Led Zeppelin song by song thread

In My Time of Dying - This is one of those Zeppelin tracks where its difficult to just let it play in the background so to speak. You have two options, either to turn if off or turn it up. If you turn it up, then you're lost for 11 minutes of mindblowing music where you end up playing "air guitar" and "air drums"; it's like music from the Old Testament, the walls of Jericho would crumble faced with this. The version from Baton Rouge 1975 might just be peak Zeppelin.

Trampled Under Foot - Did Franz Ferdinand lift the guitar riff from Trampled for "Take me Out" in 2004? I would love to hear a clavinet/drums-only version of this track. Again, it's just the sheer power of the music that makes the song. How did they find it, was it "merely" Superstition turned up to eleven and injected with testosterone/brandy & coke. I have a soft spot for the Destroyer version from Cleveland 77, even if all the "Gallows Pole-versions" are brutal.

 

Well said. Though imo that should read, "If ever anyone suggested John Paul Jones wasn't an important member of the band, they're a musical idiot and can be safely ignored"

 

Brilliant spot. I love it when someone spots something like this, because it was a such a subtle nick by Franz. You don't notice at first, like with the similarity between this



and Four Sticks!

 

Trampled Underfoot-Great hard driving and funky song. The band really smokes on this one. Honestly I don't even know most of the lyrics or much of what the song is about and don't really care. So satisfying from just a musical perspective. Lots of great fills by Page that are really quite expressive (once again sinister and sleazy come to mind).

 

That’s cool! I hadn’t paid attention to that so thanks for pointing it out.

I like Houses of the Holy as an album track for ..... Houses Of The Holy. It’s a great lead track for an expanded playlist of HOTH, as a way of introducing the “cinematic” sprawl of the variety on that album. It probably had to be cut for time, and maybe due to similarity to Dancing Days, but without the time limits of having to sequence two LP sides of less than 20 minutes each I find that I simply prefer to hear with this song with rest of the other HOTH tracks instead of on Physical Grafitti.

But I like the song. It’s concise, upbeat, and pretty catchy.

And I really like the cowbell, man.

 

Great writing here. I love your description.

Part of why I like this song is the sound he’s gotten out of the guitar here. Somehow my mental image of this guitar riff sound is of two large pieces of heavy rusty iron being scraped across each other. And somehow that’s a good thing.

 

I like this song, and I consider it to be their “disco song”, but that’s not really quite right of me. It truly does feel more like their take on a Stevie Wonder “Superstition”-style track.

However, somehow all the pieces don’t add up. The sound on this track doesn’t work for me - it seems like it “blares” at me a bit. Also, it feels a bit repetitive and bloated at 5:35 in length. I wonder if I’d prefer a 7” single edit? A more concise version of this for 3:30 might be really intriguing.

EDIT:
I see there does indeed exist a “3:48 short version” on 7” promo. But I can’t find any details that describe the edits. Anyone know about this?

 

That's interesting and I agree-I think some of the magic in Page's riffs is the production (like mic placement on guitars). I'm surprised sometimes to find out how a riff/part of a song is played by Page because it just doesn't sound like that when I play it at home. Like the beginning of Houses of the Holy-so simple but there's a moment when I'm not even sure what exactly what he's doing cause the sound is so weird.
Also just like how you see a lot of bands cover Zeppelin but there are parts that they never get right such as for the longest time the intro to Whole Lotta Love until Jimmy revealed much later how he droned the D note in the riff.

 

Some bands get a guitar sound they like and then record the whole album with that sound on every track.

And then other bands have a different guitar sound on every track. Page definitely wasn’t afraid to cycle through a bunch of different sounds to get one uniquely suited for a given song.

 

Kashmir



For many, this is Physical Graffiti's centerpiece as well as one of Zep's quintessential tracks. The seemingly unlikely fusion of heavy rock and Indian classical music comes of quite well here.

 

I like the first 40 seconds of Kashmir. I usually skip it after that.

 

Epic

 

I really, really dislike “Kashmir”. I’ve never liked it. Long, drawn out, and dull.

 

It was a big disappointment for me. Followed by a lifetime of being told how good it was.

 

Have mixed feelings about Kashmir. At times I really like it. At other times it's okay. It was high point for me when I saw them live. It has probably gotten into overplayed status. Personally I felt the puff daddy thing cheapened the tune. Still a great closer for side 2. Awesome drums. If LP 1 had been a single album it would have been one of the greatest rock albums in my opinion.

 

Kashmir
I can never really make up my mind on this song. Sometimes I think it’s overrated, but other times I really feel its epic grandeur. I’ve never thought it was as good as most of Led Zeppelin’s other epic-length tracks (Stairway, Since I’ve Been Loving You, In the Light, Achilles’ Last Stand), but it’s definitely an achievement in its own right.

 

I love Kashmir. It's not something I necessarily want to hear every day but it's awesome. Especially the vocals. Robert Plant is amazing on this.

Ooh-ooh yeah-e-yeah!

 

Kashmir

I have mixed feelings about this song.

On the positive side: cool middle eastern sound, some good work by Plant, and a really good outro.

On the negative side: this thing goes on forever without going anywhere. It's one of the rare songs where I don't find Bonzo's drums interesting.

 

Now to play catch up, and I’ll start with the Untilted Album.
Black Dog:
Beavis/Butthead: Duh DEH DUH-DUH! Duh duh duh Duh DEH Duh-Duh!
Beavis: I don’t know what I’ve been told!
Butthead: I don’t know what I’ve been told!
Beavis: A big Leg Woman ain’t got no soul!
Butthead: A big Leg Woman ain’t got no soul!
Beavis: Hey Butthead, What’s a big Leg Woman?
Butthead: He’s talking about fat chicks, Beavis. Your mom has no soul.
Beavis: Yeah heh heh, hey! Shut up about my mom!

