After starting out as “The New Yardbirds” in 1968, Led Zeppelin never looked back, a new kind of electric blues to the thronging masses of rock fans at the tail end of the decade. They needed a new name, though, as original Yardbirds bassist Chris Dreja was threatening legal action if they didn’t stop using the name his former bandmate Keith Relf had originally come up with.
The Who’s drummer Keith Moon was Jimmy Page’s first choice to be the drummer of his new band, but Moon joked that the lineup would go down “like a lead balloon”. This joke ignited a spark in Page’s brain, who liked the idea of incorporating humour into a name for the outfit he was putting together.
When Page, Robert Plant, John Paul Jones and John Bonham were presented with Dreja’s legal order to change the name of their new group, Page pulled the name “lead balloon” out of his back pocket. The others suggested something a little more befitting the blitz of hard blues they were playing. Page obliged, swapping out the word “balloon” for its gigantic wartime equivalent.
A posterised image of the LZ 129 Hindenburg zeppelin exploding into flames in 1937 became the band’s iconic logo. Their music was fire, fury and downbeat angst and depression all rolled into one.
The first part of their name, meanwhile, was the oxymoronic aspect of Moon’s joke. It refers to the material traditionally considered the weightiest metallic substance commonly available, which would be the worst possible thing to make a balloon out of. But in the context of Zeppelin’s music, the metal became symbolic of the music genre they played a key role in inventing. Heavy metal.
So why isn’t it spelt “Lead Zeppelin”?
The band are one of the greats, but every good group needs a guiding hand. While The Beatles had Brian Epstein and Jimi Hendrix had Chas Chandler, Led Zeppelin had the wild man known as Peter Grant.
It was Peter Grant, Led Zeppelin’s manager throughout their career, who suggested that the group change the spelling of their name. He felt that the spelling “Lead Zeppelin” would cause confusion over its pronunciation, with people unsure whether to pronounce it as “leed”, as in the verb “to lead”, or “led”, as in the metal “lead”.
When a band’s name isn’t clear, it immediately loses its potency, however clever the idea behind it might be. Grant was sure that clarifying the name’s pronunciation by spelling it “Led Zeppelin” would make it catchier. He was spot on.
More than 50 years later, Led Zeppelin remains one of the most identifiable names in rock and roll, a moniker that fits the music it represents like a glove. But what’s a good manager for?