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FBG'S TOP 81 LED ZEPPELIN SONGS: #1 - When The Levee Breaks from Led Zeppelin IV (1971) (1 Viewer)

Ilov80s said:
I like that it gets in and gets out quick (for a LZ song) and doesn't feel the need to wonder around. It almost sounds like LZ are covering a Stones or CCR or Stooges song. Just doesn't git into a lot of their work and I appreciate it being different. A 3 minute interlude in the middle would have killed it IMO. 
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Well, they often played a live version that was twice as long as the original. Listen to some of the live links and let us know if that killed the song and you liked those more, less, or the same.

 
I don't get the disdain for Robert Plant's voice. I love it. He's a great front man. Who would some of you rather have as lead singer for Led Zeppelin? Barry Manilow? 

 
Anarchy99 said:
Well, they often played a live version that was twice as long as the original. Listen to some of the live links and let us know if that killed the song and you liked those more, less, or the same.
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It's not a song that needs twice the amount of time for me. I imagine that time is filled up with solos and changes of tempo or whatever else that indulges the elements of LZ that I like the least. The studio version is great. Maybe a touch too long but great as is. 

 
In The Zone said:
I don't get the disdain for Robert Plant's voice. I love it. He's a great front man. Who would some of you rather have as lead singer for Led Zeppelin? Barry Manilow? 
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I’m inclined to say Steve Winwood, mostly because that almost happened, and I can’t see him singing anything Plant did. 

They might still have been successful, but I don’t see how they could have been the same type of band with Winwood. They would have been more Traffic or Blind Faith than Zeppelin. 

 
Anarchy99 said:
I’m inclined to say Steve Winwood, mostly because that almost happened, and I can’t see him singing anything Plant did. 

They might still have been successful, but I don’t see how they could have been the same type of band with Winwood. They would have been more Traffic or Blind Faith than Zeppelin. 
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as much as i loathe some of Plant's winesack draining hippie squelching, a lightweight wannabe blues crooner like Winwood could've NEVER pulled off the dramatic heights of "Dazed & Confused", nor stomped on scrotum in tunes like "Immigrant Song"  

i said it earlier, i'll say it again ... when Plant is ON he's incredible - but, when he's off, he's no better than Dee Snider getting a Brazil wax (<----- are we allowed to insinuate that?) 

 
otb_lifer said:
as much as i loathe some of Plant's winesack draining hippie squelching, a lightweight wannabe blues crooner like Winwood could've NEVER pulled off the dramatic heights of "Dazed & Confused", nor stomped on scrotum in tunes like "Immigrant Song"  

i said it earlier, i'll say it again ... when Plant is ON he's incredible - but, when he's off, he's no better than Dee Snider getting a Brazil wax (<----- are we allowed to insinuate that?) 
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I agree with this, but I believe they would not have gone in the same direction. They would not have recorded D & C or IS with Winwood. It would have been a completely different band with a different group of songs. 

 
Anarchy99 said:
I agree with this, but I believe they would not have gone in the same direction. They would not have recorded D & C or IS with Winwood. It would have been a completely different band with a different group of songs. 
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And it would have been harder to rank 25 songs. I would probably go from 99 songs I like from the band down to about 9 and that's with the benefit of the doubt added in. 

Might as well be Manilow at that point. 

 
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otb_lifer said:
as much as i loathe some of Plant's winesack draining hippie squelching, a lightweight wannabe blues crooner like Winwood could've NEVER pulled off the dramatic heights of "Dazed & Confused", nor stomped on scrotum in tunes like "Immigrant Song"  
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I thought you didn't care for "Bobbo's wailing."  He wails in this song, and going by your example in Going To California, he screeches too.

