Jimmy Page purposely recorded this in a very raw way to kinda recreate the thunder they create on their live shows, and this song is almost 50 years old and I think the production captures the sound perfect for that era and I love the song exactly how it is!
Some of the harmonica and guitar parts were recorded at a higher tempo, and were then slowed down in the final mix. They did it to increase the “sludginess” of the sound. This was recorded in the spring of 1971.
Led Zeppelin are a top 5 band for me. It's hard to overstate just how massively influential they were in basically inventing the genre of hard rock and establishing most of the fundamentals of what would eventually become metal. Despite being known for being hard rock and blues they were a tremendously versatile band and would frequently slip into other genres (like reggae or folk). They also have an impeccable discography. This is the closing track off their 4th album that also contains the iconic Stairway to Heaven, Black Dog, and Rock & Roll. This one is really Zep at their heaviest and bluesiest. It's one of those songs that shows that heavy isn't volume, heavy is an attitude (to quote Ritchie Blackmoore). Great choice for groove week, too. As for the production, Jimmy Page (their guitarist) was also the producer, and even for the 70s his production was pretty unique. Had a very particular and peculiar ear for how he wanted things to sound and would change it up track-to-track. He didn't have any singular style that he used for everything but would tailor his ideas to the song. Some of those ideas certainly sound "dated," but personally I'll take Page's unique, creative choices over the much more homogenous style of modern production. It probably helps that I grew up listening to this stuff so it doesn't sound as "weird" to me as it might for someone who's only able to compare it to modern production. On this track in particular, I always thought it had such a weighty sound that seems to imitate the weight of the water flooding everything. There's also a kind of "washed out" feeling to the sound that fits in with that too. Really creative stuff.
I wouldn't mind checking out some more varied Zeppelin on the channel. I don't have a lot of experience with them in general so anything would be interesting from a historic perspective. The production is certainly unique and I'm happy to hear it was all intentional. I can't say I'm a fan of all of it but gives them a specific sound that I could easily pick out.
@@CriticalReactions I really think Zeppelin is a band like The Beatles that was so massively important to 20th century popular music that every music lover owes it to themselves to explore their discography, which isn't all that much: just 9 studio albums amounting to ~5 hours worth of music. Physical Graffiti is my favorite from them because it's their most diverse. One difficulty with reacting to them is usually reactions are instantly taken down by their record label... I'm surprised this one has managed to sneak through so far. I'm hit-and-miss with Page's production myself, but I always thought it worked well with this song given the theme.
A lot of 70's rock used "creative" panning. With the dawn of stereo panning many probably got carried away with it. I know I have a similar reaction on some songs when I listen to them now. However, when driving around with your car stereo blasting back in the day some of the Led Zeppelin panning sounded super cool.
Zep is considered hard rock/heavy blues although they played a variety of styles and some songs did come off as fairly prog-rock-ish for their time. The drums were recorded in a stairwell at a large manor house they were recording in with mics placed around and above him to catch the ambient room sounds echoing. The instruments were played at one tempo then purposefully slowed while the vocals stayed the same, however, the vocals do have various effects/treatments added. In addition to all that, a backwards echo effect was added to the harmonica. The disorientating effects were intentional; it was to create a groove that was cyclical and hypnotic.
I’d add that there’s also a drone underlaying almost the whole song, contributing to the “hypnotic” quality; it’s sung as a blues (cause it’s a blues, duh), but without the blues chord progression.
This recording was in 1971. Jimmy pushed the limits of equipment he had. Jimmy brought in 8 and 16 track recording. Where the norm was 4 track The vocals were processed differently on each verse, sometimes with phasing added. Jimmy Page's backward echo technique, where he would put the echo ahead of the sound, was used on the harmonica. Was very difficult to mix, and due to extensive processing, is best appreciated with headphones. Many rap songs have sampled the drums on this. For sampling purposes, this is great because of the clean, uninterrupted drum break at the beginning. The Beastie Boys used it on "Rymin' And Stealin'" which opened their first album License To Ill. Other songs to use it include "Lyrical Gangbang" by Dr. Dre and "Beats And Pieces" by Coldcut. The song was recorded at a different tempo, then slowed it down. Plant then sang in the sort of in between key the song was now in, which explains its sort of flat and sludgy sound, particularly on the harmonica and guitar solos. This also made it very difficult to accurately reproduce live. >> This song was the only one on the album that was not remixed after a supposedly disastrous mixing job in the US (the rest of the tracks were mixed again in England). The original mixing done on this song seemed to suit it very well, so it was kept in its original form. >> John Bonham's drums were recorded in a stairwell at Headley Grange with the microphones planted 3 stories up. The drum sound echoed skyward and was captured on the mics, creating a very innovative and distinctive sound. >>
Fantastic information regarding the production technique. It's wild to think how experimental all of that was for the time and now it could all be accomplished in budget software :)
Yeah, personal skill as a producer comes into play. But Reaper is $50 and is a fully functioning DAW. 16 track recording, artificially slowing down audio, and the backwards echo technique can all be done with it. The tools are there, just gotta get the right person in front of the computer.
