 This video is brought to you by Audible. Go to audible.com slash polyphonic or text polyphonic to 500 500 to get 60% off your first three months These days lead Zeppelin are ubiquitous Their songs will be a staple of any classic rock radio station. You'll hear them in movies and commercials You'll see t-shirts on all sorts of merch shelves But when Zeppelin were at their peak that wasn't the case Where other 70s bands had regular TV appearances and singles topping the charts Zeppelin had an era of mystique around them, and that's because of the marketing strategy of the band's manager Peter Grant. Grant only let the band release a handful of singles so that music fans needed to buy the albums if they wanted to hear Zeppelin. And after their first three releases Zeppelin's albums themselves took on an era of mystery Thanks to the art of hypnosis Surrealist pieces with the band's name nowhere in sight. To add to this mystique Grant didn't let Zeppelin make television appearances While on tour he would even hold Zeppelin up in hotel rooms to keep them away from the eyes of their mobs of fans So at the height of Led Zeppelin's fame the only way to truly see the band was to go to a live concert Grant's strategy paid dividends People would sleep outside the stadium waiting for Zeppelin tickets and the band's elaborate live show became the stuff of legend As the myth of Zeppelin grew their music changed to lean into it They kept the blues in their repertoire, but added epic songs laced with references to the mythological and to the occult Strange rumors about Led Zeppelin began to leak out and the band started to transcend their lived existence becoming figureheads of a modern myth and embodiments of a new cultural archetype The Rock God Let's take a closer look. In any given human society there are folk heroes People whose stories grow larger than their reality and in doing so become enshrined in their cultures history People like Robin Hood, Butch Cassidy, Big Joe Mufferah or Robert Johnson I think that in a sense Peter Grant's publicity strategy along with Zeppelin's songwriting Helped to develop them into a modern version of these folk heroes Zeppelin were living in a world where many of the cultural institutions of the past were being called into question The power of religious stories was fading with the rise of secularism and narratives about war Which had once been a cornerstone of folk heroism were being thrown into question after Vietnam But still people wanted heroes They wanted people they could look up to to show them how to create meaning in their own life How to better exist as a person and how to face the fears and pains of the human condition So they turned to the arts and on this front Led Zeppelin were more than happy to oblige The band members themselves had always had a fascination with mythical imagery whether it was Jimmy Page's occultism or Robert Plant's love of Tolkien this fascination showed itself early in their music through songs like Ramble on Which pulls from the works of Tolkien or the immigrant song which compares their experiences playing a show in Reykjavik to Nor Smith These songs helped launch Zeppelin into fame and so they started to lean further into this mythological imagery On their fourth album led Zeppelin's song about epic struggles between good and evil on Battle of Evermore Going to California dreams of escaping to a utopian paradise and depicts a romanticized version of Joni Mitchell as a sort of fairy queen And then of course there's Stairway to Heaven That song has always seemed to me to be a sort of interpretation of Joseph Campbell's hero's journey using vague poetic imagery to describe an incredible adventure and Personal growth the smash success of Led Zeppelin 4 helped to elevate Zeppelin's mythological status They began selling out shows to thousands of people their concerts turning into near spiritual Experiences for their most die-hard fans and the story grew on their next album Zeppelin Abandoned their simple album titles for something more symbolic Houses of the Holy in one of the more infuriating release decisions in music history The song Houses of the Holy wasn't actually released until their next album physical graffiti But in the lyrics of that song we can see the meaning of Zeppelin's fifth album title The Houses of the Holy refer to the stadiums that Zeppelin played their music in and the holy air about them when the band performed The song rings like a sort of peg and write Plants singing about seduction while praising the mystical power of music a lot of what Zeppelin Were working on at this time had to do with the mythical powers of music The album Houses of the Holy opens with the song remains the same one of my personal favorite pieces in their entire catalog The lyrics of that song are sparse and simple, but they tell an inspiring message as Zeppelin were touring the world Flying around on their starship. There was one constant that kept them anchored to their humanity The music they played Whether in California Calcutta or Honolulu the song remained the same Music itself was Zeppelin's virtue their love and understanding of its power to touch the soul Was what raised them into this mythical status of folk hero and as they continued to tour They extended this metaphor Physical graffiti has songs like the rover and cashmere Which compare their constant touring life to the stories of legendary heroes going on adventures to far-off lands This comparison becomes even more direct on Achilles last stand the epic opening track to 1976's presence That song was inspired by a trip that Robert Plant took through the Mediterranean after breaking his ankle in a car accident In it he is explicitly comparing himself to the folk hero Achilles Now this shouldn't exactly be a surprise One of the great folktales about Robert Plant has him standing on the balcony of Los Angeles's Hyatt house hotel shouting I am a golden god out over the city below And as far as zeppelin's exploits go that one is pretty tame As zeppelin were developing their own mythology