The classic Led Zeppelin song Jimmy Page made up on the spot
Nothing that ended up on a Led Zeppelin record was going to get there without getting a nod from Jimmy Page.
No matter how many times the band seemed like a democracy, it really was Page’s baby until the bitter end, and he wouldn’t rest until he had the right sound that he wanted when working on any of their records. But sometimes the greatest riffs of all time aren’t always the ones that have to be pored over for months on end in the studio.
Then again, it’s not like Page was adamant about being a dictator behind the board. He had a firm belief in what he wanted to sound like, but was anyone going to be telling John Bonham how to play the drums or tell Robert Plant that he might need to redo one of his vocals? Absolutely not. This was a superband if there ever was one, and Page figured the best way to work was to play to each other’s strengths.
But after four flawless albums in a row, it was time for the band to start having some fun. Their untitled fourth record is practically a crash course in everything the band was about from the minute they started, but after making something like ‘Stairway to Heaven’, Houses of the Holy was the moment where they could loosen up and start making the kinds of records that were a bit more streamlined.
There were still epics on the record like ‘The Rain Song’ and ‘No Quarter’, but on what other album are you going to find some of the heaviest music of the 1970s next to funk numbers like ‘The Crunge’ or the strange reggae detour that happens on ‘Dy’er Ma’ker’? If those were the strange detours, then ‘Dancing Days’ was the band resting on their laurels as one of the greatest rock and roll outfits of their time.
That’s not even meant to be a strike against them, either. The opening riff of the song is practically the sound of their trademark decadence manifested into a piece of music, but Page wasn’t looking to paint a picture with his guitar. He was flying blind, and by the time the tape started rolling, the guitar legend admitted that he had no idea where he was going to go when he sat down to play.
Compared to the calculated approach that they took on ‘Stairway’, ‘Dancing Days’ was practically made up on the spur of the moment, with Page recalling, “‘Dancing Days’ is interesting because I remember exactly where I was when I laid down those slide guitar parts. I was at Olympic in Studio One, and I stationed myself in the control room and fed my lead out to an amp in the studio. I wanted it really loud, and you could get the ambience of the whole room. I just roared. I hadn’t even worked out what the part was going to be. But I guess I was so on top of my playing that I could just sort of do that.”
Listening back to it, you can definitely hear there’s a slight bit of hesitancy in his playing, but there’s never a point where he ever feels lost, either. After all, the band had been a tight-knit family for years at this point, so even if they hit on something that wasn’t as thought-out, it was still going to be miles ahead of whatever the rest of the hard rock scene was thinking about at the time.
Page can look back on it with pride now, but capturing that moment is the kind of feeling that every rock and roll band dreams of. Not every one of them manages to be at the top of their game for that long, but when they do cross that threshold, you can feel the pure swagger in every single note that they play.
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