Track 1, Album 1

So, after a dry wave (sorry!) of posts, I've decided to switch things up a little. At least once every week or so, I'll take a song, and review the styling and make-up of it. You'll probably guess who the artist will be...so starting this week off, as the title implies, will be the first track ever released by Led Zeppelin, of their album Led Zeppelin I: Good Times, Bad Times.

Finding a live version of this song is kind of chore, as Zeppelin didn't usually put this song into their setlist, most likely due to multiple vocal harmonies, and the occasional guitar harmony (although I have NO idea how they pulled off Achilles Last Stand...) 

The track starts off with short hi-hat quarter notes, proceeding into eighth notes for the entire song; I tried to play this myself, and it's by no means easy to do; throughout the entire song, Bonham (drummer) plays eight notes on the hi-hat pedal, at the same time maintaining a constant eighth note beat on cowbell, abnormal snare patterns, AND a non-linear bass drum pattern. Once this pattern is all put together, there's STILL the bass triplets at around 0:25 in; what sounds like a double-bass pedal sound is somehow made by a single pedal, through some confounded technique (I'm not that great of a drummer =P)

The guitar part in this song  is kind of repetitive, and is consequently not one of favorite songs to play, but the chorus and verses are good songs to learn for beginning guitarists. When I first tried to learn this song after only less than a year of playing, the solo pretty much broke my fingers when I attempted playing it...even after a few more years of playing I still can't get the descent at 2:03 right.  After the second solo, the guitar part fades into the background with minor solos played behind the Plant's small phrases, with Bonhams beats taking over at the end of the song.

To rap this post up, the bass part of this song is a great example of what bass parts should be; although I'm not usually in favor of unison parts with the guitar, Jones (bassist) has two separate solos, at 0:55 and 2:01, which doesn't happen very often. I've trying playing this song on bass (my brother's bass is still lying around), and it's definitely fun to play, especially since a lot of songs's bass parts are the same duhnuh duhnuh duhnuh over and over again...

Sorry for not covering lyrics/vocals, I really don't pay attention to them as much as other parts, since I always get distracted by the instrumentals. Unless the vocal part contains something major (yes, I do realize it's half the song), I probably wont make a separate section for it.