“When The Levee Breaks” by Led Zeppelin

I’ve never posted Led Zep before, because I felt they were too obvious.  I mean, everybody loves this band, right?  But then a friend of mine called them “the poor man’s The Who,” so here we are.

You’ve heard before that Rock & Roll grew out of the Blues, but it’s largely a question of what you borrow and what you choose to leave behind.  When Led Zeppelin took from the Blues, they took a cue from Elvis and left behind the grievances but kept the raw, grinding sexuality implied in the rhythm.  Take this song, “When The Levee Breaks.”  It was originally by Memphis Minnie, and you can imagine what that song was like: It was the plea of a woman about to lose her home to the rising waters.  But Led Zeppelin made it a song about fucking.  And nobody does songs about fucking quite like Led Zeppelin.