 
In The Zone said:
And it would have been harder to rank 25 songs. I would probably go from 99 songs I like from the band down to about 9 and that's with the benefit of the doubt added in. 
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IMO, Winwood would have not worked out. It would have been a Traffic / Blind Faith / Yardbirds situation where they would have been one and done. And Page would have tried again a year or two later with someone else.

 
simey said:
I thought you didn't care for "Bobbo's wailing."  He wails in this song, and going by your example in Going To California, he screeches too.
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wow. 

ok, lemme simplify this. 

in IMMIGRANT SONG he's "wailing" and "screeching" about VALHALA/HAMMER OF THE ####### GODS ... CONQUERING!!! "WE ARE YOUR OVERLORDS!"

JFC, that was COTdamn catnip to me back in those days.

conversely, warbling/screeching about some microdot poppin'/tie dye wearin'/stash pilferin' chick in suede boots with the fringe accents, is puke mutha ####### city. 

ya know what? bangin' his own ####### SISTER IN LAW (WIAWSNB) was a better choice than hooking up with the dirtbag who fleeced his sorry ###. 

BTW - Immigrant Song is my #1. 

:bye:

 
otb_lifer said:
in IMMIGRANT SONG he's "wailing" and "screeching" about VALHALA/HAMMER OF THE ####### GODS ... CONQUERING!!! "WE ARE YOUR OVERLORDS!"

JFC, that was COTdamn catnip to me back in those days.
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I never got it either until I went to Iceland, which is what he was singing about. Still weird, but I understood a bit more. 

 
otb_lifer said:
as much as i loathe some of Plant's winesack draining hippie squelching, a lightweight wannabe blues crooner like Winwood could've NEVER pulled off the dramatic heights of "Dazed & Confused", nor stomped on scrotum in tunes like "Immigrant Song"  

i said it earlier, i'll say it again ... when Plant is ON he's incredible - but, when he's off, he's no better than Dee Snider getting a Brazil wax (<----- are we allowed to insinuate that?) 
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I DID NOT NEED THAT VISUAL 

 
Anarchy99 said:
I agree with this, but I believe they would not have gone in the same direction. They would not have recorded D & C or IS with Winwood. It would have been a completely different band with a different group of songs. 
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They also would likely not have had Bonham as their drummer, as his past work with Plant played a major part in him joining the band.

 
Dr. Octopus said:
I think I had it at #10 - I was surprised by some of the pushback on this song. Obviously I can understand not being in a Top 25, but some seemed to express a dislike for the song. To each their own.

I agree on it being a defining song to me - the controlled chaos exemplifies the first thing comes to mind when I think of LZ.
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I don't think I can use better words to explain this song than controlled chaos. This is a masterpiece of it and if it were any longer it would have lost its purpose. That it was completed in under an hour emphasizes how strong this group was at their peak. 

 
Anarchy99 said:
#14 - Rock And Roll from Led Zeppelin IV (1971)

Appeared On: 34 ballots (out of 62 . . . 54.8%)
Total Points: 475 points (out of 1,550 possible points . . .  30.6%)

Top 5 Rankers: @Ilov80s@Witz@Sinn Fein@Andrew74@fatguyinalittlecoat
Highest Ranking: 2

Live Performances:
LZ: 218 (Belfast - 1971-03-05 (First Performance), Osaka - 1971-0-29, Long Beach - 1972-06-27, New York - 1973-07-28, London - 1975-05-25, Seattle - 1977-07-17, Knebworth - 1979-08-04, Berlin - 1980-07-07 (Last Time W/Bonzo),
Philadelphia - 1985-07-13, London - 2007-12-10)
Page & Plant: 115 (Knebworth - 1990-06-30, Unknown, New York - 1995-10-27)
Plant: 211 (Nashville - 2011-02-09, Stockholm - 2015-07-14, Toronto - 2018-06-15)
Coverdale / Page: 8 (Osaka - 1993-12-20)

