Editing Swan Song Records (section)

==History==
In January 1974, Led Zeppelin negotiated an agreement with Atlantic Records to set up Swan Song Records.<ref name="Welch">Chris Welch (1994) ''Led Zeppelin'', London: Orion Books. {{ISBN|1-85797-930-3}}, p. 71.</ref> The label was launched with parties in New York and Los Angeles.<ref name = "Welch" /> A lavish media party was also held at [[Chislehurst Caves]] in [[Kent]] on 31 October 1974, to celebrate the label's first UK release by the Pretty Things, ''Silk Torpedo'' (the first US release for Swan Song was the [[Bad Company (album)|self-titled debut album]] from Bad Company in June 1974). The company logo, designed by [[Hipgnosis]] and illustrated by [[Joe Petagno]], was based on ''Evening'' also called'' The Fall of Day'' (1869) by painter [[William Rimmer]].<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.rimmerhistory.co.uk/william.html | title = Famous Rimmers Artist: William Rimmer | access-date = 2013-08-04 | date = September 2006 | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140111062540/http://www.rimmerhistory.co.uk/william.html | archive-date = 11 January 2014}}</ref>

By April 1975, Swan Song had four albums (''Bad Company'', ''[[Silk Torpedo]]'', ''[[Physical Graffiti]]'', and ''[[Suicide Sal]]'') in the ''Billboard'' Top 200 chart.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.billboard.com/charts/billboard-200/|title=Billboard 200|first=Rosalie|last=Cabison|website=Billboard.com|date=2 January 2013|access-date=27 March 2023}}</ref> The recording label also partly funded film projects such as ''[[Monty Python and the Holy Grail]]'' in 1975. In an interview he gave in January of that year, Page offered his perspective on the label:

{{quote|We've got some good things lined up. I think the Pretty Things LP is brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. We're [record] executives and all that crap, but I'll tell you one thing the label was never right from the top Led Zeppelin records. It's designed to bring in other groups and promote acts that have had raw deals in the past. It's a vehicle for them and not for us to just make a few extra pennies over the top.<ref name=cameroncrowe>{{cite web|url=http://www.cameroncrowe.com/journalism/articles/crowe_eyesandears_journalism_led.html|title=Cameron Crowe interview Led Zeppelin|access-date=2007-11-07|date=18 March 1975|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070429051941/http://www.cameroncrowe.com/journalism/articles/crowe_eyesandears_journalism_led.html|archive-date=29 April 2007}}</ref>}}

Two years later, he elaborated on Led Zeppelin's intention to found the label:

{{quote|We'd been thinking about it for a while and we knew if we formed a label there wouldn't be the kind of fuss and bother we'd been going through over album covers and things like that. Having gone through, ourselves, what appeared to be an interference, or at least an aggravation, on the artistic side by record companies, we wanted to form a label where the artists would be able to fulfill themselves without all of that hassle. Consequently the people we were looking for the label would be people who knew where they were going themselves. We didn't really want to get bogged down in having to develop artists, we wanted people who were together enough to handle that type of thing themselves, like the Pretty Things. Even though they didn't happen, the records they made were very, very good.<ref name=Schulps>Dave Schulps, [http://www.iem.ac.ru/zeppelin/docs/interviews/page_77.trp Interview with Jimmy Page] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110820054853/http://www.iem.ac.ru/zeppelin/docs/interviews/page_77.trp |date=20 August 2011 }}, ''[[Trouser Press]]'', October 1977.</ref>}}

Artists who signed with the label but did not produce any releases included Metropolis (which featured members from the [[Pretty Things]]), The Message (which featured future [[Bon Jovi]] members Alec John Such and [[Richie Sambora]]), and Itchy Brother (which featured future members of [[The Kentucky Headhunters]]). Artists that Swan Song Records wanted to sign but who bowed out to other labels were [[Roy Harper (singer)|Roy Harper]] and blues guitarist [[Bobby Parker (guitarist)|Bobby Parker]]. When Swan Song's offices were cleared out in 1983, early demos from [[Iron Maiden]], [[Heart (band)|Heart]] and [[Paul Young]]'s band [[Q-Tips (band)|Q-Tips]] were among those found, unplayed and stored, on the shelves.<ref>Uncut Magazine #166, March 2011, page 50.</ref>

In the original cut of the 1974 film [[Phantom of the Paradise]],  the name of a media conglomerate owned by the antagonist Swan was "Swan Song Enterprises".  The name had to be deleted from the film prior to release due to objections from Swan Song Records. Although most references were removed, "Swan Song" remains visible in several scenes.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.swanarchives.org/production_fiasco.asp |title=The Swan Archives - Production |year=2006 |website=swanarchives.org |access-date=November 22, 2018}}</ref>

Swan Song ceased operations in October [[1983 in music|1983]] due to the break-up of Led Zeppelin and Peter Grant's health problems. An attempt to save the label by Atlantic Records executive Phil Carson proved fruitless.{{Citation needed|date=November 2010}} Robert Plant started his own label, Es Paranza Records, in the wake of the closure of Swan Song, while Jimmy Page and [[John Paul Jones (musician)|John Paul Jones]] returned to Atlantic Records. Bad Company moved over to both Atlantic and its subsidiary [[Atco Records|Atco]] when they resumed in the late 1980s. Today, the label is strictly used for reissues of albums that were released by the label when it was active except in 2012 the label was resurrected when Led Zeppelin released the live [[Celebration Day (album)|Celebration Day]] document of their 2007 one-off reunion concert.