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FBG'S TOP 81 LED ZEPPELIN SONGS: #1 - When The Levee Breaks from Led Zeppelin IV (1971) (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Anarchy99
- Start date
dickey moe
Fingerpicker
Now that I think about it... that's right! My first exposure to LZ was on cassette (thank yoooo Columbia House - I used several aliases to build my music collection with my limited Foster Freeze income). I've been confused ever since when I hear Good Times Bad Times as the opening track on the album in other formats.
gianmarco
Footballguy
I initially listed 36 songs when making my first run through and then cut that down to 25. Of those 36, looks like I still have 30 that haven't come up.
I've gone back to listen to the songs I had on the list outside my top 25 (Custard Pie, Your Time is Gonna Come, You Shook Me, and Friends) and I wonder how they didn't make it. Then I go back to my top 25 and realize that there's just not enough room in a top 25.
What an amazing band.
I've gone back to listen to the songs I had on the list outside my top 25 (Custard Pie, Your Time is Gonna Come, You Shook Me, and Friends) and I wonder how they didn't make it. Then I go back to my top 25 and realize that there's just not enough room in a top 25.
What an amazing band.
Leroy Hoard
Footballguy
Speaking of the dark mode, clicked on the YouTube links here and they are now in dark mode. ☺Around the same time they lost the dark background option for everyone.
Your Time Is Going To Come is a great tune. Was hard to leave this puppy off the top 25 for me. Such a great song. We are now entering the just missed the cut area of this countdown. I have a feeling I will see a bunch of tunes I love but just missed the cut.
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ConstruxBoy
Kate's Daddy
ConstruxBoy
Kate's Daddy
LOL, was just looking at the critic ratings when I came up with 40. So I guess this is right on.
Totally agree and was thinking about this last night when I started my Beatles top 25. As hard as it was for the Zepp list imagine 3x as many songs to choose from for them. The mind swims.
fatguyinalittlecoat
Footballguy
Youtube has this called "In Flames" but I'm guessing this must be it.
Interesting but doesn't really feel like it goes anywhere.
ETA: Nevermind, Anarchy99 just pointed out that "In Flames" is the name of the bootleg album not the song.
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Anarchy99
Footballguy
I haven't done a Beatles list yet, but in my case I am just going to come up with my go to list. That will probably get me to 25 songs. I won't even bother looking at a full song list or listening to any of their catalog again.
In the case of LZ, I think there are so many songs in the say 16-50 range that on any given day I would have that group in a completely different order. Trying to limit that to 10 songs? Get out of town.
For me, I don't think that is the case for me with The Beatles, as I probably have a core group of go to songs. Not as much with Zeppelin . . . they have a broader base of songs for me that are all very close. Even though the Beatles have a much bigger total of songs (most of which I like and enjoy), I think that list will be much easier to compile.
fatguyinalittlecoat
Footballguy
I've listened to more Zeppelin in the last couple months than I have over probably the last two decades total. Have always loved the band but I'm not someone that enjoys just listening to the same music over and over forever, I like to be exposed to new things, and I listened to LOTS of Zeppelin in high school/college. As I've listened over these few months I've definitely changed my mind on some songs. It sounds like lots of others are in the same boat. Might be interesting if people post their biggest song list regrets:
Song I most regret leaving off my list of 25: Babe I'm Gonna Leave You
Song I would dump from my list of 25 to make room: Going to California
Song I most regret leaving off my list of 25: Babe I'm Gonna Leave You
Song I would dump from my list of 25 to make room: Going to California
Anarchy99
Footballguy
Those songs are Train Kept A-Rollin' followed by I Gotta Move. The bootleg album is called 1969 In Flames, not one of the songs. At least that's how I see it. This is likely from Stockholm - 1969-03-14.
gianmarco
Footballguy
gianmarco
Footballguy
:(
I'm amazed this song could be left off any list. I could put it on repeat and listen for an entire day.
