AboutMike Caldwell Expertise Fortunately, or unfortunately, there are no Led Zeppelin questions I can't answer. My immediate specialty (or proclivity as it may be) has to do with concert performances and lyrical interpretations.
Experience Countless hours of biographical research and personal interaction with relevant individuals. Avid contributor to Led Zeppelin newsgroups since 1997 (check Google groups!)
Publications Bullseye News Magazine. The Vapid Voice.
Question QUESTION: A few years ago I made a CD of some individual Led Zeppelin songs from some of the later albums that I didn't own. This was in the height of the P2P and, being a poor college student at the time, I ignored the ethical implications of this. Since then, I've completed my collection of the band's full catalog.
Recently I ran across this CD and heard a song that I didn't recognize from any of the albums. I was wondering if you could help me figure out exactly what it is. I believe I recently downloaded it thinking that it was Jennings Farm Blues, but after doing a little research on that song, I don't think that's right. Still, it SOUNDS like a Led Zeppelin song, maybe some kind of jam from a recording session.
The song itself starts out with a basic riff, consisting of some strumming and ending with a quicker strum or two that seems to be mostly on the thicker (lower) strings. The riff continues three times, I believe, before a bass comes in to accompany with its own riff, i.e. more than just a backup rhythm. After two more times with the bass, drums come in as well. The bass and drums then continue the song on for a couple minutes while the guitar does some nice rhythm work, both in higher and lower pitched harmonies to the original riff. The song ends with all instruments ending together, with a bit of continued echo.
I know this may not be much help but I'm not musically trained so I can't say much more. In my iTunes, the song runs 3:36, although that may be a couple seconds longer than it actually is, since several of the other songs had about 2 seconds added to what they really were when I loaded them into iTunes.
Any help you can give would be much appreciated. I'd even be glad to email you the .m4a file if that might help.
ANSWER: Hi Andrew
It's always really hard to turn a song into written description, I understand that for sure. First, if it's a studio recorded instrumental, it generally points to Jennings. The best way to tell if it's Jennings Farm Blues is to grab a copy of the song "Bron-Y-Aur Stomp" from Led Zeppelin III, and see if the main riff sounds the same. Both songs had the same main riff, and it will be very noticable.
If you're still not sure, or otherwise not able to make that song comparison, you can send me the m4a file to mikeydhh@gmail.com.
Let me know either way.
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QUESTION: Mike,
Thanks for your help. I agree that it is hard to turn a song into a written description. Thanks for bearing with mine.
I've heard a few versions of Jennings Farm Blues from YouTube and they don't sound like this song. Also, perhaps I'm missing something, but I don't think this song sounds like Bron-Y-Aur Stomp either.
I'll email you the song, and perhaps you can help out. Again, I'm not certain that it is Led Zeppelin (e.g. there's no lyrics), but it does have that Zeppelin "feel".
Answer I'll repost what I emailed you:
Hi Andrew
That was Page's track called "Swan Song", that never really made it past the demo stage, though portions of it ended up being recycled by Page in "Midnight Moonlight" by The Firm in 1984.
The song has a longer demo, this was mostly just a segment of it - and the guitar and bass was laid down by Page. My copy of the track didn't have drums in it - and I'm almost certain that the drums were added by a fan later on - I don't believe Bonham did anything with this demo.
