“We had several tries”: Jimmy Page names one of the hardest Led Zeppelin songs to record
Any band classified as a supergroup already has the odds stacked against them. They may be able to play some of the greatest music of all time when they get together, but no one should be expected to come out with a classic before they’ve even played a note of music together. Jimmy Page always had a vision before Led Zeppelin got started, though, but that didn’t mean that some of their best tunes didn’t come without some headaches along the way.
Hell, before they even had momentum, most people were already starting to question the band’s authenticity. Each of them was at the peak of their powers on their debut album, but since many of the tunes were taken from older blues artists like ‘Dazed and Confused’ and ‘I Can’t Quit You Baby’, many fans were scratching their heads wondering if this was only going to be a heavier version of what Page had already done when working with The Yardbirds.
However, the entire reason why Zeppelin flourished was because of their ability to flesh out their arrangements. They may have recorded Led Zeppelin II while on the road, but you would have sworn that the band grew up exponentially between releases, especially when looking at the ingenuity that went into ‘Whole Lotta Love’ or listening to John Bonham lay down one of the most demanding drum solos of all time on ‘Moby Dick’.
Everyone realised that these guys were a band to contend with, but the minute that Led Zeppelin III came out, people were thrown for a loop all over again. They had spent the past few months honing their craft as one of the heaviest acts of all time, and yet here they were, breaking out the acoustic guitars on half of their tunes. In fact, ‘Immigrant Song’ could have been considered a bait-and-switch in many respects, considering ‘Gallows Pole’ and ‘Tangerine’ were coming next.
“That was the only song on the third album that we had played live prior to our sessions, yet it was the hardest to record.”
Jimmy Page
Even by their standards, though, ‘Since I’ve Been Loving You’ was a tune that was meant for Page to play. The blues had already been a staple piece of their catalogue, but looking at this tune, each guitar lick that he pulls out his instrument feels like listening to him have a conversation with the listener, always knowing when to throw in licks and when to fly off the handle.
This was Zeppelin as nature intended, but Page felt that getting the right sound for it was one of the most challenging elements of the record, saying, “We always had some blues on our albums. Playing the blues is actually the most challenging thing you can do. It is very hard to play something original. ‘Since I’ve Been Loving You’ is a prime example. That was the only song on the third album that we had played live prior to our sessions, yet it was the hardest to record. We had several tries at that one.”
Listening back to the final take, though, you’d be forgiven for guessing that this was one of the first times the group had played the song. For as many hours that they put into it, the end result makes you feel like a fly on the wall during the sessions, especially with the ambient space in the room and Page using Bonham as a way to measure how far he was going to go with every lick.
Then again, it’s easy to see why this tune was a bit harder to get down amid a sea of acoustic tunes. Every album is based on a particular mindset, and the idea of switching lanes from acoustic stomps like ‘Friends’ to this was like trying to shoehorn in an AC/DC song in the middle of a hair metal album in the 1980s.
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