Anyone who frequented record shops in the 1970s will recall the term ‘File Under Progressive’, an instruction found on the sleeves of LPs by those groups that rarely, if ever, turned up on Top Of The Pops. Foremost among these rarified bands was Led Zeppelin, a group that never appeared on TV, released singles or even bothered to include their name on most of their LP covers.
These days ‘progressive rock’ is a term applied to Zeppelin’s musically ambitious contemporaries – the likes of Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Genesis or Yes – and modern acts inspired by those 70s bands. In truth, Led Zeppelin were more ‘progressive’ than any of them.