@@CriticalReactions Sure, though I meant it more in the sense of a kind of more or less intangible and/or fortuitous element to those old analog recordings. In other words, if those guys would’ve had access by magic means to current technology, arguably Levee would’ve sound different, and even someone trying to replicate it now might miss that intangible quality, just maybe.
This was a cover of a song originally written by Kansas Joe McCoy and Memphis Minnie in 1929 about the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927. This was a catastrophic natural event that remains the worst flooding in US history, whereby hundreds of thousands of people were permanently displaced along the southern Mississippi River. Many were driven from their destroyed homes and had no other option than to move from the mainly agricultural South to northern urban areas. Your feelings of confusion and disorientation whilst listening to this song are consistent with the thematic core of the resulting upheaval of the floods. Your mentioning the inconsistencies and irregularities in the production reminded me of a video Rick Beato put out a while back called 'How Would John Bonham Sound Today? (Quantized)'. Made me think that you're coming at Zeppelin from the perspective of contemporary producers who would try to cage Bonham's unique groove to strict timing and (im)perfect effect.
That context is heavy and they expertly captured the vibe of such an event. As for the production, I probably am coming at it from a modern perspective as I do with a lot of older music. And I'm a huge advocate for imperfections in playing (look at any of my Black Metal reactions). I guess I don't view production as the same as performance though. I appreciate the human aspect when it comes to drumming or playing guitar or singing -- the little imperfections that sell a performance. It's one of the reasons things I fell in love with about bands like The Tea Party and Microphones. But when it comes to production I don't have that same appreciation for one reason or another (I'm not quite sure why yet. Thanks for bringing this to my attention though. Gives me something to think about.
I don't really know if I got the concept of "groove" right... What I've understood it to be is very important to me and I don't have another word for it... It's not only the drum and base and captivating rythm... It's... grit(?)...rawness(?)... bluesiness with a punch(?)... Anyways, this one displays exactly what I'm after and it's not least achieved with that awesome harmonica by singer Robert Plant. I believe this originally is an old American blues song. As usual, you point out stuff I've never thought of. This added value to a song I've loved for four decades ❤
Yeah, and I just read this... "The few times it was played live, John Bonham's drum kit was lowered into an on-stage pit to mimic the sound on the recording. This was not a trick that could easily be utilized everywhere, so the band decided to drop the song from their set."
I was just thinking to myself today: I wonder if CR has done any Led Zeppelin reaction/reviews yet…Great song, can’t wait to see if you’ve done more… Bonham is my all time favorite classic rock drummer!
One of my biggest takeaway's from Zeppelin from when I 1st started being interested in recording as a teenager until now that not a lot of people touch on but you sort of are is the layering. They were very ambitious for the time using tape like you said to create many tracks and bounce downs of layers of sounds and guitars and panning and effects. For the endless talk of musicianship and prowess with them, only some people notice that Jimmy Page, the guitarist, was always the producer. Some of it can seem odd and dated now, but imagine it's 1971/2, you put this record on, and you've never heard anything this layered and dense, and that much of their "heaviness", comes from the impact of that. Of course they also have plenty of tracks that are stripped down to go "hey we can also just play some well written songs", but the ambition of the layering for the times, and the way they chose to arrange pieces, before anything digital, was truly innovative. That's not to say it means good or bad, that's just opinion and taste, but sonically they did many things to advance the recording process. I'd really love to see you do a breakdown of "kashmir" on a sonic and compositional level. I think you'll probably find it quite interesting through that lense, keeping in mind the times.
Thanks for that perspective. That's the kind of information I simply can't get on my own. I can't imagine how wild this experience could have been if this was the first time someone had heard something so layered.
It's a cover of a 1929 release by Kansas Joe McCoy and Memphis Minnie about Great Mississippi Flood of 1927. But the lyrics are heavily reworked perhaps evolving through many reinterpretations.