Covers: Heart, Train, Stevie Nicks, Foo Fighters, Def Leppard, Van Hagar, John McEnroe & Roger Daltrey, Great White, John Waite, Alvin & The Chipmunks, Double Trouble, Jerry Lee Lewis, Bare Naked Ladies, Zebra, Tenacious D, Living Colour, Vandenberg, Max Weinberg, Alison Moyet, Sheryl Crow, Alter Bridge, David Cook, Skid Row & Motley Crüe, Gretchen Wilson, Everclear, Journey, Miranda Lambert, Extreme, Dee Snyder & Spin Doctors, Cyndi Lauper, (Sammy Hagar, David Coverdale, Michael Anthony, Joe Satriani), Bad Religion, Generation X (Billy Idol), Wynona Judd, "Weird Al" Yankovic, Icicle Works, Lita Ford, Steve Lukather (Toto), Juliana Hatfield

Ultimate Classic Rock Ranking (out of 92 songs): 6
Vulture Ranking (out of 74 songs): 16
Rolling Stone Ranking (out of 40 songs): 9
Louder Ranking (out of 50 songs): 12
Uproxx Ranking (out of 50 songs): 23
WMGK Ranking (out of 92 songs): 1
SPIN Ranking (out of 87 songs): 32
Ranker Ranking (out of 87 songs): 10
Anachronarchy Ranking (out of 80 songs): 13

I wasn’t originally expecting this one to be controversial, but it’s been causing friction for weeks by this point. I’m Switzerland, but others are going to defend their side of the argument. It’s one of three remaining songs without a first-place vote. It only saw five Top 5 votes (fewest of the remaining songs) and saw 28 zeroes (most of any remaining song). But it did earn sixteen Top 10 votes. Some of the outside rankers LOVED IT. Four of them ranked it in the Top 10. WMGK had it as their #1. It’s our first song to crack the 30% possible point barometer. Given the insane amount of covers out there (I only listed a drop in the bucket), it's safe to say plenty of people love the song (no matter what any of us think).

The band was in the studio working on Four Sticks and had hit a creative wall. From out of nowhere, a frustrated Bonzo suddenly kicked into the opening drum section from Little Richard’s Keep A Knockin’. RNR was originally called It’s Been A Long Time.

Page described, “If something felt right, we didn’t question it. If something really magical is coming through, then you follow it. It was all part of the process. We had to explore, we had to delve. We tried to take advantage of everything that was being offered to us. We were recording something else when John Bonham started playing the drum intro to Keep a Knockin', and I immediately started playing the riff for Rock And Roll. Instead of laughing it off and going back to the previous song, we kept going. I played the opening riff automatically, and we got through the whole first verse. We said, ‘this is great, forget Four Sticks,’ let’s work on this and things were coming out like that. It was a spontaneous combustion. The song was written in minutes and recorded within an hour.”

“The record that made me want to play guitar was Baby, Let’s Play House by Elvis Presley. With RNR, it was enough to know that there was enough of a number to keep working on it. Robert even came in singing on it straight away.” Page developed a riff that blended hard rock and rockabilly. After that brief improvisation session with Bonham, the group took just 15 minutes to work out the structure of the entire song. Rolling Stones pianist Ian Stewart was there visiting, and he boogied and recorded the piano section. From Bonham’s initial pivot to the song, mapping out the music, writing the lyrics, and laying down three takes to record the song took less than an hour.

Plant wrote the lyrics in response to critics who claimed LZ III, wasn't really rock and roll. “We just thought rock and roll needed to be taken on again. I was finally in a really successful band, and we felt it was time for actually kicking ###. It wasn't an intellectual thing, 'cause we didn't have time for that - we just wanted to let it all come flooding out. It was a very animal thing, a hellishly powerful thing, what we were doing.” The song was released as a single and snuck into the Billboard Top 50, peaking at #47.

Alternate Version, Isolated Drum Track, 2007 Rehearsal

Rock And Roll had a long shelf life in live performances (9th most played song), starting in 1971 and running through the band’s remaining run through 1980. It also was played at Live Aid, Jason’s wedding reception, Carmen’s birthday, and the 2007 reunion show. Unless things change, it will go down as the last song the band ever performed, as it closed out the 2007 gig.