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Anarchy99
Footballguy
Was mulling around and got to wondering. It looks like the band never played 17 songs live and played another group of 18 songs fewer than 10 times. Given that they recorded around 90 songs, roughly 40% of their catalog was either completely ignored or seldom played live. Sure, I get some of the ones they left out were also ran's on later albums (or were on ITTOD), but there are some iconic titles that simply went M.I.A. I'd be interested in asking Jimmy and Bob why that was. I'll to remember to ask them that the next time I see them.
2Young2BBald
Footbaldguy
As I was doing my list, I was thinking somewhat the same about trying to rank my top 25 Iron Maiden songs. Led Zep is my all time #1 band, but Iron Maiden is right up there and (IMO) still putting out quality new music. The new music would be very hard to weave into all of the older stuff and they have 40 years worth of music to choose from.
![[scooter]](/data/avatars/m/22/22287.jpg?1659477690){kind=avatar}
[scooter]
Footballguy
"Flames" was a 1967 song by a UK group called Elmer Gantry's Velvet Opera.
Plant was a fan of the track and wanted Zep to record it for their debut album. It's long been rumored that Zep actually recorded a studio version of it in 1968 but I think it would have been released by now if the rumor was true.
There's no evidence that "Flames" was a regular part of their setlist in the early days. (I realize that Anarchy's quote is taken directly from the band's official website, but their webmaster is misinterpreting a comment from Plant in which he mentioned "Flames" as one of dozens of songs that randomly got played in their early medleys.)
We may never get to hear what Zep's version of "Flames" sounded like, but in 2000 Mr. Plant gave us a hint when he resurrected the song for a few shows.
AAABatteries
Footballguy
We've reached the stage where just about any song could have been in my top 25 but for different nit-picky reasons they were not in there.
The Lemon Song - tad too long (I've spoke about song length previously so no need to repeat it) - so it drags just a little in a couple of places for me. If they had tightened it up just a little more it maybe break top 25. As is, I have to ding songs for something and differentiate between them and that is my "criticism" of it.
Your Time is Gonna Come - tighter (read shorter) than Lemon and the song builds great and repeatedly but just doesn't totally pay off for me. Bad analogy time - it's like taking a road trip expecting a great destination - the journey is good (really good) but you get to the end and kind of like "I expected a little more"
Again, both of these are nit picks and they are both songs I still listen to. Nothing wrong with either being top 25.
The Lemon Song - tad too long (I've spoke about song length previously so no need to repeat it) - so it drags just a little in a couple of places for me. If they had tightened it up just a little more it maybe break top 25. As is, I have to ding songs for something and differentiate between them and that is my "criticism" of it.
Your Time is Gonna Come - tighter (read shorter) than Lemon and the song builds great and repeatedly but just doesn't totally pay off for me. Bad analogy time - it's like taking a road trip expecting a great destination - the journey is good (really good) but you get to the end and kind of like "I expected a little more"
Again, both of these are nit picks and they are both songs I still listen to. Nothing wrong with either being top 25.
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Anarchy99
Footballguy
I have a different perspective on songs than you.l do. I don’t care how long a song is as long it is musically interesting and not mostly repetitive. IMO, a song that is three minutes long can have three chords, repeat the chorus 8 times, and play the same 8 bars until the end. That to me is boring.
Eventually we will get to some of LZ’s medleys. A lot of them go on for 20-25 minutes. But they are filled with so many songs you wouldn’t think LZ would play, they usually include some songs they recorded, and genre wise they are all over the map. I find that fascinating and far from boring. But they are long.
Similarly, when we get to Dazed and Confused, there are versions that are 30 minutes long. I don’t listen to those very often, but Page improvises in so many different directions that I can still find those Uber extended performance interesting.
AAABatteries
Footballguy
Understood and back when @MAC_32 and I discussed it I definitely said it's a "me" thing. I seem to have mild ADD (not diagnosed) as my attention span is fairly shot. I struggle to stay focused on just about anything for longer periods of time. But as it relates to music I know that shorter songs are to my preference but there are longer songs that I like/love. I could not sit and listen to a 30 minute song and focus on it. Just wouldn't happen. I can put music on in the background and listen for hours with my focus coming in and out as the song changes, etc.
