Recorded in 1973, How The West Was Won (Atlantic) was released as a triple-album compilation of two back-to-back Led Zeppelin performances in Los Angeles. The album marks an important beginning of what has become a very long list of live Zeppelin bootlegs. In fact, How The West Was Won is little more than just a professionally mixed and mastered collection of bootlegged recordings owned by Jimi Page himself.

“Since I’ve Been Loving You” starts out as expected with Page’s classic four note intro- but what follows bears little resemblance to the more widely known studio and Song Remains The Same versions. As if bored or short on ideas, Page immediately starts out with some fast riffing- a hybrid cross between impromptu doodling and elements from his proper solo in the middle. I love how you can still hear open string buzz on Page’s playing- just a warm reminder that he is indeed mortal (or perhaps his guitar tech just set the strings too high). Despite it only being the song’s beginning, Page immediately starts cranking out those flashy-sloppy riffs of his. This throws me off at first, but I gradually start to dig it. Instead of unleashing the usual fiery torrents of minor pentatonic blues riffs, Page actually begins to delve into the major scale-which, whether intentional or accidental, provides the song with a lighter, more casual sound.

Robert Plant has a really great way of never singing the same two lyrics ever the same, and this version definitely proves that. This version is rife with little improvisations- “Plantisms”- into so many of his classic vocals. He’s sure to squeeze in a “have mercy I did what I could, yeah” just because he can. There are several really novel and funny call-and-response moments between Plant and Page, such as at 2:45 when Page croons, “I said I tried…oh…ow…OWW, I really tried to do the best I could”.  It sounds like Page is literally slapping Plant on the ass with guitar riffs! Plant also has a really great Prince moment in the way he shrieks that second “OW”. This is followed by, “working from seven, seven, seven, seven, seven, seven, seven to eleven every night” where Page dutifully accompanies Plant with repeated double-stop blues bends. I don’t even think Jagger and Richards ever had such a synergy on stage! Another favorite Plantism occurs at 3:24 when Plant sarcastically sings, “oh baby baby baby baby baby baby baby baby baby”, which sounds more appropriate in a Broadway Rockette number than a greasy rock show.

Page’s solo is actually fairly similar to the previous two versions I reviewed. This is not wildly surprising considering The Song Remains the Same performance was filmed only months earlier. His sound quality and tone is thinner, but still impressive for being little more than a re-engineered bootleg.  Page starts throwing in subtle major and chromatic scale runs rather than his familiar minor pentatonic fireballing. The solo is cleanly played, but notably more improvised, unrehearsed and confused than his earlier performances.

Jimmy Page once said How The West Was Won captured Led Zeppelin at their “artistic peak”- which is a pretty titanic statement.  Having listened through the album only once or twice, I can neither confirm nor deny Page’s assessment.  I think he’s probably right, but Page’s statement will serve as benchmark for my continued research. I still think The Song Remains the Same is a stronger display of both Zeppelin’s performance and sound, but I realize my opinion is biased due to being religiously familiar with The Song Remains the Same, and the fact that the album was professionally recorded and edited unlike How The West Was Won.

Stay tuned for the next installment where I review a real bootleg of Zepp’s performance at Southampton University (1973).

I present to you the original studio version from Led Zeppelin III (Atlantic, 1970). The song sounds almost out of place on what is largely an acoustic oriented record. How Page and Plant could conceive a greasy 7 minute working-class blues jam whilst peacefully tucked away in Bron-Yr-Aur cottage still remains a great mystery to me. Despite the serenity of the English countryside, Zeppelin still somehow found the requisite angst to record a fairly pissed off blues rocker.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAR7KmiCHto

A little backstory: My first exposure to the studio version was on a pair of small laptop speakers in a hotel room in Roswell, New Mexico. It was early 2010 and my Navy flight training required me to detach to Roswell for a few weeks. My good friends Justin Tiemeyer, Adam Friedli, and Tom Mitsos came to visit me and we made a spring break out of it. It had been only two or three months since my initial discovery of Led Zeppelin, and it was Justin who introduced me to the studio version on his mixtape Bottomless.  Where better a place to explore Led Zeppelin than the deserts of the American Southwest? I really liked this version, but I didn’t fully understand it. Having been wildly addicted to the incendiary Song Remains the Same live version, I was a little confused by how quiet and subdued the studio version sounded- but like a fine wines, cigars or Radiohead albums, the greatness took time to grasp.

The song kicks off with that unmistakable 4 note blues riff (which Page actually borrowed from Jeff Beck on The Yardbirds “New York City Blues”). Page continues to play a very mellow and cautious intro (likely on the neck tone pickup) up until about 0:48 when he unleashes that signature hammer-on fireball riff just to let you know he means business.

The dominant cracks of Bonham’s drums provide a necessary weight to an otherwise quiet track. Plant’s airy vocals begin unassumingly, and provide the track with an almost meditative calmness. The chorus bursts in, driven by John Paul Jones’ honky organ playing- which is actually wilder and more pronounced here than on The Song Remains the Same. By the second verse, Plant lights the fire in his voice which presents a welcome contrast to the timidity of the first verse.

Page’s solo begins with a ferocious torrent of hammer-ons down the pentatonic scale (a phrase occasionally used by David Gilmour, but at a fraction of the tempo). Page’s solo is a constant battle between sloppy shreds and cleanly executed blues riffs. The sloppy/clean thing Page does on the solo sounds carefully rehearsed, however I was impressed to discover that Page actually recorded the entire solo in one take! The solo ends with a very staccato rendition of that timeless Chuck Berry riff and then a moment of silence to let the flames die out.

