In my opinion, this is the most powerful rock tune ever recorded. Just supernaturally deep. You felt this poor singer drowning in a flood - like you said - Katrina
You should check out the cover A Perfect Circle did of this song during their concert at Red Rocks. The feel of the song changes to something etherial and haunting and totally gorgeous.
another one of theirs you'll absolutely love, is their cover of the song "in my time of dying." "in the light" is one of theirs that will take you to church. and "ten years gone" will get ya, too.
Psychedelia, folk, country blues,Chicago blues, heavy rock , Indian , Arabic, music Zep did the lot , no drum machines vocoder's or the sterile sound's that seem to permeate a lot of music today, totally unique , a time when artist's of all musical genre's could do their own thing without corporate intervention brainwashing the masses into just listening to the same old crap, MTV comes to mind. keep on rollin guy's and dig deep there are treasure to be found .. love, peace and enlightenment from the U.K .
When many bands from the 70s are forgotten, Led Zeppelin will be remembered, imho, because of their ability to interpret the blues tradition with talent and creativity.
The reverb on the drums draws me in The Harmonica gives the song energy. The band just melds so much sound in a brilliant way. This brings me back to my college days in the 70's
iirc the drums were recorded in a relatively small but 2 story high foyer in a townhouse, which is where the echo on drums comes from, not from any post-processing.
I’ve seen Robert Plant many times in concert! He’s a musical genius. He and Alison Krauss are in concert and you should listen to the new spin on this song! We all went crazy when the bridge of this song started. I absolutely love Led Zeppelin’s music forever!
I was in a freshman in high school when this came out. John Bonham on the drums. He died in 1981 and they decided they wouldn't go on as a band without him. They got together in 2007 for concert with John Bonham's son on drums, and in 2012, it was put in Celebration Day documentary. Hope you check it out. It is perfection!
Love your take on Led Zeppelin. It’s fun to listen along with you and hear your fresh perspective on music I’ve loved for 50 years. Keep on rocking’ guys.
Among everything else commented here already... the harmonica and that drum beat so tight... AND this song was sampled by Beastie Boys - who also used the LZ song "The Ocean" in another song. They were big fans of LZ ❤
Do yourselves a favor and start at the beginning with Led Zeppelins first album and then continue to listen, for the rest of your lives. You will never find a bad song, I promise.
Love led zep since the early 70s still listen to them daily. Roberts voice is haunting & John's drumming is divine. Love your reaction to their music.roberts harmonica is brilliant. X
One of my favorite songs ever. The drums were recorded in a stairwell of an old 3 story mansion to get the perfect acoustics. I also would recommend you listen to the version by Playing For Change. It's recorded by artists all over the world and sounds EXCELLENT.
Zeppelin ate one if England’s greatest exports. Four musicians at the peak of their powers and heavily into their blues foundation. The sound they created was unique - Bonham in drums was immense, Page on guitar was unmatched for a time. So talented a group that allowed them to be experimental- but they always stuck to their blues roots.This band never released a single, because they wanted to produce a deep of work in each album which truly showcased their amazing talent.
MEMPHIS MINNIE lz always covered blues loved it so much inpsired to listen the old southern blues delta music robert johnson got recordered but not many made the light of day
Misty Mountain Hop, Goin' to California, The Immigrant Song, D'yer Maker, The Rain Song, Black Dog, Kashmir - very diverse and ground-breaking band that, to me, still sounds fresh today
I would LOVE for you to react to Heart covering Stairway to Heaven at the Kennedy Center Honors performance! The living members of Led Zeppelin were there and the late drummer son actually played the drums with Heart in the performance! It. Is. INCREDIBLE!
Loved your reaction, guys! Of course, rock and roll is derived from the blues, and especially the early rock bands really leaned on that blues sound. But, let me add, there are other bands that you might not expect to hit that groove... like The Doors "Roadhouse Blues", or if you're really adventurous Pink Floyd "Money". You will not regret it.
It’s truly hard for me to wrap my head around the idea of men from America in their 50’s never heard led zeppelin. No disrespect at all. The Zep were just so omnipresent
Wasn’t Louisiana that flooded. It was the Mississippi Delta. My father-in-law lived in the Delta, and he remembered refugees from the floodwaters joining his family atop an Indian mound and praying the water didn’t rise that high.
