitments booked in Scandinavia before the break up of the original Yardbirds. Page saw vocalist Robert Plant perform and drafted him into the new band. Plant brought with him drummer John Bonham, the drummer from his prior band and bassist John Paul Jones was informed by his wife that Page was forming a group; Jones and Page knew each other well from their days as session musicians and Jones contacted Page who asked him then to join the band.
After some concerts as the New Yardbirds, the band's name was changed to Led Zeppelin, after Keith Moon, drummer for The Who, said, 'With that lineup you'll go down like a lead balloon'.
Members
- Jimmy Page — guitar
- Robert Plant — lead vocals, harmonica
- John Bonham — drums
- John Paul Jones — bass guitar, keyboards, mandolin
The band was inspired to take the music they loved and not just emulate it but evolve it by adding a heavy rock dimension to it with a lots of light and shade as described by Jimmy Page (Crowe). That light and shade was derived from mystical, philosophical and spiritual influences experienced or felt by the members of the band. Musically the band wanted to take various styles of music and mysticism and fuse those styles into experiences and feelings which would make people feel and experience their music. The mystical, philosophical and spiritual influences came from Celtic, Norse, Hindu and African mythology as well as J. R.R. Tolkien.
Led Zeppelin's music wasn’t meant to convey a political message, it was about creating mystery, mythological elements with an under core of hard blues (diRaega). The intent was to take the listener to an old remembered place and time which holds universal appeal for both the young and the old.