Presence
All studio and live performances from Presence.
Presence is the seventh studio album by the English rock band Led Zeppelin, released by Swan Song Records on 31 March 1976. The album was a commercial success, reaching the top of both the British and American album charts, and achieving a triple-platinum certification in the United States, despite receiving mixed reviews from critics and being the slowest-selling studio album by the band (other than the outtake album Coda).
It was written and recorded during a tumultuous time in the band's history, as singer Robert Plant was recuperating from serious injuries he had sustained the previous year in a car accident. Nevertheless, guitarist Jimmy Page describes Presence as the band's "most important" album, proving they would continue and succeed despite their turmoil.
Achilles Last Stand
"Achilles Last Stand", at 10 minutes and 25 seconds, is the third longest studio recording released by Led Zeppelin (after "In My Time of Dying" at 11:06 and "Carouselambra" at 10:34). It is famous for John Bonham's powerful drumming, John Paul Jones's galloping bass line (played on a custom-built Alembic eight string bass) and Jimmy Page's overdubbed orchestral guitar arrangement (the dozen or so guitar tracks having been recorded in Munich in a single session). Page applied vari-speed during production of this song to speed up some of the guitar overdubs,[4] one of the few times he employed that device in the studio for Led Zeppelin songs.
Candy Store Rock
The band recorded the song at Musicland Studios in Germany, and it only took them about an hour to write it. Plant sang from a wheelchair because he was recovering at the time from a car accident he had sustained in Greece. This is the only song on the album that features an acoustic guitar, but it is almost buried in the mix. Robert Plant considers "Candy Store Rock" to be one of his favourite songs from Presence.