Once Upon a Time in the Top Spot: Led Zeppelin, Presence

39 years ago today, the pinnacle of the Billboard Top 200 was graced by the presence of Led Zeppelin for the fifth time in the band’s career.

(Get it? Graced by the presence? Ha! We kill us!)

Released in 1976, Presence was somewhat of a turning point in Led Zeppelin’s career, or at least that’s how Jimmy Page has come to see it: he’s referred to the record as being the band’s “most important,” owing to the fact that they managed to bring it to fruition even though they were going through some pretty rough stuff at the time.

The roughest of the stuff, without question, was what befell Robert Plant, who’d gotten so banged up in a car accident in August 1975 that Led Zeppelin had to cancel the world tour they’d been planning to kick off later that month. While he was convalescing and recuperating from his injuries, however, Plant still managed to write some lyrics, and when Page paid him a visit, they began to bang out some new tunes. By November, John Paul Jones and John Bonham joined them in Hollywood, and the recording sessions for Presence had begun in earnest…and less than three weeks after they started, they’d managed to knock out the whole thing.

Years later, Plant would criticize his vocal performance as sounding “tired and strained,” citing his frustration at being stuck in a wheelchair and being unable to return home to his wife and children, but he nonetheless cited the songs “Candy Store Rock” and “Achilles Last Stand” as “the saving grace of the album” and has described the whole affair as being “like a cry of survival.” Page, meanwhile, has praised the spontaneity of the album, noting that “we went in with virtually nothing and everything just came pouring out.”

Whatever faults Presence may or may not have had, it certainly seemed to please the band’s fans: not only did it hit #1 in the US and in the UK, but it stands out a powerful piece of work in Led Zeppelin’s catalog: at a time when other bands would’ve laid down, they let out a roar to remind the world that they were still going strong.