It has been suggested that Led Zeppelin III was something of a watershed release for the band, as it marked a change from Page's domination of the first two albums towards a more democratic affair in which all four group members offered up their own compositions and ideas - a pattern that would continue in future sessions.[1] The album added acoustic and folk rock elements to the band's established rock and blues repertoire, which also helped endear the band to progressive rock fans. However, some detractors attacked the heavier tracks as being mindless noise, whilst the acoustic material was criticised by others for imitating the music of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.[2]
Page commented that this comparison was unwarranted, stating in an interview he gave to Cameron Crowe that:
when the third LP came out and got its reviews, Crosby, Stills and Nash had just formed. That LP had just come out and because acoustic guitars had come to the forefront all of a sudden: LED ZEPPELIN GO ACOUSTIC! I thought, Christ, where are their heads and ears? There were three acoustic songs on the first album and two on the second.[3]
Although these negative reviews had a slight effect on sales at the time, Led Zeppelin III was still a trans-Atlantic #1 hit. Sales eventually lagged in the wake of Led Zeppelin I and II, but with the passage of time Led Zeppelin III's reputation has recovered considerably.
The album contains two songs which became key components of the band's live concert performances for many years: "Immigrant Song" and "Since I've Been Loving You". The first of these, written by Jimmy Page and Robert Plant, is about the Norse invasions of England and was inspired by the band's recent performances in Iceland. "Since I've Been Loving You" is a classic, original blues in the key C minor featuring heartfelt interplay by all four group members. It would become a performance staple, especially from 1971 through 1973, replacing Willie Dixon's "I Can't Quit You Baby" from the first album as the band's slow blues showcase. Other fan favourites from the album were the rock songs "Celebration Day" and "Out on the Tiles", and the acoustic tracks "Bron-Yr-Aur (Stomp)" and "That's the Way", the latter considered by Page to be a breakthrough for still-developing lyric writer Plant.[4] The song "Gallows Pole" is actually an arrangement of a traditional folk song by that name, also recorded by Lead Belly some thirty years earlier.
Album sleeve design
Led Zeppelin III's original vinyl edition was packaged in a gatefold sleeve with an innovative cover, designed by Zacron, a multi-media artist whom Jimmy Page had met in 1963 whilst Zacron was a student at Kingston College of Art.[5] Zacron had recently resigned a lectureship at Leeds Polytechnic to found Zacron Studios, and in 1970 Page contacted his old friend and asked him to design the third album's cover.
The cover and interior gatefold art consisted of a surreal collection of seemingly random images on a white background, many of them connected thematically with flight or aviation (as in "Zeppelin"). Behind the front cover was a rotatable laminated card disc, or volvelle, covered with more images, including photos of the band members, which showed through holes in the cover. Moving an image into place behind one hole would usually bring one or two others into place behind other holes. This could not be replicated on a conventional cassette or CD cover, but there have been Japanese and British CDs packaged in miniature versions of the original sleeve. In France this album was released with a different album cover, simply showing a photo of the four band members.
The concept of a volvelle, based on crop rotation charts, was initially Jimmy Page's idea. However, the result was a meeting of minds as Zacron had been working on rotating graphics from 1965. Zacron felt that by not including text on the front of the cover, the art would endure.[6]
In an article featured in the December 2007 issue of Classic Rock magazine, Zacron claimed that upon his completion of the artwork, Jimmy Page telephoned him while he was in New York to express his satisfaction with the results, saying "I think it is fantastic".[7] However, in a 1998 interview Page himself gave to Guitar World magazine, he described the results as a disappointment:
I thought it looked very teeny-bopperish. But we were on top of a deadline, so of course there was no way to make any radical changes to it. There were some silly bits - little chunks of corn and nonsense like that.[8]
The album cover featured on the front page of The Daily Mail's Live Magazine in December 2007, which hailed Led Zeppelin III as "The greatest rock album of all time.[9] The feature was a tribute to both the artist and the group.
The first pressings of the album included the phrases "Do What Thou Wilt" and "So Mote Be It", inscribed on the record acetate itself by engineer Terry Manning during the final mastering process. This phrase is from the core tenet of Aleister Crowley's philosophy of Thelema: "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law. Love is the law, love under will. There is no law beyond do what thou wilt." Page was a scholar of Crowley's work, owns one of the world's most extensive private collections of Crowley manuscripts, artwork and other ephemera, and in the 1970s even bought one of his residences, Boleskine House on the shores of Loch Ness in Scotland.
Success and popularity
Led Zeppelin III was one of the most eagerly awaited album of 1970, and advance orders in the United States alone were close to a million mark. Its release was trailered by a full page advertisement taken out in Melody Maker magazine at the end of September, which simply said "Thank you for making us the world's number one band." Following a lukewarm, if not confused and sometimes dismissive reception from critics, sales lagged after its initial peak.[4] The album spent four weeks at the top of the Billboard chart, while it entered that British chart at number one and remained there for three weeks (returning to the top for a further week on December 12).[10]