Ultimate Classic Rock (6 of 92 songs): There are so many arena-ready anthems on Led Zeppelin's fourth album, there's no surprise why it's their most popular (and best) LP. The record pretty much doesn't let up from the start, and this early song (Side One, Track Two) is a glorious straightforward rock 'n' roll song celebrating – what else? – rock 'n' roll.

Vulture (16 of 74 songs): Zoso’s first side continues with these unbridled three and a half minutes of cataclysmic rock ‘n’ roll. One of the most dramatic guitar attacks ever captured on record; Page’s tone has a depth and a fullness no other band could match. Note how, in contrast to the severe crispness of most of his guitar riffs, here he lets the chords reverberate. The result: an utterly anachronistic nostalgic hymn to the 1950s.

Rolling Stone (9 of 40 songs): Zeppelin were struggling to rehearse Four Sticks when Bonham spontaneously played the now-famous snare and open-high-hat drum intro to Rock and Roll" which imitates the first few bars of Little Richard's 1957 hit Keep A Knockin'. The song – initially called It's Been a Long Time – expresses a palpable longing for youth and the innocence of Fifties rock: Plant refers to the Stroll, an old dance, and to The Book of Love, by the Montones, from 1958. But the music recasts rock & roll as something fierce and modern.

Louder (12 of 50 songs): An instantly identifiable Zeppelin anthem, this track came out of a jam with Rolling Stones’ mentor Ian Stewart guesting on piano. Bonzo played the intro of Little Richard’s Keep A Knockin, and Page quickly added a suitable 1950s type riff. Fifteen minutes later, the nucleus of Rock And Roll was down on tape and a classic was born.

Uproxx (23 of 50 songs . . . based on live version): The Song Remains The Same is rightfully considered one of the most ridiculous and tedious rock films of the 1970s. I’ve watched it at least 20 times but I don’t think I’ve ever actually finished it once without falling asleep. (Consider that I normally start watching The Song Remains The Same very late at night, and never in the most sober frame of mind.) People love to make fun of the Peter Grant sequences, where he struts around pompously in his vintage gangster clothes like a white English Suge Knight. But for me the least coherent scene is when John Paul Jones is seen reading Jack And The Beanstalk to his kids while dressed like Dirk Diggler. (Were they trying to make John Paul look like a huge dork?) All of that aside, The Song Remains The Same is a five-star rock movie for me solely because of the performance of “Rock And Roll,” which is an incredible portrait of arena rock at its absolute peak. The shot behind the band as Bonzo kicks into the opening drum fill while still in the dark, and then the explosion of light as the rest of Zeppelin falls in feels like having a rocket ship strapped between your legs.

WMGK (1 of 92 songs): There have been a lot of rock and roll songs about rock and roll, and this one is surely one of the very best. Borrowing elements from the early days of rock and roll - a Chuck Berry-esque riff, rolling Jerry Lee Lewis piano and a drum intro reminiscent of Little Richard’s Keep A-Knockin' - Zep’s Rock And Roll is a love letter to the founders of the genre. Led Zeppelin’s members have always been passionate music fans so it’s fitting that on this, their greatest song, they pay tribute to the music that inspired them. Fun fact: Years later, Jerry Lee Lewis actually covered the song -- with Jimmy Page on guitar -- on his 2006 album, Last Man Standing. 

SPIN (32 of 87 songs): Among the group’s most popular rave-ups, earned through the sheer frenzy of Bonham’s cymbal-crashing, Page’s fret-racing, Jones’ keys-on-fire piano, and Plant’s dog-whistle shrieking. There’s not really a whole lot of song there, truly — it’s a repetitive and largely meaningless chorus, and the melody is pretty standard issue — but the band is just in such top form that Rock and Roll was able to become a classic worthy of exemplifying its title anyway.
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“Controlled chaos” - that’s a good description.  I admit I love those kind of songs which is why I ranked this one #3.  While I enjoy some of the longer songs, the 3 minute, balls to the wall type songs are just capnip to me, even at 48.  

