Led Zeppelin, Led Zeppelin II
Atlantic, 1969: Robert Plant (vocals), Jimmy Page (guitars), John Paul Jones (bass), John Bonham (drums, died 1980)
Notable songs (No other way, it's the entire album!)
They certainly do not make albums like this anymore. This record solidified the Led Zeppelin sound, a mix of blues, rock music and power ballads.
"Whole Lotta Love," first song on the album, opens with the one of the greatest guitar riffs in rock (way to go Jimmy Page), and the album just gets better after that. "Heartbreaker" has another strong guitar riff, and then there is Bonham's drumming on "Moby Dick," truly one of the greatest drum solos ever recorded on a rock album (Iron Butterfly and the Surfaris also come to mind.)
Jimmy Page used that weird combo guitar (a six-string combined with a 12 string), a double-necked Gibson, when he played "Stairway to Heaven" in live concerts.
By the time that I was old enough to maybe see a Zep show, it was simply not to be. By 1977 the group was playing very, very large shows. Their show at the Pontiac Silverdome in Detroit (30 April 1977) set a world record for indoor attendance, 76,229. I remember that they were booked to play JFK Stadium in Philadelphia, over 100,000, but I didn't buy tickets since I was only 18, had no car, had no money, and didn't think that they would sound so good in a large stadium. In any event, the show was canceled because of the death of Robert Plant's son. That was the band's last North American tour; the last European tour was 1980. So, never got to see them live.
But not to worry, while I may have missed the Zeppelin boat in the 1970s, I caught up with 3/4 of the band (with Phil Collins sitting in on drums) when they played Live Aid in Philadelphia, 1985.