through their music Their fans were growing that myth by spreading stories through word of mouth Stories of legendary parties and trashed hotel rooms Stories of sleeping with groupies and doing prodigious amounts of drugs Stories that embodied the phrase sex drugs and rock and roll And stories that gave rise to the term rock god But of course zeppelin weren't gods No matter how fantastic the music they made and no matter the heights they reached Led zeppelin were simply men and deeply flawed men at that I want to give a content warning here. This next section is going to talk about sexual abuse addiction and mental illness Over the years stories of zeppelin's sexual exploits have turned into a foundational piece of the rock star myth Along with contemporaries like the who david bowie and alice cooper They set the groundwork for a lifestyle that would go on to dominate 80s rock with bands like molly crew In this lifestyle the woman zeppelin slept with were either celebrated as conquests or written off as fame chasing groupies In reality many of these so-called groupies were victims Zeppelin and their contemporaries would spend a lot of their time with teenage girls Many of these so-called baby groupies became a part of los angeles's sunset strip music scene at a shockingly young age Developing their own sort of following around them and getting positive press in music publications like cream There was even a short-lived magazine called star that dedicated itself to Chronicling the lives of these groupies and giving tips to young girls that would want to take on the lifestyle Some of the most famous of these groupies include sable star Who allegedly got her starred in the scene at just 11 years old? And then of course, there's lori maddox Maddox was a baby groupie at the time of zeppelin's peak and has been open about her experiences since In a piece for thrillist maddox describes losing her virginity to david bowie at the age of 14 I was an innocent girl, but the way it happened was so beautiful I remember him looking like a god and having me over a table Who wouldn't want to lose their virginity to david bowie? It's worth noting that others from the time have disputed maddox's timelines with bowie But her extended relationship with jimmy page is clearly documented While zeppelin were on their 1972 north american tour The 14 year old maddox had an extended relationship with jimmy page Maddox didn't travel with the band because page was afraid of getting arrested for statutory rape But page was incredibly controlling and wanted maddox all to himself So he kept her locked up in a hotel room in los angeles flying back to visit her between tour dates Their relationship lasted until maddox was 16 and caught page with another young groupie baby buell today maddox's perspective on these events is mixed She's admitted that the me too movement helped her recontextualize her own experiences In a 2015 interview with the guardian She gave a conflicted account saying that page treated her well and looking back on the time fondly But adding I don't think underage girls should sleep with guys I wouldn't want this for anybody's daughter And regardless of how much maddox might have wanted page as a teenager There could have never been consent in that relationship Roxana Shirazi herself a former groupie explains this in her book the last living slut It is never possible to have full agency from the outset. The power structure is not equal They're famous and unless you're famous yourself, you're not on the same plane It's fundamentally impossible for a teenager to have a healthy sexual relationship with somebody that they view as a literal living god And this is where the mythologizing of led zeppelin takes its dark turn When people view the band as gods, they're not going to hold them accountable in the same way The lorry maddox case is probably the most reprehensible of zeppelin's behaviors But their track record toward woman on the whole is pretty appalling They would harass female journalists Including an incident where their tour manager richard coal pulled a gun on the journalist lisa robinson aboard the starship There's another story where the band allegedly tried to tear the clothes off of ellen sander a reporter for life magazine And then of course, there's the infamous mud shark incident That bit of misogyny has been written about enough and I don't really care to retell it here But if you want to find the story, I'm sure you can Suffice to say that it was a moment of what I consider to be pretty reprehensible behavior But all too often these things aren't framed that way when we tell the zeppelin myth The mud shark story is often told as a joke as another chapter among zeppelin's many wild exploits I can't say for sure what actually happened in these stories But if there's an iota of truth to them, they read less like a fun adventure and more like stories of rich famous men Exploiting and assaulting women who loved their art deeply Seeing as a lot of this is speculation. It's hard to know exactly how much falls on each individual band member Robert plant told vanity fair that most of the stories were actually their road crew making a mess and covering it with their name But there's also photographic evidence of robber plant hanging out with teenage girls on the sunset strip And there are some things we know for sure We know that jimmy page had an extended relationship with a minor And we know that his bandmates seemingly did nothing to stop that We also know the stories of john bonham a man with a harrowing alcohol addiction So much so that he became known as the beast when he drank because of the way he would go into blind rages Seemingly at the drop of a hat and we know that to this day Zeppelin haven't really seemed to publicly show Any sense of remorse or regret over the people they harmed So what do we do with all of this? I think the temptation is to say separate the art from the artist and leave it at that Chances are some of you in the comments are already saying this And maybe some of the time