Released: 1969
There’s an argument that without the libido – specifically the male one – that rock n’ roll may never have existed. It’s seemingly innocent name originated as a culturally palatable euphemism for sex; although music and mating rituals go back fifty thousand years of our history at least, the guitar’s symbolism and a post war loosening of society’s moral compass were the ingredients for a hedonistic brew.
Emerging from the wreckage of the briefly mighty Yardbirds, Led Zeppelin as they had become known in 1968 presented the music establishment with a whole new set of elements to consider. In melding blues, folk and psychedelia they were too complex for the pop world, yet their second album – and their second of 1969 – hit number one in the charts of both sides of the Atlantic, despite a career long embargo on the release of singles domestically.
However you cut it though, Whole Lotta Love was a come hither song with a proud caveman over current. American writer Dave Marsh took great umbrage, describing it as “The most vulgar record in rock history” as Robert Plant described lasciviously just how much love a whole lotta was, and anatomically where it was going to be delivered. It didn’t matter that some of the words had been lifted from a BB King number either, because Jimmy Page’s guitar, like a cock-rocking dog being kept on a very tight leash and brought a grinding rhythmic undertow. Happy to push the needle, both Plant and Page were seeking to convince that rock n’ roll was sex, and without sex, where we would any of us be.
The Voice Of Unreason 