‘D’yer Mak’er’: The strange tale of the Led Zeppelin song that divided the band
It’s fascinating to look at how one of the first hard rock acts to have experienced widespread acclaim, Led Zeppelin, is still regarded as one of the best to have ever existed.
Perhaps it’s a case of recognising them as having been innovators, and because of the fact that there was little else like them that had come before, it’s still possible to look at them in this regard. That being said, you only have to listen to an album of theirs to realise that its electrifying nature and relentless energy is something that very few bands have been able to recreate to the same calibre.
While hard rock is perhaps not as prevalent in today’s world, many people still cite Led Zeppelin or reference them in their own work, whether intentionally or not. What’s so special about them is the musicianship that the four members displayed, and the almost effortless nature of how well they all bonded together on record.
Robert Plant’s soaring vocals rarely find their match in any modern vocalist, and John Bonham is still regarded as the finest rock drummer to have ever lived. This is also ignoring the immense power of what both Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones were able to produce, and the fact that each Led Zeppelin song has at least one standout performance from one of their members is a testament to their collective brilliance, but the reality is that there are often many more than just one standout member.
Yes, there are times where their work has been classed as derivative, especially on their first two albums, where they leaned heavily into their love of blues. Plant and Page have been accused of ripping off older blues artists on a number of occasions, but we’re happy to give them a free pass on this because of how classily the end result so frequently turned out.
However, what we’re less likely to want to give them a free pass on is attempting to play songs in a style that they weren’t entirely comfortable with, and despite their incredible abilities as musicians, they weren’t always capable of pulling off things that were outside of their usual repertoire.
The finest example of this is ‘D’yer Mak’er’, a reggae-inspired song from their fifth album, Houses of the Holy. A bizarre diversion into a Caribbean rock fusion, the song, which is meant to be pronounced as a pun on ‘Jamaica’, is perhaps one the biggest misfires that the band ever produced, and even they acknowledge this.
During an interview with Guitar World, Jones proclaimed that he’d happily disown the track, and that it was never a popular decision to even include it on the record within the ranks of the band. “I’d put ‘D’yer Mak’er’ in a time capsule so I would never have to hear it again or have to explain how to pronounce the title,” he argued. “There were only two types of rhythms that Bonzo hated playing – shuffles and reggae.”
Even though Bonham does manage to play along with the song, it’s hardly in the same syncopated rhythmic style that reggae is synonymous with, and ends up almost mimicking a 1950s pop style rather than the celebrated Jamaican style. It’s far from being the worst example of a rock band attempting to create a reggae song, but it’s by far one of the questionable things Led Zeppelin, an otherwise untouchable band, ever did in their career.
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