Spoiler: Real Thoughts

This is an all time classic from the riff to the groove to the call and response, Black Dog is one of the greatest rock songs ever, and that’s science bitch.

Rock And Roll:
Beavis: Woh! This kicks ass!
Butthead: Yeah.
Beavis/Butthead: Lonely Lonely Lonely time!

Spoiler: Real Thoughts

This kicks ass, heh heh!

The Battle Of Evermore:
Beavis: What’s this crap?
Butthead: This is like, mountain man music or something.
Beavis: Oh yeah, heh heh, like that old guy that keeps coming by Burger World.

Spoiler: Real Thoughts

What can I say, this is a goddamn brilliant song, has such an epic feel reminiscent of an old folk myth.One of the greatest songs of all time.

Stairway To Heaven:
Butthead: Huh huh, these guys have turned into real wusses.
Beavis: Yeah, heh heh.
Hold on, YES! YES!
Butthead: Yeah! It rules now!

Spoiler: Real Thoughts

Great Song, but so sick of it like everyone else.

Misty Mountain Hop:
Beavis: Yes!
Butthead: Yeah!
(Headbangs)

Spoiler: Real Thoughts

This is such a killer tune and I adore the electric piano on here along with the drums, so so powerful.

Four Sticks:
Beavis: Hey Butthead, Remember when we had those sticks?
Butthead: Oh yeah.
Beavis: And then we stuck em in Stewart’s toilet, and it went BOOM! Heh heh, Fire Fire.
Butthead: Huh huh, yeah. That was cool.

Spoiler: Real Thoughts

Always The forgotten one amongst these songs but it is such a great song, from Bonham’s tribal drumming to JPJ’s keyboard work that foreshadows future songs. One of my favorites on this album.

Going To California:
Butthead: Uh, What’s this wuss music?
Beavis: This sucks!

Spoiler: Real Thoughts

God this is a beautiful song, wonderful mandolin by JPJ, wonderful acoustic, I adore this song.

When The Levee Breaks:
Beavis: Because mutiny on the boundary is what we all about- Wait, where did that damn harmonica come from?
Butthead: A place where stuff sucks, Beavis. A place where stuff sucks.

Spoiler: Real Thoughts

What can I say? The song rules.

 

"Kashmir"

The album's “epic,” even if not technically the longest track. I used to think the opening line was “Who let the sun beat down upon my face?” Hypnotic drums slightly treated with phaser. No guitar solo, which shows admirable restraint on Page's part. Just about any other guitarist would spew his you know what all over it. (I'm looking at you, Ritchie Blackmore--and I like Ritchie Blackmore). The studio version goes on a bit too long, but the Knebworth '79 live version is amazing. It's hard to believe that only five years earlier before Graffiti came out, half this band's oeuvre essentially consisted of Willie Dixon covers. It's like how much the Beatles evolved from '64 to '67.

Puff Daddy cheapened this song, but so did Fast Times At Ridgemont High to an extent.

 

Kashmir-Glad to see I'm not the only one with mixed feelings. I think I can recognize that it is one of Zeppelin's great songs although my personal enjoyment doesn't quite hit the same level at times. The riff is an all-timer- so simple yet evocative and defines the term epic. The instrumental chorus is great. I love what Page is playing underneath the keyboards.
However I have to be in just the right mood to make it all the way through-it is too much of a good thing for me most of the time.
I have to say they totally nailed it at o2, one of my favorite live version of this song ever. The live versions from the 70's always for some reason seemed a little weak.

 

Kasmir is a song that used to baffle me as a naive teen. A hard rock band incorporating strings? Yes, please. It was mysterious and mystical, I had no idea how these 4 men were making those kinds of sounds. I thought to myself, 'I've seen Page using a bow on stage, is he playing these strings on guitar?' Like I said, I was naive. Nonetheless I was captivated.

These days, the novelty has run its course. I still like the song, don't get me wrong, but the mystique is all but gone. Its still a solid track and it made people aware of Zeppelin's potential for deviating from simple, blues based rock. And I think in that light (if you will) they were fairly successful.

 

I think the lyrics in this are really good. Plant get criticized for his lyrics...sometimes deservedly. But these are good.

 

I really hated this song for a long time. It wasn't what I expected. It didn't even have a bloody guitar solo! Eventually I got it.

 

25th of October 2018 will mark the 45th anniversary of (Driving through) Kashmir. According to the companion recording information in the deluxe edition of PG, Driving Through Kashmir was recorded at Headley Grange that day in 1973 (together with the early version of Sick Again (interesting day in the studio). Folklore tells us that Kashmir started out with Bonham and Page, and this indeed seems to be the case. One of the disappointments with the PG deluxe was the lack of a "Kashmir demo", but it might be that the original recording was built on and there is no Bonham/Page demo left, e.g Plant and Jones and orchestra simply did overdubs on the original track. I would love to know the difference between the October 73 recordings and the February 74 recordings.

Anyway, I think Kashmir is an outstanding song, there's really nothing like it, it's one of those tracks that only Zep could pull off, just like no other band than The Who could have done Baba O Riley. Yes, the mix is slightly buried, yes, it might be a tad too long or perhaps too short, but my, this is an epic track. Just like IMTOD, you can't just let it play, you need to immerse yourself in it; get lost in the wasted, wasted land that once were green and fertile (to quote Plant).