Me too
.Babe I’m Gonna Leave You is my big regret.
I would probably cut Whole Lotta Love
It’s like Sophie’s choice.
AAABatteries
Footballguy
Agree with gian - hard to imagine leaving this off your list but we will all feel this way about some upcoming songs. It's ok that you guys were wrong.
⚡DEADHEAD⚡
Footballguy
When Anarchy proposed this whole exercise, I was in, even if it took me a while to put the list together. In a way, the LZ catalog is just the right size to come up with a top 25 list, with a manageable number of songs and a very high percentage of high quality tunes. And not a lot of variation across the songs. It's mostly blues and rock, and I'd probably argue the "exploratory" songs like Dyer Maker and such don't really hit.
I think about doing this for bands whose catalogs I know as well. The Beatles, Pink Floyd, the Stones, the Dead, Phish, and it just doesn't seem as doable, appealing, or interesting. I love the Beatles, for example, but I'll take pass on most of their earlier pop albums. I'd probably pick 25 songs from Let It Be, Abbey Road, Sgt. Peppers, Magical Mystery Tour. Certainly some others in there. And Abbey Road, for me, is a masterpiece. But one of the things is that many songs run concurrently, and that's part of their "story" for me. I can't just pick a 2 minute song that squeezed between a medley of songs that, all together, are much of the reason it's so great. That's partly why I look at Heartbreaker/Living Loving Maid as almost needing an asterisk.
Some goes for Pink Floyd. The Wall, Dark Side, Animals. Playing one song just doesn't work on the opera-style albums. (I can never hit shuffle on Spotify on these).
Now the Stones, maybe it'd work for me. But still, I'd be picking songs off probably 4ish albums despite a catalog of what, 30 albums? Beggars Banquet, Exile on Main Street, Sticky Fingers, Let It Bleed. I don't know. Maybe I'd branch out in my older age.
As for the Dead and Phish, their magic is NOT studio, it's all live. Unpossible.
The thing about this exercise, I know and I am interested in just about every song in the catalog, even if I don't care for it much. I can damn near remember when I heard each song in the LZ catalog for the first time as a kid. For example, I was in my parent's basement playing Castlevania on Nintendo when I first listened to Physical Graffiti, which I played on repeat for hours. Feels like yesterday. I think that was my first time solving Castlevania too.
I don't think I can say that for the rest for whom this exercise would be interesting, for me anyway (I totally get the appeal for others).
I think about doing this for bands whose catalogs I know as well. The Beatles, Pink Floyd, the Stones, the Dead, Phish, and it just doesn't seem as doable, appealing, or interesting. I love the Beatles, for example, but I'll take pass on most of their earlier pop albums. I'd probably pick 25 songs from Let It Be, Abbey Road, Sgt. Peppers, Magical Mystery Tour. Certainly some others in there. And Abbey Road, for me, is a masterpiece. But one of the things is that many songs run concurrently, and that's part of their "story" for me. I can't just pick a 2 minute song that squeezed between a medley of songs that, all together, are much of the reason it's so great. That's partly why I look at Heartbreaker/Living Loving Maid as almost needing an asterisk.
Some goes for Pink Floyd. The Wall, Dark Side, Animals. Playing one song just doesn't work on the opera-style albums. (I can never hit shuffle on Spotify on these).
Now the Stones, maybe it'd work for me. But still, I'd be picking songs off probably 4ish albums despite a catalog of what, 30 albums? Beggars Banquet, Exile on Main Street, Sticky Fingers, Let It Bleed. I don't know. Maybe I'd branch out in my older age.
As for the Dead and Phish, their magic is NOT studio, it's all live. Unpossible.
The thing about this exercise, I know and I am interested in just about every song in the catalog, even if I don't care for it much. I can damn near remember when I heard each song in the LZ catalog for the first time as a kid. For example, I was in my parent's basement playing Castlevania on Nintendo when I first listened to Physical Graffiti, which I played on repeat for hours. Feels like yesterday. I think that was my first time solving Castlevania too.