The song is based on the great Mississippi flood of the early 19th century. I have never heard anyone talk about the muffled sounds toward the end of the song. I have often wondered if they purposely made it sound like they were playing underwater. With the lyrics saying, going down, going down now etc.
Not sure how much Pink Floyd you already know but.... "One of These Days" from the album Meddle was a real OMG back in 1970! And a little later on The Dark Side of the Moon :- "Time" has that awesome intro and a guitar solo that switches from being bright & young to older & melancholic "Money" famously has a time signature change between Sax solo & Guitar solo Would love to hear your thoughts on any of these😁
In terms of genre, LZ is usually considered straight rock or heavy blues. As far as this song goes, yeah -- for 1971 it has a surprisingly psych production, but Jimmy Page wasn't afraid to do throw unorthodox ideas into his work, which is why so many LZ songs are so distinctive. The groove is something you could hang onto for days, even though it borrows heavily from traditional blues (which so much LZ tends to do.) I don't know all the technicalities, but the original tracks were recorded to the Rolling Stones' mobile unit (16-track, I think.) And this is pretty faithful to the original mix. It probably has more space, taking advantage of modern digital tools, but the entire LZ 4 album has always sounded pretty advanced for its time to my ears.
I was a ZePPeLiN fan at the time ( And still am) And trust me this was not only experimental at the time. But pretty much unheard of. And all the panning was in the original tape.
I definitely agree with ProgPer's take on groove, even if I also get your take on groove. For me groove is about that recognizable rhythm that gets you going, it can be busy and funky with a heavy bass emphasis, it can be heavily syncopated or more straightforward, it can even be pretty primal ans skeletal, a simple drum or bass pattern that feels hypnotizing. A fun fact about When The Levee Breaks is that Bonham's main drum pattern is one of the most sampled beats in hip-hop, especially on the early years of the genre.
This week has been interesting hearing different people's idea of groove. To me, groove is funky. The funkier, the groovier. And I agree it can be skeletal too. Seven Nation Army is four on the floor drum beat with a mildly syncopated guitar and that's super groovy. But I really don't feel motivated to move on purely rigid/straightforward rhythms. It really needs that funkier, syncopated stuff. Really great learning experience though getting to see other people's perspectives on this though.
Keep in mind people owned Stereo equipment in this era. We rarely listened to headphones. So the sound moved throughout the room you were listening to big speakers. Hopefully on Hi end equipment
Led Zeppelin was very creative with production. All the sounds, clipping, panning, etc. we’re intentional! They followed no rule book regarding era or genres. The remasters just cleaned it up a little, nothing more. They are master musicians, geniuses, and comparable to no one!!!
The tape was transported from to LA for mix down and on the way it lost its high end on the tape they couldn't figure out why the other thing you missed is that the tape was slowed down to give this song a thicker sound so you missed that LOL.
An interesting different perspective from most reviewers. The original production and the remaster would have been done by Jimmy Page (lead guitar). You need to listen to an original album. I have one, but not the technical knowledge to answer any of your questions. Led Zeppelin was a very innovative and creative band and mixed lots of genres and effects (creative rather than 'confusing' I'd say). They liked a lot of changes in their songs and particularly when they played live they often liked to improvise. I would agree that LZ is probably multi-structural. They didn't just go in for just repeat structures. Listen to 'Whole Lotta Love' for instance or 'Achilles Last Stand'. This song didn't originate with LZ though LZ made it their own in music and with some lyrics changes. It's based on a real historical flood. I'm surprised at how many reviewers don't hear their lyrics and have to read them to grasp them. Perhaps the music distracts them.
I love it when young guys come across something like this and then try to apply modern thinking... It's great that you acknowledge that huge gulf though. It's so weird having to try and forget that when this was recorded digital wasn't even a gleam in someones eye. Think only analogue and limited tracks and the biggest thing of all.... stereo becoming the norm rather than a special mix.. for the huge majority of the sixties mono was the main method of mass reproduction with stereo being an afterthought. Classical music was the only thing that was afforded stereo as a given. Coming back to Zeppelin, I can remember in 1970 a friend of mine making me put on the headphones to listen to his brand spanking new stereo system and he put on Zeppelin 2 recorded at the end of 1969 and the stereo mixing of it being such a new thing.
It's something that I've been forced to acknowledge recently due to being thrust into a lot of older works recently. It's been wild trying to imagine how some of these effects would have been made without the ease of drag n drop effects.
