Jimmy Page, more hippie farmer than sex god for Zep III (Image credit: Getty Images) I haven’t read any reviews yet, but people have got to give the LP a reasonable hearing.’’ This album was to get across more versatility and use combinations of instruments. Robert is really getting involved in his lyric writing. There are changes in the playing and the lyrics. “Everyone in the band is going through changes. Soon after the album’s release, Page was keen to emphasise Zeppelin’s evolution. I was maturing as a composer and player, and there were many kinds of music that I found stimulating, and with this wonderful group I had the chance to be really adventurous.” Where many of our contemporaries were narrowing their perspective, we were really being expansive. “Critics especially couldn’t relate to it. “We were so far ahead that it was difficult for people to know what the hell we were doing,” Page told journalist Brad Tolinski in the 2012 book Light & Shade: Conversations With Jimmy Page. Fans and critics were dazed and confused, but the band stood their ground. To emphasise the rustic nature of the album, Zeppelin even changed their appearance, growing facial hair to Hobbit-like proportions and wearing clothes that made them look more like hippie farmers than sex gods. Six of the 10 tracks on the third album were built around the sweet ’n’ bitter strains of Page’s acoustic Harmony guitar as the band touched on everything from traditional bluegrass ( Gallows Pole) to country blues ( Hats Off To (Roy) Harper), to a folk song so upbeat you could square-dance to it ( Bron-Y-Aur Stomp). “There will be better quality songs than on the first two albums.’’ ‘’We’ll be recording for the next two weeks and we are doing a lot of acoustic stuff as well as the heavier side,” he told the Melody Maker. John Bonham teased the press about the band’s intended direction when Zeppelin regrouped for the first studio sessions of III in late May. It seemed almost self-destructively perverse – a 360-degree retreat from the testosterone-infused hard rock that had made them international superstars. Led Zeppelin’s pastoral third album was recorded at Olympic Studios in London and released in October 1970. Little did the band know that this ‘incentive’ and subsequent ‘tone’ would end up sending massive shockwaves throughout the rock world. While it might not have been conceived as a writing trip, the singer and guitarist’s stay in the Welsh mountains was deemed important and influential enough to be acknowledged on the album’s sleeve, stating: ‘Credit must be given to Bron Y Aur a small derelict cottage in South Snowdonia for painting a somewhat forgotten picture of true completeness which acted as an incentive to some of these music statements.’ Celebration day, Zeppelin on stage at the Bath Festival, June 1970 (Image credit: Getty Images)
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