I don't think I can say that for the rest for whom this exercise would be interesting, for me anyway (I totally get the appeal for others).
AAABatteries
Footballguy
I'm going to wait on my final answer on this but Lemon Song may be in my top 3 regrets when we are done.
Song I would dump - I have a couple in mind but I did agonize over this for a while so don't want to jump ship on any song just yet.
Anarchy99
Footballguy
Any interest in a project I will be (thankfully!) wrapping up soon? I usually take on things that seemingly start out doable but turn into monumental acts of valor. I started putting together a GD collection for someone as a surprise gift. This project took on a life of its own, as I started over 6 months ago. I tried to piece together one version of every GD song I could find. It's now grown to over 660 songs totaling 75+ hours of music (just the Dead, no variants or derivatives). I also cleaned up each track, so the sound and recording levels are as good as they can get (short of an official release).⚡DEADHEAD⚡ said:
If you liked the Zeppelin stuff I sent you 15 years ago, you'll probably like this set even more. Let me know if you're interested. PM me your name and mailing address again and I'd be happy to send it to you.
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AAABatteries
Footballguy
Wait, we aren't getting your full attention to the countdown? I demand my money back!
Anarchy99
Footballguy
I put the Dead project aside to do the Zeppelin stuff, so you pretty much are getting my full attention and free time . . . which usually is late at night or early morning. But let me know where to send the refund. I'll gladly pay you double what you paid.Wait, we aren't getting your full attention to the countdown? I demand my money back!
Pip's Invitation
Footballguy
Even weirder, on the cassette of II, they broke up Heartbreaker and Living Loving Maid, switching the places of Heartbreaker and Thank You to make the cassette sides more even. I only knew that was “wrong” because Heartbreaker and LLM were often played together on the radio.dickey moe said:
Pip's Invitation
Footballguy
Babe I’m Gonna Leave You was one of my last cuts, and it was painful.fatguyinalittlecoat said:
Pip's Invitation
Footballguy
With Physical, there was too much stuff on it to incorporate into their live set all at once. They could have if they wanted to vary their set from night to night, but pre-internet most bands didn’t do that.Anarchy99 said:
Anarchy99
Footballguy
Given that I am old, I remember having some LZ albums on 8-track. Here's how they broke up the LZ II album:
Track 1: Whole Lotta Love | Thank You
Track 2: The Lemon Song | Heartbreaker
Track 3: What Is And What Should Never Be | Living Loving Maid | Ramble On (Part 1)
Track 4: Ramble On (Part 2) | Moby **** | Bring It On Home
As a refresher, here was the order on the LP:
1) Whole Lotta Love
2) What Is and What Should Never Be
3) The Lemon Song
4) Thank You
1) Heartbreaker
2) Living Loving Maid (She's Just a Woman)
3) Ramble On
4) Moby ****
5) Bring It On Home
Splitting up Ramble On killed me. And the overall order is all jumbled up.
Pip's Invitation
Footballguy
Anarchy99
Footballguy
They effectively ignored at least one song from each of their first 6 albums in their live performances. That includes three songs that ended up in our Top 11. Like I mentioned, I'd love to ask them why. I will search for more answers as we get to each song, but so far, I haven't seen any explanations.
ConstruxBoy
Kate's Daddy
Amazing how different they were than my other favorite band, Pearl Jam, who switches up their live set pretty much every night.Anarchy99 said:
ConstruxBoy
Kate's Daddy
In my last 5-7 out of the Top 25. Excellent song for sure.gianmarco said:
Jackstraw
Footballguy
You'd have to make a lot of rules with the dead. No covers? Not even Dylan? No Americana, traditionals? Live only? Particular decades? I agree studio just wouldn't do. Any hybrid songs? Scarlet>Fire, Wheel>Whatchtower, Help>Slip>Frank etc.⚡DEADHEAD⚡ said:
Dead never lent themselves to any proper organization.