@@CriticalReactions I'm really enjoying your reactions... As you may have guessed, I am an older guy who grew up in the sixties and seventies and your reactions give me another way of looking at music I am so familiar with. An interesting listen for you may be Les Paul and Mary Ford. Not only did Les create his guitar but HE was the true innovator of multi tracking. You can hear multi tracking of both vocals and guitars all done on two track tape machines. I still have my dads 10" LP of theirs. PS: You have a new subscriber. Stay safe.
They named themselves Led Zeppelin after someone told then their sound would go over like a lead balloon. A true groundbreaking band. You might want to try Whole Lotta Love. More experimental, covering more genres.
So many big hits on this album(and of course, Stairway To Heaven), still my very favorite is this song, I just love its dark sound, and what the harmonica adds to it.
Wouldn't it be nice if people could just listen to and enjoy such brilliant artistry, but alas, so many people love to critique and try to pull apart one of the most impressive pieces of work from the greatest and one of the most influential bands ever, pretty sad really, but thankfully most of the rock world understands what this kind of music is all about, which When the Levee Breaks is certainly what rock music is meant to be
Music exists on two realms of understanding: the emotional journey and the understand of how that journey was crafted. To purposefully enjoy only one of those elements, and to speak negatively of the other, doesn't seem like something a fan would do. I don't know about you but my appreciation and enjoyment of a song always increases after I learn how it was created, the thoughts that went into it, the ingenuity of the craftsmanship.
@@CriticalReactions Your response makes no sense to my comment, I thoroughly enjoy everything about Led Zeppelin, how they came to be, how they crafted a new type of rock genre, their entire musical catalog, the only thing I didn't enjoy was the abrupt ending due to the death of Bonzo. It seemed to me from your comments in the video that you have no understanding of late 60's to early 80's rock music, it completely baffled you. I grew up with it and had the opportunity to enjoy the music as it was released, whereas you grew up with a completely different understanding of music because most of it is crap, other than a few bands, like Tool, Godsmack, and a few others. Maybe you should look more into the era I grew up in rather than criticize the best band ever as though you know and understand what their music was all about
Hello from the future. I will try to keep it brief (from the even more future me, I failed) since I have no idea whether you even look back this far. I have a lot to say having now watched several of your videos on late 60s/70s content. Your musical analytic abilities are exceptionally good, but I keep hearing the "I don't know the era or technology or key influencers" sentiment, along with a lot of missing context on musical history and artists. It is kind of unfair for me to bring it up here, since this is 6 months ago. But I still hear it in your more recent videos. I only bring it up because, as I mentioned you are exceptionally good in your analytic abilities (I wish I had a fraction of this ability), and the broader historical/cultural/technological parts that you are missing are easily remedied through a little research and broad sampling of some music off camera. This added context will make your analysis of music in this era so much better. And since each era builds on the next it will ultimately help with your more recent music. It will take an extremely small fraction of the time it took to develop your musical abilities, but it will add immensely to your overall analytical abilities. I would like to have some further discussion on this, but a public discussion may not be appropriate (unless that is what you want). So if you would prefer I can send my thoughts in email. If I don't see a response, which could be as simple as, "I'm not interested in what have to say," then I will assume you haven't seen this and I will post something similar on a future 70s analysis. Let me try that brief thing again, now specifically on Zeppelin and this song. Their catalog is huge, and the songs you have done so far are not very representative. Think more "blues rock", with some very heavy on the blues (although certainly not limited to blues rock). They are one of the major influencers, so they are important to know. On the song, it is about the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927. Whenever you hear levee in the US, New Orleans should come to mind (Chicago is north of New Orleans). Even recent history has had levee breaks (many died during the Katrina hurricane a decade or more ago and much of New Orleans was destroyed). The "going down" at the end I have always associated with drowning. He is too late, the levee broke and he's drowning (going to Chicago is off the table), thus the musical vibe you picked up at the end in the music.
@@CriticalReactions Cheers for being a RU-vid content provider who does take the time to go back to read and respond, where warranted, to community reactions on older content. Much appreciated. I will shoot you an email and look forward to your thoughts. The core of what I wanted to say is stated here, which is why it went from what was intended as "brief" to not so brief. Although I did have a couple of other thoughts. and I will be interested in your take on this.
