Led Zeppelin III @50- Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, Terry Manning

Led Zeppelin’s third album did not have the first blush of discovery like the debut, nor a bonafide hit like “Whole Lotta Love” on Led Zeppelin II, but now in hindsight Led Zeppelin III is revered for being the musical bridge to even greater successes soon to come. The second Led Zeppelin album had been a surprisingly mass appeal hit in America, and truth be told, we had not really waned in our ravenous repeated plays of it when Led Zeppelin III  appeared October 5, 1970 with surprisingly little notice. Containing “The Immigrant Song”,”Gallows Pole”, and “Since I’ve Been Loving You”, Led Zeppelin III  also planted exotic seeds of sounds in “Friends” with its Middle Eastern orchestration, which would skip several subsequent albums only to germinate with legendary impact on Physical Graffiti.

In the careers of the great legendary bands, there are less-than-bestselling transitional albums which, in hindsight, clearly show you where they were headed: Meddle  by Pink Floyd, Desperado  by the Eagles, Beggars Banquet  from the rapidly evolving Rolling Stones, and Eldorado  by Electric Light Orchestra come to mind as musical suspension bridges to glory which stand up mighty well over time but, like Led Zeppelin III, went under-appreciated in their time. Truth be told, for many years that third effort was remembered as much for its unique interactive “wheel” album cover, which is quite a collector’s item.And speaking of collectibles, before the digital compact disc and box sets in the Eighties, the most sought B-side in rock was the flip side of “The Immigrant Song” which came out in Japan with a song from the III  sessions called “Hey Hey What Can I Do”, which was as good as anything on the album. My guests Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, and Led Zeppelin III  recording engineer at Ardent Studio in Memphis, the late Terry Manning, tell the story here In the Studio. –Redbeard