‘Since I’ve Been Loving You’: the Led Zeppelin song Jimmy Page said didn’t sound right
There weren’t many pieces of Led Zeppelin that got past Jimmy Page. Even if the band was treated like a democracy whenever they started to play, there was an unspoken rule that Page owned the band, practically being his baby ever since wanting to start something outside the confines of The Yardbirds. While Page also managed to double as the producer on some of their best albums, that didn’t mean that everything sounded exactly like he heard it in his head when they walked into the studio.
That said, Page should deserve credit for capturing some of the best studio tricks that any hard rock band has ever laid down. Most people couldn’t manage to build up those layers of guitars on ‘Achilles Last Stand’, and even if people have sampled it in hip-hop ever since the early days of the genre, the initial magic of hearing John Bonham play on ‘When the Levee Breaks’ is still haunting to revisit.
But listening to their first albums, there were still a few rough edges to work through. Nothing recorded on the road like Led Zeppelin II was meant to sound absolutely pristine, but that’s the reason why it has so much mojo, like hearing Page getting into a groove with Bonham on ‘Whole Lotta Love’ or letting his guitar take centre stage as he flies off the handle in the middle of ‘Heartbreaker’.
When someone releases something that heavy, all the fans are going to want is for things to get heavier, but Led Zeppelin III was far from the fireworks show people expected. While it’s ascended to the high ranks with Zeppelin’s best albums, their choice to go with acoustic instruments on half of the album made it a bit of an odd duck in their series of self-titled records, but they still had their heavy side on ‘Since I’ve Been Loving You’.
Compared to the other blues covers on their previous albums, this feels like they have better control over the medium. Every band member is looking to serve the song, and even if they add their own Zeppelin-esque flourishes to the arrangement, there’s still that one foot slowly trailing back into the old days of Howlin’ Wolf and Memphis Minnie.
Although Page was still a fan of the final product, he remembered grimacing when going back to listen to Bonham’s drum performance when remastering the record, saying, “The only real problem I can remember encountering was when we were putting the first boxed set together. There was an awfully squeaky bass drum pedal on ‘Since I’ve Been Loving You.’ It sounds louder and louder every time I hear it! That was something that was obviously sadly overlooked at the time.”
Even if Bonzo may have been a bit rough around the edges, that doesn’t mean the rest of the song isn’t spectacular. In fact, this might be home to the best solo that Page ever captured on record. Since he wasn’t at the point of layering multiple guitar parts on top of each other, this is where he was free to fly off the handle and make the most emotionally moving music possible, almost approaching the solo like the old bluesmen do on old Muddy Waters records.
If the final result ends up sounding this good, Page probably had to learn the one lesson that every musician never wants to have to deal with. One instrument might sound bad out of context with the rest of the band, but if those imperfections were taken out, half of the initial groove of the tune would probably be lost.
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