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

[MAC_32]

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.

I'd still rank Cali, but I've experienced something similar. I had it at the top of tier 3 at #10, but if I re did it today it'd be in tier 4 near #20. Good song and the opening is entrancing, but after it peaks at 2 mins interest wanes as the song fades to a close. To be top 10 it needed to go somewhere else too. 

 

[gianmarco]

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.

I'd still rank Cali, but I've experienced something similar. I had it at the top of tier 3 at #10, but if I re did it today it'd be in tier 4 near #20. Good song and the opening is entrancing, but after it peaks at 2 mins interest wanes as the song fades to a close. To be top 10 it needed to go somewhere else too. 

Same here. I don't know if it drops out of the top 25 for me, but it slides way down.

 

[Pip's Invitation]

#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.

It’s lovely but not the kind of thing I turn to Zep for, so I didn’t rank it. I’m more surprised my friend didn’t rank it, since he loves Zep’s acoustic stuff and is infatuated with all things California late 60s-early 70s hippie scene. Including and especially Joni Mitchell.

 

[Leroy Hoard]

Another case of LZ ripping off someone else's song.  LL Cool J should sue them.

 

[beer 30]

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. 

I think we are all losing sight of the fact that this was Page's band. I don't for a minute think he would have let it go in that direction with Winwood (Blind Faith/Yardbirds). That wasn't the sound he was looking for. He had already done that, he was looking to be free of it and lose the beast within with a new sound that that world hadn't heard to date. Plant was the only one that brought that kind of fire to the vocals that were needed to produce the sound he was looking for.

 

[Anarchy99]

I think we are all losing sight of the fact that this was Page's band. I don't for a minute think he would have let it go in that direction with Winwood (Blind Faith/Yardbirds). That wasn't the sound he was looking for. He had already done that, he was looking to be free of it and lose the beast within with a new sound that that world hadn't heard to date. Plant was the only one that brought that kind of fire to the vocals that were needed to produce the sound he was looking for.

I don’t disagree with this, but I find it odd that Winwood was even a candidate. He was an established singer already. Pretty clear he was not a hard rocker in waiting. Maybe this is another case of folklore exaggerating what really happened. Maybe Page bumped into Steve one day and mentioned he was looking for a singer and Winwood took that to me he was under consideration when Jimmy actually was asking if Steve knew anyone else. Pinocchio could have a ten foot nose by this point. It was 54 years ago. If Plant went the accountant route, then what?

 

[Leroy Hoard]

If Plant went the accountant route, then what?

No more working from seven to eleven every night.

 

[Jackstraw]

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.   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.  

Love the Waybacks. Saw them on a random stage at a bluegrass festival in Kansas and they blew my mind. Absolutely destroyed a Minglewood Blues. Super jelly about Merlefest. Always wanted to go. 

 

[dickey moe]

Going to California is nice I guess but it doesn't do much for me. I don't do hippy and Plant's off-key squelching of the lyric *I think I might be sinkin'" has always annoyed me. The song might be the highest ranked song by our group that didn't make it on to my list. 

 

[beer 30]

If Plant went the accountant route, then what?

There never would have been LZ. There may have been an iteration of it but I don't think you get anywhere near where Plant allowed them to go. W/o Plant I think the project would have been short lived.

 

[zamboni]

Another case of LZ ripping off someone else's song.  LL Cool J should sue them.

I don’t think so.

 

[otb_lifer]

There never would have been LZ. There may have been an iteration of it but I don't think you get anywhere near where Plant allowed them to go. W/o Plant I think the project would have been short lived.

Ian Gillan down?

 

[beer 30]

Ian Gillan down?

Yes, down hard

 

[Leroy Hoard]

Ian Gillan down?

Smoke on the Levee?

 

[otb_lifer]

Smoke on the Levee?

was that on Living/Loving Maid in Japan?

 

[Anarchy99]

There never would have been LZ. There may have been an iteration of it but I don't think you get anywhere near where Plant allowed them to go. W/o Plant I think the project would have been short lived.

I am no expert or historian of The Who, but my best guess observation is that prior to Tommy, I think they were on the fence about continuing on or not. Not that they were necessarily looking to split up, but if other opportunities came their way they could have just moved on. Taking a snapshot in the 1967-68 window when Jimmy was fishing for bandmates to launch Zeppelin . . .

After three albums, The Who was popular in the UK but not global superstars yet. Lots of performers had a handful of songs hit the UK charts. That would be enough to get you a flat, keep the lights on, and get you funding for your next album. Put another way, after the first LZ album, their presales sold more before their next album would come out than a Who album would altogether.

