5) Nobody’s Fault But Mine
As I put this list together I tried to pick one song off of each of my five favorite Zeppelin albums. Narrowing down Presence was the hardest as I think it’s one of their most consistent albums front to back, and it’s also one of the most underrated classic rock albums. Nobody’s Fault But Mine does happen to be one of the many Zeppelin, ahem, “cover songs” we’ll address more of that in a bit. This was lifted from Blind Willie Johnson. You can catch the original here.
…but there can be no question that musically Zeppelin took the song to another level. John Bonham and John Paul Jones rhythms’ just melt together. Bonzo’s snare stabs at you relentlessly from the front, his bass keeps the back warm, and JP’s lick pulses in the middle.
4) No Quarter
There’s probably no Zeppelin song that I enjoy sonically as much as No Quarter. It’s dark, haunting, it smoulders. It’s my favorite track on Houses of the Holy and it’s a song that doesn’t feel like it would fit on any other album in the Zep catalog, in fact if you take away Bonzo’s indistinguishable style it sounds like something that would have fit in perfectly on Meddle or Animals, but with the tribal pounding, it’s pure Zep. It’s also easily one of their most influential songs. Listen to bands like Tool, Nine Inch Nails, Porcupine Tree or A Perfect Circle and try to imagine them without No Quarter, they might still exist, but they don’t sound the same.
3) Moby Dick
Rock Song. That’s the first thing that jumps into my head as soon Moby Dick starts. The song doesn’t ramp up, it starts out in the deep end and stays there for just over a minute before the boys make way for the drum solo, which begins innocently enough, but you can almost immediately tell that it’s building to something, but oddly enough, for a good 90 seconds, we hear Bonzo at his most reserved, he’s drumming with purpose, no doubt, but it’s so focused, so tight, so much different from the wild Bonzo you hear elsewhere. Of course, he only maintains that for about 90 seconds before the engine revs and from there, it’s relentless.
2) Kashmir
One of the very few Zeppelin songs that I *don’t* instantly associate with Bonham’s drums. It’s Page’s uniquely tuned sitar-sounding guitar that steers Kashmir from jump street. I could pontificate further, but I’ll quote a friend of mine, who I swear wasn’t high when he said: “If I ever were called into service to strafe an alien aircraft carrier in space, I’d want Kashmir to be blasting while I did it, it’s that epic.”
1) When The Levee Breaks
Let’s get one thing out of the way first: If we’re being extremely kind to Messrs. Page and Plant, we can call When The Levee Breaks an excellent cover. If we’re being less than kind, When The Levee Breaks is one of the most blatant examples of Led Zeppelin’s prolific theft of the blues.
The original version was written and recorded by Kansas Joe McCoy and Memphis Minnie and can be heard here.
What that version doesn’t have is John Bonham. Not to take anything away from any of the other performances on this track, it’s Bonham pounding the skins that makes this song. From the very start the drums on When The Levee Breaks scream. Not a high pitched whine, but a full throated war chant that says Something Is Coming Out Of The Deep Dark Delta And It’s Coming For You.
Picking my five favorite Zeppelin songs was nigh-impossible, but picking my number one was easy. When The Levee Breaks never fails to make me crank the stereo, it makes me stay in the car till it’s over, it makes me stand on the gas pedal, it gives me a little jolt of adrenaline every single time. It’s the best song by one of the best bands ever.