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Credit: Far Out \/ Open Culture<\/p>\n
October 29th, 2026 \u00b7 11:02pm GMT <\/p>\n
Led Zeppelin always had a unique identity and existed within their own micro-universe that Jimmy Page<\/a> created to the letter.<\/p>\n Before Page was even out of The Yardbirds<\/a>, he had a set idea of what he wanted out of his music. Part of the appeal of forming Led Zeppelin was that there were no set rules for where he could go, musically, and while a lot of it came back to traditional blues, no one was going to make the kind of blistering hard rock that came out of tunes like \u2018Black Dog\u2019 or match the majesty of \u2018Kashmir\u2019.<\/p>\n That kind of versatility only comes from someone who has been around the block in terms of session scenes. Even though Page had found his niche in Zeppelin, one of his greatest strengths was being able to shoehorn his guitar into any situation, and if someone could work with both Shirley Bassey and Donovan and still make it work, there was hardly anything that he couldn\u2019t cover.<\/p>\n While there were no strict rules when Page headed into the studio with Robert Plant, John Bonham and John Paul Jones, it was a different matter when it came to how they wanted to be perceived. A fine example of this was their refusal to release singles in the UK because they believed an album should be viewed in its entirety.<\/p>\n At the time, the pop charts were also getting far more wholesome. While the bad boy reputation of their backstage antics has become the stuff of legend, the rest of America was busy watching Sonny and Cher play tunes like \u2018I Got You Babe,\u2019 which may as well have been the inverse of what tunes like \u2018Whole Lotta Love\u2019 were supposed to be.<\/a><\/p>\n That didn\u2019t mean there wasn\u2019t some overlap, though. Regardless of how many classics Zeppelin was spitting out, they were still tied to Atlantic Records, which meant they were getting the same kind of press coverage that Sonny and Cher were getting, albeit in very different markets. Even if they shared the same parent company, Page made it explicitly clear that he didn\u2019t want anything to do with the pop couple when he started out.<\/p>\n When it came to getting around the negotiation table, Page later recalled\u00a0saying<\/a>, \u201c[Atlantic] were aware of my work with the Yardbirds because they were pretty hip people, so they were very interested. And I made it very clear to them that I wanted to be on Atlantic rather than their rock label, Atco, which had bands like Sonny and Cher and Cream. I didn\u2019t want to be lumped in with those people\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cI wanted to be associated with something more classic.\u201d<\/p>\n Jimmy Page<\/p>\n Further reading: From The Vault<\/p>\n Page got his way, and they were signed to Atlantic Records rather than being placed on Atco, which meant they couldn\u2019t be linked with the contemporaries whom he didn\u2019t want to be mentioned alongside.<\/p>\n Due to both Page and Eric Clapton being alumni of The Yardbirds<\/a>, this was a smart move, in hindsight, to put them on different labels. It stopped a lazy comparison being made by the press and fans alike, despite the musical differences between the two acts, and allowed Zeppelin to exist in nobody else\u2019s shadow.<\/p>\n While nobody was going to compare Sonny and Cher to Led Zeppelin, even if they were both on the same label, it could have diluted their hell-raising image if their label-mates were hosting a light-entertainment show on television.<\/p>\n That being said, Cher and Led Zeppelin have both stood the test of time, but Page was more concerned with legacy, even back then. Cher has since gone through many different periods and had become virtually indestructible chart-wise, but Led Zeppelin would always be known as the bad boys who didn\u2019t go along with the programme and did everything they could to push themselves and rock and roll forward.<\/p>\n The fact that Page had earned the right to dictate the conditions of their record deal says everything about the reputation that he\u2019d already amassed. If Atlantic didn\u2019t agree to his demands, another label would have, and they knew it was an unmissable opportunity to sign the world\u2019s next big band<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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