The Who had two hits in the U.S. (Happy Jack and I Can See For Miles). Page was already friends with Keith Moon, and they almost formed a new band in 1967. I can see a scenario where Moon and Roger Daltrey became Zeppelinites instead of Plant and Bonham. The imaginary lineup would have been Page, Jones, Moon, and Daltrey. I think that would have worked and we could have potentially seen a similar trajectory as we did with Plant and Bonham.

Not sure who would have been writing the lyrics, though, as Pete Townshend was the songwriter and lyricist for The Who. But they would have had the star power, the sound, and front man all aligned . . . they just would have needed someone to be the one to get the words together. Townshend seemed like he would have been just as happy out on his own and not splitting earnings with the others.

As things played out, The Who recorded Magic Bus . . . then Tommy . . . then Live At Leeds, and Who's Next in short order. There was no way they were turning back from there. I suspect there was a brief window where Page could have been the homewrecker. Not sure if he tried to do that or not. I'm guessing if he had tried something like that it would have come out by now. Just spit balling in terms of alternate solutions had Plant passed on Zeppelin.

 

[Anarchy99]

was that on Living/Loving Maid in Japan?

And the follow up hit, Knocking At Your Black Dog.

 

[Anarchy99]

Decisions, decisions. Presence as a single track just came on YouTube for me. To listen or skip . . . that is the question. Certainly, I will let Achilles play out. But given the amount of Zeppelin I have consumed these past few months, I'm not sure I have the other 35 minutes in me.

 

[Pip's Invitation]

I think we are all losing sight of the fact that this was Page's band. I don't for a minute think he would have let it go in that direction with Winwood (Blind Faith/Yardbirds). That wasn't the sound he was looking for. He had already done that, he was looking to be free of it and lose the beast within with a new sound that that world hadn't heard to date. Plant was the only one that brought that kind of fire to the vocals that were needed to produce the sound he was looking for.

Well, Terry Reid did, but he wasn’t available, so…

 

[Pip's Invitation]

I am no expert or historian of The Who, but my best guess observation is that prior to Tommy, I think they were on the fence about continuing on or not. Not that they were necessarily looking to split up, but if other opportunities came their way they could have just moved on. Taking a snapshot in the 1967-68 window when Jimmy was fishing for bandmates to launch Zeppelin . . .

After three albums, The Who was popular in the UK but not global superstars yet. Lots of performers had a handful of songs hit the UK charts. That would be enough to get you a flat, keep the lights on, and get you funding for your next album. Put another way, after the first LZ album, their presales sold more before their next album would come out than a Who album would altogether.

The Who had two hits in the U.S. (Happy Jack and I Can See For Miles). Page was already friends with Keith Moon, and they almost formed a new band in 1967. I can see a scenario where Moon and Roger Daltrey became Zeppelinites instead of Plant and Bonham. The imaginary lineup would have been Page, Jones, Moon, and Daltrey. I think that would have worked and we could have potentially seen a similar trajectory as we did with Plant and Bonham.

Not sure who would have been writing the lyrics, though, as Pete Townshend was the songwriter and lyricist for The Who. But they would have had the star power, the sound, and front man all aligned . . . they just would have needed someone to be the one to get the words together. Townshend seemed like he would have been just as happy out on his own and not splitting earnings with the others.

As things played out, The Who recorded Magic Bus . . . then Tommy . . . then Live At Leeds, and Who's Next in short order. There was no way they were turning back from there. I suspect there was a brief window where Page could have been the homewrecker. Not sure if he tried to do that or not. I'm guessing if he had tried something like that it would have come out by now. Just spit balling in terms of alternate solutions had Plant passed on Zeppelin.

I read an interview with Townsend who said The Who would have broken up had Tommy been a flop. In spite of having some hits, they were not making good money due in part to the constant destroying of their equipment in their live shows, and they wanted to change direction because it wasn’t tenable to continue as they had been. Tommy was the new direction, and if the public had rejected it, the band would have been over. 

 

[Pip's Invitation]

Decisions, decisions. Presence as a single track just came on YouTube for me. To listen or skip . . . that is the question. Certainly, I will let Achilles play out. But given the amount of Zeppelin I have consumed these past few months, I'm not sure I have the other 35 minutes in me.

My preferred approach there is to stop after Nobody’s Fault But Mine. The last three tracks are oof.

 

[Anarchy99]

It's always fun playing the what if game, especially when there were actually decisions to be made. There was a lot of talk over the years (and in the VH thread) about what direction Eddie Van Halen would go with the departure of David Lee Roth. Over the years, several people have staked claim to being a consideration including Steve Perry, Patty Smyth, Mitch Malloy, Sass Jordan, Sebastian Back, and Ozzy Osbourne. The other ironic thing was the band almost dropped Diamond Dave before they even recorded an album back in 1977 . . . in favor of Sammy Hagar.

