Led Zeppelin II - Composition

Composition

The finished tracks reflect the raw, evolving sound of the band and their ability as live performers. The album has been noted for featuring a further development of the lyrical themes established by Robert Plant on Led Zeppelin's debut album, creating a work which would become more widely acclaimed and arguably more influential. "Whole Lotta Love" and "The Lemon Song" both feature sexual themes, as the latter contains a metaphor, which, according to one music writer, implores "unnamed ladies to squeeze his lemon 'til the juice runs down my leg.'" As was later observed by Plant himself:

Led Zep II was very virile. That was the album that was going to dictate whether or not we had the staying power and the capacity to stimulate. It was still blues-based but it was a much more carnal approach to the music and quite flamboyant. It was created on the run between hotel rooms and the GTOs, and that was quite something.

Led Zeppelin II also features experimentation with other musical styles and approaches, as on the alternately soft-and-loud "What Is and What Should Never Be" and "Ramble On" (which featured Page's acoustic guitar), or the pop-influenced ballad "Thank You". With its mysterious atmospherics, "Ramble On" helped develop hard rock's association with fantasy themes, which had been partly derived from the psychedelic rock genre of two to three years before, but also from Plant's personal interest in the writings of J. R. R. Tolkien. This musical direction would later culminate on Led Zeppelin IV (and countless subsequent groups would later carry the influence to further extremes). Conversely, the instrumental "Moby Dick" features an extended drum solo by John Bonham, which would be extended further during Led Zeppelin concert performances sometimes for as long as half an hour.

Page's contribution to this album was significant, as his electric guitar solo on the song "Heartbreaker" was emulated by many younger rock guitarists, and exemplifies the group's intense musical attack. Led Zeppelin II is the band's first album to feature Page playing a 1959 Gibson Les Paul, the electric guitar he helped popularise. His innovative recording and drum miking effects on tracks such as "Ramble On" and "Whole Lotta Love" also demonstrated his considerable skill, resourcefulness and originality as a producer. Rolling Stone magazine later called Page's guitar riff for the latter song "one of the most exhilarating guitar riffs in rock & roll." John Paul Jones later discussed Page's contributions:

Jimmy started coming into his own as a producer around "Whole Lotta Love". The backwards echo stuff. A lot of the microphone techniques were just inspired. Everybody thinks he goes into the studio with huge walls of amps, but he doesn't. He uses a really small amp and he just mic's it up really well, so it fits into a sonic picture.

The album's material also marked a certain honing of Plant's vocal approach, and signalled his emergence as a serious songwriter. Plant's name had previously been absent from the songwriting credits of the band's first album due to the previous contractual commitments that resulted from his earlier association with CBS Records as a solo artist. His influence on tracks such as "What Is and What Should Never Be" and "Ramble On" were pointers to the band's musical future. Plant has commented that it was only during the sessions for Led Zeppelin II that he started to feel at home as a vocalist in the studio with Led Zeppelin. In a 2008 interview for Uncut, he stated "uring Led Zep I (1969) as far as I was concerned, I thought that I was going to anyway. I didn't feel that comfortable because there were a lot of demands on me vocally—which there were all the way through the Zeppelin thing. And I was quite nervous and didn't really get into enjoying it until II."