Led Zeppelin III

Led Zeppelin III keeps the electric force of the first two albums while moving much further into acoustic instruments and folk texture. The cause was time Jimmy Page and Robert Plant spent at Bron-Yr-Aur, a remote Welsh cottage with no electricity or running water; songs written in that 18th-century hut set the album's direction. Recording took place at Headley Grange, Island and Olympic studios with Andy Johns engineering, and Page carried the finished masters to Ardent Studios in Memphis to have the record cut. The short, sharp charge of “Immigrant Song” came out of the band's June 1970 concert in Reykjavik, followed by the unusual resonance of “Friends” and the lingering blues of “Since I've Been Loving You.” “Gallows Pole” turns an old folk song into rising heat by stages, while “Tangerine” and “That's The Way” give delicate melodies a quiet shade. The closing “Hats Off To (Roy) Harper” is a deconstructed take on a Bukka White blues. Between that and Zacron's sleeve with its rotating wheel, the album refuses easy explanation. Reviews at the time were cool; it still reached number one in both the US and the UK. Rather than narrowing hard rock, it expands music beyond it.