 
ConstruxBoy said:
I feel like there is something that makes some users in this thread like certain songs a lot more than I do and dislike certain songs that I like. I'm guessing that something is heavy marijuana use. I could be wrong though. 
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You would know best if you were a heavy marijuana user so we’ll take your word for it.

 
#13 - Going To California from Led Zeppelin IV (1971)

Appeared On: 36 ballots (out of 62 . . . 58.1%)
Total Points: 507 points (out of 1,550 possible points . . .  32.7%)

#1 Rankers: @simey@joker
Top 5 Rankers: @worrierking@Dennis Castro@UncleZen@Sinn Fein@raidergil@Sinn Fein@Getzlaf15
Highest Ranking: 1

Live Performances:
LZ: 127 (Belfast - 1971-03-05 (First Performance), London - 1971-04-01, Long Beach - 1972-06-27, London - 1975-05-24, Los Angeles - 1977-06-21)
Page & Plant: 126 (Knebworth - 1990-06-30, Albuquerque - 1995-09-29, Vina Del Mar - 1996-01-23, Las Vegas - 1998-09-23)
Plant: 445 (Novi Sad - 2007-12-07, New Orleans - 2014-04-26, Los Angeles - 2018 -10-13, Roskilde - 2019-07-04)
JPJ: 9 (Instrumental with Paul Gilbert)

Covers: Never The Bride, Fuel, Train, Ann Wilson, Amy Lee, Jaz Coleman, Liz Larin, Great White, Zakk Wylde, The Analogues, Tommy Shaw, Eniid, John Mayer, Barsie, Myles Kennedy, Collective Soul, Zebra, Chris Cornell, Aaron Lewis, Pearl Jam & Robert Plant, 

Ultimate Classic Rock Ranking (out of 92 songs): 24
Vulture Ranking (out of 74 songs): 35
Rolling Stone Ranking (out of 40 songs): 11
Louder Ranking (out of 50 songs): 18
Uproxx Ranking (out of 50 songs): 21
WMGK Ranking (out of 92 songs): 26
SPIN Ranking (out of 87 songs): 29
Ranker Ranking (out of 87 songs): 22
Anachronarchy Ranking (out of 80 songs): 27

We go back-to-back on LZ IV tracks. The first song to eclipse the 500 point barrier. It saw two gold medals, two silvers, nine Top 5 votes, sixteen Top 10 votes, and appeared on 36 ballots. Only one of the outside rankers had GTC ranked higher than we did.

The song is said to have started out as a song about Californian earthquakes and was originally called Guide to California. It evolved into an ode to Canadian singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell and hippies. Both Page and Plant were enthralled by her songwriting. In the song, the guy in the song is looking for a girl just like her, one with "love in her eyes and flowers in her hair" who "plays guitar and cries and sings.” Page remembered, “The main thing with Joni is that she’s able to look at something that’s happened to her, draw back and crystallize the whole situation, then write about it. She brings tears to my eyes, what can I say?”

Page’s narrative holds that the band’s excursion to a farm with few distractions helped develop him develop the song. “You didn’t have anything like a snooker table or anything like that. No recreational pursuits at all. It was really good for discipline and getting on with the job. I suppose that’s why a lot of these came at Headley Grange . . . for instance Going To California and Battle of Evermore came out.” Like other songs that came out of those sessions, Page’s version is that he wrote the song late one night and presented it to the band the following day. A different version has the song being written and recorded all in one evening at Headley Grange, with guitarist Jimmy Page on acoustic guitar and bassist John Paul Jones on mandolin.

Plant added the lyrics about him “reflecting on the first years of the group, when I was only about 20, struggling to find myself in the midst of all the craziness of California and the band and the groupies . . . the days when things were really nice and simple, and everything was far out all the time. It might be a bit embarrassing at times lyrically, but it did sum up a period of my life when I was 22.”

