Led Zeppelin IV

Led Zeppelin IV a/k/a Runes or Zoso

There's very little that can be said about this disc that hasn't been said before. Led Zeppelin seems to be the band that ended 60's rock and are quite possibly the first band to really become timeless. What about the Beatles or the Rolling Stones you say? In my opinion, they are the quintessential bands of the 1960s and that does not take anything away from what they accomplished, but their music is not timeless. As soon as I hear either one I immediately think '1960 something'. But Led Zeppelin doesn't sound ahead of their time but more 'out of time'. It's more like Led Zeppelin doesn't fit into any decade at all, which is why they still have huge appeal to this day.

I'm going to discuss this disc song by song and various memories associated with each one, since some of these memories span multiple decades.

Black Dog: Years ago I hung out in a little guitar shop in Speedway Indiana called Don Lynn's music. They had a bass guitar teacher whose face I can vividly recall but his name escapes me. He said he had a student who wanted to learn this song so he stayed up all night learning it, because they bass line is really tough. The student was shocked to hear this because, he picked the song because he figured the teacher couldn't learn it.

Rock 'n Roll: Senior Convocation 1989, I played this song live with 4 friends Mike, Chris, Aaron, and Kevin. This was my one moment as a star in school. Whatever labels students had put on me were gone, for one night. Kids cheered me and wanted to hear me cut loose on my guitar for one night. I also remember taping this song off the radio as part of series of mix tapes that I made for myself back in 1986 or so. I'm sure the quality was terrible but I loved this song and wanted a copy of it. Bands constantly cover it, but really very few do it justice because they leave out 2 key elements: the piano line and the hidden guitar part.

Battle of Evermore: I had the disc at least 15 years before I really understood what was going on in it. Dense layers of mandolin and background vocals by Sandy Denny.

Stairway To Heaven: Wayne's World "No Stairway" sign. Nuff said. Again, what can I say about this song that hasn't been said before.

Misty Mountain Hop & 4 Sticks: I was wrong. I have no significant memories associated with these two songs! They're still great though.

Going to California: A guy I used to work with moved to California for a short period of time and quoted this song to me. I knew exactly what he was talking about and had a good laugh. From what I understand, he didn't stay out in California too long.

When the Levee Breaks: In 2004 I worked with an aspiring professional drummer named Steve to create a drum machine part for one of my original tunes. We took the transcribed drum parts from a book of sheet music and programmed into a drum machine program. We made a few alterations/improvements and went with it. It was a song called Smoke and Embers which I've played in a couple different bands. Steve was a guy I met at an open stage back in Indiana at a little bar called the Hideaway on Hilltop. I played that open stage for almost 2 years until the bar decided to stop hosting it. Those were great times....