[Led Zeppelin plays] a basic, sinewy brand of music that depends for its impact more on simple relentlessness than on dramatic development. Not many bands could get away with working within such a simple framework, but Led Zeppelin takes a seemingly arrogant delight in flattening everything in its path through a perfect execution of fundamentals.

In the Sixties, it would have been hard to imagine a band like Zeppelin winning a mass following (it may now be the most popular single attraction in rock) with such hard, uncompromising music, but this outfit has certain other characteristics that have combined with its raw sound to make it appealing in a very broad way. One of the most important of these is Led Zeppelin's playing off its almost austere amplified blues and rock-and-roll against the flamboyant and exotic public personalities of Page and Plant. Both in the music itself and...