Stream It: A Lifetime of Led Zeppelin
14 years ago today, during the 47th annual Grammy Awards, Led Zeppelin were officially declared as the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.
Well, technically, anyway.
In fact, the news of Led Zeppelin’s impending honor was formally announced on January 4, a fact which can be confirmed via the Rolling Stone article that was published to the magazine’s website on that date in 2005. In addition to Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones, and the late John Bonham receiving this honor, so too were Jerry Lee Lewis, Janis Joplin, Jelly Roll Morton, the Carter Family, the Staples Singers, Eddy Arnold, Art Blakey, Morton Gould, and Joe Willie “Pinetop” Perkins.
The actual awards ceremony, however, took place on this date in 2005, and the announcement was made during the ceremony by Pharrel Williams, Penelope Cruz and Mark McGrath.
“True to their name, Led Zeppelin could be heavy as metal or as light as air,” said McGrath, who was apparently selected as designated spokesperson for the paragraph about the band. “Together Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Paul Jones, and the late, great John Bonham flew to musical heights previously unimagined. And so it is with a whole lotta love – I said a whole lotta love! – that I tell you tonight the mighty Led Zeppelin is a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award recipient!”
Cut to Page and Jones in the audience, looking pleased as punch.
Just for amusement’s sake, we’d also like to offer up a clip of Kathy Griffin interviewing Mr. Jones earlier in the evening, a conversation which begins with him being left completely flummoxed by her patently false claim that Led Zeppelin secured their Lifetime Achievement Award by beating out another band. We’d rather you found out for yourself which band she mentioned, however, as it’ll just be funnier that way.
In closing, here’s why we’ve entitled this new column STREAM IT: we’ve created a playlist in conjunction with the topic of today’s topic which is filled with all of Led Zeppelin’s studio albums and live albums for your listening enjoyment. No, it won’t take your lifetime to listen to it, but it’s their lifetime in convenient playlist form, and it’s a life well lived, to be sure.
