November 8, 1971: "Led Zeppelin IV" Is Released

November 8, 1971: Led Zeppelin release their 4th album. After Led Zeppelin III received mixed reviews, they decided to not give this album a title, or to put the band's name on the cover. Instead, the cover shows a painting by Barrington Colby titled The Hermit.

Each member of the band chose a symbol that appeared on the back cover. So the album is nicknamed Led Zeppelin IV, Four Symbols, Zoso (after the only symbol that appears to be a word), and The One With the Old Guy On the Cover.

It's also known as Stairway to Heaven, after the most familiar track on it, and the band's signature song, although lead singer Robert Plant has insisted that the ultimate Zep song is "Kashmir," off their 1975 album Physical Graffiti.

Side one consists of "Black Dog," "Rock and Roll," "The Battle of Evermore" and "Stairway to Heaven." Side two consists of "Misty Mountain Hop" (like "Evermore," part of Plant's obsession with J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings), "Four Sticks," "Going to California," and the one song on the album that isn't an original, a cover of Memphis Minnie's "When the Levee Breaks."

The symbols on the back cover, from left to right:

* Lead guitarist Jimmy Page claims that what appears to be the word "Zoso" was never meant to be a word at all, but a representation of the planet Saturn, which makes no sense, since the planets are round, and Saturn is known for its rings.

* Bass guitarist John Paul Jones chose a triquetra, which he said was "intended to symbolize a person who possesses both confidence and competence."

* Drummer John "Bonzo" Bonham chose 3 interlocking circles, which he said "represents the triad of mother, father and child."

* And Plant chose a feather in a circle, a symbol for the lost continent of Atlantis, also part of his interest in lost, possibly fictional civilizations.

It remains Zep's most popular album, having sold over 37 million copies, and is regarded by many -- oddly, not including the surviving band members -- as one of the greatest albums in rock and roll history. In a 2002 issue of Spin magazine, Chuck Klosterman called it "the most famous hard-rock album ever recorded" and "the origin of everything that sounds, feels, or even tastes vaguely metallic." The former plaudit is justifiable; the latter might be disputed by fans of Black Sabbath.

"Stairway to Heaven," with its 8-minute-2-second climb from, for all intents and purposes, a folk song through medieval imagery to power trio immenseness, may be the most popular single hard rock song ever recorded, which happened at Island Records in London in the Winter of 1970-71.

The group has been accused of making the song a prayer to the Devil. Supposedly, if you play the record backwards, you can hear Plant singing the words, "My sweet Satan." (This can't be done on compact discs or YouTube.) And "the piper" is said to be the Greek god Pan, who has been equated with the Devil, because of his horns and his hooves.

Plant has always insisted that there's no truth to the rumor: "If secret hidden messages were possible, every album would have 'buy this album' on it." Page, however, has lived a deeply wicked life, even buying a house once owned by British occultist Aleister Crowley. Black Sabbath's Ozzy Osbourne may have written and sung a song titled "Mister Crowley," but, in his case, it's all an act. Page appears not to be acting.

UPDATE: It took me until 2024 to think of this, but the 1970s were Schrödinger's Decade. There was too much overwrought music, and, at the same time, not enough of it.

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November 8, 1971 was a Monday. Aaron Dontez Yates, the rapper known as Tech N9ne, was born.

Baseball season was over. On ABC Monday Night Football, the Baltimore Colts beat the Los Angeles Rams, 24-17 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. The NHL and the ABA had no games on this night.

There was 1 NBA game played: The Boston Celtics beat the Cincinnati Royals, 120-109 at the Boston Garden. The 1971-72 season would be the last season for the Royals: The next season, they moved, and, because there was already a Kansas City Royals baseball team, they became the Kansas City Kings. In 1985, they moved again, becoming the Sacramento Kings.

One more sports note from this day: The NHL granted a franchise to Long Island, making this the day that the New York Islanders were born.