Swan Song 8416
Producer: Jimmy Page
Track listing: Achilles Last Stand / For Your Life / Royal Orleans / Nobody’s Fault But Mine / Candy Store Rock / Hots on for Nowhere / Tea for One
May 1, 1976
2 weeks
Prior to 1975, the recording of Led Zeppelin’s albums had been generally pleasurable affairs. The band often recorded in houses, such as Headley Grange and Stargroves, using mobile units instead of traditional recording studios. That all changed, however, when the band regrouped to record its seventh album, Presence.
On August 5, 1975, singer Robert Plant and his wife were seriously injured in a car accident in Rhodes, Greece. The accident forced the second leg of the Physical Graffiti tour to be scrapped. Plant traveled to Malibu, California, to recover and soon the rest of the band joined Plant in California for rehearsals there and at S.I.R. Studios in Hollywood. “It was just after Robert’s car accident,” says bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones. “It was really very hard to get the group working. We were in Los Angeles and nobody seemed to want to turn up for rehearsals and for writing sessions.”
Eventually, the band opted to pack its bags and headed to Germany, where they convened at Musicland Studios in Munich to record Presence. “There’s some good stuff on the album, but it was hard going,” says Jones.
The difficulties the band was going through at the time were reflected in the music, as Presence was Zeppelin’s hardest-rocking album to date, with no acoustic tracks. Once the band did settle into the recording process, it recorded Presence in just 18 days, with guitarist/producer Jimmy Page putting in 18- and 20-hour sessions to complete the album. The driving work ethic wasn’t just expedient — it was necessary: Zeppelin was facing a deadline, as the Rolling Stones had booked the studio to begin work on Black and Blue. “When we entered the studio we were focused,” says Jones. “Whatever happened, we were all professionals, and when the studio is booked, we tended to settle down and do our thing, but that was probably our hardest album to make.” Some tracks, such as “For Your Life,” were written in the studio. “Royal Orleans,” named for a hotel in the French Quarter in New Orleans, was the only group composition on the album. On the album’s other six tracks, Plant and Page shared writing credits.
Returning to a regular recording studio wasn’t a big problem, Jones says, because he and Page had cut their teeth doing extensive session work with Jeff Beck and the Rolling Stones prior to the formation of Led Zeppelin.
Still recovering from the car accident, Plant recorded most of his vocals sitting in a wheelchair. During an early attempt at recording his vocal for “Achilles Last Stand,” Plant fell to the ground and was rushed to the hospital.
In what may have been a testament to Led Zeppelin’s power to overcome adversity, Presence hit the summit in its second week on the chart, giving the band its fifth career chart-topper.
THE TOP FIVE
Week of May 1, 1976
1. Presence, Led Zeppelin
2. Wings at the Speed of Sound, Wings
3. Their Greatest Hits 1971-1975, Eagles
4. A Night at the Opera, Queen
5. Eargasm, Johnnie Taylor