On March 28, 1973, "Led Zeppelin" released their fifth studio album - "Houses of the Holy".
Let's tell you some interesting facts about the album that for some reason Facebook likes to censor its cover:
This is the first studio album that does not bear the band's name.
2. This is also the band's first album featuring all the lyrics in Inner Sleeve. Even the album known as "Led Zeppelin IV" included only the lyrics to the song "Stairway To Heaven".
3. What's more interesting is, that this is the band's first album that did not include "coping" from other artists, as has been done on all of the band's previous albums.
4. The name of the album is a tribute to the band's fans who used to call the halls in which the band performed "Houses of the Holy".
5. The album cover was influenced by Arthur C. Clark's book "Childhood's End".
6. Although many children appear to be on the cover, in practice only a sister and da brother - Samantha and Stephen Gates, were photographed at the Giant's Causeway site, in Northern Ireland.
7. The "Giant's Causeway" site includes more than 40,000 hexagonal basalt pillars and following the album cover, it was declared as a world heritage site.
8. The song "Houses of the Holy" did not enter the album it appeared on the band's next album "Physical Graffiti".
9. The album marks the return of legendary producer Eddie Kramer behind the console. Although all of the band's albums mention Jimmy Page as the producer, Kramer's contribution to the sound design on the album "Led Zeppelin II" was substantial. Due to friction with the band, Kramer was absent on the albums "Led Zeppelin III" and "Led Zeppelin IV", but he returned to collaborate with the band on this album.
10. Much of the album was recorded at Mick Jagger's cottage "Stargroves", in the Hampshire countryside. Starting with the third album, the band began recording their albums outside of traditional studios to soak up a different atmosphere. They got the idea from "The Band", who recorded some of their albums at the "Big Pink" house located in West Saugerties New York.
11. The opening song "The Song Remains the Same", was originally an instrumental track called "The Overture". Jimmy Page designed the song as a mini-suite and it was even played at the band's October 1972 shows in Japan, under that name.
12. The song's opening is influenced by "Tinker Tailor Soldier Sailor" written by Jimmy Page for "The Yardbirds".
13. The band will use the title of the song to crown their first double live album and the film of the same name, released in 1976, recorded during the band's three performances in 1973 at Madison Square Garden.
14. Robert Plant's singing in the song was accelerated a bit in the original recording.
15. Jimmy Page uses Gibson's famous double-neck guitar "EDS 1275" with 12 and six strings. He also uses this guitar in the next song on the album.
16. "The Rain Song" was influenced by the legendary George Harrison. He loved the band and even befriended its members. At one of the meetings he complained to John Bonham that "Zeppelin" did not have a real ballad, so Jimmy Page decided to give him one and noted that the first chords were taken from "the Beatles" song "Something".
17. Bassist John Paul Jones plays the Mellotron and drummer John Bonham plays the drums using brushes.
18. "Over the Hills and Far Away" was written about the lifestyle of the hippies and includes a mention of it on the words - "Open Road".
19. The lyrics were also influenced by Tolkien's "The Hobbit" which describes the adventure of the Hobbit.
20. The song evolved from the song "White Summer" by "Yardbirds". A song that "Zeppelin" played in live shows after the end of "the Yardbirds".
21. Page started writing it back in 1970 and he accompanies the song with an acoustic guitar throughout.
22. "The Crunge", which closes the first side of the vinyl was originally written by John Bonham, who tried to create a rhythm that would be impossible to dance to. Robert Plant improvised with words influenced by James Brown such as - "Take it to the Bridge" and in his singing style, while Jimmy Page completes the celebration with the funky guitar. Jimmy Page wrote The Riff back in the days of the "Yardbirds", in 1965.
23. The lyrics "Ain't gonna call me Mr. Pitiful, no I do not need no respect from nobody", were influenced by the song "Mr. Pitiful" by Otis Redding, referring to his well-known song "Respect" performed by Aretha Franklin.
24. In stark contrast to what Bonham tried to achieve in the previous song, the other side of the album opens with "Dancing Days". The song was inspired by the pastoral landscapes of the "Stargroves" cottage. Technician and producer Andy Kramer even remember the band members simply dancing to its sounds.
25. The song began as a tribute to Indian music that Jimmy Page heard during his visit to India.
26. "Stone Temple Pilots" performed a cover of this song in 1995.
27. "D'Yer Mak'er" started from John Bonham's attempt to combine reggae with doo-wop, leaving room for off-beat improvisation.
28. Contrary to popular belief, the title of the song is not a distortion of the lyrics "Dear Maker" but a joke of the band about Jamaica, from which the reggae came from. The title is pronounced "Jamaica," as spoken by the locals and it's also a play on "Did you make her?" In a Jamaican accent.
29. The band never played the song live, it was very difficult to recreate.
30. "No Quarter" was first composed by John Paul Jones in 1971 for the band's fourth album. The song demonstrates John Paul Jones' contribution in both playing and the variety of instruments.
31. The title of the song means "No Mercy" in military slang.
32. The title of the song was used for the mini-album Union of Jimmy Page and Robert Plant "Jimmy Page and Robert Plant - No Quarter", from 1994. It insulted John Paul Jones dearly since he did not receive an invitation to join the reunion and the song that characterizes him was used as the album title.
33. "Tool" performed a cover of the song on the album "Salival" from 2000.
34. Robert Plant noted that "The Ocean" was written about the girl who won his heart. This was his daughter Carmen who was then 3. The lyrics include the phrase "Girl who won my heart".
35. The song opens with the voice of John Bonham saying: "We've done four already but now we're steady and then they went, 1, 2, 3, 4". Bonham's reference was to the number of takes that they have already been recorded.
36. This is one of three songs from the album where all the band members got credit for writing. The other two are "D'yer Mak'er" and "The Crunge".
37. Excerpts from the song were sampled by the "Beastie Boys" in the song "She's Crafty", from their debut album.
38. In response Robert Plant sampled excerpts from the song on the track "Tall Cool One", taken from his album "Now And Zen".
For Listening: Spotify, Apple Music.