Plant cuts in and takes the song to its darkest and most desperate moment when he sings “make-a-life a draaag!” at 6:06. How a rock singer can both growl and sing at the same time is anyone’s guess. Page cooly arpeggiates over alternating Cm and Fm shapes while being guided by Bonham and Jones’ rhythm machine. The song ends after Plant pleads for “just one mo!” before he loses his worried mind for the first of many, many more times.

The Song Remains the Same version is heavy and sloppy, whereas the studio version is cool, precise, and has a brilliant sense of space. This one breathes, whereas the former is one long exhalation of fire and venom.

Stay tuned for the next installment of Since I’ve Been Loving You 360 when I explore a lesser known live version from How The West Was Won (Atlantic, 1972).

I’m here to kick off the music portion of this blog, FM109.  I’ll leave you to figure out the title.  I’m going to christen FM109 with a series I’ve wanted to do for some time – a 360 degree analysis of every available recording of Led Zeppelin’s blues epic “Since I’ve Been Loving You”.  Set in C minor, the song is a generous 7+ minute non-radio friendly canvas on which Page and Plant unleash a fiery brand of blues unheard of before the 1970s- a blues that is uniquely Led Zeppelin.  While Led Zeppelin I and II both featured many great blues tracks (“You Shook Me”, “I Can’t Quit You Baby”, “The Lemon Song”, “Whole Lotta Love”), they were clearly just beefed up, “Zeppelin-ized” versions- dare I say even ripoffs- of Chicago Blues greats, the likes of which include Willie Dixon, Albert King, and Howlin’ Wolf.  It wasn’t until Led Zeppelin III (Atlantic, 1970) that the band truly came into their own, commercially and artistically.  Despite Led Zeppelin III being largely an acoustic folk record (it was brutally criticized for trying to capitalize off the recent success of Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young), the band ironically spawned what is perhaps their greatest electric blues standard.

“Since I’ve Been Loving You” became a live staple for the band in the early 70’s.  I find this song so fascinating because it is easily one of the most dynamic, expressive, and interpretative of all of Zeppelin’s live songs.  I want to emphasize just how brilliantly Jones and Bonham provide an organic, sentient universe in which Page and Plant are free to expand the boundaries of their Chicago blues roots.  No two versions are ever alike.

It was December of 2009.  I was living alone in south Texas where I spent my days essentially doing three things: learning to fly planes for the Navy, playing video games, and learning to play rock ‘n roll on my guitar.  I had primarily been studying the guitarwork of a very select few players- Jonny Greenwood, Hendrix, Prince, John Frusciante, and David Gilmour.  I had grown up with only cursory exposure to Jimmy Page and Led Zeppelin, but I’d never really fallen in love with their music.  I was familiar with all their hits, but I’d always dismissed Zeppelin as being too popular, too flashy, and too gritty.  Growing up, you were either a Zeppelin guy or a Pink Floyd guy.  I was always the latter, preferring the soaring, majestic tear-jerking Stratocaster soul of the mighty David Gilmour.  My life changed forever when “Since I’ve Been Loving You” from The Song Remains the Same (Live at Madison Square Garden ’73) started playing on the Palladia music channel on my TV.

It was a side of Jimmy Page, let alone Led Zeppelin, I had never heard before.  It was dark, mysterious, flashy, and very heavy- yet strangely soft, calculated, sensual, and I never thought I’d say this of Page, but beneath those lightning fast chops he actually had soul.  Having primarily been a disciple of the David Gilmour school of rock, my mind was getting blown by how much I loved what Jimmy Page was doing on that sunburst ’59 Les Paul Custom (given to him as a gift from Joe Walsh).  I couldn’t quite make sense of it, but his explosive blues riffs (2:00) were so perfectly parsed between little moments of tranquility (0:28, 3:14).  The interplay between Plant’s crooning and Page’s sassy little blues stutters wrenched at my heart (1:33).  And then the chorus kicks in with an almost heavy metal level of explosion (2:10).  Page’s monstrous guitar solo begins with a tidal wave of pentatonic hammer-ons, followed brilliantly by these calculated little bluesy statements (4:20).  Watch at 3:55 when he’s nearly blown off balance by the sheer force of his own riff!  Page then ends the solo with one of the sassiest, most arrogant guitar riffs ever played in the history of rock (4:56).  My reaction was basically identical to that of the jaw-dropped cop (5:10).  Jimmy is wild and sloppy, his tone trashy, yet the solo so perfectly conveys the tortured desperation of Plant’s star-crossed protagonist.  The song reaches its darkest, most hopeless point exactly at 6:26 when it changes to the D minor.  This blue-collar lament tells a bleak story of romance strained by hard times.   Maybe it’s because I had gone through a few strained relationships?  Or maybe it was the stress of flight school?  Maybe it was simply because I was older and more world weary, but this song made perfect sense to me.  It was mine.  My exploration of Led Zeppelin had finally begun.

Rick Rubin once described Led Zeppelin as being one of the heaviest bands of all time.  The Song Remains the Same version of “Since I’ve Been Loving You” definitely makes me believe him.  Until my research proves otherwise, this version is the heaviest, loudest raunchiest, most explosive of them all- my longtime personal favorite.