The Bluuueeeeessss baby. Music plucked from negro spirituals and replanted in Mississippi, New Orleans, Chicago....the foundation for Rock and Roll.....and nobody stole it better than Led Zeppelin. You wanna get low down and dirty and wriggle out of that snakeskin into a room full of blues? Let my high and mighty friends in the lead balloon escort you to the moon with this tune.
This song makes me beg, sweat, curse, forgive and forget all at the same time. It is my LONGTIME love affair with the mighty Zep and their album Led Zeppelin III that forces me to include this stellar track and place it all the way up at #2.
Zeppelin III? You say Physical Graffiti, I say Zeppelin III......You show me a group who can go from the Viking wail riff stomp of the Immigrant Song to the spooky raga of Friends to the ballsy banshee wails of Since I've Been Loving You to the Folky sing along ballad That's The Way ON THE SAME ALBUM...in 1970!!! and make them all rock and roll diamonds and pearls. You can't..... Lest we forget Gallow's Pole and Out On the Tiles? Got 'em right here!
Led Zeppelin Had it all.......3 gentlemen who were MASTERS of their chosen instruments...and the one and only Golden God Robert Plant out front parting the rock sea, summoning the valkyries, chanting memories of laughter and longing and letting us know that ...Upon us all...just a little rain must fall.....
This song has served me well. I learned to "scream" well as a singer with repeated listens to this very song. And when I say scream...I mean singing very high and loud and in tune with Presence and clarity...Thank you Robert..Screaming does NOT mean sounding like Cookie Monster after pulling an all-nighter you metal wannabes!..Robert was feeling the pain, working all day long to find his woman with a back door man...bulging with heartbreak and he let out a wail...and it just screws you to the floor...just totally rivets you to the thoughts you may have of running all the way to Mississippi to seek out the old bluesman pouring out his soul on a backwoods porch somewhere...to an audience of no-one. Just to watch the sweat drip from his forehead and splash the neck of his old axe. Robert is my vocal hero...my religion...
Jimmy Page hits all of the right notes and I'm spent and crying after the first 5.......raging and driving blind through the blues. Guitarist...Producer...it was HE who is responsible for getting Bonzo's drums to sound like that!...genius ! and great uniforms! I would give my left one to step into that Black Dragon-covered velvet Jumpsuit! Wouldn't you? Would you sacrifice you second child to hold the violin bow?????? Allright, now Seano...take a deep breath...let's only get partially crazy....
John Paul Jones on the bass pedals and spooky church organ....yessir I have been served...I must confess somewhere fast...get cleansed.....THE SECRET weapon of the band and one of the top 5 bass players OOT!
Oh to hold the multi necked mandolin he posesses...if only for 5 seconds while putting it back in his case for him...
BONZO- The king of all rock drummers.....driving home the pain and remorse with thunderous rolls, cymbals that crash like angels making their way through a thundercloud.....and a squeaky bass pedal.....take me where you are John Bonham!!!!!! Why????? WHYYY 40 shots of vodka and a ham roll for breakfast!!!!!!!!
Depending on my own personal cloud cover, so to speak or me losing count of my adult beverage consumption, OD-ing on nostalgic basement viewing memories of The Song Remains the Same in Ken's Basement(rewind that drum solo AGAIN, SLIX!) or maybe its Tuesday....WHO NEEDS A REASON...this could easily switch places with number ONE.
I imagine myself in Island Studios, somewhere in London 1970, a floor sweeper, a go-fer....Just running into the studio during a break to give Robert a cup of tea.....Jimmy wants to oil Bonham's kick pedal but John's not having it...and Jonesy is in the corner quietly tuning to precision, dutch boy hair over his eyes while he does a funky roll on the Fender Jazz..The sky opens, an angel taps me on the shoulder..and Jimmy turns to me and says hey Seano....have you seen the bridge? Where's that confounded bridge?!! Is that what he said.........? pinch me!!
I had a dream....crazy dream.............Led Zeppelin, me and infinity.....I will never have my fill of this song. Ever.
And here's the 10 I cannot do without.........the first 10 not the only ten,mind you
1) Since I've Been Loving You
2) Misty Mountain Hop- Hey Boy, Do you wanna SCORREEE!
3) Bring It On Home-
4) Hey Hey What Can I Do----I got a girl wanna BALL ALL DAY!
5) In My Time Of Dying- JIMMY CONQUERS THE SLIDE.....Gabriel! Let me blow your horn!
6) Nobody's Fault But Mine- Got a Big Monkey on my BACK BACK BACK!
7) 10 Years Gone- "Though the course may change sometimes, rivers always reach the sea!"
8) Out on the Tiles-
9) No Quarter
10)Friends
Honorables: Everything else recorded by Led Zeppelin from the fall of 1968 to September 24, 1980
 | 04 Since I've been Loving You.mp3 8661K Play Download |
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