Led Zeppelin Earn Lifetime Achievement Grammy

Led Zeppelin, Jerry Lee Lewis and the late Janis Joplin are among those slated to be honored with the Recording Academy Lifetime Achievement Award at the Grammys on February 13th at Los Angeles' Staples Center.

The other recipients are jazz pianist Jelly Roll Morton, country pioneers the Carter Family, soul hitmakers the Staples Singers, country star Eddy Arnold, jazz drummer Art Blakey, composer Morton Gould and blues pianist Joe Willie "Pinetop" Perkins.

Songwriter extraordinaire Hoagy Carmichael, Soul Train creator Don Cornelius, Blue Note Records founder Alfred Lion and recording artist and radio personality Dr. Billy Taylor will receive the Trustees Award, presented to important figures in music who contribute in a non-performing capacity. Producer Phil Ramone (Frank Sinatra, Billy Joel) will be honored with a technical Grammy.

"The Lifetime Achievement, Trustees and Technical Grammy Awards recognize music people who have made a lasting contribution to culture around the world," Recording Academy president Neil Portnow said in a statement. "These profoundly inspiring figures are being honored as legendary performers and archetypal musicians, cultural ambassadors and technical visionaries. Their outstanding accomplishments and passion for their craft have created a timeless legacy that has positively affected multiple generations, and will continue to influence generations to come."

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Song Stories

“All Along the Watchtower”

The Jimi Hendrix Experience | 1968

Jimi Hendrix got hold of Bob Dylan's early John Wesley Harding tapes and in late 1967 recorded a version of "All Along the Watchtower" with the Experience in London. Dissatisfied with that first development, Hendrix brought those tapes with him to New York in early 1968 when he began work on Electric Ladyland. Eddie Kramer, Hendrix's engineer at the time, told Rolling Stone that Hendrix "was still looked upon by his basically white audience as the mammoth black guitar hero. There was a constant fight within him to expand himself." Hendrix's successful take on Dylan's work has long been recognized by the songwriter. "I liked Jimi Hendrix's record of this and ever since he died I've been doing it that way," Dylan wrote in the liner notes to his Biograph box set. "Strange how when I sing it, I always feel it's a tribute to him in some kind of way."

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