You guys would love “Traveling Riverside Blues” if you haven’t done that one yet 😁 Another great Zep song & it’s a bit more hidden than the others. There’s a great video on RU-vid of them too
Here, y'all: from my book "Rock 'n' Blues Stew II". I start out by saying “I totally agree!” that Jimmy Page and Robert Plant have been chronicled since the beginning of time for ripping off blues masters, even to the point of stealing riffs and lyrics. That’s been validated and registered-I swear-in the Library of Congress somewhere. And I know all about the court battles over “Stairway to Heaven” and the tune that the late Randy California of Spirit allegedly wrote that Jimmy Page clipped as well. By the way, this song’s origins were based on the Great Mississippi Flood, an actual event in Mississippi in 1927. Hundreds died in the disaster, and thousands more had to relocate, some of whom did venture North for employment and housing. Now connect the time line to the devastating floods that recently ravaged Nebraska, of all places-and you get a perspective of the power of Nature unleashed on humanity, and the brilliance of capturing the event in musical history. The original artists, Memphis Minnie and Kansas City {Joe} McCoy, had a totally different sound, and yes, theirs is a classic of the style and time. But when you put on this version and sit back, it’s wonderful to find the thrills and amazement at how devastating it sounds with pounding percussive and rhythmic elephantine-like stomps and detonations of energy. You really have to say to yourself, “If a band is gonna steal, they’d better take everything not nailed down, including the building that held the contents.” And that’s what Led Zeppelin did with “When the Levee Breaks.” A lot of musicians have marveled over the recording’s engineering and sound. It’s a helluva good point to note that yes, John Bonham’s drums were recorded in a stairwell, and the echo and boom that it gave are part of the behemoth impact of the percussive quality. It’s like Bonzo was using multiple lit sticks of dynamite instead of wood, and with each beat on the drum heads, another explosion was unleashed. The relentless snap-snap-snap of the high-hat cymbal beats are also an unyielding torture of a cat-o’-nine-tails lashing on your senses and ears as well. Then add in the horn-honking, caterwauling blasts of Robert Plant’s brilliant squalls on harp, followed by John Paul Jones dropping a deep, hard bottom on bass underneath Bonham, and then Jimmy Page’s cascading slide starts the figurative deluge impact of the song’s message and lyrics. The harp in its own power makes you gasp in alarm at the cries of distress and horror that Plant sends throughout the atmosphere: it’s like siren calls for rescue and relief from a besieged population. And so it must have been in real life, but without the music. Credits again to Memphis Minnie for writing about the distress and frustration of a black community’s life in the Deep South and trying to find both safety and work in the process. Plant’s vocals capture the utter wretchedness of that effort, right down to the forlorn decision to up-and-move away from all those poor hopes and dreams of the Jim Crow time frame and pray that there’s a chance for survival in Chicago. When the final trumpet blast from Page has ended, try and think about what YOU would have done in those times--both as the flood waters were raging like a modern Noah’s Deluge, and what the devastation was like afterward.
The ultimate Zeppelin is listen to Stairway to Heaven from the album Zeppelin 4, then the live version from the album Song Remains the Same and Dazed and Confused for the best lead guitar you will ever watch and see. Kashmir is another, there’s so many!!!
This was originally written by 2 African American blues artists Memphis Minnie and Kansas Joe McCoy and is about the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and how that US state did little to help the African American population who suffered in the disaster and how it contributed to many fleeing to more racially friendly Northern States. Memphis Minnie was living there with her sister in laws family when the disaster struck leaving thousands homeless and hundreds dead. Zeppelin who like many British bands loved America's blues music.
Y'all go do yourself a favor - listen to the original version from the 20s... then you will realize that these 4 dudes are musical geniuses! Original - Good blues song; Led Zeppelin version - Great Rock & Blues adaptation! Amazing to listen to this even now... great music is timeless! 🐐🎤🎸🎹🥁
Let's keep this 100: America has never respected the Blues. It's made by African Americans and throughout time, it's lost favor for other genres. Everything we listen to has roots in the blues. Even black people today don't respect our listen to the blues. Young black people called it old people's music. Meanwhile, people in England and Germany respected the blues and still do. They never threw away their 78's. They had to reinvent it and reintroduce it to the world while respecting the Blues tradition. It's great to see you gents respecting the roots of blues. Thank God for that
Led Zeppelin were masters of their craft. I don’t think they produced a single song that wasn’t worth listening to. Love that band. My life would be less without them. Not sure I could say that about any other band. Well, maybe, the Doors come close. Stevie Ray Vaughan of cours and Eric Clapton. Black Sabbath rose to a similar level.
Zeppelin, like many bands that were part of the “British Invasion” were heavily influenced by the Delta Blues in America - US bands/listeners in the 60s/70s largely ignored that incredible music… until Zeppelin opened their eyes
John Bonham is the GOD of thunder - forever. Jimmy Page was one of the 10 greatest, innovative- genius rock guitarists ever, John Paul Jones was one of the greatest bassists/ keyboardists/ you name it, he could play it/ unsung genius musicians ever, and Robert Plant will forever be the greatest frontman and rock singer EVER. EVER!!
