Today's is a selection from the vault. You don't need a good reason to crank up the volume on a live early Led Zeppelin performance of "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You," but here's one: the sound on this YouTube video is actually decent. The crowd is a little boring/flat, but I'll attribute that to the heavy doses of illegal drugs pulsing through their veins at the time.
The song has an interesting history: It was originally written and performed by American folk singer Anne Bredon in the 1950s. English rock band Led Zeppelin covered the song from their founding in 1968, when they were known as the Yarbirds. (This is when I'm guessing this video was taken, if the year tag is correct.) They changed their name to Led Zeppelin and released their self-titled, debut album in 1969 -- complete with Anne Bredon's song. But no one told Anne Bredon, and news traveled slowly across the pond. When she found out, a few decades later, she received some hefty royalties checks for a song she wrote in college. It's the American dream, ain't it?
Juke Box Hero returns tomorrow with another delicacy for your ear buds. Tune in!
To the crowd's credit, it's hard to rock out when you're sitting crossed-legged bunched up like that, and since it's a studio production, they may've been coached to stay quiet so the sound would be good (The cross-legged person in the shot at 3:25 is definitely pretty far out there, though). As far as hefty royalty checks from something done in college, I'm in favor, but's it's not my personal American dream to have to wait until I'm over 50 to get payment :-). I never noticed how the driving part of the chorus (eg 2:49) is very "25 or 6 to 4". Great post!
ReplyDeleteThanks Tommy! Good point; I guess headbanging and sitting Indian-style aren't the easiest mix. And I hear that too! Chicago is burned into my brain thanks to NUMB.
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