Going To California is the second song on the album without input and contribution from John Bonham, as both songs feature guitar and mandolin but not drums. Mandolin / Guitar Mix

The song featured a line where "The mountains and the canyons started to tremble and shake." When Jimmy Page and sound engineer Andy Johns flew to Los Angeles to mix the album, the area was still feeling tremors and aftershocks from an earthquake that hit in the San Fernando Valley. Page freaked out and insisted on mixing Going To California last in case the song somehow had conjured a tremor.

Led Zeppelin played the song 127 times from 1971-1977. Plant took the mantle and performed it 445 times, which ranks #1 on his most performed songs list. Page & Plant performed the song 126 times. John Paul Jones added 9 performances on his own. Added together, that yields a total of 707 performances.

Ultimate Classic Rock (24 of 92 songs): Like The Battle of Evermore, Going to California unplugs Zeppelin from the electric charge that powers most of their fourth album. The song is reportedly about Joni Mitchell, whom Plant had a massive crush on.

Vulture (35 of 74 songs): Of all the acoustic-based numbers the band had recorded up to the fourth album, you had the feeling that the band was stretching to include the music, rather than letting it grow organically out of their process. To me, this is the track that shows how a truly heavy band could soften things up convincingly. Plant’s varied singing here stands out.

Rolling Stone (11 of 40 songs): Zeppelin's prettiest song: Page's gentle acoustic finger picking weaves together with Jones' mandolin, while Plant tries on some country twang. Rumored to be written about Joni Mitchell, it could just as easily be about any California girl "with love in her eyes and flowers in her hair." And for Led Zeppelin in 1971, there were many.

Louder (18 of 50 songs): The Hollywood hiraeth felt by Page and Plant while ensconced in rural Wales manifested itself in an unadorned love letter to Joni Mitchell and other notable blissed-out dwellers of Laurel Canyon. Plant’s near-naïve reflections on his sun-kissed introduction to the state’s enchantments adds acres of charm and pathos belying his tender years. Iced by Page’s modal drone-picking and Jones’ gossamer mandolin, the version on 2003’s DVD (Earls Court, ‘75) in particular is a thing of wonder.

Uproxx (21 of 50 songs): More Joni Mitchell worship, via a song so good that it could’ve ended up on Blue. In Joni’s California, she sings about hanging out in Paris and pining for home. (“I’m going to see the folks I dig / I’ll even kiss a Sunset pig.”) For Zeppelin, California — Los Angeles specifically — was a home away from home, a fantasyland they never stopped idealizing even after immersing themselves in the sleaziest of sleazy L.A. underbellies. Going To California marks the point where melancholy started to creep into Zeppelin’s music, an acknowledgement that they were at their zenith and it wasn’t going to last much longer. Coming from a band so alpha, the vulnerability of Going To California hits hard. “Tellin’ myself it’s not as hard, hard, hard as it seems,” Plant sings, and if you know what’s ahead for him and his band, you heart might ache a little, too.

WMGK (26 of 92 songs): One reason why Zeppelin defies categorization is that they were so good at so many things. Sure, they influenced every hard rock and metal band who followed them, but they were also amazing at creating beautiful acoustic songs. Going To California is a prime example.

SPIN (29 of 87 songs): Occasionally dipping into eye-rolling sappiness (“She plays guitar and cries and sings / ‘La la la la….'”), but generally as tender and moving as any ballad in the band’s catalog. There’s a real undercurrent of loneliness and insecurity there (“Telling myself it’s not as hard, hard, hard as it seems…”) that keeps it from becoming sickeningly cloying, even when it’s used to soundtrack an event as #####-chilling as the Entourage series finale. It’s also supposedly inspired by Page and Plant’s mutual infatuation with Joni Mitchell, so that’s a win for her.

 
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Anarchy99 said:
#13 - Going To California from Led Zeppelin IV (1971)
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I ranked this #1. My favorite person bought a mandolin, and he had a goal to learn to play Going to California on it. He loved the song, and he thought it would be easy to learn. It turned out to not be as easy as he thought, and he'd start to get the hang of it, and then get frustrated, but he never gave up. He finally learned to play it, and he just beamed of proudness when he finally got it right. He thought it was the best thing in the world. For that moment in time it was. :heart:   The song I ranked #2 is right there with it.

