Houses of the Holy

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For the Led Zeppelin song of the same name, see Houses of the Holy (song).

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Houses of the Holy

Studio album by Led Zeppelin
Released	March 28, 1973
Recorded	January-August, 1972 at both Stargroves, England and Headley Grange, Hampshire, with Rolling Stones Mobile Studio; Island Studios, London. Mixed at Olympic Studios, London; Electric Lady Studios, New York
Genre	Hard rock Folk rock
Length	40:56
Label	Atlantic Records
Producer(s)	Jimmy Page
All Music Guide link Robert Christgau (A-) link Q December 2000
Led Zeppelin chronology
Led Zeppelin IV (1971)	Houses of the Holy (1973)	Physical Graffiti (1975)
Alternate Cover

Houses of the Holy is an album by English rock band Led Zeppelin released by Atlantic Records on March 28, 1973. The album title is a dedication by the band to their fans who appeared at venues they dubbed "Houses of the Holy."

1 Overview
2 Track listing
3 Credits
4 Charts
5 External links
6 References

[edit] Overview

This album was a stylitic turning point in the lifespan of Led Zeppelin. Guitar riffs became, if not heavier, more layered within Jimmy Page's production techniques and departed from the blues influences of earlier records. In the album's opening opus, "The Song Remains the Same", and its intricate companion suite, "The Rain Song", Robert Plant's lyrics matured toward a less overt form of the mysticism and fantasy of previous efforts. Houses of the Holy also featured styles not heard on previous Led Zeppelin albums. For example, "D'yer Mak'er" is a reggae-based tune; "No Quarter" features foreboding keyboard sounds, a keyboard solo from bassist John Paul Jones and an acoustic guitar solo; "The Crunge" is a funk tribute to James Brown included at the end of side one; and "The Rain Song" is embellished by Jones on melotron. The album's closing song "The Ocean" is dedicated to the "sea" of fans who massed to Led Zeppelin concerts.

The cover art for Houses of the Holy was inspired by the ending of Arthur C. Clarke's novel Childhood's End. (The ending involves several naked children, only slightly and physically resembling the human race in basic forms.) It is a collage of several photographs taken at the Giant's Causeway, Northern Ireland, by Aubrey Powell of Hipgnosis. The photoshoot was a miserable affair over the course of every morning for a week. The desired sunrise never appeared due to constant rain and clouds and many of the models were never used. The results of the shoot were less than satisifactory, but some accidental tinting effects in post-production created an unexpectedly magical album cover. It was initially released with a paper collar wrapped around the cover, printed with the band and album name, that had to be broken or slid off to access the record. This hid the children's bottoms from general display, but still the album was either banned or unavailable in Spain and some parts of the Southern United States for several years. The cover was rated #6 on VH1's 50 Greatest Album Covers in 2003.

Houses of the Holy album cover, front and back

Jimmy Page has stated that the album cover was actually the second version submitted by Hipgnosis. The first, by artist Storm Thorgerson, featured an electric green tennis court with a tennis racquet on it. Furious that Thorgerson was implying their music sounded like a "racket", the band fired him and hired Powell in his place.^[1] Ironically, Thorgerson went on to produce the album artwork for Led Zeppelin's subsequent album releases Presence and In Through the Out Door.

This was Led Zeppelin's last studio release on Atlantic Records, before they formed their own label, Swan Song Records, in 1974. It was also the only Led Zeppelin album that contained complete printed lyrics to each song.

In 2003, the album was ranked number 149 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

In 2004, the industrial metal group Ministry released an album called Houses of the Molé, a parody of the title of this album. The 1989 film Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure pays homage to the album, when, during the final scene, the protagonists are delivering a presentation about ancient Greece (having recently visited it), they describe what they saw as follows: "470 BC. A time when much of the world looked like the cover of the Led Zeppelin album Houses of the Holy".

"Houses of the Holy" is also the name of a song which was recorded during the sessions for this album, but wasn't actually released until 1975 on the album Physical Graffiti. Other songs recorded during the sessions for this the Houses of the Holy album, but not appearing on it, include "Walter's Walk," "The Rover" and "Black Country Woman."

[edit] Track listing

"The Song Remains the Same" (Page/Plant) – 5:30
"The Rain Song" (Page/Plant) – 7:39
"Over the Hills and Far Away" (Page/Plant) – 4:50
"The Crunge" (Bonham/Jones/Page/Plant) – 3:17
"Dancing Days" (Page/Plant) – 3:43
"D'yer Mak'er" (Page/Plant/Jones/Bonham) – 4:23
"No Quarter" (Page/Plant/Jones) – 7:00
"The Ocean" (Page/Plant/Jones/Bonham) – 4:31

[edit] Credits

Led Zeppelin:
- John Bonham - Drums, backing vocals
- John Paul Jones - organ, Mellotron, bass guitar, backing vocals, piano, synthesizers, harpsichord
- Jimmy Page - Acoustic guitar, electric guitar, pedal steel guitar, backing vocals, producer
- Robert Plant - Vocals, harmonica

Peter Grant - Executive producer
Eddie Kramer - Engineer, mixing
Keith Harwood - Mixing
Andy Johns - Engineer, mixing (Track 7)

Hipgnosis - Sleeve Art Direction
Aubrey Powell - Cover Photography

[edit] Charts

Album - Billboard (North America)

Year	Chart	Position
1973	Pop Albums (Billboard 200)	1

Singles - Billboard (North America)

Year	Single	Chart	Position
1973	"D'Yer Mak'er"	Pop Singles (Billboard Hot 100)	20
1973	"Over The Hills And Far Away"	Pop Singles (Billboard Hot 100)	51
1973	"Dancing Days"	Pop Singles (Billboard Hot 100)	51