(Credits: Far Out / Alamy / Annie Spratt)
Wed 22 October 2025 13:29, UK
Once upon a time, Planet Rock Radio set out to create the greatest fantasy rock band ever. With an admittedly small survey pool of around 4000 people, fans submitted answers declaring their favourite singer, guitarist, bassist and drummer from the world of rock. The results comically crowned Led Zeppelin as the group so good that they make rock fantasies come true.
Now, obviously, this isn’t exactly the highest grade of science one might desire, but it certainly did shed some light on just how impactful the British quartet were on the rock landscape. Given the opportunity, most rock fans would struggle to find a better outfit, member by member, than Led Zeppelin.
Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones and John Bonham were all top of their respective classes. Few rock singers can boast the lungs of Plant, no guitarist in the world has ever been as skilful on the fretboard as they ar ein the studio than Page. Jones is perhaps the dark horse of the group, but his contributions outweigh most bassists, and we needn’t really explain the impact of Bonham, arguably the greatest drummer who ever lived.
This makes them the only supergroup in the world that lived up to the sum of their parts. With the legendary Page often likened to a classical composer by his peers, Bonham the proverbial thunder, Plant with a voice that threatened to pluck Sputnik out of orbit, and Jones the perfect multi-instrumentalism to serve as the foil and glue, the band soared to Promethean heights.
However, even these maestros, a group of musical mavericks who helped to spawn the genre of heavy metal, had their limitations. In fact, being quite so skilled within the limited vocabulary of heavy rock often created an environment that caused them to trip over each other. Usually, they navigated the complex webs they wove with supreme skill, but every now and again, one was a struggle.
With that in mind, we’ve perused everything the band said about the tricky tracks in the pockets of their tight trousers and picked out the three most difficult Led Zeppelin songs to play. When even a fantasy band encounters difficulty, you know you’re dealing with a damning arrangement.
The three songs Led Zeppelin struggled to record:
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