that alone is enough But what do you do when the artist's lifestyle is so directly present in the art? And when the art so directly enables the artist's lifestyle So much of zeppelin's music is overtly about sex The song sick again is even about lorimatic specifically and mentions her age in the lyrics Zeppelin's music created a narrative that they are sexual idols and rock gods And that narrative enabled toxic behavior And that legacy runs beyond the band themselves and onto the next generation of musicians Now like with our previous discussions zeppelin aren't entirely to blame here Zeppelin were part of a broader culture that celebrated this behavior And a lot of zeppelin's exploits came down to the fact that peter grant drove them to very harsh working conditions They were locked in hotel rooms and fed drugs and alcohol constantly John bottom was a deeply anxious person who was always homesick and deathly afraid of flying His lifestyle fed into his addiction to alcohol and eventually brought about his death at just 32 years old So there are tragic aspects to zeppelin and in a lot of ways they were trapped by circumstance But unlike our conversations about art theft and cultural appropriation I don't think that those circumstances give zeppelin any sort of pass on this behavior The reality is that led zeppelin broadly and jimmy page specifically abused their power They either committed or enabled sexual assault on minors And they were celebrated for it This needs to be part of the legacy of led zeppelin Personally, this is something that I as a music creator have to grapple with as well Zeppelin are part of the reason why I started this channel and the main reason it blew up I've made a lot of my livelihood on celebrating zeppelin without applying a critical lens to their legacy And it's not because I didn't know about this stuff It's because like so many before me. I chose to ignore these facts when it was convenient to me But the victims of the ongoing culture of abuse in which we live don't just get to ignore these things There are no doubt countless victims of abuse who know zeppelin's legacy and see zeppelin being celebrated as gods every day I can't imagine how that must feel So how do we proceed from here? How do we reconcile the twin legacies of led zeppelin that of the innovative artists who inspired millions And that of the abusers who got famous from the exploitation of oppressed minorities? To be honest, I don't know. I was hoping I might have some better idea of how to deal with some of this stuff By the end of this series But I just don't Whether it's led zeppelin david bowie michael jackson or any of these artists with complicated legacies I don't think the answer can be just to not listen to the music Because I honestly believe that the music of these artists has helped me be a better person It's helped me understand what it means to be human and helped me strive to love the beauty in life That's going to be true regardless of who the band were as people In that sense, at least I guess there is a separation between art and artist in my mind And I really can't help that I'm sure that there's people out there that don't listen to led zeppelin because of this and Frankly, I think that's admirable But when art hits you it hits you and there's not much you can do about it Yet the shadow of abuse is inescapable To celebrate these artists blindly and without question is to play into that legacy The best approach that I can think of is to hold artists accountable to what their art has inspired in you One of the reasons why I love led zeppelin's music is the way it depicts images of beauty images of hope rubber plants lyrics have always sung of good over evil of the triumph of empathy and art So let's try to reach a world that fits the standards set artistically in a song like battle of evermore Or going to california I don't think this means that you need to have these conversations every time you put on a zeppelin record But I do think it means we need to remain cognizant of these things We need to be willing to push back and challenge the artists we love We need to understand how their lives inform their work and we need to see them as people not as gods And doing so means being willing to open up to these sorts of uncomfortable complicated and difficult dialogues Maybe most importantly it means taking a look at how our histories are told And trying to shed new light on that Trying to understand the perspective of these events not just from the rich and powerful But from all those who their fame impacted Is that a satisfactory answer to all of these questions? I don't think so But at least for now It's the best that I've got I want to thank everyone who has made it through this series I'm really happy with the work that I've done on it But honestly, there's always more to talk about with led zeppelin One aspect of the story that I was only able to touch upon briefly in this video was peter grant Grant was a brilliant visionary manager who can honestly take a lot of the credit for zeppelin success But like the band he managed he was also deeply flawed and often dangerous If you want to learn more about peter grant you should check out bring it on home peter grant led zeppelin and beyond the story of rock's greatest manager on audible If that sounds up your alley, you should head over to audible.com slash polyphonic or text polyphonic to 500 500 By doing so you can save 60 percent on your first three months That comes down to less than six bucks a month And for that you'll get one free credit every month good for any title in their selection And you'll also get full access to the audible plus catalog which includes podcasts guided fitness meditation And all sorts of other goodies I personally love audiobooks and will often even listen to them as i'm editing my videos They're a great way to knock a few titles off that ever-growing to read list So again, if you want to give it a shot go to audible.com slash polyphonic Or text polyphonic to 500 500 And thank you all so much for watching