Spitting feebly over the last couple of days. Like a judas over supper.
The temperature here has fallen off here considerably too, even as the potential for biblical visitation radiates white heat and leaps from coat to coast. Secret pockets of incubation. Nervous twitching in overstuffed lifts.
I toyed with posting this song yesterday, but couldn't get it up. All efforts wilted, finally, in a pool of indecision. Much like Marc Bolan's self consciously sighed line from "The Slider", Jimmy Page's lazy riffing suited my decline into half-assed entropy perfectly. I even dithered over whether to use a study from Francis Bacon's "Screaming Pope" to illustrate the piece; papal hats and curlicued tails - the one with the flayed carcass hanging behind him like a curtain. The Innocent pontiff. I have no idea who painted the above. The signature eludes me.
It could have gone either way in the end. A bit like 1973.
I have no definite idea, siblings, as to whether this one irritates you as much as "Stairway to Heaven" does me. But I like Led Zeppelin immensely.
Recorded at Electric Lady Studios, New York and Olympic, London.
Engineered by Eddie Kramer; George Chkiantz; Keith Harwood.
Produced by Jimmy Page.
▼ LED ZEPPELIN: THE RAIN SONG from "Houses Of The Holy" LP (Atlantic) 1973 (UK)
9 comments:
Give me this over Stairway everytime - it's also the first complicated piece I taught myself on guitar (took a year to master)..
Hats Off to you, PM, for persevering. I've never had the patience for tablature or anyhing much beyond open chords and the odd bit of improvisation.
I'm glad you approve. It is a quite lovely tune.
For some reason, Fleetwood Mac's "Dreams" kept on running round and round in my head yesterday too. Rather odd. I am not hugely fond Stevie Nicks era Mac, but that song resides permanently at the back of my mind like a benign tumor.
Don't know Dreams - have you tried any Pistols tune they are great to play - check out Play In A Day The Steve Jones way on youtube...
I've also cracked Blackbird (not as tricky as you think), and May You Never (phew) and get your mitts on this it's my most thumbed guitar book
Word Veri was Strubm almost there...
Detest Zep myself, but love the illustration. Nope, haven´t got a clue either. M Licelli? Bacon´s Popes are faves too btw.
Ramone666: I wondered at "M Licelli" too. Or "Mucelli", with a stylised 'u'.
I keep drawing blanks.
I happened on this quite by accident; there was text but nothing which outwardly pertained to the image.
PM: I just don't like tablature. Period. Kind of too much like painting by numbers.
Probably, I'm just born lazy.
One of the worst, most self indulgent rock star concerts I ever saw was Led Zep on my 16th birthday. Their contempt for the audience was matched only by their indifference to their own music. I hated Zep for years. Many years later, I gave Houses a second chance and decided I liked it. It's really a very silly album. I can play "Stairway" on the ukulele, but I have to read the sheet music. That means frequent pauses as I do not have a music stand plus I have to turn the pages. Still, a uke song that never fails to crack me up.
Brushback! I would have expected nothing less from you! Succinctly put.
Zep were inarguably kings of pomp and bloat, but I have to confess I am a fan nonetheless. "I"; "II"; "III" and "IV" are albums I have never truly tired of; the later ones less so.
I am less fond of their well documented excesses and those public school exploits of the Spinal Tap variety. Like a lot of things, it's more potent when scaled right down and stripped of theatre.
Ah... Haven't heard this one in a long time. It sounds great to these ears.
What can one say ? Zep "zap".
Cheers, Mike!
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