For any music fan, an album is always more than just a collection of songs. It’s an art piece that can take years to unpack, but no amount of dissecting each track will ever compare to the way the music made people feel the minute they put it on the turntable. Dave Grohl already had credits for playing on records that have shifted the tides of rock and roll, but his musical lineage traces back to Led Zeppelin. Their third album was when everything came together for him.

But for everyone else, Led Zeppelin III is a bit of an odd entry in their catalogue. Before then, everyone knew Zeppelin as the kind of group that was bringing electric blues to the masses. Their debut was already one of the most ferocious albums of the late 1960s, but their sophomore outing was when it stopped being a fluke, with almost half the track listing becoming rock classics like ‘Whole Lotta Love’ and ‘Heartbreaker’.

When putting on Led Zeppelin III, it sounded like fans were in for something even bigger with ‘Immigrant Song’, but the bait and switch that comes from hearing the group’s downtempo material is one of the most abrupt tonal shifts in rock history. Zeppelin had embraced their folksy side, and more than a few fans were pissed.

The guitars may not have been as ferocious on every song, but Grohl was just the right age to experience the music, telling Rolling Stone, “Zeppelin III was full of gentle beauty. That was the soundtrack to me dropping out of high school. I listened to it every single day in my VW bug, while I contemplated my direction in life. That album, for whatever reason, saved some light in me that I still have.”

Then again, this isn’t like Zeppelin suddenly transformed into easy-listening schlock on a whim. There are still traces of their older acoustic material, but where a song like ‘Tangerine’ is one of the most tender songs they would ever write, ‘Friends’ is certainly one of the most eccentric, featuring Jimmy Page strumming away in an open tuning while a string section glides underneath him sounding like they’re trying to give accompaniment to the apocalypse.

But even without the acoustic tunes, everything pales in comparison to their cover of ‘Since I’ve Been Loving You’. Since most of the record revolved around the slower stuff, hearing Page speak through his guitar solo on this song is one of the most emotional musical passages of the 1970s, as if you’re listening to him having an emotional breakdown and having no choice but to unleash his fury through his guitar.

While Foo Fighters are much more straight-ahead rock than Zeppelin ever was, Grohl occasionally finds ways to slip that influence into his own stuff. Acoustic songs were nothing new to the group, but listening to the wild left turns on the back half of In Your Honor, Grohl definitely captured that same moody atmosphere that Zeppelin had, down to the fact that John Paul Jones oversaw some of the arrangements.

Grohl usually confessed to being a superfan of Zeppelin, Led Zeppelin III is a lot more than just the self-titled album that isn’t as good. This was the start of them discovering themselves, and without them taking those chances, we might not have been able to hear ‘Stairway to Heaven’ as we do today.