Happy anniversary to the LED ZEPPELIN album Houses of the Holy!

March 28th is the release date for the fifth album, according to both the official Led Zeppelin website and Wikipedia. As it often the case with Led Zeppelin, the critics were not happy because the band did not deliver an album similar to the previous one, but the American rock fans did not care and it was another success for the band. The album feels like an adventure, in a good way. Credit to that 1970s American generation of rock fans that was intelligent in recognizing and greatness when they heard it! By the way, on Houses of the Holy neither the band’s name nor the album title appears on the original front or back cover art. How's that for confidence?!

Led Zeppelin

Houses of the Holy

Atlantic Records

March 28, 1973 USA

March 30, 1973 UK

Robert Plant – Jimmy Page – John Paul Jones – John Bonham

The Song Remains the Same. The Rain Song. Over the Hills and Far Away. The Crunge. Dancing Days. D'yer Mak'er. No Quarter. The Ocean.

Led Zeppelin roars out of the gate with a throw-everything-and-the-kitchen-sink-at-them approach. Confident and adventurous, skilled and creative, Led Zeppelin—as Jimmy Page has explained in interviews—was meant to be a guitar tour de force. It was also intended to be free from the limitations and expectations that they should deliver the same album every time. Led Zeppelin does whatever Led Zeppelin feels like doing! The following assessment is from Wikipedia.

The album was a stylistic turning point for the band. The composition and production laid foundations for subsequent releases. According to the band's biographer Dave Lewis, "while the barnstorming effect of the early era was now levelling off, and though devoid of the electricity of Zeppelin I and II, the sheer diversity of the third album, and lacking the classic status of the fourth, Houses of the Holy nevertheless found its rightful niche." The album largely abandoned their previous music's weighty, dark blues rock distortion in favor of a clean, expansive rock sound—as evinced by Page's sharper, brighter guitar tone. It was also likely the most eclectic musically of their albums, in the opinion of Consequence of Sound writer Kristofer Lenz, who observed swing rhythms on "Dancing Days", and experiments with reggae and psychedelic music on "D'yer Mak'er" and "No Quarter", respectively. Pete Prown and HP Newquist have called it "a diverse collection of rockers, ballads, reggae, funk, and fifties-style rock 'n' roll."

Led Zeppelin - Over the Hills and Far Away (Live at Madison Square Garden 1973) [HD]

Led Zeppelin - Over the Hills and Far Away (Official Audio)