In case you weren't familiar with it, Babe I'm Gonna Leave You is track 2 on Led Zeppelin's debut album, Led Zeppelin I. Because I don't want to write that all out again, I'll continue by referring to it as track 2 (not to be confused with Song 2 by Blur). This track is the first of Zeppelin's acoustic-oriented songs, featuring Jimmy Page's fingerpicking style; this song was also the first "cover" of a folk song, and as with most of Led Zeppelin's songs like this, the original artist was not credited, instead, Page taking credit.
The song has two main riffs, a soft, mournful acoustic slowly progressing up and down the A minor key, and a harsher electric riff that takes the previous theme and amplifies it. When I listen to this song, the emotion relayed by Plant's voice is simply...moving. His loud emotional wails of sorrow throughout the song do a great job of relaying feeling. The feeling in this song is quite unlike anything that'll be found in mainstream music now; whenever I play this song on guitar, I can't help but bash the strings during the electric interludes.
As mentioned earlier, the guitar present is usually acoustic; electric is added occasionally to add emphasis in the appropriate parts. This song utilizes a fingerpicking style, something I still need to acquaint myself with properly. Overall, I'd rate this song as a definitely-not-beginner-song-but-not-that-hard-either song when trying to learn this song. There really aren't any bass or drum parts very notable in this piece, save for the electric interludes; Bonham adds his drums in these parts, but Jones' bass playing throughout the song isn't particularly memorable.
Next Song: You Shook Me, track 3 (This should be interesting, as I really haven't listened to this song much.)
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