Hard Rock music would certainly not be the same without Led Zeppelin, which was the first band that was really able to show the world how heavy Rock and Roll music could be. In the late 60s and during the 70s, the band formed by Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones, John Bonham and Robert Plant released eight studio albums that made them one of the best-selling bands of all time with an estimated amount of more than 250 million records sold worldwide.
Their music helped many musicians by showing them they could develop their own sound, being louder and more aggressive. That’s what the late legendary Motörhead vocalist and bassist Lemmy Kilmister did when he formed the group in 1975. Mixing Hard Rock, Metal and Punk, Motörhead really became a unique band. They had an instantly recognizable sound and of course vocals, due to Lemmy’s raspy voice.
Until his death in 2015 at the age of 70, Lemmy talked about many other groups and one of them was Led Zeppelin. The musician even revealed once which was one of his favorite songs from the band.
The Led Zeppelin song that Lemmy Kilmister loved
Although Lemmy first achieved real fame after Motörhead, he was part of the music business for years before that. He was part of bands like the Rockin’ Vickers, Hawkwind and even was for some time Jimi Hendrix’s roadie. When Motörhead released their self-titled album in 1977, Led Zeppelin already had seven albums out and were one of the biggest bands in the world.
In an interview with Classic Rock in 2008, Lemmy was asked to list some of his favorite songs of all time. After picking tracks by The Damned and Jimi Hendrix, the bassist and singer chose “Black Dog”. The song was written by Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones and Robert Plant.
It was first released on the band’s fourth album “Led Zeppelin IV” (1971). At the time the song was released as a single and appeared on the charts in several countries. It reached the position number 15 on the United States Billboard Hot 100.
The first time he met Jimmy Page
Led Zeppelin wouldn’t exist without the guitarist Jimmy Page, who was the one who formed the group after The Yardbirds came to an end and also produced all the albums the group released. Lemmy had the chance to see him many times over the decades. In an interview with Classic Rock in 2014, just one year before he passed away, the musician recalled the first time he met Page.
He started saying that he liked Jimmy and that they first met at the Speakeasy Club in London. “It was at The Speakeasy I believe. It was when, you know when they were doing that thing where they all wore overcoats and beards and all that. The Bath Festival time.”
“They all wore overcoats and beards at a certain point. That’s when he was wearing the overcoat and then he was at The Speakeasy. You know The Speakeasy right? That was the best club you’ll ever see in your life, man,” Lemmy Kilmister said.
As Lemmy said, the Speakeasy Club had many famous clients and was situated at 48 Margaret Street in London, England. It served as a late-night meeting place for the musicians and people who worked in the music industry. It was open from 1966 to June 1978. Many famous artists played there like Arthur Brown, Pink Floyd, King Crimson, Elton John, David Bowie, Deep Purple and many more.
He criticized rappers who would sample John Bonham’s drums
Led Zeppelin borrowed a lot of their compositions from old Blues artists and later on they even had to share the songwriting credits for some of their songs with those artists. That always existed in music, since most part of the new songs are always inspired and created by tracks that were already written. After the 80s this started to be even bigger when many rappers started to “sample” old tracks. They use a few parts of older songs to create new tracks.
Zeppelin was often used by many rappers and Jimmy Page even recorded with the American rapper Puff Daddy. They’ve made the song “Come With Me”, which recreated Zeppelin’s “Kashmir”. Their collaboration was part of the soundtrack of the American version for “Godzilla”, released in 1998. The track was produced by the Rage Against The Machine guitarist Tom Morello. He also played the bass on the song.
In an interview with Atlantic City Weekly, Lemmy criticized the rappers, saying: “Why should I do that when it’s not music… There’s nothing creative about doing that (rapping) over music someone else created. They go out and take John Bonham’s drumming. I don’t call that music. You think they (rappers) could come up with sounds of their own. Even some basic sounds and they can’t do it. Sad,” Lemmy Kilmister said.