 

[worrierking]

Rock and Roll, the single, was release fifty years ago today according to my Facebook feed.

 

[Anarchy99]

Rock and Roll, the single, was release fifty years ago today according to my Facebook feed.

Close enough. It was 1972-02-21.

 

[Anarchy99]

My preferred approach there is to stop after Nobody’s Fault But Mine. The last three tracks are oof.

Made it all the way through, but that had more to do with me being busy and absorbed with something else then some great desire and fascination to listen to Presence straight through.

 

[Anarchy99]

My preferred approach there is to stop after Nobody’s Fault But Mine. The last three tracks are oof.

LOL. Next in the YouTube queue is the entire ITTOD album, which churns on as we speak (type?). They could at least stack the good albums back-to-back. What's next . . . Coda? (It's not, I checked. Phys Graf is.)

I brought this on myself, as I have been searching for LZ material and links since December, so the algorithm will be suggesting LZ songs for the next 15 years.

 

[zamboni]

Rock and Roll, the single, was release fifty years ago today according to my Facebook feed.

Been a long time.

 

[skol asylum]

It's always fun playing the what if game, especially when there were actually decisions to be made. There was a lot of talk over the years (and in the VH thread) about what direction Eddie Van Halen would go with the departure of David Lee Roth. Over the years, several people have staked claim to being a consideration including Steve Perry, Patty Smyth, Mitch Malloy, Sass Jordan, Sebastian Back, and Ozzy Osbourne. The other ironic thing was the band almost dropped Diamond Dave before they even recorded an album back in 1977 . . . in favor of Sammy Hagar.

Should have. Dave is annoying.

 

[Anarchy99]

Would the Daltrey fronted Zeppelin have released Won't Get Sick Again?

 

[timschochet]

#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.

Just readIng this now and I dare everyone to listen to the Alvin and the Chipmunks cover. 

 

[Anarchy99]

Just readIng this now and I dare everyone to listen to the Alvin and the Chipmunks cover. 

I couldn't tell this one apart from the original. That chipmunk is dynamite! The Chipmunks Undeniable album has some real rockers on it with covers of Livin' On A Prayer, Don't Stop Believin', and Time Warp.

For real, this album hit #78 on the Billboard album chart in 2008 and charted for 14 weeks. To put things in perspective, the Live at the Greek album with Jimmy & the Crowes only hit #60 on the same album chart in 2000.

 

[zamboni]

I couldn't tell this one apart from the original. That chipmunk is dynamite! The Chipmunks Undeniable album has some real rockers on it with covers of Livin' On A Prayer, Don't Stop Believin', and Time Warp.

For real, this album hit #78 on the Billboard album chart in 2008 and charted for 14 weeks. To put things in perspective, the Live at the Greek album with Jimmy & the Crowes only hit #60 on the same album chart in 2000.

Wasn't even their biggest: Chipmunk Punk hit #34 in 1980. The album was a listening staple among me and my elementary school friends. 

 

[Anarchy99]

Wasn't even their biggest: Chipmunk Punk hit #34 in 1980. The album a listening staple among me and my elementary school friends. 

Don't get me started on stuff we had on vinyl back when we were kids, or I will have to drag out my K-Tel records collection.

That being said, the Chipmunks over the years had four Top 10 albums (their debut hit #4 in 1960). Believe it or not, they actually had 3 platinum albums and 4 others that went gold.

They had 2 singles that hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and won 5 Grammy Awards. The Chipmunk Song became one of the best-selling singles of all time with 5 million copies sold. The 4 Chipmunks movies grossed a total of $1.4 billion.

In the past 6 months, the rights to the Chipmunks were sold for $300+ million. We can laugh all we want, but they were a cash cow and easy money.

 

[beer 30]

Decisions, decisions. Presence as a single track just came on YouTube for me. To listen or skip . . . that is the question. Certainly, I will let Achilles play out. But given the amount of Zeppelin I have consumed these past few months, I'm not sure I have the other 35 minutes in me.

I just listened to the Kennedy Center tribute all the way through. That was a nice change up on all their tried and true favorites.

Well, Terry Reid did, but he wasn’t available, so…

Yea, yea but it wouldn't have been LZ. Probably would have made a run at it but like @Anarchy99 plays the "what if" game, I just don't think it would have produced the sound we got from LZ. I guess we'll never know and I'm ok with how it turned out.

