Led Zeppelin, Presence
Featured Album
Back-to-basics immediacy under 11th-hour deadline pressure
Because of his stature as guitarist/songwriter for Led Zeppelin, Jimmy Page's considerable duties as a producer are sometimes underplayed; but the truth is, aside from being in the band, coming up with riffs, playing and layering, he had to oversee recording, mixage and completion. He had quite a task ahead of him with three days remaining before the Rolling Stones were booked to take over Munich's Musicland Studio. Mick Jagger stopped in to see Jimmy at that point, and said he'd be lucky to sketch out the overdubbed guitar parts, let alone mix the thing. But 18 days after Led Zeppelin had begun the album, Presence was finished, all the more remarkable for the bleak mood the band had been in following Robert's devastating car accident on Rhodes with his family, where he'd severely injured his leg. Perhaps that makes the Olympian gallop and Hellenic allusions of "Achilles Last Stand" all too real, but Page — with the 11th hour pressure of deadline upon him — piled on the guitars, sticking closely to blues and rock and forgoing the acoustics, giving the album a back-to-basics immediacy. "Nobody's Fault But Mine," might be the New Yardbirds for its unvarnished, roughshod rave-up, and "Candy Store Rock" pulls out all the rockabilly stops and go-cat-goes.
