Heavy maybe, but gets off the ground and flies.

:nodhead:

Absolutely, stonkingly, titanically brilliant.

majortom505 wrote:

nope. never.

Fantastic. Epic. Brings me back to my high school days, discovering great music thanks to a few enlightened classmates... yet I had no idea then just how great LZ was. I just knew it was fascinating and powerful.

Gregorama wrote:

On the contrary, you can hear "Levee" on radio all the time. But it's the EDITED version, and for this, many otherwise nice radio execs and DJs are destined to go to hell.

camarkim wrote:

I've read (in an interview with Jimmy Page in guitar magazine I think) that the drums were recorded in an old church (or something similar with a large hall) and that the microphones for the bass drum were set up just outside the hall in the doorway. Apparently that's how they got that amazing deep bass sound. However, I know that John Bonham was a great drummer even without recording augmentation. An example of his phenomenal drumming skills to me is the bass drummin on "good times bad times" which sounds like it is done with a double bass pedal but is in fact a done with single bass.

Gregorama wrote:

All so true, Here in LA they seem to think that Led Zeppelin only wrote Stairway to Heaven, Black Dog and Kashmir.

majortom505 wrote:

I don't look everywhere else.

RP is about all I listen to any more.

Besides, you'll probably never hear this cut on a classic rock station, programmed by some anonymous young corporate punk raised on the Backstreet Boys and American Idol.

THANK YOU, for kick starting my morning with this ounce of adrenaline.

Give me Bonham over a drum machine any day!

crowhog2000 wrote:

Don't people get enough of Zeppelin everywhere else?

rgrace wrote:

Somethin' about a levee breaking...

winter wrote:


SOOO ditto. and if this isn't one of the all time great bedroom rockers, i don't know what is...

I'm not one to give out 10's much - but DAMN! if this isn't the bloody meaning of godlike!

This was sort of Kashmir I in many ways. Or maybe Kashmir was Levee II?

i've not heard this version before. i like it. :D

"When the levee breaks, mama you gotta move"

Wonderful segue from The Beatles - Rain.

I'm laughing over the comments posted here - analyzing Bonham's drum style (he's got a son named Jason who has a band called Bonham, and damned if he didn't inherit his daddy's heavy-handed, nuance-laden drum style!), Plant's vocals, the origins of the songs, etc.

I don't really care about the origins - they've all admitted to having lifted riffs and lyrics from old blues masters like Robert Johnson and Furry Lewis, so to me, it's no big deal. As a personal aside, I don't think John Lee Hooker whines. He grunts and lusts like a twitchy septuaginarian pervert in denial - I wish he'd go out with grace, like Johnny Cash, instead of singing about being "in the mood for love" when he probably can't even find his dick and couldn't get it up if he did find it. Just an opinion, and no offense intended to those of you who like his music.

Back to the original topic... I love "When The Levee Breaks" for the "meatiness" of it. The rhythm section setting up a plodding, ominous underscore for the plaintive, cutting vocals, and Page's sly guitar slipping in and out of the piece like a cat burglar...

What I love about the entire CD is just the purity of it. I can sit in a dark room and listen to it from beginning to end, and when the last song has played, I really feel like I went someplace. Of course, my favorite songs ("Stairway to Heaven" and "Battle of Evermore") are almost pure Tolkien, and the fact that Zep recruited Sandy Denny to sing backup vocals on "...Evermore" is an added bonus (damn, that woman had a great voice, and she died much too soon!)

This CD will, to me, always be timeless and valid. In fact, I'm off to a bubble-bath with my portable CD player, a tall vodka and cranberry juice (my nod to the holiday season) and, of course, this CD. Chat with y'all after I've emerged from the world of Tolkien and Zeppelin... in a year or so...

wwgordon wrote:

Same for me. Until the recent release of the DVD video box set and related live recordings, I didn't appreciate their instrumental prowess quite as much as I do today.

GregX59 wrote:

Hmmm... Blues encompasses a wide range of emotions and musical styles. (See Definition of Blues Style ) With the heavy drums (a result, in part, to Page's production genius), wailing and distortion Zep's presentation may not be traditional blues. But, all you have to do is pick up an electric guitar and slide and try to play this piece. The techniques are 100% blues!!

By the way - there are many out there who wouldn't call Hendrix a blues guitarist either. But I think Stevie Ray Vaughan would have been the first person to disagree with that...

Quote:
Originally Posted by ksb:

"I'm always amazed at John Bonhnam's drumming. I've never heard anyone who can come even close to drumming the way he can. He's like a basket that gently carries you along - just under the beat..."

camarkim wrote:

Thanks for the insights here, got me to listening differently, identifying elements of why I enjoy it.

Pass that doob, bro!

rgrace wrote:

It's a hallmark of '60's rock, isn't it? You have to read the lyrics, and even then they often don't make any sense. I think it helps to be stoned enough to appreciate this nonsense, ala "Oh, wowwww man!......Heaveeeeee!"

Or, sans drugs, you could just relax and go with it.

Thud-a-thud-thud. Some great sounds, but too heavy and monotonous to bear its own weight.

Ahem. The song is actually based on an old blues tune by Memphis Minnie.

The older I get, the more extraordanary Zepplelin's songwriting becomes.