I think it's further supported by the fact the band gelled as quickly as they did and churned out some of the greatest rock music we've ever heard in a very short period of time while touring, while recording at multiple studios and putting it all together in other studios. There are things that go together naturally like peas & carrots. LZ was one of those gifts from nature where the confluence of 4 pretty damn good musicians got together and formed something that will stand the test of time. They fed off of each others energies as is illustrated by these great write ups anarchy is putting together. Separately they could have probably done well. Together, they were unstoppable. Sprinkle in some Peter Grant who literally bulled his way into the offices and simply made demands that no one else in the world had to date and they formed a super group unparalleled then or now.

 

[zamboni]

Don't get me started on stuff we had on vinyl back when we were kids, or I will have to drag out my K-Tel records collection.
 

Have at it - we're all friends here.

 

[skol asylum]

I wonder how Klaus Meine from the Scorpions (joined them in 69) would have sounded in Robert's place.

 

[fatguyinalittlecoat]

I’m going to wait for the Beatles thread to die down before I start my “rank your top 25 Alvin and the Chipmunk songs” thread.

 

[Anarchy99]

Have at it - we're all friends here.

I would have to search for them, but I remember these songs being on them . . .

Mr. Jaws - Benny Goodman
Saturday Night - Bay City Rollers
Pac Man Fever - Buckner & Garcia
Little Willy - Sweet
Indian Reservation (The Lament of the Cherokee Reservation Indian) - Paul Revere & The Raiders
Convoy · C.W. McCall
Rick Dees - Disco Duck
Heartbeat It's A Love Beat · The DeFranco Family
Tired of Toein' the Line · Rocky Burnette
Devil Woman - Cliff Richard
Benny Hill Theme - James Rich
Lumberjack Song - Monty Python
Take Off - Bob & Doug McKenzie with Geddy Lee
King Tut - Steve Martin
Rubber Biscuit - The Blues Brothers

Thankfully for me, I escaped from the institution and they never caught me.

 

[worrierking]

I couldn't tell this one apart from the original. That chipmunk is dynamite! The Chipmunks Undeniable album has some real rockers on it with covers of Livin' On A Prayer, Don't Stop Believin', and Time Warp.

For real, this album hit #78 on the Billboard album chart in 2008 and charted for 14 weeks. To put things in perspective, the Live at the Greek album with Jimmy & the Crowes only hit #60 on the same album chart in 2000.

Simon and Theodore were a fantastic rhythm section.

 

[timschochet]

I would have to search for them, but I remember these songs being on them . . .

Mr. Jaws - Benny Goodman
Saturday Night - Bay City Rollers
Pac Man Fever - Buckner & Garcia
Little Willy - Sweet
Indian Reservation (The Lament of the Cherokee Reservation Indian) - Paul Revere & The Raiders
Convoy · C.W. McCall
Rick Dees - Disco Duck
Heartbeat It's A Love Beat · The DeFranco Family
Tired of Toein' the Line · Rocky Burnette
Devil Woman - Cliff Richard
Benny Hill Theme - James Rich
Lumberjack Song - Monty Python
Take Off - Bob & Doug McKenzie with Geddy Lee
King Tut - Steve Martin
Rubber Biscuit - The Blues Brothers

Thankfully for me, I escaped from the institution and they never caught me.

I still have “Little Willy” on some playlists. Good tune. 

 

[Tom Servo]

#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.

Not one of my favorites.  Too slow and a touch too maudlin for me.  I didn't rank it.

 

[Anarchy99]

Not one of my favorites.  Too slow and a touch too maudlin for me.  I didn't rank it.

You will like the next two songs much better.

 

[Tom Servo]

You will like the next two songs much better.

 

[otb_lifer]

You will like the next two songs much better.

looks like i can at least take solace in knowing the two proto-punk staples i love so much outkicked GTC.

and D & C scored higher as well - you catch me on any given day and i just might tell ya it's the greatest song of the rock era.  

well done, fellers

 

[dickey moe]

Take your Chipmunks talk to the Political Forum please. 

 

[gianmarco]

Drive back home today.....

 

[Anarchy99]

Take your Chipmunks talk to the Political Forum please. 

I sense you are anti-chipmunk. This is a friendly family forum. Chipmunks are family friendly. #REPORTED

 

[Leroy Hoard]

I sense you are anti-chipmunk. This is a friendly family forum. Chipmunks are family friendly. #REPORTED

OK Dave.

 

[Anarchy99]

OK Dave.

After all these years, I can't remember ever reporting anyone. Do people actually do that these days?

 

[otb_lifer]

Drive back home today.....

i had a convo with @rockaction awhile back, lamenting the fact that i'm not driving these days ... and this was the biggest part of that lament - not having those music moments together with my daughter on them drives - i'll never get those years back. 



loved your vid ❤