@@CriticalReactions No problem, a very bad habit of mine that I am continually trying to improve. I am actually glad you didn't read it since I was just about to post a misunderstanding I had here that I caught after watching your 'Black Dog' video. I will just post it onto this one, here goes (not to worry much shorter): Apologies, in that I should have listened to your 'Black Dog' analysis before I posted this or emailed you. I hope you see this before reading the email, in that it will correct one misunderstanding (very briefly alluded to) I had in your background knowledge . After watching that video I can see you have a much better sense of who Led Zeppelin was than I thought you did. I will note that from the two Zeppelin songs you have done, I still don't think it was a representative sample, mainly for missing the slower bluesier songs. As far as I can tell from a search of your channel, these are the only two Zeppelin songs you have done. Please let me know if I missed any others.
Show Yourself from Mastodon has more of a "groove" vibe imo. It makes me want to move. The Last Baron may have to be a special selection request. I love the song but, not sure it makes me want to move in the way a groove song would.
all 4 members of Zeppelin were musically talented, but if they didn't have Bonham, they would be just an another "kind of listenable" blues band. I think they broke up because they knew they couldn't make it without John.
I think they were trying to instill a feeling of disorientation in the listener. The song's about being displaced abruptly from your home by a catastrophe!
That 'degraded' sound or vocal 'clipping' as you put it in the 2nd half of the song is phasing and or panning deliberately laid onto the master in the mix as a disorienting psychedelic effect. I was 13 when Led Zep 4 came out. Got my first girlfriend, went to my first dance and the day after I went straight to the record store and spent my $3.99. I still consider it as fresh as the day it was brewed. 1970 to 1975 were the best dang years for heavy hard rock for my money coz there was still a brightness in the music. As a sidenote, many of us young kids in the early '70's had older sisters who were teenie boppers in the late '60's and they turned us onto some heavy rock as they were the dominant crowds at some big live shows featuring multiple headlining bands like the Doors, Steppenwolf, Procol Harem, Vanilla Fudge, Cream and Hendrix when they were 12 and 13 but by '71 the production levels were that much better for studio recordings and most of the top bands were pumping out almost 2 albums a year. Led Zep had the dubious title of 'cock rock' with a constant stream of female groupies who ..........(finish this sentence at your leisure)
I like this track and have some affection for the band, but this misses the mark for me in terms of grooviness. Its a compelling rhythm, but I don’t think there’s enough dynamism to really have a groove to fall into. I also think there’s an unfortunate level of cultural appropriation between the origins of the song, White Bristish people playing an old American Black Blues song, held up against the equally American and Black notion of ‘Groove’ originating in Jazz parlance. I’m not complaining about racism, per se, just a regrettable confluence of themes and history. I guess I just don’t think the epitome of groove is to be found in such a place. That said, I also don’t think that inventing a name implies ownership of the idea denominated either. Anyone can groove. Still, where’s some of the beautiful music made by my browner brothers and sisters in this conversation? Sorry to go here, and not trying to call anyone out, just confused by who’s been left out so far.
I completely agree with your idea of groove. To me it's the juxtaposition between the rigid metronome of a track and syncopated rhythms. Interestingly though, Ive been having some conversations where people feel groove differently than that. I agree with the representation, or lack thereof, during this week though. I'm going to attribute it to the mostly modern rock/metal leaning that the community has. But it was a shame to be missing out on any jazz, latin, or hip hop.
Everyone experiences music differently but for me I gain more appreciation for a song after analyzing it, especially for when I casually listen to something after critically doing so. Music is multi-faceted and artists pour their heart and soul into their work. In my eyes, to only approach half of it, worse so to actively speak against the other half, is disrespectful to those who's contributions you hold up.
@@CriticalReactions Just a baby boomer here having fun with a Millennial.. i'm pretty sure you're gonna appreciate the different sounds and style sides of Led Zeppelin
I won't listen to this whole criticism of their ability to record their music. But you should keep in mind you're talking alot the Greatest Rock n Roll band ever. Maybe you should learn from their techniques instead of saying how bad they were. Maybe music today would be better.
Dude, c'mon. I spent almost an hour (when combined with the second part of the reaction) explaining *why* this is a song that most people can easily connect with. Why this song is so good. Why people can get this in their heart and completely understand that the song is fantastic without knowing why it's fantastic. I'm breaking the *why* down for you because you already know it *is* great. In one sense I am overanalyzing it. But from another angle people are walking away from this video with a renewed and deeper appreciation for what Led Zeppelin did here. You chose to attack and belittle me instead of expanding your understanding of a song you appear to enjoy. If you love art, the least you can do in return is understand it.