,.... OK. Bro.!.... But to me it's more like a rolling thunder ~ announcing an F5 - tornado that approaches at any second to our poor souls 😮😮😮!!! BERNIE GERMANY 😊
Breaks my heart that brothers don't listen to Zeppelin. All these British rock groups say they got their inspiration from Blues and soul music. Stones, Bad Company etc. These guys are true musicians.
It's what they had to work with. There was nothing else to turn to. It was the black blues artists that the British groups learned all of the basics from. They didn't try to directly copy it but used it as their guiding inspiration. They idolized those black bluesmen. Rory Gallagher played with Howling Wolf on some sessions and was praised by him for "getting it". Rory wrote a song called "Mississippi Sheiks" which is a tribute to the The Mississippi Sheiks who were a group of black artists who performed and were very popular back in the day. I have only seen one video of Rory performing the song and it is great. The vocals are a little muted but the guitar work is exceptional. Definately worth taking a look at . I watch it quite a bit . I really appreciate it. Rory was great!
I'm 64 year old blk Man so back in the early 70ies I head Zeppelin and fellbin love. Went to Afghanistan in 07 and took a box set of Zeppelin and while driving the hummer on patrol I had the ear phones on and this guy from my squad ask what was I listing to. I let this white brother hear it and they tripped out. A 50 year old brother listing to Zeppelin. I love it worked out to it fell asleep listing to it in the tint.
Bonzo (John Bonham) on drums. When he passed in 1980, the band agreed that without any one of their members, especially John, there was no Led Zeppelin. The band ended on his passing. Not one of these four could be replaced by anyone.
@@justinthyme5382 Yes I remember a video of LZ rehearsing and not notice the drummer JB was not behind them playing. it was his son Jason playing and the other guys didnt even realise the difference.
I heard in an interview or something that when the band played on stage the group ended up gravitating around the drums. The members during the shows all ended up crowded into an area that was close by the drumming. I also heard in the mid 70s Robert Plant was growing restless and wanted to spread his wings and explore other music without the band. Plant had also had a huge fight with his bff Bonzo and was so upset he told Peter Grant he wanted to leave the band. Or have Bonzo fired.. Grant told Plant he could go out on his own but, he would never fire Bonzo. He would fire Plant before Bonzo as he was more needed and important then Plant. Grant knew the value of Bonzo and how irreplaceable he was. Bonzo held the key and with JPJ were the driving engine of the group while Page and Plant were the showmen and enterrainment.
Picture these guys as young British lads sitting down and listening to old American blues albums from the 1920's to 1950's that most Americans largely ignored. Especially Delta Blues. They listened, learned and made it their own. LedZeppelin!!
Led Zeppelin was one of so many Brit bands that ELECTRIFIED classic Black blues that "invaded" England in the 1940s and 1950s after America kind of turned its back on the blues. A whole new world for the rebirth of THE BLUES to impress and entertain. Throughout the 1960s, English musicians saw the beauty and heartache of the blues and plugged them into their electric guitars and keyboards plus large drum kits that morphed into the BRITISH INVASION, bringing The Blues back to where they started, the U.S.!
They also listened to newer blues like from the 60s with Stax and Chess records. This was cutting edge to those english lads and they listened, learned and sat and played it and honed it until it was perfection. No white guy in America could ever come close to the sheer raw and and true blues background of House of the Rising Sun as Eric Burdon. And the Stones breathed blues music. Same with Page and Plant.
One of the American bands who embraced blues wholeheartedly was ZZ Top. Billy Gibbons idolizes Muddy Waters, and you can see his influence from his playing to his singing.
Led Zeppelin is the greatest band that ever was. They also happen to be the best soundtrack to blaze up with. Go put on a Zep album, ANY Zep album, and hit that shit. They are all designed to be rollercoasters for the mind. . .
I love it when Robert Plant lead singer plays harmonica, John Bonham aka Bonzo on drums, John Paul Jones aka Jonsey or JPJ keyboards and Bass and of course Jimmy Page lead guitarist, producer and engineer. Best F’n band of the 70’s and the rock gods of my youth🥰✌🏻
In an interview, Robert Plant once said that the day John (Bonham) died, so did Led Zeppelin. Thus ended the greatest rock band of all time. But Led Zeppelin will live on forever and will always be the band to be remembered as the very best of their generation.
@@chellj8175 I remember that day as well. Page and Jones would have sought another drummer and continued but Robert Plant was a firm NO on that. He and Bonham were buddies long before Led Zeppelin. For him, it was over.