ConstruxBoy
Kate's Daddy
Sorry, second reply to this one: I've always heard that although their shows were great and the talent was exceptional, their brilliance had a lot to do with just how well Jimmy used the studio. Lots of overdubbed guitars, the drum arrangement for Levee, etc. Those things are hard to replicate in concert.Anarchy99 said:
Leroy Hoard
Footballguy
Page produced some of the best sounding records of that era, George Martin would be the other obvious producer from those days.
A whole lotta muddy sounding discs by other artists of that period.
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Uruk-Hai
Footballguy
It was bad with Zep, but Pink Floyd (along with most of the prog bands) and the P Funk conglomerate fared even worse.
I'd buy a lot of blank 8 tracks and record off of the vinyl LPs (where I could control things and eliminate the splits), but I also had a bazillion factory (& bootleg, bought in truck stop and off-the-beaten-path country stores) pre-made 8 tracks. Seems like my favorite song on every album got split on factory 8 tracks
ConstruxBoy
Kate's Daddy
They had blank 8-tracks? I never knew that.It was bad with Zep, but Pink Floyd (along with most of the prog bands) and the P Funk conglomerate fared even worse.
I'd buy a lot of blank 8 tracks and record off of the vinyl LPs (where I could control things and eliminate the splits), but I also had a bazillion factory (& bootleg, bought in truck stop and off-the-beaten-path country stores) pre-made 8 tracks. Seems like my favorite song on every album got split on factory 8 tracks
Binky The Doormat
Footballguy
FairWarning said:
FW ...this is by far the best take you have ever given.
Leroy Hoard
Footballguy
Much harder to record than cassettes since you couldn't rewind them to fix mistakes. Had to fast forward back to the start.
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Anarchy99
Footballguy
IMO, what made their live shows exceptional was breaking AWAY from the constraints of the studio. Even playing the same songs night after night, many times they played them differently . . . different tempos, different arrangements, different effects, different lengths, etc. Page was a free agent and was a shot gun blast in which direction he went. Plant would start singing other songs and the rest of the band would follow him. Jones and Bonham were the foundation of everything, but they went wherever Page and Plant took them.
As far as their live gigs went, any of the 1969 shows were all Cristal and caviar as far as I'm concerned. They play with reckless abandon and the audience needs a harness and two seatbelts to try to stay safe with the band's wall of sound, fury, and energy. The further out the shows get from there, the more they lost some of that passion and exuberance. Songs could still have been expertly crafted and master performances, but they many times were not quite the full-scale assault like they were in the very beginning.
The 1970-73 shows were usually very good, even excellent or exceptional. On occasion, they'd have an off night or their energy was a little flat. The 1975 tour saw them playing a lot of the new material, and they also extended a lot of the songs, but the performances were tight and solid (but the set list had been narrowed down a lot). By 1977 and 1980, their shows were very hit or miss (much more than their early shows). Page was heavily under the influence for some of the 1977 shows , and his playing those nights got pretty sloppy. The few dates they had in 1980, I wouldn't say they were only going through the motions, but the best way I would describe those few shows would by "good." I haven't listened to any of them and come away with many OMG!!! moments.
I agree that they explored and did things in the studio that would have been hard to recreate in a live setting . . . but they did that with many other songs (and they didn't even try that hard to make the live versions sound exactly like the studio recordings). I wonder how often they disagreed on what songs to play or how best to perform them.
Uruk-Hai
Footballguy
Yep. 45 and 60 minutes were the most common, but I know they had 90 minute blanks and I'm pretty sure they had 120s, too. I'd grab whatever was on sale.
Anyway, it was nice to not have the split even if there might be 15 or 20 seconds of dead space at the end of a track. Most of mine were mixes, so I had more control over the time on each. But I could make - on the 90s & 120s - a two-or-three LP 8 track work pretty well.
beer 30
Footballguy
My old man loved stereo stuff. He didn't know how much, if any of it worked but he always bought stuff. He had a an 8 track recorder that thankfully I only used a few times as cassettes where just making their way onto the scene and that was where I really invested heavily, in time and treasure.
dickey moe
Fingerpicker
Never heard of em but that name rules.[scooter] said:
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