Every year I go to a music festival called Merlefest, and on the Saturday of the festival they have Hillside Album Hour on the hillside. A band called The Waybacks plays a classic rock album. In 2019 they played Led Zeppelin IV. They always have a guest singer, and that year it was Sarah Dugas, and she was awesome. The guitarist and leader of band The Waybacks looks like David Spade to me. Here they are doing Going To California.  

 
I had GTC at #14 so I obviously agree with the ranking here.  But I had a hard time ranking it tbh, I think if I retained I would drop it about 5-7 spots.  Mainly because it goes against one of my tenets when listening to LZ - I want to rock.

 
My top 25 (consensus)

1.
2. Since I've Been Loving You (15)
3.
4. The Rain Song (17)
5.
6. The Ocean (20)
7.
8. Travelling Riverside Blues (43)
9. Ten Years Gone (22)
10.
11.
12.
13. What is and What Should Never Be (16)
14.
15.
16.
17. 
18.
19. Hey, Hey, What Can I Do (24)
20. Going to California (13)
21. In My Time of Dying (26)
22. Houses of the Holy (37)
23. Communication Breakdown (18)
24. I Can't Quit You Baby (50)
25. Your Time is Gonna Come (39)

The 5 consensus top 25 songs that didn't make my list:

Rock & Roll (14)
No Quarter (19)
The Battle of Evermore (21)
The Song Remains the Same (23)
Misty Mountain Hop (25)

 
Going back to Cali was my #20 song. Back in college I probably had it ranked alot higher. When I sat down to do this exercise it fell simply because I had 19 other songs that I liked better. 

We're in that range now where honestly I have a lot of songs that could have slid up or down a few spots depending on the day.

Pearl Jam's Given to Fly is said to be a sort of rip off of California. PJ has admitted as much. I don't quite hear it myself though so much.

 
cap'n grunge said:
Going back to Cali was my #20 song. Back in college I probably had it ranked alot higher. When I sat down to do this exercise it fell simply because I had 19 other songs that I liked better. 

We're in that range now where honestly I have a lot of songs that could have slid up or down a few spots depending on the day.

Pearl Jam's Given to Fly is said to be a sort of rip off of California. PJ has admitted as much. I don't quite hear it myself though so much.
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LOL!!!! That’s all I can say about that.

 
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I voted for Going to California but in all my listening to Zep over the past couple months it has take a nosedive in my rankings and wouldn’t be on there today.  I’m a sucker for acoustic guitar and I love the beginning.  But ultimately it doesn’t feel like the song goes anywhere interesting and even though it’s short I’ve already lost interest by the end.  
 

I’ve said it before but I’d be much happier with my list if I had taken this one out and put Babe I’m Gonna Leave You in its place.  That song goes places.

 
fatguyinalittlecoat said:
I voted for Going to California but in all my listening to Zep over the past couple months it has take a nosedive in my rankings and wouldn’t be on there today.  I’m a sucker for acoustic guitar and I love the beginning.  But ultimately it doesn’t feel like the song goes anywhere interesting and even though it’s short I’ve already lost interest by the end.  
 

I’ve said it before but I’d be much happier with my list if I had taken this one out and put Babe I’m Gonna Leave You in its place.  That song goes places.
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great post 👍

yeah, the one bright spot for me with "Cali" is, indeed, it's brevity - it comes and goes like a breeze ... i won't necessarily skip it for that reason - i've blagged on enough already about why i ding it, so i'll just say it definitely ain't my cup o'tea, and leave it there. 

- "Babe" is certainly more ambitious - with a darker, more malevolent tone, which really pulls at me. it has an undeniable pissed off charm to it's power ... "Cali" is lean and winsome, "Babe" is heavy and emblematic - such a classic, and the tone of it's message resonates a ton deeper with me than it's more syrupy counterpart. 

it does go places ... places that i can crawl into, and get lost, for the duration of it.

 
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