This song was written about the great Mississippi river flood of 1927, that is why you hear all the Mississippi blues undertones ! I dig you guys' appreciation for great music.
The band members were huge Delta blues fans and took a private tour of the Mississippi Delta area in the 70s back way before the blues revival in the late 80s.
Maybe but the actual story being told is of a man being done wrong by his woman. He is about to cry a river of tears and the Levi will not hold them. The levy is gonna break
@@Briand-ei1gs Now that I can relate to. Levees dont exist in San Diego, so if it was about a real flood, means nothing to me. I was listening to a Stevie Nix song, "stop dragging my heart around", I told my teen daughter, that is the female version of "dazed and confused",
45 years ago Led Zeppelin lead a 15 year old white suburban kid to a lifelong love of the Blues. Muddy Waters, Robert Johnson, Albert King, B.B. King, and so many others.
Yeah, I'm 57 now, Australian, but this and the Doors and Cold Chisel from Australia turned me on to the Blues, and I got right into it in the 1970s, most of my LPs were black guys singing blues.
My house flooded a few years back, as the water was rising all I could think was “crying won’t help ya, and praying won’t do you no good” . This song gave me weird comfort during a life changing event. Nice to see this reaction, thanks!
got tears in my eyes. just came to the realization that Led Zeppelin's music will NEVER die and live on forever. future generations will discover it just like we did in the 1970's and just how this generation is discovering it now. enjoy the ride kids. there's so much out there ready to be discovered by this amazing band ! 👍🤙😎🤘✌
Now you know why us old folks say there is no good music nowadays. When you spend your early years listening to these guys and seeing them in concert it is hard to find anything remotely as good as this.
I'm 65 and I would have said the same thing a few years ago. The thing is, is that there is still good music out there. There are young bands and musicians out there. They simply don't get any promotion or press and have to make a living playing live shows or selling their own stuff on line. You just have to seek it out. There are good bands out there. Just look for them.
Because you don't look hard enough man. Radio may be dead, MTV is dead, but rock music is still being made in that old style but its not spoon fed to you like the 70's/80's. For example Bandcamp is chock full of classic style rock music made by newer bands but because major labels have moved away from rock long ago, these bands are on smaller labels you have to look up yourself.
GDAY ..NAH…IAN PAICE/ DEEP PURPLE…..HANDS DOWN BETTER ,..MORE TECHNICAL….J.B. WAS JUST A CLUNKING HACK IN COMPARISON…( HAVING SEEN BOTH IN CONCERT WAY BACK WHEN..)
back in '69 zeppelin performed a Live mini concert at a Danish television studio to promote their first album and introduce the band to the public. they performed on a small stage in front of about 30 kids that had no idea that what they were about to witness would go down in history as one of the most pivotal moments in Rock history. Plant and Bonham were in their late teens and Page and Jones were in their early 20's. they performed 4 songs, "communication breakdown", "dazed and confused", "babe I'm gonna leave you" and "how many more times". the entire concert is like 30 minutes long but OMG is it worth it.
Raw and in charge, that concert is a whirlwind, audiences back in the day were in a state of shock! Try them next year 1970 in Royal Albert Hall, their growth in one year is stunning! Enjoy. 🎸
All great, heavy rock, has a kernel of blues in it. Sometimes, a big lump of it. That's where the passion is...to my ears anyway. Carlos Santana talked about the importance of passion in a solo. I think he's right. Besides, this tune rocks!
I have seen videos of cool bands in the late 60's on Danish TV. Right now I am thinking of Melanie, singing Lay Down, with all her might and a phenomenal, nationally known chorus backing her up! The audience looked like they were viewing a painting. Tough audience. Even I, back in the day, who danced like SpongeBob Square-pants with a dash of MMA training, would have been on my feet for that performance. I am sure it is a cultural thing, but to my American brain, it looked like they put mannequins in the Audience. Eventually '--she and her gang got them to clap in time.
I have been into Led Zeppelin for over 50 years. Still my all-time favorite hard rock band. The had the best G.O.A.T. drummer, best lead guitarist, and lead vocalist, rock front man.
I'm askin', "Is your mind blown? Tell me, is your mind just blown?" Four white cats pumpin' this soulful funkiest GRIND out over 50 Years ago? Wha-a-a? Makes the mind swirl, doesn't it? Beautiful, just beautiful! This band is the greatest treasure I've had the pleasure of listening to for 53 years now.
England was infatuated with America’s blues/jazz sound….Many English acts fused America’s sound with rock/roll and created music that stands the test of time…Shout out to the Bluesmen that influenced all of these artists.
